Bringing Design to Life

The following steps are considered milestones in which we want to educate the client about the website design process and what entails in each step.

1. GOAL IDENTIFICATION

The first step begins with an in-person meeting with ShiloRune to determine what the goals, purpose and needs are of the website. During the meeting, we will ask a series of questions and play a Branding Deck Strategy game to get to know you and the project better. This is where we learn about your business model, and determine how we can help. This is often the most crucial step. We develop goals for your project, and collaborate in strategy sessions. Typically, we will discuss the following during this first meeting:

• Your Domain URL
• Hosting
• Your Brand

2. SCOPE DEFINITION

Once we know the website's goals, we can define the scope of the project. This includes an in-person or video conference meeting where we discuss what pages and features the site requires to fulfill the goal, and the timeline for building those out.

3. SITEMAPPING + WIREFRAMING:

With the scope well-defined, we can start strategizing the sitemap, figuring out how the content and features we defined in scope will interrelate with each other. ShiloRune will provide a draft sitemap. After the sitemap is approved by the client, ShiloRune will provide the client with a draft wireframe set, including major pages and features discussed in the scope.

4. STYLE GUIDE:

Depending on the client, this may already be well-defined, but you might also be defining the visual style from the ground up. Tools like moodboards, and element collages can help with this process. If the client requests branding style guides, ShiloRune will provide 1-3 recommendations. Style guides define the set of standards for the brand's visual identity including colors and fonts, establishing and enforcing brand style consistency. Once the style guide is approved by the client, this is the set of standards that ShiloRune will use as a basis for creating the visual website design.

5. CONTENT CREATION:

We will need content from the client in order to start visualizing the assets in the design, this includes and not limited to: photography, video, links, contact information, and copy.

6. CODING:

With the site architecture and designs are finalized, we can start working on coding the website to the design. This will take 4-6 weeks to complete, depending on how many pages and features the website has. ShiloRune will begin to flesh out the website.

7. DESIGN REVISIONS:

At a certain point, you'll be provided a URL to the development website. You can follow our progress here, and request revisions or change orders. During this time, please understand that we are continuously working, coding and updating the website and thus, is a work-in-progress.

8. TESTING + SEO:

We have to test to see if the website is compatible across a variety of devices with automated site crawlers to identify everything from user experience issues to simple broken links. This is also the part where we begin to set a standard for your SEO meta, titles and descriptions for your website so that it can gain a higher rank on Google and web search sites.

9. LAUNCH!

Once everything's working beautifully, it's time to plan and execute your website launch! This should include planning both launch timing and communication strategies — i.e., when will you launch and how will you let the world know? After that, it's time to celebrate.