Total Design Creations - The 5 Stages of web Design

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The 5 Stages of Web-site Development

1. The BASIC Level; 3. The Artistic Development; 5. E-Commerce

1. The BASIC Level

Small businesses starting out on the web may want to break into it easily. To get a presence on the web does not have to cost a fortune.

To get started with a basic website go through the following steps:

1. If you don't have one already, get a dial-up account with a reliable ISP, who will give you 5 mB of web space.

2. Draft up 5 pages in you favourite word processor: Each page should be less than 200 words or half a typed page (people don't like scrolling, like in this lengthy article).

One to introduce your company and to serve as the index.
One or more with information on your Products or Services, with or without prices
One or more with detailed info about your business, this may include examples of your work, testimonials, resumes of key people or a list of major clients.
One with order information
One with contact info, address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address.

3. Send the pages plus a copy of your logo, by e-mail, to a reliable web-designer, who will code it and put it on the web for you.

4. Review your draft web-site

5. Have your webmaster make the final touches.

2. The Search Engine

Now, you have a website, you must get it known. In addition to including it in all your printed materials, you must list it with the major Search Engines. Avoid listing it with too many, as it will likely result in excessive junk e-mail.

1. The first step is to have your webmaster create 'metatags'. These list critical information needed for searching. e.g.

The title of your website (max 10 words)
A brief description of your site/business (max 20 words)
A list of keywords for searching, separated by commas (max 200 words)

2. Next, you must go to each of the 10 major search engines and register every 2-3 months. We recommend that you do it yourself. It may take 3 weeks or more for the listing to take effect. If you don't do it yourself and you don't see it listed, you may have an argument.

3. Test the search engines every 2 weeks.

3. The Artistic Development

Now you have a website, you will want it to look good. These improvements will cost money, so you may not want to do them all, but ease yourself into it.

Here are some areas where you may embellish.

Backgrounds
1. Colour
2. Texture
3. Graphics
Text
1. Colour
2. Letter type
3. Graphics
Images
1. Photographs (products)
2. Thumb-prints of photographs
3. Graphics
Buttons
1. Text Buttons
2. Image Buttons
3. Mouse-overs
4. Navigation bars
Special Effects
1. Banners
2. Flash Animations
3. Sound
4. Video
Special Features
1. Services
2. Bookmarks
3. Tools
4. Articles, Reports
5. Freebees
6. Jokes

4. The Domain Name

Now you have a good looking web-site, you will want it listed under your own (Company) name.

"http://www.yourcompanyname.com/"

To get this you will have to do the following:

1. Select a reliable, yet affordable 'Host'. This may be your dial-up ISP IF you are satisfied with its performance and its price. (For small websites max US$200/year). If not, shop around.

2. Get your webmaster to help you find a suitable Domain name (DNS). If '.com' is used, your webmaster will be able to help you get it with a different ending e.g. '.net', '.org', '.ca', or something else.

3. Register the DNS and have them place it on your new Host. (This will cost at least US$17.50/year, and may have to be for 2 or 3 years at once for the first time).

4. Have your webmaster move your webpages to your new web-site and make the necessary changes in the links.

5. Test the web-site.

6. Re-submit it to the Search Engines under its new URL.

5. E-Commerce

For many businesses a price list will suffice. But if you have many or complex products, you may want to:

1. Add a Quotation Calculator (for complex products).

2. Add a Shopping Cart (for many products)

3. Add a DataBase driven loading program (for very many products)

4. Add a credit card (for easy payment)

5. Add more credit cards (for easier payments)

These features do run into money, but their pay-off can be quite good if they help your customers.

As technology progresses more and new features will become available. the Internet is moving ahead at great speed. It is worth your while to make a start now so, you can grow with it as your business grows.

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