The Simple Process of Getting a Website Designed and Developed
by Mike Bevans

Getting a great website up and running does not have to be a 
frustrating or difficult experience - even for those that don't 
have the time or the skill set to do it themselves. All it takes 
is a little knowledge and access to a pool of talented service 
providers. While in the past accessing talented service providers 
has been time consuming and expensive, in today's interconnected 
world it is just as easy to find a great service provider in 
India as it is to find someone down the street.  

But before you go looking for web designers and developers, you 
will need a to take a few minutes to become knowledgeable about 
what it is that you are buying. Taking the time to understand 
exactly what you want, some key terminology and how to put 
together a project plan for your Website will improve your 
experience and ensure that you get the results you are looking 
for.   

WHAT YOU NEED TO HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT BEFORE STARTING A WEBSITE 
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 

Below is a brief four step process that is essential to every 
website design and development project. 

Step 1: Business Requirements
First, determine what kind of activities you want your customers 
to be able to perform on your website. Do you want to set up an 
ecommerce site where potential customers can learn about and 
purchase your products? Do you want a billboard site with 
information about your company and where potential customers 
can go to purchase your products?  Activities that you can 
provide your customers may include:  

o Shopping 
o Registration 
o Requesting information  
o Searching a database 
o Downloading or uploading files 
o Discussion forums

Step 2: Feature Requirements
Identify the features that you want to add to your website to 
make it more engaging and interactive. For example, if you 
want to set up an ecommerce site, you may want to have a 
shopping cart. Some common features are:

o Forms - allows visitors to easily submit or request 
  information 
o Message Boards - visitors can leave or respond to messages 
o Photo Galleries - display graphical information on your 
  products or services 
o Counters - track the number of times a page has been viewed 
o Flash Animation- create interesting animated content 
o Search - allow visitors to search for content 
o Shopping Cart - software that collects and records the 
  purchases of your customers
o Inventory Management - automatic updating of your inventory

Step 3: Service Provider Requirements
Determine the expertise you need. There are two components to 
the creation of a website: Design and Development; Design deals 
with the front-end look and feel. Development deals with the 
back end functionality. These are distinct skill sets so make 
sure you hire a person or persons that can provide you with what 
you need.  

Step 4: Budget Requirements 
Website projects typically start at under a thousand dollars and 
go up to several thousand depending on the complexity and size 
of the site you would like. In addition to the cost of designing 
and developing your site, you need to consider these additional 
costs:  domain name registration, site hosting and site 
maintenance.  

Key Terminology You Should be Familiar With

Here are a few key terms that will help you communicate what you 
want to the person(s) completing your project. Below are some 
simple definitions of some basic and advanced web terminology.  

BASICS

Flash: Multimedia tool that can be used to design animation for 
your site.

Form: Area of a website where a user can submit information in 
response to a question, or enter credit card and other purchase 
information.

Frames: Independently controllable sections on a website.

GIF: An image file type commonly used for banners. 

HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. The formatting language used to 
create web pages

JPEG: An image file type commonly used for photos

Rich Media: Elements that contain animation, video or sound. 
Some popular formats commonly considered rich media include 
Macromedia Flash and Shockwave.

URL: Universal Resource Locator. Also referred to as a web 
address or domain name.

ADVANCED 

ASP: Active Server Pages; allows for the creation of dynamically 
generated web pages

CGI: Common Gateway Interface. Scripting language that adds 
advanced functions such as interaction with forms and databases.
 
DHTML: Dynamic HTML; allows for interactive content. 

Digital Certificates: Necessary for encrypting data 
(e.g. credit cards) using SSL encryption.

JavaScript: A script language that adds advanced features and 
functions to a website.

SSL Encryption: Secure Socket Layer - commonly used for 
managing the security of message transmission.

XML: Extensible Markup Language - a formatting language similar 
to HTML but with greater flexibility, providing improved 
functionality.  


PLANNING YOUR PROJECT 

Now that you know some of the basics, you need to put together a 
simple project plan to help you communicate your project needs. 
Follow these guidelines when putting your plan together. 

o Determine the objective of your website.  
o Define your audience. 
o Determine what content you will need. 
o Look at other sites for inspiration
o Develop a rough storyboard for your site to ensure that you 
  have all the components. 
o Write up a detailed project description based on the 
  information you have gathered. 


FINDING A GREAT WEB DESIGNER AND/OR DEVELOPER USING THE INTERNET

The Internet provides anyone with access to a worldwide pool of 
talent to get projects completed.  Sites like Elance 
(http://www.elance.com/c/home/main/index.pl?&rid=PXYS) and 
Smarterwork (http://www.smarterwork.com?rid=PXYT/) allow you to 
post your project and within minutes you will have a number of 
qualified providers bidding on your project. These sites vary 
greatly, but the overall theme is to connect you with the 
qualified service providers. You can get a multitude of services 
on these sites from application development, advertising and 
marketing copy, business plans, and of course web design and 
development. The benefits of using these services include: saving 
you time by having providers come to you with proposals, saving 
money through competitive bidding and improving the likelihood 
of success by utilizing the project management tools typically 
provided on these sites.  

By taking some time upfront to understand what you want and how 
to get it done efficiently and cost effectively, your website 
project is sure to be a success.  


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Mike Bevans, MBA, is Sr. Marketing Manager at Elance. Mike is a 
seasoned professional with extensive experience in online 
marketing and website analytics. Elance is a Web-based services 
marketplace providing businesses a better way to buy and manage 
services. For more info visit  
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