Getting Started
The Web Design Process
At this point you know your business better than we do. You need to consider the things you want your web site to do, and what you want to achieve from it. Below is a good starting point to analyzing your needs.
1) What are your needs?
We start the process by having you fill out our Quote Form. This form gathers information about your company, services, audience, purpose, goals and more. We use this information to help us deliver an accurate quote and proposal.
2) About Quotes, Proposals and Estimates.
Once your information is evaluated we will send you a soft proposal - a basic outline of the work we see that needs to be done with all associated costs. If you agree with the soft proposal we will then send you a formal proposal requiring a signature. We require that our terms and conditions form be signed and faxed back at this time as well. Proposals are formulated by considering all the work involved as well as the complexity of that work. The complexity of your project is directly related to the time it will take for us to formulate a quote, so please take into consideration that this may take us a day or two. Every project is different and different projects may take longer to analyze for a quote. Once an estimate is delivered, all add on services/work, redesign on any level and "after thoughts" are considered additional work and will be billed accordingly. Quotes are valid for 30 days.
3) Upon Agreement.
Upon agreement and when all paperwork is signed and faxed to us, we then start the actual design process. If you do not understand even the smallest of points at this step PLEASE ASK FOR CLARIFICATION! Miscommunication and false expectations do NOT move the design process forward in a productive manner. At ANY time please contact bfb Services about any concerns, questions or comments you have about your project.
4) Collecting Your Materials.
Text, print, copy, brochures, products, pictures, product weight & cost... we need it ALL to get your site going. The more you provide us with the better.
5) Mockup Sites and Sample Layouts.
We then provide some mock web sites, templates or examples for your company to critique and discuss. At this point we're trying to narrow down exactly what you're looking for in terms of design and layout. Your feedback is essential in the Web design process and is welcome at any time.
6) Site Architecture.
Navigation is one of the most important parts of your site. Site architecture is established at this point to make sure your visitors don't get lost on your site. We use text links, graphic menus and buttons with rollovers to accomplish this.
7) Working with Materials.
Resizing photos, photo optimization, color sampling (for people who want to match a corporate color to their site design), product weight & pictures and similar tasks are all done during this phase of the Web design process.
8) Establishing Project Design / Look & Feel.
Based on your feedback from the mockup sites or examples provided, a design is established and used for your Web site.
9) Establishing Layout Of Site.
Based on your feedback from the mockup sites or examples a layout is established and is applied to your Web site.
10) Home Page.
First Starting with your home page, the main page, we start building your Web site. After this part is completed and approved we move on. If you have requested your site be optimized for the search engines, it will be started at this time.
11) Sub Pages.
The sub-pages (based upon layout and design from 7, 8 & 9 above) are now worked on until completion. Forms, Flash, CGI, Java are added to your site at this time.
12) Web Site Completion and Debugging.
We are all familiar with Internet Explorer and Netscape, the two web browsers that started it all, but there are literally hundreds of different browsers in use, as well as different versions of each. There are different sized monitors with different resolutions and different web connections such as dialup and broadband. With all this variety you may think that getting your web site to be viewed and run correctly on all systems would be a problem. You're right! We design your web site to run on all the major configurations and as many of the more obscure as possible.
13) Site goes "Live."
Your site is published for the world to see! You can now start advertising your site, telling friends and business acquaintances, and publish print material.
14) Search Engine Submission (if this was ordered).
bfb Services will show you how to submit your site to search engines, or we do it for you .