The Headspace Process - Part One
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Most people tend to start their day on a set routine, performing steps in a specific order because you find that they work best for you, and produce the best results. At Headspace, we approach our web design projects with the very same mindset. We have a specific set of tasks that we complete in order, beginning to end, to produce the very best results for our clients and their users. It’s typically along the lines of kick-ass design, with a splash of great user-experience, forward thinking, and bug-free browsing that our clients love using to achieve their business goals. This is our routine.
What elevates routine to a ‘process’ is adaptability. When our methods are no longer set in stone, we can position ourselves to change based on the needs of any individual client, without forfeiting the core practices that make our work great and our clients happy. With that said, welcome to the Headspace Process series, where we will explore and explain our process, to shed a bit of light on what we do and how we do it.
The first step to our process is the kick-off meeting. This meeting is where the entire project sees its beginnings and gives us the opportunity to get to know our clients and their business. Without this insight, we’d be designing uninformed, and getting to know you is really part of the fun. Our kick-off will always involve your point of contact on the web design itself, and anyone else who brings relevant business-specific experience or knowledge to the table. Some clients prefer to have their entire board of directors and every corner of the office attend, but this can get tricky. Too many cooks in the kitchen is an idiom we work to avoid.
The meeting will typically break down into six conversation components. We like to start with who you are, what you do, and who your target audience is. A general sense of your business will gear us up to start thinking about the bigger picture and the goal of your website.
Usability is key. How you’d like your users to be engaging with your site and where you’d like them to wind up (purchase pages, subscription fields, or contact forms) takes us into your website’s goals. Measuring your progress, the calls to action for your market, your primary competitors, and any prior analytics you’d like us to review will all be discussed. Analytics will also provide us with a great overview of how your users are using your current site, what pages they visit most often, with what devices and from where geographically. For more on Analytics, check out our blog post.
We can’t stress enough the importance of choosing a brand design that you’re consistent with. Consider designs and guidelines that you find attractive, seek out inspiration, and then set the tone for your digital presence. We’ll discuss different optimal design practices, and take your ideal visuals from concept to actuality. Show us what inspires you, tell us what you want, and together we can create something pretty extraordinary. We don't expect you to be the design experts, that what you hired us for, but we do need direction.
Once we have the design in mind, it’s time to discuss building the 'soul' of your website. Of course, we’re talking about its content. We can make the most attractive website with modern effects and best practices, but skillfully developed content that leaves its mark with your audience will achieve something meaningful and makes your site worth returning to. Our Copywriter can get familiar with your audience and produce a healthy stream of interesting content, or you can have your own writers on staff attend the kick-off - but whatever you do, don’t overlook content. It will be the fuel source of any type of website you hope to build.
Every project has timelines. Whether they’re loose or specific, we’ll need to know what they are and if an event or launch is driving your interest in having a site developed in the first place. How quickly you make us aware of these dates and provide us with feedback along the way will determine when we can deliver, so keep us informed!
We’ll usually part ways by ensuring steady communication and project management methods are established. Collaboration is the only way to ensure a project’s grand success, and gives us a point of contact for additional questions, reference, and decisions. Now that our thoughts and feelings have been spilled onto the Headspace table, we’ll collect that raw information to create a brief summarizing all we’ve discussed. A strategy map, if you will.
The meeting may be over, but from here, things get really interesting. Stay tuned for part two!
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