A winning strategy for achieving success in web design requires a consistent process that can be divided into several stages. Each stage has its own requirements and engages a different set of resources. A simple web design project to a complex web application such as a social network all must go through a structured lifecycle in order to achieve excellence. At Creative Stride, regardless of the frameworks, methodologies, modeling tools and languages that we use in a given project, the overall process does not change. What are the difference steps of a web design lifecycle? The web development process may be divided into seven discrete stages: website definition and planning, information architecture, web design or Graphic Design, web Development and Testing, SEO and SEM, Tracking, evaluation, and maintenance.

Firstly, Website Definition and Planning. In the first phase of site definition and planning, these professionals treat the web design project as an extension of a company internet marketing campaign. Therefore, each web development project must begin by clarifying the project marketing objectives, what it seeks to achieve, who will be its target constituency and if there is a group of competitors that should be considered during the design process. The, identify the information architects, web designers, web developers, QA team, copywriting and content development team, subject matter experts and marketing strategists for the project. After that they identify the content management system, the CMS, that would make the most sense for the project. Generally, these professionals use Drupal for developing a robust web application or a social network. If they are developing a blogging platform, then is preferably to use Wordpress. These are strong advocates of open source and Drupal and Wordpress have wide acceptance.

They develop custom modules for Drupal and plugins for Wordpress and also identify where the site will be hosted, its operating system, and whether it will be on a shared sever with other web applications or websites. These questions are necessary to ensure that there will be no problems down the road.

Information Architecture. During the Information Architecture phase, Creative Stride documents the content and organization of the web site that is being designed. In the case of an existing site that is being redesigned, they create an inventory of existing content, along with documenting the inventory of new content and changes in existing content. This allows us to create a content architecture. Using site prototypes and wireframes, we begin to articulate a navigational structure and a user interface for the site. The content prototypes allow us to engage users to test the site navigation and how it works with the content of the site. Good prototyping demands that it is flexible, especially in its early stages: the low level of complexity in the site prototype prevents that the Creative Stride interactive design team to become too invested in one design at the expense of exploring better alternatives.

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