Brighton Web Design by Code 7

Web design process

The following is a list of the steps to follow to get your online presence, we can help you with the initial considerations if needed.

If you have budget constraints, we can get your site built in modules, adding the extra pages and functionality as and when needed, with standards based design and true templates, it can still be cost effective as we do not need to rebuild the web site every time.

Designing a web site can seem a daunting prospect but by breaking it down the process becomes more manageable, enabling Code 7 and yourself to have a clear idea of the end result we are working towards.

Initial considerations

Aims and objectives

It may seem obvious, but what exactly do you wish your site to achieve, is it to provide information for existing clients? Do you wish it to generate more business, sell products, showcase your work, enable people to contact you?

Define your target audience

Who will be visiting your site? Age groups, professions and demographics are all important, the more specific the more we can tailor your site, the expectations of 30 -40 year old EU business professionals are very different to 20 -25 year old fashion conscious UK shoppers for example.

Of course some sites will need to appeal to a wider range but understanding your target audience is immensely useful, from a design point of view it can help determine colour schemes, page sizes (depending on whether your customer are likely to have broadband for example), from a business aspect the benefits cannot be stressed enough!

Rival sites

Who are your competitors? What are their sites like, write down what you like and dislike about them, including your initial thoughts, most people decide whether to carry on viewing a site in the first 10 seconds! It is also good to think about the navigational and functional aspect as well as the visual. If you have a list of rival sites it can be useful to get other peoples opinions (they should be in your target audience).

Consultations

Site structure

The first aspect we will discuss is the page structure of your site, how many pages there are and how they link together, whether you need a Content Management System or database, registering your domain name if not already done and choosing a hosting plan.

Pro-Forma Invoice

We will provide you with a Pro-Forma invoice detailing all the work to be done and the cost of this work.

Design& Images

We can now provide you with some layout ideas, these will be non functioning images usually of just the home page, to give you an idea of how the final site will look. These will be uploaded to a test server for viewing online, sometimes a meeting at this stage can be useful to tweak the layout further. Extra presentational images from image libraries will be comps (test versions) so decisions can made before purchasing.

Content

The next stage is to provide the text and image content for each page, only images relevant to the content need to be provided here, we can help advise with this if you are not sure. Text can be in any format such as Word or Notepad, design elements such as colours and columns or tables should be avoided. Ideally everything should be provided at this stage but if not completed, we can use blocks of random text until you are ready, an idea of headings and paragraphs etc though is essential.

Timeline & Costs

Final quote provided to follow on from pro-forma and needs to be signed off so we are in agreement of work to be carried out, timescale's for your project will also be given, if you are working to a specific deadline this can be factored in. 

Site build & test

As your site is built you will be provided with regular updates plus you will be able to view progress and test the site online at our testing server.

W3C compliancy

The world wide web consortium creates and overseas the development of web technologies and their applications. They are not an official standards body, but a joint effort by experts in the field, including their director Tim Berners Lee, founder of the internet.

XHTML is a strict version of the language that is used to code web sites and must adhere to certain rules, sites that conform will have a referring link, (like the one at the bottom right of this web site), and will check the page to make sure it is valid.

CSS handles all the presentation and layout of the pages, separating the content form the design, this enables your web site to be easily changed if necessary and can be displayed differently on mobile phone or printer output for instance.

All of Code 7 web sites follow these guidelines, but why does this matter to you? The advantages of this method (and the reason these standards were introduced) results in;

Accessibility

Your web content can be viewed in a variety of browsers and devices, including assistive devices for the visually impaired. It will provide a better experience for the greatest number of users as well making it easier for search engines to index.

Forward compatibility

Future standards will be built upon today’s standards, your site will not need a complete rebuild and can have extra pages and functions added more easily. Layout designs can quickly be changed in line with corporate colour or logo changes for instance.

Faster download and display

Less bloated code means smaller files that download faster and save bandwidth usage, also modern browsers render standards mode pages faster, all this results in faster web sites which equal happy visitors.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Code 7 aim to get your web site high rankings with natural search, be wary of companies promising top rankings and high numbers of hits, there are ways to do this but quality as well as quantity is important, its no use having millions of visitors who are not interested in your site, it could also cost you in bandwidth terms (see hosting).

