Things To Consider When Determining Website Cost

Written by on August 23, 2011 in Design, Miscellaneous - No Comments

It’s not uncommon to have potential clients ask “What does it cost to build a website?” and as you’re probably aware, this is not an easy question to answer. There are many factors that need to be taken into consideration when quoting the development of a website project or any design project for that matter.

Each project can have various components and elements that will determine the time and materials necessary to create the final product. Below are a list of things to consider when calculating the cost of a website.

Content

  • Are you able to supply content in a format suitable for the web or do you need help with copy writing?
  • Do you have an existing content management system we need to work with?
  • Do you have your copy and has it been checked by your legal and compliance teams?
  • Do you need to integrate third-party services/APIs such as Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps etc?
  • Do you need to integrate video and if so, does that video need to be encoded for multiple devices?
  • How many different types of content does the site need to have?
  • Who will enter the site’s content?
  • Does your site need to have content fed from an external database?
  • Will you provide pictures or should the budget cover purchase of stock photography?
  • Do you want FB, Twitter, other Social Media Plugins interacting with visitors on site – do they have special requirements?
  • Would you like to incorporate user-submitted content, and how do you see it being utilized on the site?

Design

  • Do you have suitable images or do you need us to source images or provide photography for you?
  • Does your brand need creating as part of the website build?
  • How many page templates require bespoke design?
  • How much scope is there for pre-design planning (i.e. creating an information architecture) and how often is this likely to be reviewed?
  • Do you have a company logo or will it have to be created within budget?
  • Is it going to be Flash, CSS or Hybrid?
  • Do you wish to have the design adapted for touch-screen devices?
  • Is this site part of a larger brand campaign or will it stand alone? What are the design considerations?

Development

  • Are you planning on including User Testing throughout the development of your site?
  • Does it have to be written in a certain language in order to be compatible with your production environment or internal systems?
  • Does the website need to scale to handle large numbers of visitors?
  • Does your intended audience include small screen users such as those on mobile phones and should they still be able to perform all the functions of your website on any device?
  • What level of browser support do you need for your website? Will this include older browsers such as IE6?
  • Any of your pages need extra security for secure online transaction(s)?
  • Is there any development you wish done for FaceBook: a page, app, ad, and/or a game?
  • Do you have a requirement to run multiple sites on multiple domains from 1 CMS?
  • Do you want your visitors to pay and enter card details directly on your website, or are you using a 3rd party, offsite service such as PayPal?
  • Is this project going to be completed in one phase, or broken down into multiple phases, each with a separate budget?

Functionality

  • Do you need any e-commerce functionality such as carts/basket, customer accounts, payment processing?
  • Do you need search facilities within your website?
  • Do you need to collect information from your visitors to store in a database?
  • Do you need us to integrate with other external systems or applications?
  • Do you require a content management system to power your site?
  • Do you require any membership features such as members-only content with registration and login facilities?
  • Have you already got a specification of features you would like to include or do you need advice and guidance from scratch?
  • Do you plan to sell products or services and require an ecommerce solution?
  • Will you need a search engine for your site?
  • Do you want a blog, RSS feed, links to social media, comments, etc.?
  • Do you want people to be able to personalise the site?
  • Do you need to integrate product reviews into the site? If so, will they be moderated? Will the reviews be displayed with a star rating?
  • Do you want the ability to add new sections, pages, subpages etc to your website through your content management system or will the architecture be fixed?
  • Do you want users to be able to signup for newsletters?
  • How many different types of access-privileges are required, for users logging in, if there is a web-engine powering it?
  • Do you need any form of reports on site usage?
  • Will you be adding downloads to the site? If so how would you like to upload and manage these – through the CMS or via FTP?

Hosting

  • Do you have your own hosting already or do you need advice on the level of hosting and redundancy to provide?
  • Will you need to us to transfer the website from your previous host?

Miscellaneous

  • Do you have any rush timescales that may require additional resource at short notice?
  • Do you need to copy data from a previous site?
  • Will you require post launch support and management?
  • If you have a site already have you tested areas where you want to improve it?
  • Have you considered the potential for re-occuring maintenance / upgrade costs?
  • What time frame would you like the site to be completed?
  • Has there already been a significant amount of research (to support user and business goals) to prop up an information architecture, or will this research have to be done from scratch?
  • Do you have specific software or hardware requirements or limitations we must work within?
  • If this is an update to an existing site, how significant are the changes to the existing design, content, and underlying technology are you anticipating?
  • Do you have written specifications and approval guidelines?
  • Are on-site meetings required? How often?
  • Will you need further training on using your website once the project is finished?
  • What is your budget?

