How We Build Effective Websites
We are always improving our process, which, frankly, is pretty darn awesome.
Our “OpenPotion” Recipe
Our Website Development Process
DISCOVERY: Better Website Planning
Most designers spend 1-2 hours with you and then toss a proposal at you that is half-baked and really doesn’t offer all you need. Our discovery process is insightful to our clients and has been designed to uncover problems and solutions so your new website will be incredibly effective.
CONTENT: Gathering Text & Images
Not sure what to write? Most designers throw, what feels like, a 100-page term-paper at you as a reward for doing business with them. We actually build a structure complete with word counts, explanations, and examples, to guide you towards good marketing copy – easy as filling out a form. We’ll create deadlines and hold your hand to make sure we all stay on track. Hate to write? Well…we even help write it for you.
LAYOUT: Wireframing
We map out the skeletal layout of your pages in wireframes to come up with the proper layout to make your website effective and get the message across in a way that is easy (and likely) for your eyes to digest.
DESIGN: Style Tiles & Mockups
This is where we come up with the actual visual look for the site, for you to approve. Using style tiles we are able to select a visual theme. Once a thematic direction is decided using the style tiles, we then use the wireframe and the style and create a full mockup.
DEVELOPMENT: Build! Build! Build!
This is where the nerdiest members of our team use the mockup, the gathered content, the wireframe, etc. to build the website on our dev (development) server. We normally throw out nerdy terms like CSS, HTML, and more (it is just cool stuff we like to make with a keyboard).
LAUNCH: Woohoo! It’s Live!
Yeah, we get excited. Once the site looks good to you (and to us), and email logistics are sorted out, we then migrate the site to it’s live server space and help get your domain pointed to our DNS servers so the whole world can enjoy the website. Then our amazing ongoing support plans kick in.
