Web development is much more than the visuals and layouts. It involves merging together of art and science to create websites that attract visitors and convey information to readers. Naturally, there will be a mix of technical and creative works leading up to the website creation and its successful launch. Every web development project follows certain steps right from the start to completion, and has a team of designers, coders, programmers working on it. Although the steps may vary from company to company, the essentials are always the same which is to unite web design and development to create a website.
Here are key web development steps to design the perfect website –
Step 1 – Project Planning
The first step in web development is project planning that considers the goals and objectives of the development. It starts with the assessment of requirement of the website, its audience, its features and its structure. Based on the project requirement, the next step happens where resources to be used are determined together with project timeline, budget and competitive analysis. This is how the project is planned and then started to create the perfect website. when planning is right, it always leads to perfect work and perfect websites.
Step 2 – Project scope analysis
After project planning, the next step is project scope analysis that considers on two crucial aspects: budget and timeframe. A detailed visual reference of the project is created to detail all the activities involved in the web development. A specific timeframe is assigned for completion of each stage so that both the parties – the development team and the client – are aware when to expect things to shape. When the scope is defined, the project can always progress ahead without much of hiccup.
Step 3 – Website designing
Once the project planning and scope analysis is done, the next step is website designing as this is when the work gets off the ground. In this stage, the design team selects the theme, layout, colour, logo, font, style, features and other visual aspects that form the crux of the design. A prototype design of the website is created and sent to the client for approval. And when the consent arrives, the rest of the designing works goes accordingly. The design works may look easy on the surface but it anything but as it involves imagination and creativity of the highest standards to shape ideas into visual reality.
Step 4 – Website development
Once the design is done and visual aspects taken care, the next stage in the project is web development where the tech guys (coders, programmers and developers) use their knowledge and skills to add functionality and structure to the visual aspects. During this stage, the team works on site navigational structure, technical layout, selection of CMS, creation of interactive contact forms, integrating payment gateways, adding SSL security certificates and so on. The development stage is all about adding technicality to the creative work done by the design team so that a top website can be created easily.
Step 5 – Testing and deployment
After completion of the web development work, the next stage is testing the website before its deployment to the web. In the testing stage, every code, bug, functionality, link and structure of the site is checked to ensure that it is free of glitches. No site is put on the web before a complete testing else there may always be some risks of malfunction.
A lot of other works also go with testing, including –
- Compatibility test is done to check whether the website shows up well on different devices and platforms.
- Website codes are validated to check whether they meet the latest web standards
In the end, the site is uploaded on a hosting server using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. After that, all the files are validated to ensure that the site is functional and smooth.
Conclusion
Clearly, a lot goes into web development and the effort and time put in by the design and development team ensures a perfect website. So, your focus should always be on benefiting from the best web development services to get quality work with your site and ensure desired results on the web.