Process
Discovery and Project Planning
ezSite approaches website projects from a strategic point of view and begins with the end in mind. We start with key discovery questions such as: “Who is the main website user?, What things will this person want to do?, What are the skills of the people who manage the site?, Who is managing the website hosting?, and How will the website’s success be measured?” Only after taking the time to thoroughly understand your organization’s needs can we then create a solution tailored to achieve your goals and project requirements.
Many of the answers gathered during our discovery interview become guidelines during the design phase and serve as a road map for every other step in the process. They also ensure that we’re creating the best solution and adding the features your users need to learn information, conduct business, and have a positive image of your organization. This step typically takes from 1 - 4 weeks and includes project tasks such as holding a kick-off meeting to learn stakeholder expectations and set the project timeline; finalizing the project Scope of Work and system requirements; and writing the Project Plan document
Usability and Graphic Design
Successful website design begins with a theme. Themes are a plan to provide a consistent look, feel and layout of your site to drive a user’s experience and impressions. Themes determine whether a user’s experience is enjoyable or frustrating. Each theme is unique and offers a variety of colors, layouts and font choices to give your site its personality. Themes also help users navigate throughout the site to make their time more productive.
ezSite creates unique website themes to help your organization achieve its branding goals. We develop site infrastructure around a navigational strategy to help users make the most of their time and have the best online experience. Effective design provides high-impact, consistent messaging, and maximizes user time. This step usually takes from 2 - 4 weeks and includes creating user scenarios and interface requirements; creating several website design themes and page layout options for customer review and approval; and collecting existing or creating new content to be published to the new site.
Software Development
Once the plan, design, features and functions of a website have been chosen, developing the site is simply a matter of engineering effort and execution. But as every experienced developer knows, having a sound project approach is key. Development consists of the setup, configuration, and customization of the content management system platform, framework and plugin features. We integrate pre-built functional modules to help keep project costs low, and create new tools when the need arises. This step can last anywhere from 3 - 8 weeks depending.
Quality Assurance and Testing
Before the software development phase is completed, quality assurance testers play an essential role in your website’s success by ensuring every part of the site has been thoroughly tested, documented and fixed according to user expectations and project plan requirements. Quality assurance testing typically takes anywhere from 2 - 4 weeks to ensure no bugs exist in the code.
Website Training and Launch
Now that your project plan has been implemented and a beta website is launched for user acceptance testing, we move your website code to the server where the site will be permanently hosted. We then begin website administrationg training sessions
network engineers go through a thorough checklist countdown to ensure your site successfully launches into the cloud without a hitch. This step can take from 1 - 3 weeks and involves hands-on training sessions conveniently conducted at your offices or conducted through our efficient on-line classes.
