The Following questions will help us get a better idea of where to go with your site and what to focus around. Taking the time now to anserw the questions wil save countless hours later.

How many html "pages" will comprise the site?
An exact amount is nescassary but a ball park figure would be nice. Also try to break up the website into multiple pages, primary, secondary and so forth.

Will the site have Flash?
Flash is great tool for interactive website and for addding artistic touches such as animation to websites. However, costs of the web project may increase with flash being added for multiple reasons. Many users dont want to take the time or arent comfortable with downloading the flash plugin. This causes some problems becuase a HTML version of the site needs to be created to allow ALL users to view site. But since flash has been around for about 6 years, all new browsers come standard with the flash plugin installed.

What kind of home page do you want?
Do you want a type solution only? Imagery? Colors ? Working within the style on your advertising and
marketing campaign?

Graphic and Multimedia Design

What kind of navigation and information architecture do you need for the site?
Information architecture is how the site is structured so content is retrieved easily. Navigation obviously, is how
you get there. The crucial aspect of information architecture is to prioritize the information; in relationship to the
site, each section and each page.

- Will the site have a search engine?
- Will the site have forms?
- Will the site accumulate names and information?
- Does the site have a database on it?
- Can you purchase anything on the site?
- Will users view videos or hear audio from your website?

After giving this information to the sale contact, you should be able to get a pretty accurate quote.

Step 2 – Reviewing your Quote

When reviewing your website, it’s important to look at value not cost. Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples. The bot-tom line question to answer is, "Can they get this job done for me on time and on budget."

Step 3 – The Discovery Meeting

If the quote seems good, and your ready to rock then block out an hour and set up a discovery meeting. At the meeting, the designers and programmers will ask a few dozen questions ranging from, "What sites do you like, and why?" to the themes of the site. The designer must walk away from the meeting with a very clear vision of what you want to accomplish with your site.

Step 4 – Review JPEGs of Home and Secondary Pages

Approximately a week after the discovery meeting, you’ll review 2 to 3 proofs to look at and decide on. Corresponding to each of the home pages designs will be a jpeg that will show what a secondary page will look like. There are usually a couple of rounds of changes until a design is set. Remember however to stay within budget on the proofs.

Step 5 – Review of Working HTML Pages

After a design is selected, a working HTML home page and matching secondary page is created. Here are elements on the home page must be checked and the navigation confirmed. Approve carefully, changes not made now and made ofter site is completed will not be covered in the initial quote.

Step 6 – Content drop-in

Welcome to the longest part of the process! After the home page and one secondary page are approved, all text and imagery (content) must be given to designers to be dropped in. Inevitably, this is the longest part of the process (no matter how small the site) because of approvals. Here, also, search engines, forms, extra flash or html, asp, data-bases, etc. are all put in.

Step 7 – Review and Test

Simply put, try to break the site. The site needs to be tested on multiple browsers (IE and Netscape), multiple plat forms (PC and MAC), all the navigation links as well as search engines, forms, and databases need to be checked. Send the site to as many people as you can and start making a list of changes..

Step 8 – Website Registration / Hosting &Upload on server

Now we have to register your URL and set up a hosting service for you, if you dont already have one. Elmhurst Design offers many different Hosting Packages that you can choose from. If using a different company for hosting, then we will need some info from you. The Informationt that we will need is.

-FTP Address
- Username
- Password.

Step 9 – Maintenance

Obviously, a good site is well maintained with fresh content. Don’t assume that your team can’t do any of the
updates. The web developer should handle navigation, programming, updating artwork and layout. However, simple – html only pages can be set up as templates and updated handily by you or someone on your staff and quickly uploaded to the site. However if you choose to make updates yourself, be careful of changing the navigation, programming, and layout. It is pretty easy to cause images and webpage to be distorted. You may have to pay to have errors made by you or your company fixed.