Included in every web site design by Code 7;

Well structured pages

Easier for search engines to find and crawl.

Keywords

(words that you feel people will use to search for your web site,) these should be used as much as possible in your content without confusing the structure and readability, they will also be placed in the (hidden) head of your web pages.

Descriptions

You will need to provide a brief description of each page, these are what you often see under the web address in search engines, these are also placed in the hidden header with meta tags.

Internal and reciprocal links

The more internal links the better, we will also provide you with a reciprocal link to this site, any others that you can provide will be beneficial.

Sitemap

In general, there are two types of sitemaps. The first type of sitemap is a HTML page listing the pages of your site - often by section - and is meant to help users find the information they need.

XML Sitemaps - usually called Sitemaps, (with a capital S) - are a way for you to give Google information about your site. The sitemap files can then be used to indicate to a web crawler how such pages can be found. Google, MSN, Yahoo and Ask now jointly support the Sitemaps protocol. Since MSN, Yahoo, Ask, and Google use the same protocol, having a sitemap lets the four biggest search engines have the updated page information.

A sitemap is the best insurance for getting a search engine to learn about your entire site.

Search engine submission

There's no need for search engine submission anymore, search engines will find your site all by themselves without any site submission help from you; they find pages in your site as long as there are links to them. To this end we will submit to several search directories.

Additional extras

These are best discussed after a few months of your site going live so you can get an idea of your current ranking and web site traffic. Several techniques can be implemented including pay per click campaigns, SEO is an ongoing process.

E-Commerce

There are two main choices here, do you have a fixed range of products with few if any updates, or a range that need to be amended and added to on a regular basis?

For both solutions we can offer different methods of accepting payments, systems such as PayPal, or systems such as Worldpay or Protx, the pros and cons of each are discussed at the end of this page. You can use any payment Gateway you wish.

Online shop, fixed product range

For this option we will produce the website and add the products, pictures, descriptions and options provided by you for each product. If products need to be changed in the future or added to, this can be done by us in the same way, you will also need our Essential (for paypal ) or Online Shop  (for worldpay) hosting package.

Full e-commerce, up datable range of products

You will be able to add products and categories via your web browser from anywhere in the world, upload images, maintain stock levels and more. For this option you will need our e-commerce hosting package.

PayPal

This system is well known and does not have any set up or monthly fees, just a percentage of your sale price. You can take payment from credit and debit cards, as well as PayPal if the buyer has signed up. Both systems take your purchaser away form your site to take the card details and process the payment. PayPal no longer require buyers to sign up if they do not wish to.

WorldPay, Protx etc

These methods process the payment on your own web site and is the way to go for the professional look, this is reflected in the cost however, initial setup fees plus monthly costs in addition to a percentage of the sale price. For maximum customer options you can offer PayPal as an alternative payment method.

Databases

Do you have a large amount of numerical, text or image data that you wish to update and display on you web site? Placing this information in a database enables us to display it in a variety of ways, random selections, different layouts and searches by categories or keywords are all possible. Applications of this could include;

• Job vacancies for a recruitment agency or large company.
• Artists or photographers portfolios.
• Product or services information.
• Client lists & testimonials
• Personnel or students information
• Educational course and dates

One of the most important advantages is the ability to update and revise the data and categories, this can be done from a bespoke web based application and will not affect the validity or accessibility of the site.

To run a database you would need our Corporate hosting package

Content Management Systems (CMS)

A Content Management System, or CMS, enables you to update or add to the actual content on your website, if you want to tweak, delete or add to the text in the future, this can be done from your web browser. To ensure the validity and accessibly is kept intact a small easy to use plug-in is used, Xstandard.

Any text and image data can easily be updated, and will have the same style as the rest of your site, application and feedback forms, database displays etc are more complex although these usually do not need to be changed. Access is secure and via a separate link provided and login is only possible with a username and password.

This effectively negates the need to contact us every time you need to change an aspect of your website content, a website with up to date and new information added on a regular basis will keep your visitors interested and more likely to return.

