Website design always start with a purpose, when you work with me. What do you want your customers to be able to do, to view and to know?
We’ll start with the two basics:
1. What do you want your customers to be able to do?
This is not a trick question. It’s very very simple: what do you want your customers to be able to do on your website? Do you want them to contact you? Do you want them to be able to book an appointment with you? See a directory of suppliers you’ve sourced? Pay a membership fee to learn from you (great if you are a teacher)?
2. What do you want your customer to be able to view and know?
If you are a photographer or creative, you’ll really want a gallery / portfolio to show off your work and what you can do. Do you offer services? If so, show them and add a starting from price. Do you have a process of how you work? Share that (just like I’m doing here). Your customers will also want to know a little of your story and how you are are going to help them .. this becomes your about page. Plus some really obvious (or maybe not so obvious unless point out) things, like where are you based? What’s your address? What are your working hours? How do I contact you via phone or email?
If you’re nervous about what you need to know about websites .. don’t worry. I’ve written an ebook that I wish I could have had when I first started out learning it all by trial and error. You can do the same, and teach yourself everything I do. What I can do for you, is use all my years of experience and do it that much faster for you.
Get the ebook and get a quick foundation in what to know about websites and WordPress.
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That’s great to know and thank you,
but how do you do website design Cathie?
Yes, well .. that is the point of this blog isn’t it. So, here are all the phases I go through when creating and building your WordPress websites with you.
Website Design – My Process
1. MEET UP & ANALYSE
We meet up over skype or zoom, we learn about each other, get to know your business, your customers, your content and what you want you customers to be able to do on your website.
2. FUNCTIONAL INSPIRATION
I ask you to provide a link to 3 websites that show the looks and the functionality that you want to inspire your website. What do you want customers to be able to do?
We also look at the content of your website and what you want customers to know. Plus the hierarchy of how we present that information so that your customers can easily see what they need to know.
3. ROUGH CONCEPT
In a virtual or in-person meeting, we’ll digitally sketch up some rough outlines for content layouts for your one page or multi-page website design.
4. DESIGN
The design phase is the main bulk of the process; the functionality is built-in, and the style is crafted. It includes items like contact forms, galleries, booking forms and anything else you want your customer to be able to view or do.
5. REFINE & TEST
No design is ever perfect on the first go. At this point, with most of the website complete, the testing part ramps up. Clicking all the buttons, testing to ensure that all website functionality like booking forms, emails etc. do what they are supposed to do.
6. VIDEO TRAINING
There is absolutely no point in having a website if you don’t know how to use it and edit the information on it. I give you personalised video training teaching how to use your site and answer your questions. You can replay and watch this screencast training again and again .. and again.
7. POLISH
We’ll polish the last rough edges of your website so that its ready for transfer to your servers to go live. You have a chance to tweak any last wording and add blog posts prepared for the launch.
8. LAUNCH
Whoohooo! Your website is live and ready for visitors. It’s your time to shine baby. Get promoting, share your story and your value to your customers.
Get talking. You’re ready to be found!
9. 2 WEEKS POST LAUNCH SUPPORT
I won’t disappear on you once your site is live. I know that the first two weeks of using something is when hiccups happen, you’ll have questions you never knew to ask. I’m still here to help you get started.
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