What does a Website Project involve?

Phase 1 - Getting to know you!

The First Call

The first call with a prospective client is an opportunity for us to understand their project objectives and goals, target audience, design preferences, and the timeline for the project. During this call, we will ask questions to gain a clear understanding of the client's needs and what they are looking to achieve with their new website.  

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Discussion points will be:

• Why are they calling?
• About their business
• Contact person role
• What problem are they trying to solve?
• Do they have a budget in mind?
• Is there a deadline?

We will also provide an overview of our process, services, and pricing and answer any questions the client may have. The first call is also an opportunity for the client to learn more about Credible Systems and our approach to website design and development. And if both parties feel we’re a good fit, we will also schedule a discovery session.

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At the end of this first call, we will provide the client with a summary of our discussion and the next steps, if any.

Discovery Session

Alright, so you're thinking of working with us ? Great choice, if I do say so myself. The next step is to schedule a discovery session. During this session, we're gonna dive deep into your project goals, scope, design preferences, target audience, and requirements. Trust me, this will allow us to gain a comprehensive understanding of your project and develop a clear plan of action.

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Our discovery session typically lasts for 2 hours, and would involve your project lead/stakeholder and may include research, analysis, and conceptualization of your website project. This session can be done either in-person, via video call, or over the phone, whatever suits you best. And don't worry, we understand that your time is valuable, so we'll provide you with an outline of what we’ll be asking before the meeting so as to allow you to prepare by defining the issues/problems etc and give us more time discussing solutions, which is way more fun..

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Our goal is to work closely with you to ensure that your website project is a success. We'll use the information gathered during the discovery session to create a proposal that is tailored to your specific needs and goals. And don't worry, we won't just throw a bunch of fancy words and buzzwords at you, we'll make sure that you understand every step of the process.

Proposal

After the discovery session, we'll use the information gathered to create a proposal for your project. This proposal will include a detailed project plan, wire-frames, mock-ups, and a breakdown of costs and timelines. It will be tailored to your specific needs and goals, and will include options for different levels of design and development services.

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In all cases this will include a project timeline, milestones, and deliverables, as well as the key responsibilities of both parties. This will give you a clear understanding of the scope of work and the expected outcome of the project.

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Once you have reviewed and approved the proposal, we'll provide you with a quotation, which is an agreement on the scope, timeline, and cost of the project. This quotation will also include a payment schedule and terms, to ensure that both parties are comfortable with the agreement.

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Please note that by accepting the proposal and quotation, you are agreeing to the scope of work, timeline, and cost outlined in the proposal and quotation. Any changes to the scope or timeline of the project may affect the quote.

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We are committed to delivering a high-quality, user-friendly website that meets your needs and exceeds your expectations. We'll work closely with you throughout the project, to ensure that the final product is something of which you'll be very proud.

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The Project Life-cycle

Design

The Design phase of a website development project can include a variety of activities, depending on the needs of the client. If the client already has a design made in Figma, the developer's job is to review the design and make sure it meets the needs of the project. During this phase, the developer will work closely with the client to discuss any changes or adjustments that need to be made.

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The developer will also review the design for any usability or accessibility issues, such as ensuring the page elements are properly sized and spaced for easy navigation. They will also ensure that any images or videos used in the design are optimized for fast loading, as well as making sure the design is responsive to different screen sizes.

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However, our clients frequently do not have a polished design file.Often they only have an idea of what the ‘feel’ of the design should be.

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In this case, Credible will also discuss the overall look and feel of the website, including the logo, colors, fonts, images, voice and tone, and other design considerations.

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Once the initial information is gathered, Credible will create a prototype or wire-frame of the website in Figma or Webflow itself. This will provide a visual representation of the website that the client can review and provide feedback on. We will then make any necessary changes to the prototype based on the client's feedback.

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Only once the design is approved will the developer will begin coding the website. During this process, they will ensure that the design elements are properly implemented into the website and that all the necessary features are included and working as intended.

