Our Website Design Process, Step by Step
Every website project runs through the same 4 stages. Here is what happens in each one, what you will be asked for, and when.
01 Discovery & Planning
Before anything gets designed, we need to understand the business and agree on what the website has to do. This stage ends with a plan, not a draft.
The first conversation
We start with a call. No contracts, no design work, and no obligation on either side. We want to understand the business, and you should get a feel for whether you want to work with us. Questions we usually ask:
- Why are you looking for a new website now?
- Who are your customers, and what do you need them to do on the website?
- What do you sell, and which of those matter most?
- Do you want our recommendations on design direction, or do you have a direction already?
- Do you have colors, fonts, or websites you like as reference?
- Is the business new, growing, or established?
- Do you need anything beyond the website, such as a logo, flyers, or ads? That is graphic design work and we can quote it alongside.
Agreement and deposit
You receive a fixed quote and an agreement. Signing it and paying the deposit is what reserves your place on the schedule, so the start date depends on when that happens. You can request a quote to begin.
What we plan before design starts
- Questionnaire. A short form covering your goals, your customers, and what the website needs to achieve.
- Sitemap and navigation. We agree on which pages the website includes and how visitors move between them. This is the document everything else gets built from.
- Content and images. We go through what you already have and what is missing. We can refine your text, and we can source and buy stock photography if your own images will not cover it.
- Domain. If you own one, we will tell you what access we need. If you do not, we help you choose and register one.
02 Design & Build
Design happens in 2 stages. You approve a direction on 2 pages before we build the rest, which means you are never seeing the whole website for the first time at the end. This is the stage described on our WordPress website design page.
The working mockup
We do not send flat images. We build your homepage and one interior page as a working website you can open in a browser, click through, and view on your phone. You see how it behaves, not just how it looks.
When you approve those 2 pages, that design becomes the blueprint for everything else.
Building the rest of the website
We build every page on the agreed sitemap, place your content and images, and set up the forms and features that were scoped at the start. If we are writing content or selecting images for you, that work happens here.
Every page is built and checked for phones, tablets, and desktops as it is made, not adjusted for mobile afterward.
Tell Us What Your Business Needs
You will get clear next steps and a fixed quote before any work begins.
03 Review & Refine
You review the website twice: once at the mockup stage, and once when the full build is finished. Each review includes 2 rounds of revisions.
How feedback works
You send feedback in a shared document or as comments, in one pass rather than in pieces. Collected feedback is faster to work through and easier to confirm as complete, and it keeps anything from being missed between messages.
You are talking to the designer doing the work. There is nobody in between relaying it.
What 2 rounds covers
A round is one pass of changes based on your feedback. 2 rounds at the mockup stage covers the look and feel. 2 rounds at the build stage covers content, layout, and detail across the pages.
Changes that go beyond the agreed sitemap or scope are quoted separately before we start them. We will tell you when a request falls into that category rather than absorbing it quietly or surprising you on an invoice.
Final approval
When you approve the finished website, we set the launch date together.
04 Launch & Support
Launch is planned, not improvised. We handle the technical side and tell you the date in advance.
Launch day
- The final invoice is paid, and we secure the website and take it live.
- We test every link, form, and checkout path on the live website, not just on staging.
- We connect Google Search Console and Google Analytics so traffic is being recorded from day 1.
What you get at handover
You receive administrator access and your login details. The website is yours: the WordPress installation, the content, and the domain.
You also get training videos and a written post-launch guide covering the edits owners make most often, such as updating text, swapping an image, and adding a page.
After launch
- Hosting. Managed WordPress hosting is $45 per month or $450 per year, and includes a dedicated server environment, daily backups, staging, SSL, and updates.
- Occasional help. If you only need something now and then, support is $125 per hour with a 30 minute minimum.
- Maintenance plans. Monthly maintenance runs $300, $500, or $1,000 for up to 3, 5, or 10 hours of work per month, covering updates, content and design changes, plugin management, and security monitoring.
- None of the above. You own the website and you can host it anywhere and have anyone maintain it. We will say so rather than imply otherwise.
What We Need From You
Projects move at the pace material arrives. This is the full list, so nothing is a surprise halfway through.
- Your logo files, and your brand colors and fonts if they exist
- Written content for each page on the sitemap, or a decision to have us write it
- Photos of your business, or a decision to have us source stock imagery
- Access to your domain, or a domain to register
- Feedback at the 2 review stages, collected in one pass
- Anything your website has to connect to, such as a booking tool, a payment provider, or an email platform
Start With a Conversation
Tell us what is not working now and what the new website needs to do. We will review it, answer your questions, and send a fixed quote. From the first call through long-term support, you will know which stage you are in and what happens next. Get in touch to start.