At Mintleaf Studio, we endeavour to provide a broad service that delivers a comprehensive web solution in one project, with maximum efficiency and speed.
This is our general process. This is adapted for different styles of web project (e.g. marketing driven sites, service delivery sites, publishing sites). We assemble project teams with broad skills over technical, creative, business and management to ensure that your web site is tightly integrated with your current and future business needs.
The Broad Process
1. Project Proposal
This happens pre-sale and involves a degree of research. For smaller scopes, a fairly detailed proposal can be created quickly. More involved or unique sites will require further research in the next stage. Many of our competitors will try to satisfy you with a general capabilities brochure. We prefer to start developing solutions.
2. Project Approval
if the project proposal is satisfactory, then signing it will create a contract. Once a proportion of the fee and necessary funds for expenses are received, the project starts
3. Project Specification
this fully details the website: a technical solution; a creative solution; a content solution and a project management solution. Whilst the project proposal has a cost estimate, the project specification has a fully developed budget and timeline. For smaller sites, the project specification is created within a day. For larger sites, the research, consultation and documentation may take several weeks.
4. Production Phase
Various phases occur concurrently during this phase. The project team may grow substantially depending on the client needs for specialist content and skills.
a. Content Phase
The content (copy, photos, illustrations, interactive media, functional content, video, audio, animation and syndicated feeds, etc.) is prepared at this stage. A library is assembled of content in editable form (Word documents, Photoshop files, etc.). The content is ideally approved by the client during this phase, though some degree of revision is possible at later stages.
b. Design Phase
The interface design and graphic design is done here, creating mock-ups and prototypes of the final site pages. Adjustments are made to the user experience architecture and system architecture that was developed for the project specification. At this stage we can test the concepts with the final users and refine our creative solutions.
c. Code Production
The various levels of code (typically xhtml, css, javascript and server-side coding - PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, Perl, Ruby, Python, etc.) are prepared during this phase. This is a building phase and technical issues may require designs to be altered to maintain maximum value.
5. Integration and Optimisation
the quality control programs start taking effect as the project team shrinks to a tightly integrated core team that carefully control the integration of code and content to create a prototype site that satisfies all our stringent quality control criteria and pass the required user testing. This finishes with a quality assurance report and client sign-off the prototype site.
6. Hand Over and Go Live
The prototype site is transferred to the final web server and the systems rolled up to Go Live status. For small sites, this may take less than an hour. With large sites, this may be staged over several days as users flock to the site and the system put under full load. Once the live site and various maintenance systems approved by the client, the site is formally handed over.
7. Maintenance
We offer a range of service level agreements to work with your staff to maintain the site. This may be restricted to technical issues, or include all content management (including editorial and publishing functions).
8. Review
Some sites will benefit greatly from a process of review that we are happy to actively participate in with the preparation of regular reports on site performance and benchmarking against key competitor’s sites.