What to Expect When Expecting... A Website

by Tom McAllister & Cassandra Pence

So the contract is signed and you're ready for a new website... Congrats! The design ideas are flowing in and you are dreaming of content and cool effects. But, where to begin?! This can be a completely overwhelming part of the website process. But fear not! Our team of experts is here to guide you and, most importantly, be your partner in this adventure. You are the expert in what you do and you hired us because we are the experts at what we do. Together, we will make a great team.

When your project begins, you will be contacted by your project manager and possibly a business analyst as well. They will begin by reviewing the project requirements and further defining the details and scope of the project. By doing this up front, we can confirm and document requirements and other details before the designers or developers begin work. This provides our development team with a road map to use when developing, which keeps them more efficient. As a result, your project will run more smoothly and there is less room for confusion later in the project.

In order to assist the project manager and business analyst, it is helpful if you prepare the following items for us:

• Questionnaires - We have a few questionnaire documents that we ask you to complete in order to give us some idea of your preferences, your competition, your industry and more. Our development team will use your feedback from these as they come up with the best solution for you.
• Site Map - Think of the site map as the structure of your website's content. While we can assist you with coming up with a site map strategy, it is important for you to review what you currently have and begin forming at least a general idea of how the new site map will be structured. When providing the site map, please also provide any content you have the correlates with the pages defined. We will review the site map with you before we begin because it must be finalized and approved before any design work can begin.
• Content Review & Development - If you already have a website and we are doing the redesign, now is a great time to review your content and identify anything that might be changing. It is also a great time to determine which content you can do without. Ask yourself if the text is helpful and worthwhile. If not, we suggest trimming it out. If you are writing new content, the more you can have completed and finalized before our first meeting, the better! This helps us save time and save you money.
• Logos & Files - We will need the high-resolution version of your logo(s) and any images or videos that will be integrated into your new site design. You can burn these onto a CD/DVD, or you can use our LRS file transfer feature on our website.
• Other Requirements - If we are developing a custom application for your website, it can be helpful if you type up any business processes or details related to that application if there are specifics that we need to know. This will help us get a better understanding early in the project.

Whew! That is a lot, we know. At any time, if you begin to feel overwhelmed, we have specialists who can help you develop your site map, design your logo, or simply talk through the process with you. Just contact your project manager and we'll help get everything off to a great start!

Once all of the above is completed, we will invite you over to our place for some coffee and a chat. We like to call this the "kickoff meeting". This is an opportunity for stakeholders from your company or organization to meet your with your account representative, the project manager, designer, and the web and application developers all at one time. At the kickoff meeting, the project manager will lead a discussion about your new website and this leads to some great interaction ideas from all involved.

So, you may ask...how long does it take to build my website? We get this question a lot. It truly depends on the project because each one is unique. So, after our kickoff meeting, the project team will meet again to review the feedback and schedule their tasks. The project manager will compile this information and produce an official project timeline. When you get your copy of this timeline, be sure to review your calendar to confirm that the dates assigned to you for tasks (such as reviewing part of the site), are acceptable. As a client and decision maker, we usually give plenty of time for review throughout the project. But if you need more or less, please let us know.

We here at LRS Web Solutions really look forward to working with you.  It will be a great adventure that will end with not only a spiffy new website but also a tool that will help your business grow!

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Tom McAllister is our Sales Manager at LRS Web Solutions.  He's an avid Illini Basketball fan and will probably always drive a Honda.

Cassandra Pence is a Site Construction Specialist for LRS Web Solutions.  She loves her job, but wishes she had a window in her cube.

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