How long does it take?

It can take anywhere from a week to a little over a month for a typical website - depending on the complexity of the website.  A simple blog takes a week.  A website for a used bookstore complete with an online library, a cash register scanner interface into the website database,  and the ability to track sales will take one to two months.  We take great pride in our creativity and ingenuity.  As a rule, we do not rush our work unless somebody has business needs that dictate that a website or website application must be online quickly.

How is a custom, fully functional website built?

We start with your vision 

Oftentimes, a person knows what they want in a website but has difficulty communicating it.  To ease this critical part of the process, we give out a questionaire asking specific web-related questions.  This is specially designed to help tease out the vision.  This will enable us to understand what type of website the client needs in terms of style and functionality.

Next, you tell us what the website needs to be able to do.  Is only an online brochure needed or does the website need to do some heavy work such as client database tracking, voice message forwarding, or meeting reminders?  During this process, we encourage you to save money by showing you how we can prune away cost by helping you to select options that are needed today and holding off on other options until they are needed.  Much of our time is spent with existing customers to ensure they continue to be happy with their website.  It is easier for us to keep a steady stream of business from existing customers than it is to seek out new customers.    

Milestone #1: Design the Look & Feel of the Website

After that, we develop some color schemes and wireframes.  Wireframes are a set of webpage "architect's blueprints" that we use to build the website very much like a house builder uses blueprints to construct a house.  The client will then review the color schemes and wireframes and select one of each that will best fit his/her vision.  These decisions are made within a week of the time we first meet with you.  We will then go off and graphically develop the website (without functionality) and bring it back to you for your final design signoff. The signoff is milestone #1.  This occurs two weeks after our initial meeting.

Milestone #2: Build Functionality Into the Website

Then, the development and design integration starts!  One of us works on the functionality development while another works on the design integration.  This usually takes two weeks - depending on the complexity of the website functionality.  We then show you a working website on a local server.  At this time, our experience tells us that you will probably want to tweak the site a little here or there.  We are eager to take in this input as it helps us to ensure you are happy and helps us to become better developers, designers, and business people!  This will occur after four weeks of our initial meeting.

Milestone #3: Completion

The website will then be ported over to a live server.  This involves purchasing of the domain name (if required), setting up the hosting, and transferring the files over to the new server.  Testing and troubleshooting is then performed.  The total process will take two days.  After that, you have your new website!  Expect this within four and a half weeks after our initial meeting.