The life of a developer is difficult enough, things aren’t always #000000 and #FFFFFF. Here at Think!Creative we have put together 7 rules to follow which make the web development process run as smoothly and stress free as possible for everybody from web design teams to the clients themselves. Sometimes you just need a
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Before you even think about looking at the designs you need to know where is the website going to be hosted? What hosting package is the website going to be with? It is important to familiarise yourself with the environment as all hosting packages are different. Does it use Cpanel or Plesk? Is it a dedicated server, VM, or shared service? What are the limits of hosting package in terms of bandwidth, CPU and RAM? These could determine functions and layouts.
This seems obvious but it is crucial that you spend lots of time with the designs. At Think!Creative the developers are involved throughout the design process. This ensures that everyone is on the same page when regarding functions and page layouts. Even when this is the case it is also important to spend time with the signed off designs. Take in all the small details of the page layout, text sizes, button sizes, margins, and paddings.
WordPress is a great all-rounder as platforms go but is it what is needed in this circumstance? Is a content management system really required? Could a different one best suit the website? Maybe Drupal or Joomla will work better. If it is an ecommerce site, there’s Magento or EKM that offer greater functionality for businesses wishing to trade online.
A staging area is important to build the site as this will allow for any mistakes to be kept away from the eyes of the public. It can also be used as a good way of showing the client how their website is progressing. Without proof that things are moving along clients can wonder how much progress is really being made. If working with themes, it is important to create child themes so any changes made do not get erased on updates.
Noting down every function, image placement, page layout, and the sitemap is important and work as a checklist of sorts. Going through the process knowing beforehand whether a function like an animation could be performed by a plugin, theme, or needs to be hand coded will help to prioritise what needs to be done and by when. Which will help create a workable timetable to keep to.
Mistakes can be made and this is why it is important to have the designers eye to look over what has been developed from page to page. Even with the designs open at all times sizes could be out. The designer will pick it up and it can be fixed before it can even get near the client. After all the client has signed the designs off for how their new site will look. Every detail needs to be perfect.
Taking the time to comprehensively test can be hugely time consuming but it is essential that all browsers (on windows and iOS), screen sizes, and devices are tested. This doesn’t mean just a quick test but all functions on every page needs to be tested and double checked before it can be released to the client and then rolled out on the company’s URL. Once the website is live and up another full round of testing is required files can become corrupted when transferring them over.
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