What happens before a website goes into production?

What happens before a website goes into production?

Mike Hall | 14/10/2009

Pre-production

At Wiliam, we have coined the phrase Pre-production for the work carried out before the graphical design and subsequent build of a web site. Pre-production encompasses both information design and usability design.

Information Design:

Information Design or Information Architecture is the logical extension of traditional Architecture, into a digital medium.
It can be seen as the structure and organisation of a website's content into definable categories assisted by a logical intuitive navigation system. It helps people successfully find and manage the content of a site.
After the site architecture has been outlined the Usability Designers and then the Graphic Designers can then create the user interface to support this design structure.
The tools used include: Project Initiation Document, Competitor Analysis, Competitor Content Audits, Expert Reviews, Card Sorting, Dendrogram, Affinity Diagrams, Workflow Diagrams, Focus Groups, User Testing, Business Goal Identification, Business Logic Diagrams, User Goal Identification, Scenarios, Personas and User Journeys.

Usability Design:

Usability Design or Interaction design focuses on maximising the user’s experience at the site, by making the flow of information and interaction as seamless and friendly as possible.
Usability design encourages the correct sorts of interactions between users and the website. It facilitates both the user and business goals of the site. It is designed to reduce the memory load required to use the site and hence make it easier to use. It focuses on consistency, workflow-based navigation and easy learn-ability.
The tools used include: Wireframes, Online Prototypes (both low and high fidelity) and Functional Specifications.

tags: Information Architecture ,  User Experience