The Creative Cog

Our process allows us to create amazing products that help boost user experience and company exposure. Everyone wants their website or web product to perform well whether that means bringing in more users, getting more sales or getting more sign-ups. Most websites are made to be functional interfaces that help serve a narrow purpose. Although many people are focused on what the site looks like, many don’t think about it’s function. Most users will spend more time on an ugly site that provides them with the content they are looking than a site based solely on expression or beauty. If they cannot find what they want in three clicks, they are gone. Our process helps us focus on the true purpose of the site before moving into aesthetic design.

1. Define goals

The most important step is to define the project goals. What do you want out of your product? What does the website need to do?

2. Conduct company and market research

This is one of our favorite steps. Learning about your company and how it functions is an integral part of the process. Discovering who your customers are and what markets you serve is intriguing. Some of our clients learn more about their users than they knew before.

3. Organize

After we collect our data from you, we come back and organize our research, graphics, artwork, and content from you. Normally the content you provide is put together on a design board and analyzed. This gives us a great overall view of your organization, it’s personality and really who you are. The next step is where the fun begins.

4. Design and/or develop

This is where our expertise kicks into gear. A web design normally starts with a company logo and moves outward from there. A mock-up is created with a Visual Interface Design that has the goals from step 1 in mind. After all, a great looking site that doesn’t focus on the main goal is a waste. The VID is composed of a few main building blocks:

The interface design isn’t just about how it looks or where buttons and menus are but more so the interaction between the user and application or device. It is important to understand what makes a great user interface when developing web products. All great interfaces share qualities that we aim to achieve with every web solution:

5. Testing & performance optimization

Some of the most annoying things on the internet are slow and unresponsive websites. If your website is annoying, your users are unlikely to use it. Testing and optimization is the only way to avoid annoying websites. We spend time testing different browsers as well as servers to ensure your site is fast, attractive and optimized.

6. Launch

There are two phases of launch we like to do. The first is a soft launch which is where you send the product to friends and family to get their input on the site. There is only so much we can test for in step 5 in house. The best way to fully test is have real web users who have no idea of how the site works go on and offer feedback. We normally find a few small fixes in this phase. The second phase or the hard launch is the final step in the process where your solution is published for the world to see.