Planning is an often overlooked phase in most if not all Sydney web design projects yet is one of the most important. I find myself continually bowled over by the sheer number of nightmare stories that both traditional agencies and clients have with the creation of their websites. I strongly advocate the need for planning to stem these horror stories.
Planning is sadly one of the first areas that is cut when budgets and schedules are tight. In 2018, online is permeating every facet of business and re-defining the way individuals communicate with each other. I am miffed by the number of clients who have had bad experiences in the past with the formation, maintenance and marketing of their websites. The web was always meant to simplify and streamline, not represent yet another headache!!!
I maintain that if proper planning is more broadly adopted and embraced by both agencies and clients, the ‘failure rate’1 and perceived ‘pain’ in web projects would be greatly alleviated.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with ‘best practice” in the area of web projects, below is a diagram that denotes the method used by St.George Web Design in the successfully deployment of web projects.
A 5 Step Comprehensive Website Planning Guide
The Planning phase should constitute around HALF the time taken in the deployment of website projects yet all too often gets relegated to the bottom of the list’. Failure to abide by this standard rule will result in an increased incidence of project overruns.
Ask yourself this:
Have you ever had a ‘scope’ argument with your agency? Or, have you got clients that are always trying to push the scope to accommodate their ever changing requirements?
Similarly, are you one that believes you can seriously deploy a sound solution without a technical specification? It is not good enough to point your agency to emulate what one of your competitors is doing. Yes, we can emulate the way they have built their system BUT the logic and way you wish your site to work may differ. For this reason and a million others, it is critical that all your functionality and technical requirements be properly fleshed out prior to the commencement of Phase 2 – Production as otherwise your timeframe will be shot and your budgets blown out.
Lack of appropriate and proper planning will have an adverse impact on the site’s overall performance one way or another.
I would encourage you, if you be a client, to take the time to properly work with your agency to determine your needs and requirements from which a scope of work can be defined and your online interests safeguarded.
Failure rate refers to those websites that fail to live up to their intended purpose or fail to yield results for which the decision to create the website was intended.
Want to go further with your new website design ? Get more details on St.George Web Design or contact websales@stgeorgewebdesign.com.au today.
