When an idea comes to mind to liven up your website, or to bring in a new element altogether, we want to see results immediately. You contact your web designer and tell them all the glorious ideas you have, the colors, the text you want, and possibly the font! The job of the website designer is to bring these ideas into reality, but unfortunately, this does take time. Writing the code, finding these fonts, and creating the design for your website takes more than just a few hours, it takes weeks. But trust us, that time is well spent.
Why Does Creating a Website Take So Long?
While some projects just naturally flow faster than others, designers want to see only the best of their work make it to your eyes, then to your audience. While the old saying goes “people work better under pressure” with designing websites, that is definitely not the case! Your simple idea, no matter how detailed you may have been in your brief, still has to go through four critical stages:
- Research & Strategy
- UX/UI Design & Development
- Testing
- Launch and Deployment
These four steps must be taken no matter what change is being made to the website. Depending on the project, it can be very simple, however, if you are redoing a section of the page, the edited content must flow correctly, as well as be ‘bug-free’.
Why Can No Step Be Skipped?
All too often we fall under the assumption that if we have a base design in place, adding on to it will be quite easy. This is not always the case. The content must flow with the design, graphics may have to be adjusted and we also have to look at the impact on any SEO that we have in place. Most importantly, we need to make sure that the design of the page still conveys the message that it was intended to project.
Another important step that customers undervalue is the testing phase. On the outside, the website will look spectacular! But for every change that’s made we need to ensure that it works properly from the desktop all the way down to the phone. Browser testing is also another area that cannot be ignored. We all know Internet Explorer never plays nice. Testing is one of the most time-consuming elements, and cannot (or should not) be rushed for the sake of your professional reputation.
Take A Moment To Plan
Before you give a deadline to your designer, it is important to ask yourself what is the true deadline for this project. If you need it in three days, you may have needed it a lot longer back. Rushing a project for the sake of meeting a personal or business goal is not the way you should approach the project in mind. Instead, ask your designer the timeline they think they can complete the project in. Urgency and "rushed" are two very different things, and will create very different results.
When it comes to your website, having a clean user experience, engaging content, and error free pages is the goal. Your web designer can give you this, as long as you allow them to work their craft. You run the business and know what it needs; your designer knows how long it will take to get you there. Trust in the timeline they suggest, and if you need it sooner, be realistic. In this day and age, communication is key. Talk to your designer today, and set up a plan for your project.
