The Website Design Process

The process of designing and developing a website is not cast in stone. There are steps that need to take place at some stage of the design and development process. These steps are listed below:

• Conceptualisation is the process of thinking about the website, its purpose and the target audience (website users/visitors).A crucial part of the website development process is establishing the Target Market. The target market is primarily the people the organisation is trying to reach through the internet.
• Design and development is the process of designing and creating the website and its features including text, images and other. This stage involves the determination of the kind of content that should be on the website and how it should be presented; the web page layout and how the user interacts with the content.
• Domain name registration is the process of identifying an appropriate domain name (website name) and then buying the rights to use that name.
• Website host identification - is the process of finding where the website will be hosted (stored). There are several factors to consider:
  • the size of the website (MB)
  • the amount of website data traffic anticipated
  • the location of your website users/visitors (target audience).
• Uploading is the process of actually storing the website data in the location (webhost server) that people will be able to access via the internet when they visit the website.
• Testing is where we can determine is if the developed website meets the client's needs and requirements. This is when the client, developer and possible some users test the functionality of the website; does the website do what it is expected to do? This is when the website can be tested (presentation and layout) across the major web browsers and mobile phone browsers. This is the crucial process because there is no point in developing a website that is does not meet the functional requirements of both the owners and users.
• Live website update and management - is the process of managing the website when it is 'up and running', This process is very important because updating the content and keeping the content relevant and interesting to the target audience is crucial in keeping the audience interested.
• Webstats analysis is the process of analysing the amount of traffic coming from and going to your website, where (geographically) people are browsing your website from, how long they stay on the website, which pages are most viewed; using which browsers, search phrases they have used to get to your website and so on. This provides cheap market research.