Cityen.cl - Emprendimiento y Negocios

I have had lots of conversations with many Entrepreneurs in the last couple of months about their website. There is lots of confusion and frustration when it comes to the Internet presence of their business. I always try to find the root cause of the problem by asking the question about how the website was developed in the first place. Often I hear that the first time the owner saw the website was when it was already online.

The designs are often not flexible enough so that the website can be extended with new content and new features easily in the future. Websites should be alive, reflect the current Product or Service Portfolio of the company and attract visitors with new information. But that's often not the case.

And the reason behind this lies in the flaws of the initial development process. In many cases, neither the developer nor the customer followed a defined process in order to create a design that meets the requirements. And it starts right at the level of the quotation, where project prices are agreed upon without even detailing the specifications.

I don't want to burden you with a complex Project Management approach. We find these basic steps very helpful:

1. Definition of the Specifications of the website

This should be a discussion between you and your Webdesign Agency, before the quotation. Questions like How many Pages? What is the potential navigation structure? How many Images will be included? Which Features? should be discussed.

With Features I mean the functions of the website that go beyond pure information in the form of text or images, such as a Content Management System, a Product catalogue, an Internal Search, Newsletter registration, Animations, Picture Galleries, Reservation or Order Forms, Online Shop etc.

Output: Site map of the desired website, specified Features.

2. Quotation

This should include the Content Structure, the features, time frame, price, payment terms. You should also have an agreement on future updates. Even if you use an CMS like Wordpress or Joomla, you should consider Training, support and Software Updates in the future.

Output: Contract

3. Design (the look & feel of the site)

Once the specs are defined and the commercial terms are agreed upon, the Web Agency should start with the design of the website, i.e. the appearance of the website. Here in Chile it is often done the other way round. First the appearance is designed and programmed before the content structure is defined. And then the content is squeezed into the design afterwards.

The Design should include the Home page and key subpages, depending on the complexity of the website.

Output: Design file as jpg for your approval. At this stage it is just an image!

After this step you can agree a first payment for x% of the project price.

4. Coding

Once you've approved the look and feel of the new site, the Internet Agency should start with the programming, basically developing the templates. The Agency should give you access to a test environment where you can follow the development. Once this has been finished you should have another approval step and verify that what has been approved as the design is actually what appears on your browser.

Output: Template

5. Content

While the Internet Agency is programming the templates you should start putting together all the content (Text, photos, graphics, etc.). If you are not sure how to transfer large files, read this article.

Then the individual pages of your website are built.

Output: Website

6. Testing

The developers should do the testing, but you and your team should have an eye on that as well. Does the menu work? Is the content correct? Does the website work on different browsers? Do the additional features function? Do you receive the submitted forms? And so forth...

Output: a Website that works

7. Launch of the online website on your domain.

Output: Your new Internet Presence

And after that you should have a process installed that ensures that updates are uploaded onto your new website on time! Make also sure you track the traffic on your website with tools like Google Analytics, so you can measure the performance over time.