A Web Design Series: The Development Phase
We’ve reached the final phase of the Web Design Process Series. In this post, we will explore The Development Phase.
Before you continue, be sure that you’ve read the other posts in the series:
The Introduction
The Kick Off, Discovery & Audit Phase
The Design Phase
Okay, back to The Development Phase.
This phase can either go very simply, or not.
When things go simply, it tells us that we got all the right information from the client beforehand and that we planned the designs well.
When we take these approved designs after having gone through the revision phase(s), everything from copy to imagery to typography and content is then used to develop the website using Webflow.
Webflow is a really quick way to get the designs developed. Here, we add the functionality we couldn’t add in Figma — drop-down menus, animations, etc. Once that’s done, we share it with the client via a staging domain. We then need to come to a conclusion that is what we agreed on and the work was completed.
This staging domain is a testing link the clients can use to interact with the website before it goes live. We get them to try to break the website.
On the other hand, when things don’t go simply during The Development Phase, that’s usually mainly because clients have not shared something that needs to be on the website or they’ve missed out on a critical part of the process.
The best thing a client can do to ensure the closing of the design phase goes smoothly is to be attentive and think about how certain choices would positively or negatively impact their business.
If the client actively participates in the discussion, this helps us tremendously.
If they ask questions during the earlier phases, such as ‘How will they navigate this site?’, ‘Where will they end up from social media?’ and ‘Does it look good on mobile?’ — this is a good sign because the next time the client sees the website would be when it’s fully developed when we send them the staging domain.
Once that stage is completed, it’s just a matter of us collecting feedback to make any necessary changes and addressing the client’s concerns.
If the clients were indeed able to break the website, they would report the issues to us and we would fix them.
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This wraps up our Web Design Process Series!
I will definitely share more insights into how I work and about the software that I test, use, and love. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to know more about, leave a comment.
I’m also exploring the idea of sharing content in other forms, so that could be interesting too.
Stay tuned for more on productivity, tech, and entrepreneurship.
