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Menu: Introduction Stage 1: Discovery Stage Stage 2: Design Stage Stage 3: Development Stage Stage 4: Testing & Launch Stage Stage 5: Maintenance Stage Software that I am currently using |
maintaining a website Introduction In order to facilitate effective cooperation between me as your website designer and you as the customer it is important that both of us understand the process involved in creating and maintaining a website. This process can be divided into five stages: Discovery, Design, Development, Testing and Launching and Maintenance. Each stage is explained in more detail below. Return to the top of the page Stage 1: Discovery Stage With an estimated 100,000 new website's going live daily the only way for me to ensure that your website will be noticed is proper planning, knowing exactly why it's there and what it is meant to accomplish. That will inform the designing of your website and ensure that it fulfils its intended aims and objectives. Consider the following questions, they will be similar to those that I will ask you when you first approach me about developing a website for you or your business:
Return to the top of the page Stage 2: Design Stage Based on the information obtained during the discovery stage, I compile:
Figure 1. An example of a site map outlining a website.It is also at this stage that the 'look & feel' of the website is established. All of the above information and products from the discovery and design stage are compiled into a report for discussion with the client. After discussion and agreement with the client on what needs to be done I produce a quotation and delivery date. The next stage starts once the customer and web designer have agreed on the report and quotation and the first payments have been made in terms of the quotation. Return to the top of the page Stage 3: Development Stage This stage involves registering the website's domain name (if it is a new website), a name agreed to by the customer. I produce all the required web graphics and text in the appropriate formats. I put it all together with the appropriate website programming language (e.g. Hypertext Markup Language = HTML), scripting languages (e.g. JavaScript or PHP) and databases (e.g. MySQL), as is required. Return to the top of the page Stage 4: Testing and Launch Stage Testing: In order to ensure that your website will be displayed properly by most web browsers; during development of a website I continuously test it in Internet Explorer 7 & 8 and Firefox 3.0. Seventy percent of people in the world are currently using these browsers. When your website is almost complete and as part of final testing I test it in Safari, Google Chrome and Opera web browsers. I then make final changes to ensure that your website will be displayed properly by most web browsers and can therefore be enjoyed by the majority of the world wide web users in the world. Testing not only ensures that your website will display correctly in most browsers but also that there are no missing graphics or text elements and that there are no broken links i.e. links that report an error instead of linking to another section of your website or to another website. Launch: Once I have placed your website on the server where it is to be hosted, over the next four weeks I will periodically visit your website to ensure that all aspects of your site are compatible with the server environment and working properly. Any aspects not functioning correctly will be repaired. Return to the top of the page Stage 5: Maintenance Stage A website is built and maintained similarly to the way that a car is built and then needs to be maintained. Once your new website is live on the net, for the world to see, it needs to be maintained. If you never changed the oil, filters and tyres of your new car it would quickly come to a standstill. Website's are dynamic entities that need to be changed, updated and improved over time. You need to add pages to them with new and exciting information to keep new and existing customers interested and coming back. You need to give people a reason to return to your website. A maintenance plan needs to be put in place for your new site. You must also be willing to advertise your website. For example, include your website's address (URL) on your business cards and company stationary, in print , radio and television advertisements. This will serve to direct people to your website and provides access to you or your business from within their businesses and homes. Simply having a website is no longer enough to ensure visitors and achievement of the goals of having the website. Remember that the day your site went live an additional 100,000 new sites also went live adding to the billions already live on the World Wide Web. Return to the top of the page Software that I use to develop website's includes:
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