The practical guide to managing your workflow in website design.

The practical guide to web design workflow

Designing a website or an app is not an easy task and involves many intricate steps to complete. The design method varies from person to person, but the standard workflow remains the same for everyone, including our own web designers in Liverpool

You can use a robust set of workflows with some software and tools to avoid long feedback cycles. 

You can increase your team’s productivity by following a practical guide to design workflow.

Managing expectation

Make sure to maintain the expectation level between you and your client regarding work. It does not matter whether you are designing a new website from the start or enhancing an existing website; there has to be a mutual understanding between you and your client about the outcome. 

It is crucial to understand your core responsibility when taking on such projects to understand it in detail. On the other hand, your client must know that your help is crucial in making the right choice that will impact the budget and the scope of the project.

It is also essential to convey to your client the various necessities to finish the project, like the required budget, the required time frame, and the technology necessary. 

You can save the budget, time, and effort by following organized steps to approach the project. 

Determining site goals

The first essential steps to starting any project design are identifying the various deliverables throughout the project, setting up the overall structure, defining the goals, deciding on content, and assigning roles. A well-thought-out plan before initiating the project will go a long way in helping you avoid pitfalls later.

The first phase requires consultation with your client to determine the content structure for the target audience, timeline, visual style, schedule, technical needs, and budget.

When keeping track of defined schedules, tasks, goals, and budgets, you can employ easy-to-use and lean project management tools like Basecamp, Trello, Asana, etc.

Establishing site structure

The backbone of any website is the site structure, which plays the role of guiding the team during the entire project creation. You can use flowcharts to direct the flow of the structure.

Sitemap

Sitemap is crucial to understand the organization’s content, and it needs a continuous update after every alteration to avoid getting things messy. 

Wireframe

Before placing the graphics and design, it is imperative to fix the content of the site. You can employ the help of popular tools like Invision, Notism, Moqups, and Balsamiq.

Design and production

To implement a reasonable design element, the designer and the programmer must work hand-in-hand in this phase.

With the client’s approval on the design draft, the next step would be to create web graphics. A useful web graphics should include designs, transparency, use color efficiently, and compressed.

The production phase includes the creation of the website. It combines a prototype of individual graphic elements that contribute to the creation of a fully functioning site. 

You can use helpful tools like Codepen, Github, etc. 

Experimenting, gathering feedback and repairing bugs

Every project will always have flaws, but a good test and repair help in correcting it. It would help if you did rigorous testing of your programs before displaying it to your client. Troubleshooting in the early stages helps a lot. 

You can use the bug tracking and feedback tools like Usersnap to minimize the work on testing software.