Process
Web Design Process
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01
Strategy
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02
Planning
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03
Design and Build
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04
Training
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05
Post Launch Support
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06
Additional Support
Strategy
Whether it’s a phone call, an email, or a walk-in meeting to discuss your new website, our process begins with an initial consultation.
That’s where we evaluate the fit between you and OmniOnline. We need to get an idea of your business goals and in-turn your goals for the website. Plus we want to make sure you have a clear understanding of our process, and how we will take your project from concept through to successful launch.
Following the initial consultation, and depending on the complexity of the website, we will provide you with a proposal that explains more about us, a summary of what your project includes (What we call a scope document), any recommendations we have for your site that you might not have thought of, as well as an estimate for the budget and timeline of your site. This can usually be done within 3-4 business days.
Planning
A deposit is required prior to the start of your project. Once received, we begin by working with you to complete our Website Strategy Questionnaire. This is then followed up by a web design meeting with one of our professional web designers to ensure that both sides fully understand the project direction, goals and strategy. We’ll also work with you to create a taxonomy/plan for your content. We believe that content drives design so we don’t want to build you something and then try to just plop your content into that. We’d rather know what you want to say, who you want to reach, what pages you’ll have and how many of them. We then use that info to design something that works for your business.
Design and Build
We start with a web design concept. This is usually a flat image loaded on to a test server for you to look at and review. We want your feedback on the general feel, the spacing, fonts, colors etc. We’ll iterate on that mockup based on your feedback and once approved we build your website on our development servers so it is not public and open to the world but it is a functioning website. Normally it will be produced for you in 5-10 business days. For more complex websites, we’ll communicate with you weekly to outline what we’ve done, what percentage of the project is complete, what we need from you (if anything). During this time you will have the opportunity to control how your budget is applied. The focus here is flexibility for you.
Clients often find that as they get deeper into the website build process and understand more and more what is involved, how long it takes to accomplish and what some of the other options are – that their ideas evolve and grow from their original requirements. With OmniOnline, that’s ok. You’re never locked into your original scope document. We’re happy to work with you and change the plan based on your requirements. We’ll do our best to communicate to you exactly how these changes affect the website, the timeline and your budget and leave the decision-making to you.
The web design and build phase includes two rounds of revisions (if required) followed by sign-off. It’s important to get this phase right, because any changes to the design after approval has been received, are billable.
Training
Once the site is built, we will hold an in-depth training session to familiarize you with how to use the WordPress platform and populate the content of your new website. Since COVID our clients have often asked for a series of video-based training sessions instead and of course we’re happy to provide that. In fact we’re finding that having access to videos to review or watch again down the line in an even better use of training time. Either way, with a little practice you’ll be very adept at managing your content, and when the training and content entry sessions are complete your site should be ready to go live.
Post Launch Support
The post launch support period begins immediately following training and lasts for one full calendar month. Things are in your hands at this point. During the post-launch period we are available to help refresh your memory should you need any assistance in applying your content entry training. This gives you lots of time to familiarize yourself with your new website and all of its administrative controls.
Additional Support
With the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) you will easily be able to update all of your content yourself. But don’t feel bad about just stopping in to say hi! Of course, if you still find you need our help, or need something done quickly and just don’t have the time to do it yourself, we can make any changes or updates to the site for you. Our office is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.