Duration: 8:22

The biggest and most costly mistake from a time and financial
perspective is the tendency within many companies to dramatically
alter the strategic business, information architecture, and interaction
design requirements in the middle of a project.

This is comparable a builder wanting to replace the foundation of a 2 story house after
he/she has just made the finishing touches to the roof.

Therefore, strategic business, information architecture, interaction design, and visual requirements must be in place prior to the web development phase.

An analysis of existing middle tier and back end systems is
highly recommended prior to agreeing on the final
business requirements.

Leveraging your current middle tier and back end systems can propel you to another level in terms of your marketing and customer care capabilities. Read: ERM infrastructure fictional case study.

The process:

• develop and validate business plan
  
  
• explore the technical limitations and possibilities
  
  
• interview potential users to understand their expectations and priorities
  
  
• begin developing design parameters
  
  
• concept and planning - discovery
  
  
• audience description (age, interests, needs, skills, cultural, social)
  
  
• audience capabilities (platform, browser/app, connection speed, degree of web experience)
  
  
• establish feature set - current and long-term
  
  
• develop flow chart, user profiles, user scenarios
  
  
• confirm team roles and responsibilities (including best ways of communication)
  
  
• design and prototype
  
  
• prototyping and user testing
  
  
• analysis of prototype results and change integration
  
  
• production
  
  
• programming (HTML, DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Perl, CGI)
  
  
• technology integration (new servers, machines, co-location)
  
  
• specification documentation development
  
  
• testing and QA
  
  
• functionality testing (does it work, at volume, on different platforms, browsers)
  
  
• usability testing (is it natural and intuitive)
  
  
• cross-platform testing
  
  
• proofreading, graphic QA, compatibility checking, code verification
  
  
• bug-fixes
  
  
• launch site
  
  
• maintenance and wrap
  
  
• archiving + backing up all project materials
  
  
• site maintainers for future work
  
  
• wrap meeting for team

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