Things You Should Know Web Development Process
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For businesses that dream of an out-of-the-box presence on the Internet, proper web development is the key solution to turn it into reality. After all, it helps to boost traffic and generate leads when done right. However, web design and development is not as easy as it seems, thus entails apt vision and alignment with an overarching strategy.
Through this guide, we will discuss in-depth web development planning and methodology to prevent the scope of trials and tribulations. Whether you are a beginner or wish to optimize your existing website as per the latest trends, here is everything you should know.
Web Development Timeline
Apart from pricing, time is the significant factor that most developers fascinate about when starting with web development. The main question that strikes their mind is, ‘How long does it take to design, develop, and launch the website?’
Though the answer to the most popular doubts depends on the productivity of the web development company and the complexity of the project, setting the attainable goals while preparing the website development timeline is the solution. The web development timeline is basically the chronological order of events that give the developers an understanding of the project at a glance. With this, they can keep track of their activity and stay motivated to accomplish the overall project at the due deadline.
Pro Tip: Gantt Chart is one of the popular and effective projects management tools that developers and designers can use to plan the website development project, no matter the size or complexity.
To outline the whole website development planning, entails adding significant tasks and creating specific milestones to achieve. The facts such as complexity of the project, communication, aesthetics, and website maintenance have an immense impact on the structure of the website development project timeline. Let’s discuss the entire website design process steps and estimate the time for each stage.
Website Development Lifecycle
The success of any software development project relies on consistency and timely completion. In the case of website design and development, there are five specific steps to develop a website, stated as Discovery or Gathering Information, Planning, Design & Layout, Development, Testing, Launch, and Maintenance; Improvement.
Discovery; Gathering Information: Purpose And Major Goals
The first and foremost stage in the website lifecycle is to gather detailed information about the project for future functioning to be smooth and precise. After a complete understanding of clients’ requirements, web development companies ought to gather relevant information about purpose, goal, target audience, and milestones to be achieved.
Having a clear idea of all these aspects will help the developers know the principal intention behind the development of the website. As a consequence, they will implement apt tactics for further improvement and make the project successful while complying with the set goals. Depending upon the complexity of the project and interaction with clients, this step to develop a website takes an average of 1-2 weeks.
Planning: Sitemap and Wireframe
After a developer has understood the ins and outs of what is web development, its requirements, goals, and target audience, the next is to start with the web development process of planning. It is an indispensable stage of development as it involves the creation of a sitemap. It is the relationship between different elements of a website, which shows how the end product will be useful. Website development planning and creating the proper sitemap structure results in the development of user-friendly and easy-to-navigate websites and web pages.
A wireframe, at the same time, is an artless sketch of a user interface that has to be created. It also contains knowledge about elements of the page and their location. This helps to ensure easy navigation of the website, which is crucial for achieving enhanced visibility and better ranking on Search Engine. Additionally, the stage of planning should also need a focus on selecting the right technology stack for the web development project. The accomplishment of this one of the crucial website development process steps takes around 2 to 6 weeks in a row.
Design; Page Layout: Review Approval Cycle
Next, it is about concentrating on the look of the website, as it is the core factor to set a unique image in the heart of clients. At this stage, a developer or web designer has to prepare the mockup and send it to their clients for approval. Mockups are basically the visual representation of a website’s look that should contain homepage design, internal, and desktop and mobile views. The estimated time for the completion of this step to build a website is 2-6 weeks.
SEO And Content Creation
To make the website reach potential visitors, the next step to build a website is to optimize the website for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It is the process of improving the visibility of sites and web pages, which can take an average of 5 to 15 weeks. Though there are a number of tactics to ensure better SEO performance of the website, the top-most is to integrate it with exclusive and quality content. Blog posts, articles, product descriptions, and social media content are some of the common yet effective forms of content.
Coding And Website Development
After the design for the website is approved by the client, a developer has to start with the actual development of the website. The website development process requires the significant technical skills of developers or programmers to turn the planned graphical elements into reality. Other than this, the content management system, shopping cart, and other elements of the website are made functional at the development stage.
As per the basic hierarchy of web development, the home page is created in the first place, followed by adding the sub-pages. Moreover, it is also recommended to install Frameworks and CMS to ensure the smooth set-up of the server. The average duration to get done with website page development is 6 to 15 weeks.
Testing: Monitor, Review, Launch
Subsequent to the successful development of the website, 2 to 6 weeks have to be spent on testing its performance and overall elements. It helps to ensure the proper functioning of the website and its compatibility with other devices. Testing the routine process of web development and has to be conducted every now and then to prevent the scope of failure. Make sure that every single link is tested in compliance with the current web design and development standards.