Marketing

  • Do you actually have a marketing budget for your site?
  • Do you have a plan to market/promote the website once it’s launched?
  • Do you have a set measurable goals for your website, such as turnover, conversions or sales?
  • Will you require any on page SEO (keyword density checking) or further online marketing to assist the website further to its launch?
  • Do you need automated eMarketing, such as cross selling emails or emails triggered on certain stages (e.g. an automatic email after order dispatch to request a facebook ‘like’)?
  • Do you want an SEO analysis and a your copywriting reviewed with the keyword obtained?
  • If there are advertisements on the site who is managing & designing them?

User Experience & Improving Your Presence on the Web

Written by on May 10, 2011 in Design - No Comments

As we move deeper into a world of digital media it has become increasingly popular for people to publish content on various platforms. Basic websites, e-commerce websites, blogs and social media are amongst a few of the ways people publish information daily.

It is now easy for one to publish information on their own. Blog and social media software are affordable and easy enough for just about anyone to use. However, communicating information that is easy to understand through a pleasant user experience is another story. Making good content visually appealing and navigable takes the skills of an experienced designer. If you look at successful web businesses you’ll notice that they create enjoyable experiences for their users. This should be your goal as well.

Defining User Experience

User experience is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user has when using a product or system. It most commonly refers to a combination of software and business topics, such as displaying information on the web or mobile device.

Based on this definition, user experience is the characterization of what a user feels while using any product. This can extend from a car to an electronic device to a magazine or a child’s toy. Most commonly, the specific term user experience is applied to that of software, web applications and digital devices.

Why is This Important to Your Content?

For the sake of conversation we’ll take a look at user experience as pertaining to the web. The point of most websites is to display information in an effort to promote a product or service. Users interact with this information to arrive at deeper goals (purchases, more information, etc.). If your interface is not designed well your user experience will not be optimal. On an e-commerce site, ideally you want a user to access your information and proceed to the purchasing process as easily as possible to produce sales. By investing in the time to create a good user experience it will pay for itself in the long run.

User Experience Honeycomb

In an effort to develop a user experience that is successful you may need to review how your interface design and content performs. This can be a tough topic to tackle, however by reviewing the seven facets of a user experience you can begin to develop some answers fairly quickly.

As seen in the above diagram the seven facets reference various attributes of a user’s experience. Ask yourself the following questions to find where you can improve.

1. Is your product or service findable? – Remember that for most users, their first interaction with your product or service begins at a search engine where they attempt to find the answer to a particular need. Using techniques like search engine optimization can launch your product or service to the top of Google or Yahoo search engine results page and get you noticed.

2. Is your product or service accessible? – These days your software application or website can be accessed practically anywhere and from any device. Making your software application or website cross-platform and cross-browser compatible not only makes your software application accessible to users with disabilities, it will also open doors to users with different operating systems, browsers, and mobile devices.

3. Is your product or service desirable? – Leverage the power that identity and branding can bring to your desirability and credibility (facet #7), especially if your brand is well-established. Remember, people are very visual. Capitalize on this to make yourself desirable.

4. Is your product or service usable? – Design simply, design for your users, and keep that design consistent to make your product or service usable, especially for those users that are using your system for the first time. If your users can’t find what they need or are distracted by all the clutter on a page, how will they perform the action that you want them to with your software application (submit an order form, sign a petition, etc.)?

5. Is your product or service credible? – Establish yourself as a credible source for the product or service that you are offering. Trust is the key to persuasion. Your users need to trust you before they can be persuaded by your message.

6. Is your product or service useful? – Relevance is king. Focus your message on the reason why your users would take the time to find and access you. For instance, if your site is a digital photography site, talk about digital photography.

7. Is your product or service valuable? – If your users perceive that their overall user experience from your product provides them with value they can’t get anywhere else, they will keep coming back and may even spread the word to others about what you offer.

User experience is easily overlooked by many businesses, especially those on a tight budget. However, it can play an important role in the initial creation or redesign of your website or software application if taken into consideration initially.

Have you found a way to improve your user’s experience? If so, how?