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Now it’s time for the hands-on work to begin. This is where we organize the site allowing users to find information quickly and easily. Whether this is a $3,000 project or a $300,000 project, site structure can never be ignored. With a well thought out navigation planned, we have a solid foundation that impacts everything including the visual design.
We also create a few templates to determine what that visual design will look like. Here we decide on common graphics, colors and fonts. The goal is to create an overall interactive design that meets your needs and will smoothly translate to the finished HTML code. Our first testing of site flow and continuity of appearance begins here. We also document many important site elements to make site maintenance and future site evolutions that much easier.
Site View - Creating the Navigation |
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What content will appear on the web site? Once this is whittled down, we need to arrange the content to follow a site mapping. This arrangement of documents creates the navigation that our site visitors will use to maneuver through the pages of the web site. How easy is it to get from point A to B? How many steps to complete a contact form? Will we need a search page? All of these questions examined as we plan the site structure.
Page and Graphics Templates |
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Now that we have our site mapped, how are the individual pages to appear. Here we decide on fonts, colors, sizes, and graphic elements. Sample page templates are presented for you to choose from, crititique and make the final decision as to how the entire site will appear. By creating a template as a bases point, the site will have continuity and make for an improved user experience while at your site.
Protosite - Clicking Through Emptiness |
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Once a site map and page template have been decided, the protosite can be created. Most of the web site pages are created but with very little content. Most pages will have just navigation and basic, common graphics. This provides the opportunity to easily test the navigation of the website and get a feel for traffic flow through the site. Can users easily locate the information they will want at a certain point. Will users encounter dead ends? How many steps does it take to request a brochure from any given point in the site? All these questions can be easily resolved before any content work begins.
Click here for our next stage...Production.
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