Furthermore, If the website passed with flying colors as a result of beta testing, the final would be to launch it on the Internet, which only takes one day. In case the project is complicated, the launch of the website can consume a few days more. Needless to say, it is the most prestigious stage of the website lifecycle as all the efforts, goals, and desire of a web development company turns into reality.
Maintenance: Monitoring and Regular Improvement
It is important to note that the website lifecycle is not merely confined to development. A lot of endeavors need to be put into making it user-friendly and problem-free to offer top-notch service to customers. That’s where the role of maintenance and regular updating enters into play. It entails fixing the bug or problem associated with functionalities of a website if any. Above all, updating the website as per recent trends and changes in customer’s needs also helps to ensure its ultimate performance.
The Development Team Structure
A team of professionals at a web development company is what helps the website development project to rise to the occasion. In general, a development team structure comprises technical and non-technical specialists. Being skilled in their professional and job, they help in the management of every aspect of website page development from start to finish. Let’s have a glimpse of the contribution made by every team member in turning the development efforts into success.
Technical Specialists
Requirement Analyst
As the name suggests, Requirement analysts are responsible for communicating with clients to access their requirements. They play a vital role in taking the product ideas from clients and turning them into technical specifications. Their major roles and responsibilities include evaluating and framing elicit requirements, analyzing requirements, and document requirements. As a consequence, they have to interact with other specialists in the team to transfer the information about the project.
UX and UI Designers
They say, “Intuitive design is how one gives the user new superpowers.” That’s where the role of two types of significant design, that is, User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX), comes into the scene. To accomplish this role, UI/UX designers are hired as technical specialists in the web development company. Where some companies recruit one person for performing these two specializations of designing, a few MNCs, on the other hand, separate their roles and responsibilities.
- UX Designers
At this stage, designers evaluate the requirements of the project to frame its complete picture. UX designers work to find the current problem in the project and look for a seamless solution for the same. Additionally, they also develop a wireframe that is a schematic representation of the design.
- UI Designers
The role of UI designers is followed by UX designers in a website development process. In contrast to UX designers who perform mostly research, UI designers are accountable for the visual appearance of the website. They focus on colors, fonts, icons, and other aspects to turn the created wireframe into real-time software.
Web Developer
Programmers or web developers are the souls of the web development process. Based on the requirements evaluated by the Requirement Analyst and wireframe of design created by UI/UX designer, they build working and functional products that can be harnessed by respective clients and their customers. In companies providing website development services, their role is categorized as front end developer and back end developer.
Front End Developer
Front-end developers are hired to construct user experience elements on the website with specific technologies such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. They create a website in accordance with the prototype presented by designers and ensures its proper functioning.
Back End Developer
Those who are cognizant of what is web development might know the importance of back-end development. The role and duties of a back-end developer include performing server-side coding using JavaScript, Python, .NET, and so on. Aim to create most databases and content management systems, they bring technical efficiency to the project.
Quality Assurance
As already stated, testing is one of the important website development process steps to build a website, most of which is performed by Quality Assurance or QA. They check for bugs and other technical problems using both automated and manual methods. Upon finding a bug, they create a bug report and put it in front of developers who can solve it. Additionally, they also meant to check the compliance of fonts, colors, and elements of the website with the clients’ requirements, thus ensuring end-to-end performance.
Non-Technical Specialists
Marketing Strategists
Marketing strategists create a working strategy to let the business accomplish its set goals. They are specialized in handling the marketing team and ensuring that every aspect of marketing should be tailored to the web development company’s goals. In short, they work to make the product serviceable that is created by technical specialists.
SEO Team Members
It is beyond the shadow of a doubt that SEO is quite valuable for business success. To optimize the website for SEO and making it rank #1 on search engines, they perform several roles. These are searching the relevant keywords, analyzing traffic on the website, conducting competitive analysis, and working in alliance with web developers and content specialists.
Content Creators
Exclusive and well-written content is what makes a website stand unique these days. To make this possible, companies hire content specialists who are responsible for writing the text for the website, such as blogs, copies, articles, and etc. They also promote content on social media to increase the traffic on the website.
Bottom Line
Web design and development is a key solution for businesses to set a cutting position in the consistently rising competition. What’s more incredible is that it brings new opportunities for technical specialists, thus shooting their value in the technical world. All it takes a certain set of responsibilities that has to be performed by respective specialists. Thus, for everyone who wishes to jump on the bandwagon, consider the aforesaid guide to what is web development and how it is conducted for splendid success.
Still in a dilemma regarding web design and development? Get in touch with us now to have an in-depth knowledge of the practice. Being an A-list software development company, we can help you be on the crest of a wave with our sound experienced and proficiency in the field.
