As we scroll on our phones on a daily basis and see the thousands of options of new products, services and experiences to try it out, it is pretty clear that businesses are starting to get it: online is where it’s at and online is definitely the place to market.
With this, online advertisements and social media official pages and accounts to help businesses like yours sell and connect with your audience can only go as far. If you really want to establish your online identity, sooner or later you would have to create your business website.
But creating a website can be daunting, with all the options to choose from and quite frankly, the level of technical knowledge needed to actually get a website live, up and running, it’s quite understandable why some business owners put off creating a website for as long as they can.
Luckily, you don’t have to have the same hesitation! We’re here to help you and your business with everything you need to know when creating and designing your own website.
The Beginning
Before websites go live, hours and hours of creative thinking, planning and testing went into it first and all of these refer to one thing: your vision, the blueprint of what you want your website to be like.
In creating your vision, make sure that you gather your team and share ideas, create a space where you visualise together, think of potential designs and set all the basics for your website. In this stage, it’s like an architect’s plan before building a structure; it shows the way and vision for the whole project.
How to Effectively Design your Website
Wireframing: Bringing Structure to Ideas
Once the sketch is finalised, it’s time to move to the wireframing stage. Here, the focus shifts to creating a structural representation of the website.
Wireframes outline the placement of elements, such as navigation bars, content sections, and call-to-action buttons, ensuring a clear and organised layout.
Designing the Look and Feel: The Visual Mockup
With the structure in place, it’s now the moment to infuse life into the design. The visual mockup stage involves adding colours, fonts, images, and other visual elements to create a cohesive and appealing aesthetic.
This is where the website starts to come alive, reflecting the brand’s identity and engaging the audience visually.
Coding Magic: Your Website Development
After the design sketch gets the thumbs up, it goes to the developers who has the technical knowledge needed to turn your vision into life.
Now, this part is all about them making the design into a working website, using coding languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Here’s where things like clicking buttons, the site fitting different screens, and making everything work well happen, so users have a smooth time.
Testing, Testing: Quality Control
Now, before your website actually goes live, thorough testing and checking for quality is needed before you can give the go ahead.
This step makes sure that the website works perfectly on various devices and web browsers. They also test how easy it is for users to navigate, how fast it loads, and how usable it is overall, so visitors have a great experience.
Launch Day: Going Live and Beyond
Finally, the moment arrives – launch day! The website goes live for everyone to see, which is the final step in the design process. Job well done right? Not quite.
Your website design process does not stop here. After launching, it’s important to keep an eye on things, maintain the site, and make updates to keep it safe, working well, and in line with what users want, constantly updating your website whenever any changes are needed.
As we’ve said a while ago, the website journey might seem overwhelming at first — especially if you are a business owner who doesn’t have the coding and technical skills nor the understanding. But, if you follow the steps and understand each part, it can be a satisfying and enjoyable experience.
Whether you’re new or experienced in going digital and creating your website, our guide on going from sketch to screen lets you be creative, come up with new ideas, and create digital experiences that really make an impact.
Ready to Go Digital with your Business?
At SMRT Digital, we understand that modern problems require modern solutions and that for businesses who are starting out in today’s modern world — digital is key. With our wide range of customisable and tailored solutions, we can help your business’ market efforts and increase your digital presence, helping you drive your company’s success.
See how we do it here and schedule a consultation with us today! Let’s begin building your business’ future together!