Web Development Process

The four web design companies that I found online were SnowDog, Attitude, Core, and E-Agency. I don’t think any of these are major players in the web design field, but they all had easily accessible definitions of their web development process. I was very surprised to find that most of them were extremely similar, if not exactly the same. SnowDog and Core actually use the same names for their steps, except SnowDog has two extra steps. SnowDog has Discover – Define – Design – Develop – Deploy – Maintain and Core has Define through Deploy. These are the same steps that I learned in previous classes, except there was more of an emphasis on usability and testing than is evident in this quick step guide.

Attitude has a similar model that starts off with meeting the client and completing all estimates of time/making up the site plan. They then present draft designs and eventually finalize a design. They work on integrating the client’s content and complete testing and a final evaluation. After that they upload the website and provide continued updates and support (if it’s part of the contract). This timeline is very similar to the other two companies, but their definition was spelled out a bit more and made sure to include a time for testing and evaluations.

E-Agency was similar to the other three web design companies. Their general steps were defining the project, setting up the site structure, visual design, content development, production, and then the launch of the website. I feel these general steps are a pretty tried and true way to build a website. I would be weary of saving all of the testing for right before launch (it is in the production phase of E-Agency’s process). By this point it would be hard to go back to the start, or even change a lot of the larger site elements. Other than that I think this is the most efficient process. I especially like that all of them had “define” or a variation of that as their first step. It’s extremely important to become acclimated with your client and know everything you can about them before trying to build a website. Below are links to the web development process for each company.

SnowDog

Attitude

Core

E-Agency