How We Work
With more than 12 years of experience creating websites and interactive media projects, we’ve had plenty of time to perfect our development process. We know a project is only as strong as the planning that goes in to it. That’s why we’ve designed our Success Starts with Strategy™ development process to make sure your project reaches its maximum potential through effective planning and architecture.
Information architecture (IA) is the art of planning websites and other interactive media to maximize usability, ease of use and bottom line results. By using effective information architecture practices, our staff will create an intuitive navigational structure and highly effective user interface design, specifically tailored to your target audience. Identifying and optimizing your call to action is extremely important to us, so we can maximize your return on investment.
The cornerstones of our Success Starts with Strategy™ process are the Discovery and Architecture documents we author. While the Sales Proposal and Statement of Work (SOW) talk about what the project will do, the Discovery and Architecture documents detail exactly what will go on behind the scenes to make that happen.
These documents are developed through consultation and collaboration between our project team and your staff, and they will serve as a reference throughout the project development life cycle. These documents may include your site map, design preferences, functionality plan, programming brief, hosting configurations and more.
At the conclusion of the project development process, not only will you have a great product but you will also have a comprehensive blueprint document to use as a basis for future product expansion.
We believe in doing things right the first time, and we know that proper planning is the only way to ensure your project’s success. We appreciate the opportunity to prove to you that success really does start with strategy.
Discovery: The Basis for User-Centered Design
We believe in user-centered design that is based on a deep understanding of our client’s business, goals, users and competitors. Before brainstorming or planning your project, we need to fully understand all factors that will impact it. We customize our process to meet the unique needs and goals of each client. For large, design intensive engagements, our process will typically include the following steps:
- user research
- persona development
- stakeholder interviews
- competitive analysis
- review of existing research
The user research could include a combination of focus groups, interactive exercises or surveys. We work with you to determine the best research mix for your specific needs. We will also consider what research you currently have. Our clients are always included in the process, providing feedback about the survey questions, focus group topics, etc. We recruit your current clients as well as non-clients for this research.
From that research, we may develop personas to serve as guides for making decisions based on each type of user we’re designing for. Personas are an excellent way to represent the data found during the user research. It lets our team and yours put faces and personalities to the research numbers and statistics. Having actual “people” to design for is a much more natural approach.
Stakeholder interviews are another key part of our discovery process. They allow us to connect with a variety people in your organization with unique viewpoints. This gives us a thorough understanding of your company, goals, and perceptions about users. We find that this process also helps generate excitement and buy-in for the project within your organization.
Competitive analysis is an important part of understanding your marketplace and its trends. We provide a full analysis of your 2-3 closest competitors so our team and yours are fully aware of what else is out there. We also identify competitive advantages to focus on and opportunities to build upon.
Our discovery process also includes a review of all existing research you may have conducted. Some clients have already done some of the research mentioned above. In this case, our team reviews your research and summarizes all of the key takeaways we will need to take into the planning phase.
Planning and Architecture: Crafting the User Experience with a Focus on Usability
We honor the important balance of usability and design aesthetics. Together, these determine the user’s experience with your project.
Our planning and architecture process focuses on the site’s usability and functionality. This is where we brainstorm the most effective ways to meet your goals and construct your project. You will work with designers and technical architects to determine exactly how your project will flow and function.
During this phase, we may create wireframes, user interface sketches and functional plans. These deliverables become the blueprints for the production of your project.
Design: Creating the Aesthetics for a Great First Impression
The aesthetic elements of a site are what give it a unique personality that impacts the user's first (and most important) impression of the site. Aesthetics also play a major (and often overlooked) role in usability, as sites that are more attractive are perceived as being more usable (even when they are not).
Our process includes an intensive design goals meeting where our designers consult first hand with our clients. During this meeting, the designer learns more about the client's specific design goals and offers recommendations for how to achieve them. We prepare a design goals summary for each client before we start on their design. By allowing the client to review a description of the designer's vision before it's executed, we are able to better meet their needs on the first design concept.
Once created, all of our designs are critiqued by several of our team of designers to ensure fresh vision, excellence and creativity.