Web development, contrary to popular belief, is not an art form... it's a science. And thus, like any science, there is a defined process that has been tested and proven to work time and time again. When The Interactive Dept. takes on a new project, we are not starting from scratch - we replicate the process that has continued to bring us success. This is not some secret recipe we keep hidden in a safe, or some brilliant concept we developed through hours of meetings and research. In fact, we read it in a book several years ago - found it worked perfectly - and have kept with it ever since. This is the exact route you can expect us to follow when we take on your project.
Phase One: Discovery
The first, and most important phase (and most often overlooked) is the discovery phase. If someone hasn't taken the time to truly learn about your business, your audience, your competition, your goals and what is and isn't working with your current web presence - how on Earth will you know whether or not the project has been a success? Creating engaging interactive experiences requires more then a clean design and search-engine visibility. It requires a well thought-out strategy and a clear understanding of the entire landscape. It starts with a series of important questions:
How does your website compliment your other marketing efforts?
Why are folks coming to your website in the first place.
What are they hoping to learn while there?
Why do you feel a new website is going to help your organization - and how so?
How tech savvy is your audience?
These and other questions create both an audience profile and help to define the goals of the project. Once these concepts have been fully realized, only then should one begin the process of actually developing the site.
Phase Two: Design
Now that we know what we're getting into, the fun part starts. During the design phase the rest of The Interactive Dept. team comes to the table, and we begin to explore the various ways of presenting your information. Design isn't all about pretty colors and nice fonts - it's about information - and how best to get your message across to your audience. Sure, we develop a color-pallet and a style guide, but more importantly we wireframe your site, develop a sitemap and determine what pieces of technology - whether it be Flash, video, music, or straight-up text - are going to most clearly articulate your concepts and allow your audience to retain the information that they're coming to your site to acquire in the first place. Once we know what the content is going to be - and in what format it should exist, we apply the appropriate look + feel for your market and your brand identity. It's about giving your site YOUR look - not ours.
Phase Three: Development
Once the marching orders have come down from our creative team and the strategy for success is in place, we break off and each of us do what we do best. Content is developed and dropped into place - images are acquired, improved upon, and implemented - a solid backend and/or database is developed to track and measure the success of your site - forms and questionnaires are implemented to collect information from your audience - and all the fun little features that make a site engaging and interactive are produced. All of this is done in unison and comes together seamlessly in the final moments of production, creating a site that is not just beautiful and engaging - but also relevant, visible and thus successful. How do we know? Because we defined the measure of success in phase one, and at every point and with every decision made we have asked ourselves - "does this support the goals of this project?"
Phase Four: Deployment
So now that the site is designed and built, we're done right? NO! Just because a site is built, doesn't mean we say 'have a nice day' and move on to the next gig. We have to measure the success of the site over the next few months.
Have we increased your web traffic?
Have we helped promote sales?
Have we achieved the goals set-forth in Phase One?
Even if the answer is yes - The Interactive Dept.'s clients will tell you that we are always here to make improvements, expand successful areas and work to help drive more traffic to your site. Chances are, the reason you needed a site update in the first place was because your old site was locked in stone and thus looked more dated than a 1980s polaroid. Perhaps technology changes, and something that worked fine when we launched it now has some issues. Revisiting the site and the goals that brought us together in the first place is why The Interactive Dept.'s customers rave about us so much.
Our success is not possible without your success - and the final phase, like our relationship, never ends. Sure, we might not see each other as often - and months may pass without so much as a hello - but when an old link no longer works, or a product shot needs to be updated, The Interactive Dept. will be there for you to make the small or large updates that keep your site relevant.
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