Website Development at Racing River
The Beginning - Information Gathering
Our
goal is to create a site that provides a user experiencethat will flow and function in a way that makes sense to your
individual business.
Site development is a process involving many steps to reach that goal.
In the first phase of website development we meet with you to learn relevant and accurate information about your business. With your input, we’ll refine and quantify how information about your business should be presented and how users should interact with the website. This helps us to formulate ideas about how to organize and design your site to reach your target market and your business goals.
We'll work with your copywriter or engage one of ours for the project to make sure the text on your site engages the interest of your site visitors and creates the response you desire - contacting you or making that online purchase.
Creating a Site Design
This is where we establish the personality, tone, and style of your site, its “look and feel”. Your input is very important in this phase and your suggestions will be solicited about design factors such as color, choice of imagery, and text style and fonts. For small, simple sites a draft web page incorporating the navigation and look and feel of the site will be used for online review. For projects with a larger scope, or at the client's request, a graphical mock-up of the site design may be used to develop design concepts. By the end of this initial phase the purpose of each web page in the site is fixed. You can then begin to send the written text and any photos or other graphics required for site production.
Already working with a graphic designer? We will be happy to use their design to create your site . Our goal is to give your business the most effective and engaging presence possible on the Internet - one that translates to improving your bottom line.
Site Design As Part Of Your Business' "Brand"
Racing River can help you engage a graphic designer with marketing experience who can create a "brand" for your business. Branding is important to implant your business in the mind of your intended market. Just think of how "kleenex" has become the default brand name for all tissues. Branding provides continuity and integration of your site design, business card and advertising layouts and any other marketing materials. Branding does not mean that an established business has to change its name or anything so drastic.
Drafts and Revisions
Once a design concept is chosen production of the website can begin. We build out the entire website to allow the client (and us) to view exactly how the site will look and to test the navigation flow. Being able to view the entire site helps to clarify any unrecognized issues and ensures that the site appeals to all visitors – not just programmers.
We develop the site using modern web standards such as valid HTML and cross-browser testing. We also implement the support needed from data base integration to Flash animation and streaming video to achieve our design goal .
Up, Up and Away - Going Live
At the end of production, after all tests and revisions have been made, what was initially just an idea, has now become a valuable asset to your business. You may choose to advertise the site launch (or re-launch) via email or in other media.
Now that you have a website, a next step will be to evaluate activity on the site over time to see how much traffic the site receives. We can help with that with our Basic and Advanced SEO programs.