Nashville website design + develop­ment

A captivating online presence is crucial for success in today’s digital landscape. At Astute, we understand that web users demand nothing less than an engaging experience. Many businesses overlook this opportunity, viewing their website as a platform to share company history and promote products. We go beyond this limited approach by creating a website that builds meaningful connections with your audience while gathering valuable marketing insights to improve the customer experience.

Behind every exceptional website lies a multi-faceted process that involves strategic planning, attention to detail, and seamless interdepartmental collaboration. This article’s goal is to demystify our web development process. From discovery to design, development to deployment, we carefully craft an online experience that represents your business with excellence.

As a leading web design and development service provider, we specialize in delivering exceptional online experiences to a diverse clientele. With our team of skilled designers and developers, we employ the latest technologies, platforms, and best practices to create bespoke websites that engage your customer base and cater to your unique business needs.

We go beyond aesthetics. Our process begins with in-depth industry research, thorough competitive analysis, and the development of customer personas. By understanding your target audience and market landscape, we lay a solid foundation for your site’s architecture, ensuring success from the ground up.

Before we embark on the web design and development journey, let’s address a fundamental but often overlooked question: What is the true purpose of your website?

Imagine arriving at a destination and feeling an instant sense of belonging, as if you’ve found your rightful place. This is what effective web design and development aim to achieve: to make your customers feel a personal connection with your brand. With a sensible strategy informing decisions throughout the website process, this impact can come effortlessly.

Adopting a psychological lens during the design and development process is crucial. Your customers’ needs should be the driving force behind every decision. Consider the following fundamental truths:

DIVERSE VISITORS, UNIQUE NEEDS: Recognize that your website will attract different types of audiences individuals, each with distinct needs and problems to solve.

PEOPLE ARE COMPLEX: While these observations may seem evident, it’s surprisingly rare to witness their profound impact on websites. You can set yourself apart by truly understanding your audience as individuals and making them feel seen.

Let’s shift gears from high-level musings and dive into the tangible process of custom web design and development.

Before we walk through the defined steps of our comprehensive website process, let’s introduce the teams that work together to create successful websites. One common misjudgment is about just how many skillsets are required to create a successful website. At Astute, project managers, copywriters, designers and developers collaborate to create captivating and seamless online experiences.

The copy team’s role is 2-fold: writing for messaging that connects directly to the human audience, and technical writing so the audience can navigate to the appropriate areas intuitively. The design team focuses on the brand tone, visual language, user-flow and user experience. Design’s objective is to create an intuitive space with relatable character, using the interface as a vessel to create an experience, not a product. The web development team’s primary focus is building a high-functioning and responsive website reflective of all the pages and prototypes created by the design team.

Building a website is similar to building a house. If copywriters are the property agents and search platforms, then designers are the architects and interior designers, while developers are the contractors and construction team. Because there are several teams integral to building a good website, it’s important to have a structured process to follow when beginning a website project.

STEP 1 / DISCOVERY + RESEARCH

The foundation of a successful web development project lies in comprehensive discovery and research. We dedicate ourselves to gathering essential information and shaping the journey during this crucial stage. Our primary focus is understanding our client’s unique needs and aspirations and their present and future customers.

We delve deep into your business goals, uncovering what sets you apart and discovering the key factors that resonate with your target audience. By identifying the challenges they seek to overcome, we lay the groundwork for tailored solutions. Our onboarding process ensures that every decision is thoughtfully aligned with your vision, resulting in a sustainable custom website that makes a lasting impact.

STEP 2 / COMPELLING COPY + THOROUGH REVIEW

In web development, the art of content writing takes center stage, shaping actionable messaging while seizing valuable search engine ranking opportunities. This phase often overlaps with other stages such as researching, designing, and reviewing. Writing and refining content requires dedicated time and effort. We aim to capture the essence of effective communication with your audience through the power of the written word. Engaging headlines and persuasive calls-to-action (CTAs) are vital in driving lead generation once your site is live.

During content creation, the presence of an SEO expert proves invaluable. Crafting unique content extends beyond striking the perfect balance between emotion and action; it requires a research-driven approach. There is often a gap between how businesses internally discuss their products and services and how customers express their needs. Here, the expertise of an SEO specialist shines, employing keyword research as a GPS for the astute copywriter.

Lastly, review processes are necessary before any web copy is finalized. Few things harm your credibility faster than launching a site with unfinished or generic placeholder text (lorem ipsum). This meticulous attention affirms that every word is polished, elevating your content from good to exceptional.

STEP 3 / SITEMAP STRUCTURE + WIREFRAME CREATION

As we venture into the third phase of the website development process, attention is given to the site’s navigational structure. We perform a comprehensive site audit, thoroughly examining the existing site’s navigation, content, and user flow. In parallel, we analyze competitor sites to gain valuable industry knowledge. With these insights, we create a refined sitemap for the new website.

The sitemap serves as a visual table of contents, arranging the pathways through web pages and the site’s master navigation. It acts as the initial visual touchstone, guiding the creation of wireframes for individual pages. Unlike the final design, wireframes focus purely on information architecture, devoid of details like color, typography, or images. Considered the master blueprint of the website, wireframes maintain that the project stays on the right trajectory before advancing to the design phase.

