A few weeks ago, we decided to redesign our website to communicate our new direction as a company more effectively. At Korapay, our design is always guided by two core values — Simplicity and Functionality. Before anything else, our products and design must be simple/easy to use and must be solving a problem. With these in mind, we began our website redesign process.
In this article, we will break down our 5 step website design process, in hopes that business owners/developers who are in the process of creating a website can use this article as a guide.
Step One: Brainstorming
The first thing we did right after the decision to overhaul the website was made was to get major stakeholders in the room to brainstorm. We talked about the new communication direction and the critical information our users will need from the website. We also considered our user demographics and interests in determining the best design style for our site.
Consider: Why do you need a website? What information do you want your website to contain? Who are your users? What are their needs
Step Two: Planning
Using the information gathered from step one, we put together a plan and a deadline. We added it to the tech team’s task for the next sprint and delegated to the appropriate persons; ensuring that everyone knew the PM, Designer, and Developer in charge of the project and deadline for each element.
During the planning phase, we also decided on what technologies will be implemented and agreed on design elements.
Consider: Your timeline and resources. Who do you need to bring in to work on your website? How long do you have for this project? What tools are needed? What cost will you incur? Can you afford it etc?
Step three: Development
Once planning was done and tasks were assigned. Everyone went to work. From the product manager, information goes to the user interface designer and the backend developer to begin frontend design and API development, respectively. After this, the designer sends his design to the frontend developer, who then writes the codes needed.
During development, we ensured to write robust codes that yield to current web standards, maximizing functionality and accessibility for a broad audience. We implemented interactive functions which made the code more predictable and easier to debug.
We did our designs in Clean HTML and with CSS SVG optimization to keep the code clean. Other external software languages were React Node.js for the core engine.
Consider: If you aren’t building your website yourself, this is where, you take a step back and allow your developer (s) do the work.
Step Four: Testing and Delivery
We tested everything! From compatibility issues across a variety of devices and browsers to the entire performance of forms and different scripts.
Once testing was done, it meant that our website was ready to go live.
Consider: Do not take anything for granted. Ensure you check and test every component of your website before you go live. You want to always protect your business integrity, and a well put together website is part of that.
Step Five: Maintenance
Why? Because in software development nothing is proficient without a few bugs when progressing. For such issues, we endeavored to fix it as quickly as possible. Our applications are connected to some third-party services, so as these services change their APIs, we update our website too. The updates contain necessary changes that improve performance, stability, and security.
Overall, we managed to recreate our website using the most minimal external dependencies. Stressful but worthwhile.
Consider: As a business/website owner, the works never ends. Regularly check your website for necessary updates.
Goodluck.
You might need to integrate a payment solution to your new website, consider using Korapay.
