Explaining the OSO Orange County Web Design process

Your Orange County web design project is crucial to your long term business success. Read about our California Web Site development company’s process and what to expect.

A California Web Site Development project, like colocation, is often a greatly underestimated task. Too often customer’s orange county web site development projects are oversimplified and the customer does not understand the complexity of the Web Design process, unless the customer has previous experience with building a web site. The mistake customers make is assuming a web site can be something simple, like an electronic version of their paper brochure, or branded materials. However it is a much more complicated process than this involving an entire host of interactive factors, each with their own pitfalls. OSOLABS is an orange county web design company and we frequently meet with clients in our area. If you are in the Irvine area, we can take time to consult you in person on the complexities this process from a experienced Orange County Web Design company’s perspective.

Unlike a paper flyer, web sites are a fully interactive experience and they revolve around the concept of usability and functionality. Both of these concepts requires both an understanding of human psychology and behavior. For example, a flyer is complex because it requires sales copy or a write up about your company information. A web site has buttons to press, links to follow, and forms to fill out. If the layout is not done properly, people may not find it easy to navigate your site, fill out your forms, gather information, or wish to stay on the site for too long because the users may be frustrated with the design. Usually our Orange County web design customers request web sites that will incorporate animated graphics which are far more painstaking to develop than static images and are not too different from developing animation. Animation can slow down the experience of the design or interfere and distract a customer from using your site if there is too much of it. Unlike print brochures, images and text cannot just be “moved around” HTML, web graphics, and other forms of scripting takes hours to create and cannot simply be “altered” or “changed” at a customers will. A simple animation alteration can end up taking 2 days versus the 15 minutes a customer may expect. In the end though, your orange county web site for your business should be kept as simple as possible for the consumer to experience an easy experience gathering information about your company.

So how is it possible to build your site right the first time around? The first answer is to use an experienced developer who understands these time tested principles. The second answer is to properly plan every phase of the site development: understand what is looking to be accomplished in both the short and long term, offer a selection of initial designs, follow a very strict format, and a strict step by step process of developing the site one page at a time. Lastly, you should be prepared to budget properly for your site. If you do not budget for your web site properly, then build it, and customers do not end up liking your site once it is launched, or things need to be expanded and changed that were not accounted for in the initial design, you may end up rehiring your developer in the future to redesign your site entirely which will cost 4 times as originally planned. Or you may need to have another developer redesign it and they will not be able to since they did not understand the complete process, hence they may charge more to take the reigns on your project.

Preparing for an orange county web site development project is a crucial task which will ultimately determine the level of success you will achieve with your web site. Proper planning and gathering information is critical for this phase. Customers of OSOLabs will receive a basic question sheet that asks you questions regarding your product, your business strategy, your position in the marketplace, and other pertinent information.

Below is a small excerpt of questions we will ask of you:

(this is by no means a complete list)

Your Business:

• Tell us about your business. What is your mission? Your biggest challenge? Your greatest strengths?

Your Objectives:

• What is your objective in launching this California Website Development project?

Your Future:

• Is this to be a flexible product? How and when will it be updated or changed?

Your Product:

• What do you want to sell, promote or provide on your Orange County Web Site?

Competition:

• Who are your customers?
• Why do they buy your product or service?
• Who are your competitors?

Technical Issues:

• What are the hardware and software requirements?

Content/Assets:

• Will you be providing us with design resources such as logos, packaging, standard text, standard fonts, and merchandising arrays?

The Design Phase:

Once we have the materials we can show you a conceptual framework for the project, what will be included and what programming or other things are needed to complete the project. The Design Phase ends with a “Design Presentation” in which all the above elements are presented and approved by all necessary personnel within your organization.

Development Presentation:

At the end of the Design Phase, the final product will be ready for testing and delivery. The Development Phase ends with a “Development Presentation” in which all the above elements are approved

Testing & Quality Control:

The testing and quality control process is rigorous. We will test the product on each browser and/or platform included within the design specifications.

This of course is only a small fraction of the comprehensive approach to professional orange county web site development at OSOLABS. As you can see, your orange county web site development project can grow to be a very complex endeavor. Rest assured that we are prepared to give you project the advantages that it needs to succeed online.