Are you a work in progress?
OK I don't mean you, you, I mean you as in your website? If not you should ALWAYS BE!
Last night I did some more work on a client's website, this one originally started off as a half day design to give her a presence prior to an exhibition. It had a gallery on the home page as well as the about section and a contact form. Over the past year every so often we add to it.
Stage 1 - a home on the internet, somewhere people could visit to register their interest and join a mail list. Half a day.
Stage 2 - add in services and about the incredible accommodation (I love this place, I wish I was close by because it's just incredible). Link to book accommodation held on third party site. 2 days.
Stage 3 - add in a calendar and way for people to book the 121 services. Add extra pages to the site. Half a day.
Stage 4 - add more content, swap images around and start preparing for clients to be able to book the accommodation on site. An hour that is all.
Stage 5 - Not done yet, but there are just bits and pieces to do. Hook up payment methods on site and a booking system for the accommodation to be booked and work out how we will add the extra services. Again likely to be an hour or two.
Throughout this process as the business has evolved so has the website. Together we have worked out what the website needed to do at each stage and lay the foundations for the next phase of growth.
As your business evolves so should your website
As your business evolves so should your website, not everything needs to be done immediately. Often it is about budgets (and that is fine, as the saying goes Rome wasn't built in a day) but also about not pushing yourself further than you can go at the moment. This client has been incredible at thinking ahead to what the next step is which means that we are always planning how the site can evolve to meet that next stage which is far better than fire fighting and doing it in retrospect.
In case anyone was wondering how this works in terms of Designed in a Day, I've put the approximate times each stage took but those times included the strategy and planning times as well.
Also for fear of repeating myself over and over - I can only design a website as good as the images I'm given (especially in this sort of site). I always recommend before you even start with a website you invest in good photography!
コメント