Stage 1. Planning
The first stage consists of planning and detailed project analysis. At this stage all requirements and details of the website should be discussed. The more thoroughly the project is thought out, the fewer problems will arise in the future. At this stage the site text and images; logos, photography, illustrations and diagrams, should be discussed and sourced. If the client is providing the text it should be supplied or briefed to copywriters. The first stage duration is about 1—3 weeks.
Stage 2. Design
After the first stage completion, the client and Tangent understand what functions the project requires. The second stage is focussed on web and graphic design. Our designer creates at least three home and three typical page concept designs, based on the customer’s requirements. The brand design or corporate identity should dictate the overall feel of the site in terms of colour palette, typography and tone of voice. These designs are created as live web pages and are sent for client approval. At this stage we hide the website designs from search engines, so they are not visible publicly. Stage 2 duration depends on the project scale and can vary from about 1—4 weeks.
Stage 3. Site development
Taking on board feedback from the client we develop the approved concepts into fully featured pages and use these as templates for the remaining pages of the website. This approach helps create a consistent design for the whole website that holds it together as an entity. The text, images and functionality are positioned and deployed as required. Pages are sent for approval individually, in sections or on a whole site basis, as appropriate. This stage takes approximately the same period of time as design development—from 1 week up to 1 month and depends solely on the project size. The work can be accelerated if additional developers are involved in the process. However, this will certainly increase the cost of the project. Extras are costed at our hourly rate of £50.00/hour.
Stage 4. Function development
This phase is one of the most important ones, being time and workforce consuming. The team launches the process of adding all the required functonality. This might include e-commerce, membership functionality, a jobs board, a blog, chatbots, contact forms, user logins, the list is very extensive. WordPress provides a huge amount of fuctionality via paid and free plugins. In every specific circumstances extra functionality can be provided by bespoke coding. At this stage e-commerce products, shopping basket and payments functionality/integration would be added as well. Duration of this development stage is from 1 month and up to 6—9 months.
Stage 5. Testing
Before this phase beginning, we would have already completed an alpha version of the project. There still may be lots of bugs and errors. In order for the site to work properly, we perform functional testing and stress testing. In our approach, we use both manual and automated testing to provide the best result for our clients. As a result, you will receive the full working version of the project. Testing phase duration can be from 1 week up to 1 month.
Stage 6. Implementation
At this stage, once the site is signed-off, we will launch the site. We point the domain name(s) at the app and go from test mode to live. We also add an SSL certificate and test any contact forms. Your project is then available to everyone around the globe.
Phase 7. Support & Maintenance
After launching the project we recommend that we continue to maintain and monitor the site for you to keep it functioning perfectly. We can also discuss further functionality and content.