We often get called or emailed by prospective clients who have seen something they like on our website that relates to something with their brand or design requirement. It maybe one of our eCommerce website designs, a company brand development or a 3D visualisation.

Often we are asked to provide a ballpark figure for a website design or a branding exercise or 3d visual. We often feel that our prospective clients think we are being difficult when we ask a lot of questions before we can provide a ballpark cost for this, but there is method to questions.

If I were to go into my local supermarket and ask the first employee I saw ‘how much is a box of cereal?’ they would almost certainly think I was crazy and, if I were lucky, they would ask me some more probing questions, ‘which cereal in particular sir?’ or perhaps ‘what do you like? Corn flakes?’, now the reason I use this analogy is because design services are much the same as a box of cereal. Each brand and variety are different, and each serves a purpose and more importantly, each appeals to different people in different ways. Me personally, I will happily pay big to buy Kellogg’s Froot Loops that can only be imported from the US, Dave for example loves Weetabix with warm milk (but he's just a little weird). So you see we are all different.

So we could just give our prospective clients a price straight away when asked, but surely, for a more enjoyable serving of design genius at breakfast time, or any other time for that matter, we need to find out what it is you want and why you want it, after all, our design service should serve you for a lot longer than a single meal time.

If you like what we do, or just want to talk over breakfast, spread the word, our only purpose is creating work you want to talk about. To see how we can help you bring your ideas to life call us on 0207 101 1841 or use our contact form.

Getting to know you
It’s always good to start with client expectations, we don’t need to stay within those expectations, in fact we always aim to exceed them, but, to get an idea of why the client wants a site is a great start.

Finding out more
We will take the information provided and do further research, we will look at the market, we will look for comforts within the web design from that particular sector, we make sure that we do not make the website look as though it doesn’t belong, something’s just need to be, for example, product layouts, information expectation, check out routines, even small details such as the location of the shopping basket on eCommerce websites.  Your clients experience is essential to the success of your online brand.

Structure
The first time we actually ‘design’ is when we create the site structure, depending upon the creativity level of the site, this section may get re-visited, but, on the whole we start with a sitemap and a user journey. This is all done as a scamp (sketch), it is fast and allows for change quickly and easily.  In your case we have also provided a concept.

Scamps
To get an initial feel of the site, the design features, the anchors points etc we begin with the scamps. They are fast and keep creativity levels at a maximum, we are not concerned with technical constraints at this point, only what will flow, what will engage and what will show the client that you understand their needs.

Technical development
Once the creativity and the user experience is defined we now integrate it into the technical requirements of the site, considering how the creative will translate into the practical requirements defined by you and your market place. We will creative a flow of information and utilise the content management system to deliver those requirements to all.
 
Creativity
Here we take the scamps and any process restraints that we have placed upon ourselves and we develop the look and feel of the site whilst considering all elements of the site. We consider your branding; we reaffirm the tone voice, a colour palette and a style that matches the needs of the customer. We design in Photoshop and Illustrator, whilst considering a number of external influences. From there we develop key pages of the site to give a full picture of what to expect, these pages will include the home page (the initial site impact), product category display (the user journey), a product detail (showing the various technical requirements), the checkout process (confidence builder).

Bringing it to life
Once all the previous stages have taken place, we bring the website to life, integrating all the elements of research, design and technical requirements. We have several technical advances that allow us to deliver a site that is more technically advanced than our competitors. For example, we have an online font server that means we can use creative fonts on your website that can be seen by anyone, no need to use ‘Arial’ fonts like your competitors have done, small elements such as this will give you the edge with your clients. Because we have all the elements of design, technical build and marketing in house we are able to focus the site design and structure on the user experience. When considering design and usability, we optimise for users first and the search engines second, because search engines want user-friendly sites in their index and user-friendly sites make more sales. We find the right balance of SEO and usability to ensure the experience of your websites audience is never compromised.

Taking it further
Once the site is built and tested for user iteration we can offer you the option to begin the online marketing strategy. Competitor analysis takes place at the early development stages so any information found may be utilised with the design and build process. Continued development and adjustments take place on the site until the site is delivering results in product sales. Monthly reports are provided, showing actions taken and results both in visitor numbers and sales.

If you like what we do, spread the word, our only purpose is creating work you want to talk about. To see how we can help you bring your ideas to life call us on 0207 101 1841 or use our contact form.