Putting the Pieces Together
At DDA, most new website projects take a long time to complete — longer than one might think. Now, of course, that’s not because we’re slow, or lazy, or don’t take our clients seriously. As our testimonials page proves, taking care of our clients is what we do best, especially when it comes to website design and development. It’s just that for a website to be done right, it needs to be well thought out, with a well-planned menu, intuitive design, and highly developed content. And it usually needs at least one piece from every department and specialty here at DDA — whether it’s copywriting, programming, graphic design, animation, video, or search engine optimization (SEO).
Because of this process, when a site does launch, it’s sometimes hard to remember that first kickoff meeting with a client, or the initial website designs. But that’s not the case with the exciting new website we’re hoping to launch before Thanksgiving.
This site has required hundreds of hours of detailed programming, plenty of graphic design elements, video editing, Flash animation, and some editing and content development, just to name a few things. But thanks to the hard work of everyone here at DDA, we’re in the middle of the “touch-up” stage on this site, even after just two months. Changing some code here, fixing a programming glitch there, and testing functionality everywhere. And through all of the communication with our client, it appears that they are very happy with the direction of the project, and will hopefully be blown away by the finished product.
This short timeline makes it easy to remember the first few meetings with the client, which included a strong vision on their part, and a thick stack of paper illustrating each page of the complex database system. Our lead programmer Amy drew them up after consulting the client’s material and taking plenty of notes in those meetings, and it turns out she’s just as good at writing with old-fashioned pen and paper as she is at writing line after line of code.
As every piece has come together, it’s been exciting from my seat here as project coordinator, because I get to see the site grow before my eyes, then send everything to the client for feedback. The finish line is in sight for this project, and we can’t wait to launch what should be an exciting and useful website. So for now, it’s back to work, because there’s still much to do before the weekend arrives!
Entry by: Steve