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Working Together —
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Laying the Foundation. I believe the most successful results occur when we are able to establish a high level of communication, develop a common vision and work together as a team toward the same goal. The first step toward establishing good communication is to schedule information-gathering meetings. This can be in person, over the phone or when necessary, even via email. It is most important at first to take the required time to learn about you, your musical style and goals, your preferences, goals and objectives for the site. It's important to know what you envision for the site, information about your target audience and how you would like them to interact with the site. Although this process is somewhat time-consuming, it is also crucially important. It will help you sharpen your focus and objectives, and it will help ensure that what we produce is not only creatively excellent, but strategically targeted. Developing the Right Ideas – The Concept & Organization Phase. Despite popular misconceptions, good creative work doesn't often come in a flash of inspiration. Usually it comes from a substantial amount of research and lots of trial and error. This is why we also need to take the time to consider a few approaches, work them through, try them out. Then revise them. In addition, there are usually some practical and functional ends we need to tie up before submitting our ideas - such as technology requirements, photography, back-end programming, etc. All this, plus the need to schedule our workflow in a businesslike fashion, means that we normally ask for up to two weeks, depending on the job's complexity, before submitting a rough concept or draft for your review. In order to work efficiently, we ask that you submit any pre-existing logos or photography that will be included in the design in the first week of the project. The rough concepts consist of structural flow-charts and rough comps (generally done in Photoshop) describing the general look-and-feel, style and content areas and functionality of the web site. They are adequate to convey what we believe is the best approach to take, taking into consideration your budget, schedule, objectives and preferences. On the other hand, they are not so well-developed as to have wasted time and effort if we need a course correction. After presenting, we'll ask for comments. The more objective and specific you can be, the better we will be able to respond. Your comments are not only welcome but essential input for revising the rough concepts into finished drafts. Revision normally takes up to a week. Once we have finalized the details of the web site organization and flow and the rough concepts are approved, we can move on to developing out the design theme to other web pages. Developing the Interface – The Design Development Phase. Based on the information gathered from the discussions, research, organization and planning of the Concept & Organization Phase, the majority of design details are worked out during the Design Development Phase. The final Home and section page draft designs are developed out into finished prototypes for each web page or section, while the Client works on finalizing all text and ancillary image content and secures web hosting services. Designer and Client work together very closely during this phase to gradually develop an interface that reflects the Client's original goals and will be attractive and enjoyable to the user. Ensuring Your Satisfaction – The Production & Testing Phase. Once the final prototypes are approved, we begin constructing, assembling and coding the actual web pages. Animation and/or streaming technologies are created, as well as interactive front-end coding and back-end programming. Depending on the project scope and technology involved, the production schedule can range from less than two weeks to several months. We ask for your final text content, ancillary photos and audio/video files to be submitted so that we can accommodate for all final content and also avoid unnecessary and costly revisions. All files are uploaded and tested on the Client's web site, and any cross-browser and cross-platform issues are resolved prior to the final launch.
In order to ensure that we create a site that successfully reflects your vision and goals, I've provided some basic issues to consider in the planning and development of your web site, below. Web Site Planning: To help envision the basic look and feel, consider some basic issues:
What is the basic purpose of your site?
Who is your audience?
Gathering and communicating stylistic ideas-
How much data do you have and how often will it change?
Your professional image and branding:
Who will update your web site data?
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