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Steps in web site development

         

rharri

7:58 pm on Mar 13, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Tedster gave a great talk in Orlando on the process of developing a web site for a customer. For those of us who are new to the game, I wonder if anyone has a process "checklist" that they would care to share?

Eric_Jarvis

8:32 pm on Mar 14, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



1. get the customer to explain their business, develop an idea of what they might be able to get out of teh site, get a list of their key employees you'll also need to converse with and do the same

2. set out aims and objectives for the site and agree these with the customer

3. work out how these aims and objectives can be realised...check with the customer and key employees that this "plan" is feasible to implement from their POV and amend accordingly

4. decide what content is required and who will produce it, ensure that every individual responsible for creating content knows their dealine

5. work out a site "architecture" that will help to efficiently achieve the aims and objectives of the site...make sure that it will be SE friendly, user friendly, legal, and will contain "narratives" that easily take visitors to the various "points of sale"

6. mark up content as basic html (just paragraphs, headers, emphasis etc) and divide into pages, proofread and alter text to feature keywords at the same time

7. set up a basic look, check with customer...then make up a template or set of templates and stylesheets

8. cut and paste the premarked content into the templates...add presentation classes where required

9. test

10. test again, really try and break it this time

11. upload and test againand get some people running different systems to test it

12. let the customer test it

13. sort out press releases if required, submit to dmoz and yahoo if appropriate, get at least some inbound links

14. ensure that it's in all apropriate directories and that links have been requested from all relevant key sites

15. make sure that everyone responsible for updating knows how to do it and how to teach a successor (if it's left to the customer)

16. get paid

17. drink beer (optional)

hannamyluv

9:17 pm on Mar 14, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



#12
Don't just put it out there for your customers though.
Hire/find a few average joes/janes in the site's target demographic. Have them use the site, videotape them doing it. Analyze tapes. Did they use the site like you thought? Did they get tripped up anywhere? Revise site accordingly.

rharri

3:52 am on Mar 15, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks. Very useful. Do you find any of the usability stuff like webtango helpful? Or, are automated systems too general?