Our Design Process

Published: April 27 2012, by John

What the Design Phase means to us.

We have a seven step work process. On a typical project we go through the phases of:

1. First Steps: we talk to you and build an understanding of the project requirements
2. Information Design: we put the site content into a hierachy and map the journey through site content by your users
3. Wireframing: we create some simple layouts of the page templates
4. Presentation Layer: only at this point do we start looking at the graphic design on the site
5. Development: we move our HTML & CSS templates onto a CMS and develop any technical features required for the site's functionality
6. Add Content: now the site design and functionality is ready, it's time to start adding the content
7. Marketing: once the site is launched we're available to help you ensure people are finding your website and giving you business

When we talk to clients, we often talk about design when referring specifically to the graphic design work at phase 4 - the presentation layer.

In practice though, identifying the design work in any project isn't quite so simple. It's easy enough for a designer to launch straight into the graphic design phase and present a series of new website templates that look great. But if these designs are done without having gone through the research, information design and wireframing process - there's little to back up these designs in terms of how they will work in achieving your goals.

I'm not going to say that the aesthetics of a website are unimportant, but they're definitely the icing on the cake.

Our design focuses on the usability, and goals of the site. Such as content hierarchy, user journey, customer and business goals. We make design innovations with a knowledge of how they can be programmed within budget and remain editable on your CMS.

We build websites that have stunning visuals. But we take the firm approach that the stunning visuals are the last pieces in a good design phase.

This design process also looks at site infrastructure and informs how we build the site and develop the CMS. The wire framing and mood board process not only develops the site hierarchy, but informs us about business structure and means we can better develop a platform that is scalable for clients over the long term.

At Mekonta we have a proven workflow process with a symbiotic relationship between research, design and development. This allows us to work efficiently at all stages of a project.

We don't deliver static photoshopped visuals. We design in the browser with HTML & CSS templates right from the start. Web pages are dynamic and interactive. Static graphics can't recreate this and can give a misleading expectation of what the final page will look like (and work) to clients. It also means we don't waste time creating graphics of elements in Photoshop that we then recreate in HTML - there's no need to duplicate work.