The purpose of the brief is to get an accurate definition of your business and growth goals. The client explains their business, target audience, and the goals of the website – is it supposed to wow a young visitor with exciting imagery and modern videos? Or is its function to allow no-nonsense online shopping for an average parent?

Through research and brainstorming sessions, Juniper will outline ideas and concepts for the website that would fit the client’s specifications. An important part of this is usually the information architecture, which basically defines how the content will be structured throughout the website and how a visitor will access it.

This is the step where the website starts to take shape. Juniper will now have all the data needed to start working on the actual look of this project. Depending on the size and scope of the project, we select several pages to be designed and shared with the client, along with a style guide for the overall website.

Once the designs are approved both internally and by the client, we move into development. WordPress is generally our content management system (CMS) of choice – along with about half the internet. It’s mobile-friendly and, most importantly, easy for our clients to update and maintain post-launch and into the future.

Quality Assurance is a vital role after development is complete. At this stage, we test everything internally and allow the client an opportunity to test the site fully before launch. This allows us to pinpoint specific issues directly on the live (staging) site and keeps the testing phase of work as efficient as possible.

Finally, we flip the switch and the website is live! We make it sound so simple but it’s a refined process that ensures both a smooth launch and smooth handoff to the client for ongoing management. With all clients, we run through comprehensive content management training, demonstrating how to update content and manage the site internally.