Progressive Enhancements for Effective Web Design

Any business hoping to open an online website would generally need to choose a competent web development team to create the site, and manage/maintain it.

Web Developer

The Web developer will determine the ideal page layout of the proposed site, including text location, graphics, colors and navigational functions. They provide page cross-links and works in a position of the project manager for the design of the company site.

Graphic Designer

Once the development if properly in place and its performance optimized, the website is handed off to the graphic designer to create the visual art and styling for your site. He or she will have full responsibility in developing all the necessary graphic elements that include images, colors and layouts of each page.

Coding Programmer

Once the graphic designer has finished their portion of the website, it is handed off to the programmer that will generate all the necessary code. By producing the backend functionality of the website, and written in clean markup, it will operate to appear exactly as the developer planned it, and the graphic designer designed it.

Launching the Website

Now that the site is developed, designed and programmed to function optimally, it can then be launched onto the Internet and placed online in a specific location. Now that the website is up and running, it requires the skills of an effective market consultant to ensure the site performs according to a specific marketing strategy. Using effective strategies and tactics, the consultant can help drive a targeted audience to the site to generate higher conversion rates (turning visitors into customers through the purchase of services or products).

Previous Experience

A competent web development team will need to have the experience of creating similar projects to your company, and be willing to offer a portfolio of their previous work. Their finished product should look appealing and operate professionally, whether it is a small or large business. Their previous work should include familiar companies with existing online websites.

Updates and Maintenance

A well-designed website that functions properly to promote itself online, will need to be designed by a web development team that can help your company expand in the future. They should be able to provide all maintenance and routine updates by adding new content to keep it fresh and pertinent to the services and products the company provides online. The team should have the ability to continually update the website's functionality as e-commerce technologies continue to evolve.

Clearly Defined Costs

The web development team should have specific fees including packages, cost per page or hourly rates. Their payment terms should be clear and concise including upfront cost, benchmark payments, and payments upon completion. They should provide a total cost estimate and provided detailed list of exactly what is included in the total price. They should be straightforward on handling any unforeseen costs and extras, providing information on how each will be handled/billed.

Finally, they should offer full management services to oversee the ongoing process of operating your website. They should assume full responsibility for any bugs or downtime, and offer full reports on tracking, conversion rates and visitor behavior patterns.

This article is an original contribution by Brian Taylor.

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