Flash

Many people are aware of Flash now and Macromedia claim that 97% of browsers have the plug-in to display it, if you want flashy (pun intended!) animation and interactivity, this is the way to go. It is not however, without its problems and these need to be considered;

• Not all users can see flash sites, some large companies block for example
• Generally larger file sizes meaning slower downloads
• Not accessible or as search engine friendly
• Longer development time

Generally it is not worth adding flash just because we can and it looks nice, however if you want an interactive map of your clients for example on one page, this can add something that looks good but is also useful. Some sites, especially artist / photography portfolios or sites aimed at children, can really benefit from this technology.

Contact / feedback forms

For a basic website a simple ‘mailto’ email address and telephone number will suffice, if you wish to collect more information that can be used for marketing or even to update a database, a form like the one on our contact page should be used.

Drop down lists, radio buttons, image and file uploads etc are all possible, the information can be emailed to you, with any file attachments, plus additional information about the users location and browser.

Extra security against spam can be incorporated in the form of ‘captcha’ images, randomly generated text that you can read, but that the evil spam bots cannot.

Another advantage of a contact form is that they can be used by people on a computer with no email client, in an airport or internet café for instance.

Image sourcing

Good strong images are all important and are a large part of the first impression of your site. Luckily with digital cameras and great online image libraries at low cost this is now more easily achievable.

Images provided need to be optimised for the internet, i.e. the file size need to be reduced as much as possible whilst retaining perceptible quality. We can do this for you and suggest and supply suitable images if you do not have any.

We can also help you design a logo for your business that can be used for continuity in your marketing, scaled up if necessary for posters or business cards.

Please ensure you have the correct authorisation to use any images supplied to us, there are many easy to copy images available on the internet, but this does not mean you can use them and copyright law needs to be respected, even copying a small image without permission could cost you more than you think if a rights-holder finds out.

Many image libraries allow you tot use images for a low cost or even for free, if there are no clear notices regarding an image you wish to use its best to just ask by emailing the site owner.

Web hosting & domain registration

Service provide via Class 7 Hosting, backed up by SectorLink in the USA, Sectorlink owns and operates its own state-of-the-art data centres located in Holly and Flint, Michigan. Their facility features direct fibre optic connectivity to four major Internet backbone providers offering redundancy between providers, uninterrupted power from multiple UPS systems and natural gas powered generators.

If required you will be provided with your own FTP login, mail services accessible via SmartMail. Broken down into modules for your specific requirements or for ease we have prepared four packages covering most situations as follows. All include a .com or .co.uk domain registration.

Packages

Essential

For most basic sites or static product shops accepting PayPal, includes PHP, 1 GB monthly transfer, (approximately 700 visitors per month) 1 email account with 3 forwarding addresses.

£43.96 per year all inclusive.

Essential Plus

Same as Essential but with 5GB monthly transfer (approximately 3500 visits per month) and 5 email accounts .

£93.96 per year all inclusive.

Corporate

For database driven sites or online shops using PayPal, includes MySQL, PHP, 1 GB monthly transfer, (approximately 700 visitors per month) and 5 email accounts.

£83.95 per year all inclusive.

Corporate Plus

Same as corporate but 5GB monthly transfer (approximately 3500 visits per month) and 10 email accounts.

£113.96 per year all inclusive.

Online shop

For static product shops with own payment processing gateway, includes PHP, SSL hosting, 1 GB monthly transfer, (approximately 700 visitors per month), 1 email account.

£P.O.A.

E-commerce

For up datable product shops with own payment processing gateway, includes MySQL, PHP, SSL hosting, 1 GB monthly transfer, (approximately 700 visitors per month),1 email account.

£P.O.A

Modules

We can also provide custom hosting packages to suit every requirement. Packages can be upgraded at any time as your business grows.

Web site stats & analytics

Included in every site we build is a weekly email report telling you how many visitors you have had, their referring links, browser used etc, these are provided by either Google Analytics or Statcounter.

Media design & print

If you already have stationery and logo or theme, we can use this branding on your web site to maintain brand consistency. If not we can also help you with this aspect to give a complete solution.

Using this information we can create designs in a print format (different to the web format using higher resolution and a four colour process instead of three) and arrange the rest of the printing process for you.

for example to design and print 500 business cards starts from £100 all inclusive. We also offer many other printing solutions including

• Leaflets & flyers
• Posters and large format prints
• Sign writing
• Scratch cards
• Novelties and gifts

Please let us know your requirements and we can give you a fast, no obligation quote.