Website creation technology
To deny that now the site plays one of the most important jobs for each company is at least stupid. Despite the rapid development of social networks, in which corresponding groups and communities also appear for each organization, the official website of the company is still the flagship on the World Wide Web.
Enough time has passed since the first sites began to act in this role. Since then, web development has become a separate industry with its own established rules, standards and technologies.
Creation and development
It would seem that the creation and development of sites is, in fact, one and the same process. In fact, there is little difference.
Creating a site implies that the customer already knows what kind of site he needs. Suppose the customer is the director of a large company who wants to show his professionalism and experience working with eminent partners through a corporate website. Such a move will help him increase the number of customers.
Website development is a more complex process. Here the customer understands that now no serious organization can do without a website, but what kind of website he needs, and how to benefit from its existence, he does not know.
In this case, the contracting company conducts a thorough analysis of the organization, its competitors and other aspects of the work. The result of this analysis will be the development of the structure of the future site and its implementation.
Development technologies
In general, the site creation technology always has a similar structure. It consists of the following steps:
Communication with the client. A representative of the contracting company needs to get the most complete information about what functionality the customer needs, how the site is planned to be used, how it will look. A clear technical task is drawn up, which the developer company follows.
TK plays into the hands of both parties. The client receives an exact work plan, from which the contractor has no right to deviate, and the developer – the confidence that at one of the final stages everything will not have to be started anew due to suddenly changed requirements.
Development of structure and design. Based on the drafted TOR, the developer thinks over the structure of the future site: from the number and titles of sections to the location of the menu and additional elements.
After that, the design is planned and developed. It can be implemented on the basis of standard layouts with changes or developed completely from scratch. Design plays a huge role in the work of the site, so it is given special attention.
Programming. Modern websites have many interactive elements: from drop-down menus and sliders to dynamic design, buttons and forms. In addition, solutions may be required that allow you to work with the import and export of data. All this is implemented by software.
Layout. When the layout, structure, design, program modules and scripts are ready, it’s time to assemble all the components into a single working site. It depends on how experienced the developer is, how quickly the site will work, and whether it will be convenient to use it.
The website creation technology described above is a rather simplified example. In fact, there is much more work to implement customer requirements and they can be performed in a different sequence.
Many experienced companies have been developing their own methodologies for creating websites over the years.
Regardless of what kind of site you have in mind – a one-page site or 15-20 pages – you need to understand that it requires an investment of time, effort and money.
After all, this is a kind of real estate – your private property, the construction and arrangement of which you personally manage. And your duty is to make sure that the site will turn out to be of the highest quality and convenient for customers.
In construction, before grabbing a hammer, saw or other construction tool, it is important to think through all the details. The same applies to the Internet resource.
The importance of site planning
Too many people immediately start “driving nails” without spending time on creating a proper plan. But the bottom line is that no matter what kind of work you are doing (creating a website, building a house, or starting a marketing company), it is necessary to spend two-thirds of your time on planning and only one-third on the implementation of your plan.
Saving time at the stage of project planning leads to unforeseen errors, which result in having to rework part of the work.
Analytics
You should start by defining the target audience and analyzing competitors. It is important for the site owner to understand his target audience, its needs and pains. Then he will be able to adapt his site to their interests and benefit from it. You should find answers to the questions:
Who is the website intended for?
what are the benefits of your potential customers?
What information will be useful and interesting for them?
what communication channels do they use?
Look at your direct competitors, study their solutions, find advantages and disadvantages. And then use it to your advantage. Define your advantages, your zest, which will distinguish you and show you in a favorable light.
Strategy
Determine the purpose of your site, what you want to achieve with it and what tools will help you achieve this. The goals of a business resource can be completely different:
- sell (for e-commerce);
- attract customers;
- present a product or product line;
- tell about the service;
- collect leads (contact details);
- talk about your company;
- build long-term relationships with clients;
- inform the target audience;
- increase brand reach and awareness using digital channels.
One site can be suitable for several purposes at once, there are also complex individual projects that perform each of the listed tasks. It is very important to correctly determine what result is needed and, on the basis of this information, form other stages of work on the creation of the site.
