BlueTree Website Design Procedure

Here we discuss your website design objectives and requirements. We'll discuss to your agenda, but would like to cover things like,

• Your target market and locality;
• Why you need a new website and how it fits with your marketing strategy;
• Your aspirations for the new site, opportunities you'd like to persue;
• Your budget and expectations.

We like to meet our clients face to face, take a look around the factory, and get a feel for the business generally. We often get good ideas at this stage, like photo or movie opportunities that we can use on your site or in the design.

Should you decide to go ahead, we usually sign a Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement, or NDA, after the kick-off meeting. This protects both your business interests and our trade secrets.

We'll ask you to supply information which will help us propose the right plan for you - first time:

• A list of your competitors, so we can understand your market and see what you're up against;
• Printed marketing documents, including brochure, compliment slip, business card, so we can match your company image;
• Recent press releases, articles and other material that might be published on the Internet already; this helps us come up with a design that suits you;
• A few websites that you like and a few that you don't, so we don't have to go around the design loop too many times.

Based upon the information we've gleaned so far, we will propose a website development plan and a list of deliverables. This usually includes,

• One or two home page designs, delivered in JPEG form, so we don't waste time building a website you might not like;
• A site map, the initial pages you will build on the site (remember, you'll be doing this yourself unless you prefer us to do it for you);
• A list of web page templates that you'll use to build your site; templates give you plenty of flexibility but ensure the pages you create maintain the site's design standards;
• A list of other components from our library (such as the logic that makes navigation easy to update using the CMS), that will be included on the site;
• A fixed price for the design, development and testing phases.

We may also suggest some optional extras if we think them appropriate.

If you like and agree with the proposal, then we'll expect a purchase order or similar document confirming that the proposal describes and meets your requirements.

This step is important because it ensures that we all know what will be delivered and how much it will cost. It also sets the boundaries of what will be done, and guards against "mission creep."

If you find the proposal unsatisfactory, then we hope you'll discuss the problems with us and give us an opportunity to correct them.

We usually ask for a one-third deposit from new clients. This protects our investment in the project to date, which will be quite extensive by now.

Naturally, if, at the end of the project, you find our website design unacceptable and there's nothing we can do to remedy it, we'll give back your deposit.

If you're not happy with our home page design for your site, then we'll have another go.  And another...

We'd like to say we'll keep trying forever until we reach a design you like, but we reserve the right to draw a line at some point. After this we charge for each further iterations. We've never had to do this, but the time may come.

This is our go-ahead to start developing the site.

A website is a piece of software, and the software industry is renowned for late deliveries and cost overruns. These formalities help us to avoid problems like these.

This is the hard-work, techie stage of the project. We'll use dummy content for testing, but if you have copy we'll use it, reducing the work you have to do later.

For complex logic, we write "pseudocode" first, to speed up development and reduce the number of bugs.

We build a test plan and design specific test data to make sure we cover all the bases. You can use the same plan for your own testing, though we suggest you develop your own test data.

During this stage we'll develop designs for the subsidiary page templates. We'll follow the same procedure for these as we did for the home page. You'll need to confirm each design, as before.

If you have decided upon it, now is the time for you to buy Adobe Contribute, our chosen Content Management System, or CMS. You'll need a copy for each computer from which you want to update your website.

You can usually get a discount by shopping around, especially if you're a teacher or college student.

We'll deliver the website to your own private area on our website. This is a password protected region on our site to which only you and we have access.

Here you can test it or even build your entire site. We'll fix any errors (hopefully none!) you find, or tweak bits of the design - within reason!

If you have opted for it, we'll attend your premises for a couple of hours and show your staff how to update your website. We'll also explain your BlueTree Site Admin page, which contains CMS hints and tips and links to pages where you update site-wide elements like template headers, footers, and navigation.

Once you are happy with the design, we will invoice the full payment, less a small retainer. This retention is intended to give you confidence that we'll honour our commitment to fix any problems that might crop up during the next 30 days.

After the money has appeared in out bank account we'll deliver the site to your ISP and you can start to use it.

For existing clients we will deliver at time of invoice, before payment is received. However, we'll expect prompt payment: we're a small business and we can't afford to lend money to our customers.

Just in case you encounter any errors, we're on hand to fix them promptly for one month from the date of delivery. Let us know by phone or email.

We can usually help with CMS problems as well if you have any.

After 30 days the retention payment becomes due. We request you pay promptly, as before.

The initial support period stops after 30 days.

After this, we're happy to answer the occasional email, should you get in a fix with your website. However, if you experience more than a few problems, we reserve the right to charge for fixes at our current rate.

If you'd like the comfort of a guaranteed one working day turnaround and any number of calls a month, please join our website maintenance scheme.