Cactimedia's very own web design checklist

Everything you need to do to manage a web design project managing a web design project can be a pretty complex task with lots of variables that are spread across different teams. We at Cactimedia Dubai thought it would a great idea to pull back the curtains and give you a peek into how we manage our web design projects with this checklist.

So let’s get into it.

Getting a handle on the client’s expectations and budget

The first step is preparation and planning. In this phase, we generally like to make sure we get a good handle on the client’s expectations, his objectives, and budgets etc. So our checklist looks something like this:

• Briefing from Client
• Review of the client’s current website (if any)
• Getting a good handle on the client’s objectives (answering the question “what do you want the website to do for you?”)
• Defining a budget
• Chalk out a draft timetable with milestones

 

Creating mock-ups based on the client brief

Once we have done this, we then want to move onto defining the website’s look and feel, it’s UX, its information structure etc.

• Defining the overall look and feel based on the brief in the previous phase
• Creating at least 2-3 design mockups (different design concepts and color combos)
• Defining the website’s information structure
• Working out the user interface and particularly the navigation paths to and from all the main sections of the website
• Working on other special content requirements

 

Building out the website

Once we have all of that nailed down, the client chooses a direction in terms of the design and the look and feel of the site and we then get into the technical stuff and the real crux of the job, such as:

• Choosing a hosting service provider
• Registration of the domain
• Selecting the appropriate development languages for the core site and for its additional functionality in liaison with the development team
• Developing special features such as payment systems, checkout systems etc.
• Working on mirror sites (if required)
• Ensuring security is top notch

 

Testing, testing & more testing

Once the site is developed, we begin testing it.

• Checking the website load speed
• Checking each and every link on the site to ensure it’s not dead and points to the right page
• Coherence consistency checking
• Security testing
• Usability testing (ensuring the flow of the site makes sense and is intuitive)

This is when we share our work with the client and brief him/her on what we have done. We try to garner as much feedback from the client and then feed that feedback back to the respective teams (web design, development, UX, content) so that they can make the required changes.

Generally, we go back and forth with the client a few times and tweak a few things here and there until the client is happy.

Edited By: Haniyeh Rasti Lari