Creating a technical task
A very important step. Errors are unacceptable here, as they can appear at any stage and, as a result, reject the project long ago. The TOR prescribes the main requirements of the project, its capabilities and way of working, taking into account the analysis of the CA and competitors, goals and strategy. In fact, the two previous stages are carried out in order to compile a high-quality TOR and hand it over to specialists.
The main requirements for the technical task:
Details Everything that a specialist has to do must be specified in the TOR. Even if it’s a mandatory part of the job, even if the developer has done it hundreds of times and doesn’t need to be reminded. Each requirement, each aspect of the work should be prescribed.
Absence of inaccuracies. Any ambiguous wording or subjectivism has no place in the terms of reference. This is an instruction that talks about what and how to do, and the concepts: “good”, “beautiful”, “sticks” are different for everyone.
Understandable language. Correction: clear to a specialist. This means that the specialist does not have to decipher and question what exactly they want from him.
Prototyping
For clarity, a prototype is created with a detailed arrangement of elements and navigation. The latter needs special attention. Too many sites are built without considering ease of navigation. Why do so many people love Apple products?
Because they are intuitive. At the first contact with the product, the user understands how to use it.
The designer primarily ensures the convenience of the interface. All elements on the page should be located in such a way that the user can easily find and use them. Using the location of information blocks, the designer directs the visitor’s attention, shows him what he should or wants to see now.
Creation of design mockups
The site design development stage is responsible for the visual component of the resource:
- color;
- form;
- type;
- animation
The designer adheres to the corporate style of the customer, inserts the logo, makes the site fully recognizable and appropriate for the company.
It is good to follow trends, but do not make the design too “fashionable”, it should be modern and remain relevant for at least two years. Later, when the resource is trusted by search engines, visitors and customers, you can change its appearance.
Layout
After completing the work, the designer sends the layout to the customer for approval and then transfers it to the adaptive layout. It refers to the translation of thumbnails into HTML, that is, the adaptation of the site image for any browser and device (PC, tablet, smartphone, and other gadgets).
This is just the case when “measure seven times, cut once”. It is better to draw the design of the site 7 times and reset it to HTML once, than to send the first version to typesetting, and then make endless edits and retypes.
And here the customer should be attentive first of all. It is he who approves the concept of the site. The more actively the customer participates in the design discussion, the faster he will receive a resource that meets his expectations.
Programming
Why is programming needed? It seems that the designers drew everything, the designers translated the sketches into HTML – they adapted the layout of the site to the World Wide Web. What’s next?
And then a programmer comes on stage, who enlivens the pictures. Here it is better to explain using the example of the call button.
The designer made it rectangular and green in color, put a slogan on it (for example, “Book tickets now”). That’s all right. But you need to make the button active! So that the visitor immediately gets to the cherished page of booking a ticket, and does not fight in hysterics, seeing that a miracle does not come from calling a mouse.
In general, a programmer is someone who prescribes all the site attributes made by the designer and collected by the developer in a certain programming language (PHP, Java, JavaScript, Python or ASP.NET technologies).
Sometimes the stage of layout and programming is performed simultaneously. If, of course, the scale of the project allows.
Basic filling
A site without information content is like an aviary without birds. The filling stage involves converting the content into the required format and placing it on the pages of the resource.
Materials are prepared in advance. They can be written both by copywriters according to a pre-prepared technical task (TOR), and by the site owner or any person who knows the specifics of the texts and knows the art of words.
But the work does not stop there. Content needs constant updates. Otherwise, search engines will bypass the site when ranking. An important factor is the interest of customers. It is important to constantly warm them up with relevant information.
Testing
Although after each stage of development, the resource is checked for whether it works or not, final testing cannot be done without. But suddenly the broken link is lost somewhere, the information is displayed incorrectly or the pop-up window does not pop up on the screen?
During testing, various shortcomings are revealed and the team immediately eliminates them.
As a rule, for testing and demonstration, the site is placed on a special site. Later, when all errors are eliminated, the project with all files is transferred from its permanent place of residence on the Internet – hosting. But that’s not all. After the transfer, the resource is tested again.
Support
During the transfer of the finished project, specialists teach how to work with the admin panel, as well as with statistics collection services. After that, the owner can independently publish new content, create pages, place products, collect data for behavioral analysis and use other functionality of the resource.
If there are any questions, the development company is always ready to help figure it out. This also applies to bugs, if they suddenly appeared after the site was released – the technical support team will eliminate them immediately.