Why Development is Essential to Our Design Process?
Design In Chicago Explained
By Nadine Foty
Although we are named Design In Chicago, we cannot underestimate the importance of development to our overall process and our successes with various clients. We are a part of an age that sees the development field rapidly expanding, faster than any other technology based career, which is evidence of the extreme importance of development to the digital universe. For this reason, it is important to understand what exactly development is and how it impacts the experience of users on any given website or web application.
Although it is a complex process that incorporates many different elements, in short, web development is the term used to describe the actual building and programming of websites and applications. This can include front-end, back-end, full-stack development among others. Depending on the task at hand, web developers use different types of code or programming languages in order to develop a given website or app.
Design In Chicago offers a wide array of web development services. Some of these services include hosting and maintenance, customer web app development, Design In Chicago Customizations, Content Management Systems (CMS) migrations, digital marketing services, among others. Our team consists of highly qualified and certified development experts based in Chicago. Our developers are well versed in an array of systems including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Craft Web Development.
Whenever you visit any given website, you are entering the world of a web developer, who built those sites to ensure the best user experience and that everything functions properly and efficiently. The developer’s goal is to engage the user through various online experiences that facilitate education and connection. At Design In Chicago, our team of developers are committed to ensuring that the user is fully equipped with all they need to have the best experience on any given site.
In order to proceed to the development stage with ease, there is some preparatory work involved that allows the goals of a given client to be clear so that it can streamline the whole process. First, there has to be a clear plan and goal in mind. Some important questions to consider are: What is the overall goal of the website? Who will be visiting your website and what do you want them to take from the website? How will the structure of the website ensure an easy and navigable user experience? After some brainstorming, one can proceed to the wireframes, which are essentially a gray scale visual map of the website including text, images, and all the web pages.
After this is complete, we proceed to the creation of the sitemap which is a more detailed diagram of the content on the site. This process is very important to the developer because it makes the overall goal of the website clear so that the coding and programming can be informed by what the ideal user experience on the site is. In this stage, one should consider the number of pages they want, what content will be on those pages, which pages are most important for the user, and which pages or categories are not necessary and essential to the overall vision of the site. The next step, we enter into the back end development phase which includes writing in the code, incorporating the database management system, which is essentially how the website will process and use data, as well as where the website will be hosted. Next, is the front end development, which is the user facing side of the website, including what the user will see including images, animations, or other interactive features, as well as how one is able to use the site. The front end development also includes all the necessary fonts that will be used on the website as well as browser responsiveness and navigation. At this point, you are now ready to establish a domain name, and then launch the site. But before you do the launch, developers will double check and test your site to make sure there are not any problems in order to ensure that the user has an easy, enjoyable experience.
Afterall the main point of development is to make sure that all the elements of the website are then translated to a user-friendly website that is clear and allows the user to accomplish what they intended to do. We have outlined here a more general approach to development, but at Design In Chicago we have customized and specific steps that are catered to each of our clients specific needs so that the site is helping to convert users into potential customers. Chicago is a hub of diversity and it is thus important that our developers are able to cater to the complexities of the user identity. It must be an easy to follow streamlined process while at the same time acknowledge and cater to diverse identities and perspectives. Given that our team at Design In Chicago are diverse themselves, we are able to understand that all users are not the same, and that it is important to have the flexibility to cater to these different outlooks especially in our ever- evolving and increasingly digital world.