1st Build Out + Review

This is a brief optional phase in which both parties can sanity check the design in a development environment.Typically, we will build a homepage plus one other page at this stage to ensure we catch any peculiarities and the impacts they will have on future site changes and site management.

Complete build

Credible will now build out the remainder of the site using the agreed-upon design and the assets and text copy provided for all pages and sections.

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We’ll create your case studies, blogs, team pages, etc. as Webflow Collections and template pages to ensure conformity and ease of site management for you going forward.

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We’ll create any forms you need and, if required, automate the integration of these with your chosen operational tools. e.g., sending data from an inquiry form into your CRM and alerting you to a new opportunity. Check out our automation and integration service here for more details on this.

Pre-launch testing

The pre-launch review of your website project involves ensuring that all the necessary elements are in place and functioning correctly. This includes reviewing the website design and layout to make sure it is up to standards and looks as intended, as well as checking the functionality of all the features.  We’ll also check that we’ve delivered everything that is in the project scope.

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The developer will also check the code for any errors or inconsistencies and make sure the website is optimized for performance and loading speed. Finally, the developer will test the website on various devices and browsers to ensure it is compatible and functioning correctly in all scenarios.

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Once the review is complete and the website is both looking and functioning as intended, the project can move on to launch.

Launch

Credible will aim to launch your website at a time of your choosing.  New websites can launch almost immediately, however a new design for an existing website address requires that we inform the rest of the internet that the site, for example; myamazingwebsite.co.uk is no longer at its old address, (This is an IP address like 207.12.123.99, but it is still an address!) but had moved to the servers at Webflow.

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Just like when you move house you’ll arrange mail forwarding so your post arrives at your new home while people learn about your new address, we do something similar by updating a special pointer record in your domains DNS (Domain Name Systems) records.  These are like the postal sorting room for your domain name, and will sort all sorts of traffic to the right destination, including your emails!

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Once  we’ve updated the DNS record that tells the internet where your new website lives it takes a short while for that information to propagate to other routing servers on the internet.  Its perfectly normal that for a short time, you may access your new site on a laptop connected to your broadband it will show the old site for a few hours, whilst a different connection, such as a mobile phone connected to a mobile network will display the new site.  This is because different networks receive the news about the updated address of your site at different times because the use different servers that ask ‘where does this site live, which is technically, ‘which IP address does this site use’ when a use tries to visit.  Usually though this is solved for all parties in less than an hour.

And now what?

Sit back survey the wonder that is your new business website? Of course - but not for too long.  Websites are not static documents, they should be updated regularly with quality content that informs and adds value.  Take this to heart because Google looks favourably on sites that serve fresh, quality content in the same way that you prefer a quality restaurant over somewhere that serves the same tired stale dishes month after month.

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You will want to make changes - to content and images for sure. This is where the Webflow Editor comes in.  You can update copy and images from anywhere in the world just by logging in.

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Need a new landing page or blog template or page component?  This is where our customer support plans for Webflow come in.  We provide post launch support to clients in 2 ways.

1. Ad-hoc support:  Contact us through our projects portal, details of which are provided to new clients and you can request support by filling in a simple form.  We do the work and you are billed monthly in arrears for just the time used.  Couldn’t be easier.  :-)

Note: You will need to use the Freelancer/Agency guest invite option in your Webflow plan to grant us Developer access.

2. Support plan subscription:  We discuss how much support you’ll need on an average monthly basis and then you commit to 3, 6 or 12 months.   The longer the commitment the cheaper the rate.  Your subscription is set up once and payments are collected annually in advance by either Stripe or GoCardless Direct Debit.  For 12 month commitments we allow quarterly payment periods.

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You are given access to our Projects portal, where you can log tasks, upload images etc, get alerts when tasks are ready for review or when completed.

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Credible understands the value of long-term partnerships; many of our customers have been with us for a decade or more. We seek to build reciprocal partnerships with people we like. Partnerships are where we look out for each other's long term benefit. We have become the trusted advisor to many businesses because we give impartial advice and seek the best outcome for our clients. Over the years, this has helped us and our clients grow.

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