lient input and approval are integral to our website design process. Projects are structured in stages, allowing you to preview and approve what has been done before beginning each new phase. A password-protected Project Area is created for each client, documenting important events and providing links to preview files. (See also, Client Access). Here are the main stages of our process:

Preliminaries - In our first meetings or conversations, we'll discuss your needs, identifying any early actions items such as domain registrations or email addresses needed immediately. Then we'll ask key questions such as, "Who is your audience?", "What information do you want your site to deliver and/or collect?", "How should your website look and feel?", and so forth. A review of the sites in our portfolio often helps clients define site features and capabilities. We'll register your domain for you at this time, and if you need domain email right away, we'll setup your hosting account too.

Planning/Estimate - The preliminary site plan or outline is based on the above-mentioned conversations regarding your site requirements. A site plan is a graphical chart representing the site's pages, functionalities, and structure. An outline is a Word document laying out the site in text with bullet points. The approved plan or outline is the basis of your proposal and price estimate. Once our web design agreement is signed and first payment received we are ready to begin! The first order of business is to define the content, (e.g. text and photos), needed for the site and to determine content delivery dates. This is very important as content availability often defines the production schedule.

Design - Further conversations are usually held at this point to more clearly define the desired appearance and feeling of your website. Design concepts, color schemes, graphical elements, navigation, and more are discussed. From these ideas, design mockups will be executed and posted in the Project Area. We typically begin by mocking up a regular site page or standard template, and then design the home page. You will be able to review these mockups as actual web pages on your own computer. With feedback we'll continue to refine the design until the desired result is achieved.

Production/Online Preview - With the design complete, we are ready to populate the site with live content. Your site will be constructed on it's own web hosting account. If your hosting account was not established earlier, we'll set it up at this time. This is a private viewing of functioning segments of the website as they are developed and put online. During this stage the site is tested thoroughly and modified per your requests. Once complete, the final website may be previewed in its entirety and approved.

Launch! - Our final pre-launch duty is to optimize the site, enhancing performance for web marketing. After successfully passing through all the previous stages of development, the website is ready for launch. (We'll give you enough notice to order champagne). Once the new site is public under its domain name (yoursite.com) it is time for marketing. indigo8 will submit your site to hundreds of search engines, directories, and lists, and carry out any additional web marketing as desired.