Website Design Process Explained in 5 Steps

01-06-2024

Planning
Designing
Developing
Testing
Deploying

Do you know how websites are created? You might think, “Do I need to know?” “I don’t know and that is why I leave it to the agency, man.” 😂

You’re right. You don’t have to know any technical knowledge such as design and development required to create a website. However, we recommend that you know roughly about the website design process as a client.

The reason is that you need to know this to communicate closely with the agency. If you don’t know this, you can’t understand the language of the agency. You may wonder what this means when the agency doesn’t use another language or something. For example, it’s like this.

Hello World Agency: Hello, sir. The current website design draft has been completed and I’m delivering the mock-up. After that, it will be developed by coding and tested using automation tools. Please note that we will help you register the domain at the end of the project and use the hosting of the xyz platform for distribution ^^

If you understand what this all means, you can go back. If not, make sure to read this article. And when the scroll hits the floor in 5 minutes, come back here. You will experience the magic of understanding 100% of what the Hello World agency says.

Once again, don’t worry, it’s not rocket science. It’s enough to know only the basic knowledge covered in this article. Then, let’s take a look at the forest called website design. The development of a website will mainly go through the following five stages.

1. Planning

Planning is the stage of coming up with the purpose and content of the website.The general purpose of website development is as follows.

Business: Increase sales through product and service introduction
Individual: Getting a job by proving one’s skills

After you decide on your purpose, you’ll be thinking about what content you’ll include on your website. It mainly consists of product and service descriptions, company introductions, portfolio introductions, and inquiries. After that, we collect the necessary information on the website. The information you need includes images, videos, and writing on each page.

The reason we have to come up with the idea is that the agency and the client have to be on the same page. What’s in the client’s head should be shared with the agency as it is. I know it sounds so vague. Let me give you an example.

Webtamin has two questionnaires for the client. The first questionnaire consists of basic questions. The client will answer basic information such as the main purpose of the website, the available images and videos, and the information required.

The second one is an in-depth questionnaire. The content consists of more in-depth questions compared to basic questions. The client writes in-depth information related to the business, including target customers, new customer inflow channels, and differentiation from other companies.

Based on this, Webtamin analyzes businesses and visitors in depth. The result is content that captivates the visitor and achieves the client’s purpose. The simple informational writing is nothing but only passes through the visitor’s eyes.

2. Designing

Designing is a step in planning the appearance of a website.In the beginning, you will produce a rough blueprint of the website’s layout. This blueprint is called a wireframe.

After that, based on the wireframe, the agency will consider the following visual factors.

Color
Font
Blank space

It will then determine these factors and apply them to the wireframe to create a design. This design is called a mock-up. The reason why we need a mock-up is to discuss the design with our customers. The advantage of the mock-up is that you can create design results much faster than the actual website design.

Webtamin uses design tools to produce and utilize a mock-up. It reflects the reference website provided by a customer and design trends. After that, the completed mock-up will lead to a design discussion with a customer.

A typical website agency usually places a limit on the number of design changes at this stage. In other words, only a few design revisions can be made.

Webtamin provides unlimited design revisions until customers are satisfied. Webtamin’s philosophy is that websites that customers don’t like cannot satisfy visitors.How long can the design change be made? Until the customer is satisfied 😎

3. Developing

Developing is the work of implementing designs and functions on a website. There are two main ways to develop a website.

The first method is to use a web builder. A web builder is a tool that helps you create a website without programming knowledge. The web builder is a platform like WordPress or Wix that you’ve heard of at least once.

Web builders are easy to use, so most companies use them. However, there is a limit to customize the design. This makes it hard to express the unique identity of the brand. There is a problem that functions can only be developed within the scope allowed by the web builder, as well.

The second is the method of coding. Coding is, in short, giving commands to a computer. When creating a website, is developed by opening a program such as a notepad to write commands.

This method is less accessible because it requires specialized technical knowledge. Website costs are also relatively high because they require expertise and time compared to web builders. However, if you choose this method, you can create a completely customized website. This is because there are no restrictions on the designs and functions that can be developed.

Part of the source code in Webtamin customer’s homepage Webtamin is creating a customized website with coding. The reason is that there are no restrictions on the development of design and features, so we can create a website optimized for the brand.If you want to know more about the customized website, we recommend you read the article on the Webtamin homepage below.

3 Reasons You Need To Create a Custom Website

4. Testing

Testing is a step to ensure that all the features on the website work well.Test the following;

if all the pages are shown well
if buttons or links work well
if you can see it well on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones
if the loading speed is too slow

The reason for testing is to satisfy the user. If it takes more than 3 seconds to load the page, users want to go back. Users want to close the window if the content is too small to read on their smartphone.

There are often agencies that skip this testing phase. If it’s a minor problem such as typos and design mistakes, it’s okay. However, serious problems can also occur, such as missing important links or malfunctioning buttons. If you don’t recognize this and discover it after a long time, the loss becomes indescribable.

Webtamin doesn’t trust humans when it comes to errors. The reason is that humans are bound to make mistakes. Even experienced developers can create errors with one typo among many codes.

Webtamin utilizes an automated testing program to address this issue. We use a tool called Cypress to create and conduct tests on things that people may miss. Since the website is created by coding, the test code can also be written in detail without limitation. That’s why Webtamin’s homepage is bug-free and sturdy 😁

5. Deploying

If you’re still reading this, you’re a wise person 👍 Finally, the deployment is the step of registering the website on the Internet for all to see.You need domains and hosting for others to see your website.

A domain is the address of a website. For example, https://webtamin.co is a domain for a Webtamin website. To register the website address you want, you will pay accordingly.

Hosting is a website space rental service. The website consists of files such as texts, images, and videos. For others to view the website, these files must exist on the Internet. To do that, we need space on the Internet to hold these files. This space is called a server. Hosting refers to a service that lends this server.

Some bad agencies may overcharge their hosting servers. They also ask for a larger amount than the actual hosting fee. The customer may not know this technical part and may not know and be subjected to it.

Webtamin uses a free hosting platform called Netlify. The corresponding amount will only be charged if the free available traffic(=number of website visitors) is exceeded. Domain costs also charged only the actual amount. Webtamin is based on transparency in principle for all service costs.

So far, we’ve looked at the five stages of the website’s development process. It’s obvious, but the order or details of each agency may vary. If you request website development in the future, what you read today will help. Congratulations on your basic knowledge of website development 👏