Our process has evolved over 20 years and 100s of projects

Discovery is perhaps the most crucial element of the entire project. This is the stage where we fully immerse ourselves our clients’ objectives and culture forming an extension of their own team.

Teamwork is fundamental to our process. We’ll work with you to better understand the project goals and clearly define the end product while mapping out the delivery process in a way that everyone understands, regardless of technical expertise or knowledge of building digital products.

Activities at this stage can include:

• group workshops involving all key people from our team and yours
• generating a well researched and optimised sitemap - based off a combination of keyword research, personas and associated projected user journeys
• working together to question and scrutinise ‘why’, ‘when’, ‘how’ and ‘for whom’
• working together to define key audiences and user personas
• mapping new content and remapping existing content to be meaningful, well-written and optimised for end users
• setting goals and targets for the purpose of measuring the project’s success.

A fully mapped out project plan including clearly identified workflows, communication channels, audiences and goals, designed and presented in a way that everyone can understand.

Our holistic attitude to design ensures we champion your audience as well as your objectives. We understand the need for a strong visual and clear functional approach. We underpin this with data, user research and established UI and UX principles.

Activities at this stage can include:

• digital branding and identity
• information architecture
• wireframing
• lo-fi design concepts and prototypes
• user testing and feedback
• hi-fi design targets and functional prototypes
• print and non-digital creative.

We encourage regular review and this starts with creative concepts and wireframes. As we move forward we produce functional prototypes to see how the plans work in a browser and across different devices. We discuss and present our plans at every step and seek feedback and agreement before making design iterations and then moving into development. We’re also passionate about testing plans with ‘real’ end users at this stage, if appropriate.

At this point we’ll have a clearly defined specification and a set of functional prototypes with everything mapped out and documented through the earlier stages of the project. We will work with you throughout this process to ensure that the technology we use is the best it can be within the parameters of the project, including any third-party requirements you may have.

Activities at this stage can include:

• environment management for staging and UAT
• content management system development
• bespoke plugins and application development
• content and data migration
• speed and performance optimisation
• hosting infrastructure
• testing and security best practice.

When it comes to choosing the tech, it’s our firm belief that technology should fit the brief and not that the brief should bend to the technology. Together we will find the right solution for your objectives.

With the development process being a fastidious and extensive one, the fully-developed site will be tested in its entirety, to ensure it is completely ready for deployment.

Building a project in a closed environment with a limited set of users is a good start but making sure the work is optimal under the stresses and strains of general public access requires another set of specialist skills and processes.

Activities at this stage can include:

• pre-launch user testing and iteration
• content review and revision
• speed and performance testing
• stress and high availability testing
• DNS management
• changeover management
• post-launch monitoring.

A smooth transition to launch including early life monitoring and support.

Our commitment to the smooth running of a project and ongoing relationships includes providing structure and support for dealing with both the day-to-day project management as well as the website once it has been deployed.

Activities here can include:

• clear ongoing project management, tools and techniques
• content management system support and advice
• content strategy
• email marketing expertise and support
• digital marketing campaigns and ongoing search engine optimisation
• comprehensive reporting on all aspects of the site and its performance
• ongoing design and creative services.