Avatar's Web Design Process

You'll find that creating a Web site is a really straightforward process when you work with the team at Avatar. We've built hundreds of Web sites for more than 600 clients, so you can relax knowing you're in experienced and professional hands.

The process of creating a Web site is not dissimilar to that of building a house. The main difference being that we are online architects, builders, plumbers and electricians, as well as your Web marketing team!

7 simple steps for building your Web site

There are seven easy-to-follow steps in the Avatar Web site design process:

(1) Planning
The first step is all about getting the foundations for your Web site right. You'll have a planning meeting with our business manager to decide:

• how your site is going to fit together
• what the different sections will be
• what content is required
• what the core purposes of the site and each page are
• how you are going to convert visitors into sales.

Following this meeting, you will be sent a proposal document, which contains details of your Web site's purpose and content, number of design concepts, functionality, maintenance plan, Web marketing plan, copy requirements, implementation plan, costing, hosting and our terms and conditions.

We work together with you to ensure that all of these details are correct before we start work.

(2) Materials
This step is where you gather together all of the materials needed for your Web site, including:

• A completed design survey
• Your preferred or suggested keyword phrases
• Any sales and marketing material you have (for branding and brand guideline purposes)
• Your company logo
• Your Web site images
• Your text (copy) for your Web site, ready for publication.

You will now be working with an assigned project manager, who'll take you through the rest of the process. If you don't know where to start with your materials, we have additional services designed to help you with Web writing, searching for Web imagesand Web content collation (sorting). If you need one, we can even design a suitable company logo for you. Please let your project manager know what you need help with.

You must have supplied all of the materials required to us in order for the design phase to begin. (It is especially important to have provided text, as you want it to appear on the Web site - please double check your text for any spelling and grammatical mistakes or inconsistencies, before you send it through).

(3) Designing
In this step, a Web designer will develop the visual 'look and feel' for your Web site.

• Firstly, a Web designer will call you to discuss your Web site's look and feel and your answers to the design survey (one of the materials supplied by you in Step 2). It is important to let the designer know exactly what you prefer.

• Next, the designer will produce a design concept (or blueprint) for the home page of your Web site. You can then request up to two hours of tweaks to the concept.

• When you are happy with the design concept, you must give us formal written sign-off.

• The designer will then create a blueprint design of a sub-page, which again must be formally approved before the building stage can begin. (It is important to get this stage right because it is a costly and time-consuming exercise to re-design a site when it's halfway built).

However, when you're at the end of this stage, you will have a clear idea of how your finished site will look.

(4) Building
This is where your Web designer makes the home page and sub-page design blueprints come to live, by putting together the bricks and cement of your Web site. At the end of this stage, your site is almost complete. Images and text will be in place and you will be able to 'click' through (walk-through) your new site.

(5) Finishing
The finishing touches to your site involve installing the plumbing and electricity, so to speak. Or in other words, this is when your Web designer implements any automation elements on your site. This may be started earlier in the process, especially for shopping cart projects, but for smaller sites, this is where the automation comes in. At the end of this step, your site is ready for final testing...

(6) Site Opening
The unveiling of your new Web site is almost ready. Your Web designer will make the site "live" on the Web and together with you, we will complete final testing. (It is important that you get involved in the testing process for e.g. checking your new emails are working, as they should.)

At the end of the testing, all the jumping on the floorboards has been completed and your new Web site is ready for you to use.

(7) Marketing
This step is crucial. Your Web site is up and running, but now you probably want people to find it. This is where Avatar's focus on Web marketing and promotion can help.

To get seen by search engines, you need to market your Web site online, as well as through more traditional channels. As over 80% of people using the Internet use search engines to locate sites relevant to their needs, it's definitely worth making the few changes to your Web site that marketing (or search engine optimisation) requires - think of it your new carpets, curtains, perhaps a new entranceway. Don't worry, you're in good hands - the SEO team know the builders!

View more information about our search engine services and Web marketingservices.