The Pre-website Phase

Bright. Bold. Beautiful. Here at Pumpkin Web Design we pride ourselves on our cutting edge, unique design. But what kind of planning does this entail?

Research

Staying up to date with recent trends takes research and this is important to keep your web design fresh and modern. You should also be researching your competitors websites and those of companies providing similar products and services to your own.

Researching the way that similar companies utilize tools and features on their website to advertise or promote, or to engage and inform, can be extremely beneficial when thinking about planning your own website. Customers have a range of expectations when they visit a webpage, and these are mostly based on the work other companies are currently doing. If you want to make sure your website ticks their boxes then you will need to keep up to date with the design principles they are utilizing.

Planning

Preparation and planning is key. During the design phase there is no doubt that several designs will be created and deleted, created and deleted. Choice is important and if you can produce a range of designs, you will have more chance of meeting your users requirements and creating the best possible website.

Planning the layout of each page, even in a template form, can really help you to save time during the development process, as well as make sure that the finished product will make use of white space, display appropriate information in the footer and utilize key features throughout.

Features

Standing out from your competitors is all about features. These are ever changing and developing from slide show galleries to load screen animations. The website with the most up to date features will not only attract the viewers but can also help to keep them engaged as returning customers.

Testing

Testing your website on a variety of platforms and with a number of users is integral to the success of the design and the principles used. You might think that your website looks amazing, but if people struggle to use it and interact with it, then all your design principles will be wasted.

Before any of our websites go live, we at Pumpkin Web Design take time to understand and work through each of the above stages and we believe that the results speak for themselves!