The sitemap and wireframes are pivotal elements of discovery and decision-making. The flow of each page is determined, directing users through an intuitive journey within a broader conversion funnel. CTAs are strategically planned, overarching storytelling is mapped out, and all interactions are carefully considered. With the core messaging and interface in place, we can confidently transition to the next phase, where responsive design takes focus, optimizing the user experience.

STEP 4 / RESPONSIVE DESIGN

Through the web design phase, we work to materialize each page across all platforms and devices, leaving little to the imagination. The designs take on a persona, breathing life into your brand’s visual language through curated layouts, supportive imagery, type styles, icons, and custom graphics. Our attention extends beyond these elements as we design an all encompassing experience through information, page flow, interactions and movement, considering every touchpoint from front to back.

Here, the power of custom design surpasses that of website builder applications, as each action is thoughtfully planned to deliver a profound impact. We design not just the placement of headlines, photos, and icons, but how every element loads as users scroll, and what indicators guide them to click, read, or interact. We design the hierarchy of attention. What template tools can’t do that designers have control of is pace. A DIY website tool can house some branded content, but it remains stuck within its own confines and feels like a readymade frame. However, designers can set a pace and style for unique margins, contemporary content layouts, animation features and interactions, all of which reinforce the tone of the brand; often without detection. Without experienced designers, we’d be missing the signature choreography of the website; which is just as impactful as its content. This component creates an effortless experience where careful research and communication pay off.

A vital aspect of web design is responsiveness, designing content to transition smoothly to various devices such as mobiles, desktops, and tablets. Our UX/UI designers diligently plan and iterate each page in the design to optimize content presentation across all the screens we use to view the web. Another important element to successful web design is ADA & WCAG compliance. There are a few guidelines and metrics our team uses to create accessible websites inclusive of diverse user types. These processes require a lot of prototyping and internal review to inform decisions for the best user experience.

Once the initial design and prototype are complete, we present the designs to the client for review. This review process holds paramount importance. It serves as an opportunity to confirm that the designs for their website meet all their needs and translates every nuance discovered throughout the discovery process. We refine the designs with the client’s feedback to refine the most sustainable product before handing off to the development team.

STEP 5 / FRONT-END + BACK-END DEVELOPMENT

Web development is the process where copy and design are turned into code, forming a fully-fledged, interactive website. This process requires precision, and typically begins on the back-end – where our skilled development team first provisions the site architecture. WordPress is our most-trusted Content Management System (CMS), ensuring a foundation for high-speed performance and seamless functionality, leveraging modern development practices with its Gutenberg block building paradigm. While WordPress is our go-to, we adapt based on each client’s unique needs.

After creating the back-end foundation, the focus shifts to front-end development. First, we develop the nervous system of the Gutenberg theme, translating design’s selections for typography, color scheme, and sizing directly into the editing experience. From there, we shift to the fundamental aspects of the front-end theme, the header, navigation, footer, and homepage. While WordPress is built upon the PHP scripting language, our efforts largely leverage the modern combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Our development team collaborates closely with our designers throughout the front-end phase of development, aligning their efforts with the client’s vision and needs. This collaboration transforms concepts into reality, embedding the website with captivating animations and refined details. This process allows development to review for any potential design oversights, ensuring a harmonious fusion of aesthetics and functionality. The importance of collaborative harmony cannot be emphasized enough, as it paves the way for a truly exceptional web experience.

After the front-end phase, the attention turns again to the back-end, integrating custom components to make them client-editable, providing a smooth content editing experience.

STEP 6 / QA, TESTING, LAUNCH

Consistency is critical, and our web development process is no exception. Each step demands careful review and rigorous quality assurance checks. If this process were a symphony, QA would be the recurring refrain. It’s an essential part of our journey. Once the coding is complete and the designers and developers agree, a comprehensive review id performed.

During this important stage, we aim to challenge the website’s integrity and resilience. Every button is tested for optimal functionality. Every content block is scrutinized for potential errors that might have eluded detection, affirming that every element is precisely populated. Forms undergo rigorous testing and submission, while multiple devices and browser widths are utilized in the QA process to identify any unforeseen content breaks.

You get the idea. Test, test, test…

After subjecting the website to a thorough examination, we seek final sign-off from the client before deploying it to the production server and updating the DNS records. At the end of the process, a new site is born!

STEP 7 / LAUNCH, MAINTENANCE + GROWTH

Congratulations! The web development process has reached its culmination – applause all around. However, the journey continues, as a successful website is an ever-evolving entity. It requires continuous refinements, updates, and fresh additions to thrive.

The maintenance phase involves various activities, such as creating new pages, keeping the CMS up to date, updating plugins, monitoring user flow, and making subtle adjustments for optimal performance. It also entails addressing technical SEO issues, setting up redirects for outdated pages, and staying vigilant to ensure a seamless user experience.

Remember, the key is understanding the problems your customers seek to solve, and providing them with streamlined solutions through a relatable user experience. The website’s journey doesn’t stop at its launch; it thrives through ongoing maintenance and growth. Embrace this phase to verify that your online presence remains vibrant and relevant to your audience’s evolving needs.

Custom web development is an intensive process that requires collaboration, experience, and knowledge. Astute Communications is a full-service digital marketing agency in Nashville, TN. We have a proven track record of building cutting edge websites that wow our clients while promoting deeper customer engagement. Get in touch to learn more about what we can do to help you zero in on your marketing goals and establish your online presence for your business.