Design Work Flow

Prior to commencing your project, we will arrange a meeting with you so that we can get a clear understanding of what you expect from your website. We will also discuss your mission and goals, so that we can create a solution that is in line with your vision. If you have an existing website, we will go through it with you to analyze strengths and weaknesses.  We will also discuss your main competitors and analyze their websites.

After our initial meeting, we will draft a full proposal listing your requirements, our recommendations and some samples pages for the new website’s main page. We will include an analysis of your competitors search engine rankings and a list of the key search terms that we think your site needs to be built around. At this stage, you will be able to make changes. Once we have agreed on the structure and the layout of your website, we will draw up a contract detailing the work to be done.

Once we have signed the contract, we will start the process of putting together all the necessary elements to begin working on the project. At this stage, we will require a number of things from you including the texts, images, videos and other content to be included on the pages of the website. If you require us to compile your content, we will do this and submit it to you for approval. If you are preparing your own content, we will make recommendations and discuss possible changes in order to adapt it to make it search engine friendly.

This is when we do all the programming necessary to build your website. Usually we will use a Content Management System (CMS) to build the foundation of the site. We guarantee that if you ever want to make changes to your site in the future without our help, you will be able to do so with ease without any sort of HTML or programming knowledge.

This is where we will go through your new website with you, explaining everything that we done and making sure that the project meets or exceeds your expectations. You will be able to request minor changes at this stage and we will tweak the website so that it will be ready to go live. Once everything has been finalized, your site will be launched and submitted to the major search engines.

As most of our websites are built using CMS, you will be able to make minor changes to your website on your own and we will explain step-by-step how to do this. We also provide one month of free support from the date the website goes live. We offer a number of maintenance contracts that can be adapted to suit your requirements and your budget. You will be under no obligation to sign up for a maintenance contract.

Assessing Your Web Site Needs

You must ask yourself these questions:

• What do I want my web site to do for my business or organization?

• Do I need a static site just to showcase my business?

• Do I need to gather information from my customers?

• Do I plan to sell products or services from my web site?

• Who are my targeted customers?

Some Page Ideas

• Home Page

• Contact Page

• About Us Page

• FAQ Page

• What’s New Page

• Gallery Page

• Products Page

• Catalog Page

• Auction Page

• Shopping Page

• History Page

• Feedback Page

Drawing Up Your Rough Draft

Your Site Name: This would be your business or organization name. Your site name should incorporate your domain name if possible. Your site name would also be used for your page titles. Page titles are used in the code to make the meta tags used by search engines to find your site on the internet.

Navigation Menu: To navigate through your site it will have inter-page hyperlinks. Sites usually use a top aligned navigation system.

Background: Colours are very important and can create your website’s mood. When choosing a textured background pick one that will complement your web site message instead of cluttering it or making the text hard to read.

Web Graphics: All graphics will be in the jpeg or gif format, and compressed in order to increase download speed. Visitors usually become irritated if graphic files take even five seconds to load. We will ensure a delicate balance of quality and small file size.

Proofed Text: You provide the proofed text to be included on your web site. VS IDEAS can format the text in your desired font, but be aware that the end user’s browser and computer dictates how your font will be displayed. It is usually best to use a sans-serif font.

Feedback Form: These forms are used to collect and pass information to and from your visitor. Forms provide a user interaction by entering something then submitting with the click of a button.

Interactive Form: Fill in your name in the space provided and click submit. See what happens if you leave it blank and click submit.