Custom Website Design Services.
Overview
Custom website design requires a combination of strategic planning, creativity and technical execution. Building sites with feature rich user interfaces and proprietary functionality should be driven by an informed process that starts with proper research and analysis of goals and opportunities.
Our Custom Website Design Philosophy
Like a custom home, a website must be rooted in a solid foundation. However, before you build the foundation, it’s critical to create a set of blueprints that outline the site structure, functional requirements and technical specifications.
Our Website Planning process wraps all of this into a logical progression where each step informs the next. The end product is a set of “blueprints” that can be handed over to our design and development team.
Our Custom Website Design Process
Our Website Planning process starts with a brief strategy phase. We begin by analyzing your business, researching your competition and identifying your target audience. We then consider how your website will compliment your sales or revenue model and identify areas of opportunity.
Once the due diligence phase is complete, our Information Architects and User Experience experts begin laying the foundation for your website, including User Flow Diagrams, Sitemaps, Wireframes and Technical Specifications. Wireframes are presented in black and white, and focus solely on features, functionality and user experience.
Once page layouts are complete and your feature set has been determined, we then provide a detailed line item breakdown of your design and development cost.
Strategy Phase
– Business Analysis
– Goal Analysis
– Sales and Revenue Analysis
– Competitive Research
– User Personas
Website Planning Phase
– User Flow Diagrams
– Sitemap
– Annotated Wireframes
– Technical Specifications
– Cost Estimation
Do You Really Need Website Planning?
The short answer is, if you want to avoid wasting time and money and are serious about building a fully functional website that meets your business goals, then yes you do. Many development companies provide flat rate quotes for complex projects without doing any upfront research or planning.
This is very dangerous because it almost always results in them asking for more money down the line in order to plan and build functionality that should have been mapped out at the outset.
Back to the custom home analogy, would an experienced contractor provide a full quote for construction without first receiving a set of completed blueprints designed by a licensed architect?
In order to determine the cost of materials and labor, a contractor must have enough detail to determine things like dimensions, number of rooms and material types. Building a website is no different. If it is not properly planned from the start there is a high probability for failure.
How To Determine If You Need a Custom Website
In essence, custom development is required for niche sites with proprietary functionality or technology that is not available via an off-the-shelf Content Management System. Some examples are social, community and dating sites like Kickstarter, Airbnb and Match.com.
These sites have robust user accounts, unique ecommerce functionality and functionality specific to each business model.
The value of custom website development is the that the sky is the limit. The drawbacks are higher costs and longer build times; however, this should be expected when building any product that is new and unique.
