The Proven Website Design Process Explained in 7 Steps

Quick Summary: When a digital product, like a website, is designed, it has certain things to be delivered. For example, quality, speed, deliverables, and timelines are some of the crucial things that must be kept in mind. To meet these goals, the design team must follow the website design process. In this article, we have explored the design process in detail so you get better output when you have a digital project to design. Let's explore.

Did you know if you have a nonresponsive website design, there is are 73.1% chance you will lose visitors, or your visitors may leave your website?

This must not be very comforting for most business owners who want to create outstanding websites. You must meet your end goal of designing and creating an outstanding website that users love. So, are you looking to design a website, or are you a designer and want to explore the various website design processes to ensure every stockholder is happy with the final product? We have solved your query by exploring the top design process for your website. So, let's explore the top website design process one by one.

Even though formally, you need just a four-step website design process to follow, there are as many processes as you need to meet the end goal perfectly. Indirectly, it’s a brief version of design thinking process. In design thinking process, we talk about design principles and each step taken for better outcome in detail while the design process keeps the length narrowed to required steps only. Based on the project type, you can decide the process for website design. Basically, we have broken down the website design process into 7 phases.

Website Design Process Begins with Discovery Phase

This is the first step of the website design process in which you define your project, decide on goals, and sketch out what needs to be done to accomplish end goals. You can achieve this phase by taking the following steps.

• Initiate brainstorming sessions with every stakeholder
• Define your project and set goals
• Work on challenges the project might face

Apart from this, you have some questions to explore in this phase, for example;

• What is the purpose of the website design?
• What do you want users to do on your website (buy products and services or fill out the form)?
• Who is your target market and audience?
• What should the website look like?
• What features does your website need?
• What are your core differentiators
• What user problems will your website solve?

These are some of the questions you need to ask in the first phase of the website design process.

Define Website Design Scope Crucial Steps to Explore

A website design scope is the written plan that will help both partners (clients and design partners) remain stuck with the goals. You need to prepare the scope. It considers various things, beginning from;

• Website design project summary
• Scope of the website
• Deliverables
• Project schedule
• Cost for the overall website design
• Functionality or features of the website
• Content for the websites
• Deadlines
• Client’s Inputs if any

How to create a project scope

• Understand your needs
• Explore your goals
• Outline the features you need to meet the goals
• Explore challenges and how you solve them
• Clearly define the requirements
• What are the project boundaries
• Validate scope

Content and SEO Are Must

The usual tradition is designers design the website with the specific pages and sections with Loren Ipsum texts. This is done according to the client's direction so they can later replace the dummy contents with the real ones. But, this tradition must be broken as designing a website based on fall facts can lead to mismatched design. Some sections will really need factual things to visualize how it will work in the real world. Get the website content written in advance, as it is also the website design good practice.

Wireframing and Architecture Creation (UX) for Seamless User Experience

In this phase, you need to work out on the website's user experience part. You need to design the UX based on the project scope. It's a vast phase and, hence, needs to be done with proper care, planning and understanding the latest design trends. Usually, according to research your website design team conducts, they create a user-friendly journey for your audience by integrating intuitive, attractive, responsive, and usable design for your website. To achieve this goal, the design team takes certain steps, such as;

• Sketching out low-fidelity designs
• Wireframing with basic elements
• Building the IA
• User flow development
• Testing

Let's explore these elements of creating outstanding UX for your website design.

Sketching: It's a low-fidelity design that helps designers visualize the concept of the final website design. Designers do this if they have presented the concept to clients or clients to stakeholders.

Wireframing: Wireframing is crucial and comes with a two-dimensional illustration of a website's interface. Basically it shows the structure of the page with functionalities and user content.

IA: IA refers to information architecture, which is the process of organizing and structuring information on a digital product. It's the most crucial design step that highlights how users interact with your website.

User flow development: User flow development in website design is a visual representation of the user journey. It visualizes how users complete the tasks on the website.

Testing: Testing is done to ensure all features and functionalities are functional and help users complete data tasks seamlessly.

Creative and User Interface (UI) for Visual First Impression

User Interface is the first thing that users see on your website. It must be created keeping the mood of users in mind. It should be simple, navigable, and appealing to users. Experienced UI designers understand the significance of quality UI & UX and help you design a website with a greater look and feel. For the process, they follow the same UX but with a little difference. For example, it consists;

• UI design research and analysis, such as exposing design trends and getting inspiration.
• Visual design to ensure all visual elements of the interface, such as page layouts, typography, colors, fonts, icons, and buttons, are accurately designed as per trends, niches, and users' preferences.
• Branding implementation, such as color schemes, typography, and other visual elements, accurately correspond to one another.
• Style guides are yet another part of visual elements that ensure the visual of the website, ensuring seamless final documentation.
• Collaboration is crucial between front-end developers and designers to ensure the design is implemented as per the intent.

Website Development to Turn Your Design into Code

Now the design is ready, and developers will turn the design into code. Web development ensures all your design idea turn into reality. However, designers need to work closely with the development team. For example, the development will decrease prototypes, and designers need to make changes or amend the UI, UX, and functionaries.

Launch and Maintenance

The website is designed and developed; you need to take the final step —that is, to launch your website and get started. Before you launch, ensure all stakeholders have approved the final product. Once launched, there must be a technical team to monitor the website on the server and how it interacts with real users. They need to make changes and improvise the website as feedback is received from real users.

How Does TheFinch Design Help

We make your dream come true by designing the best products, whether it is websites or other digital products. We are a leading UI UX design agency with a defined process that ensures your website will have all design elements so it fits in your business environment, attracts more users, and helps you serve your purposes effectively. With vetted UI/UX designers, and they keep up with trends, ensuring the integration of every feature and visual elements that solve the user problem. Connect with your project scope, and we help you make your design idea into a real product. Let's connect.