Return to Expertise

Our Process

1. Discovery

During Discovery our team meets with stakeholders to determine project scope and establish the objectives.

Contensive provides creative association web design, strategic branding, user experience consulting, Information Architecture review and input, wire-frame prototyping, brand messaging, online marketing and content organization strategies to support your organizations online goals.

Discovery Design Goals

• Create content delivery structure that addresses multiple audiences, each with unique needs.
• Design user friendly navigation system and with multiple page layout formats for scalability.

Discovery UI Goals

Understand informational and functional needs of target audience(s) and define how they will interact with the website.

• Clearly establish the specific goals for each user group.
• Determine how success will be measured.

The end result of discovery is to develop the Creative Strategy and Technical Requirements Document which is the blueprint for the website design and the implementation strategy, leveraging the comprehensive social networking, online marketing and programming features of Contensive CMS to automate information sharing, and reduce administrative burden. These documents include a detailed project plan outlining tasks, needed resources and critical paths for site launch.

2. Design

During the association web design phase we utilize the creative brief developed in Discovery to guide the direction of your organizations online opportunity. We work with your staff to review and conduct an analysis of your source content, such as; provided presentations, materials, surveys, recommended websites, case studies, and testimonials.

Wire-frame Development

• Provide user experience reviews through wire-frame prototypes of each main user group.
• Develop wire-frame prototypes for content review of all main sections with brand messaging and promotional “calls to action.
• Provide user interface design directions/creative mock-ups for review/discussion and modifications + 2 revisions

After the wire-frames are approved we move into the actual design/art stage. We provide image research, iconographic options for navigational aids, fonts, stylization and color palette that works within your brand standards including:

Website Design & Brand Integration

• Web production of Advanced CSS Style Sheets, HTML/XHTML and graphics of approved User Interface templates,
• Create multi-use templates for specialized page applications such as mobile devices
• Backwards Compatibility browser testing to ensure a consistent delivery of look and feel.

3. Implementation

During this phase our programming engineers build out all functionality based on TRD and wire-frames. They set up the back-office database and develop any synchronization strategies to legacy databases (if needed). Working with the design team the engineers develop all of the customized add-ons, and install any standard add-ons that will be necessary to meet the requirements in the Technical Requirement Document to deliver the most powerful and flexible CMS system for associations and non-profits.

Implementation

• In the development stage the Client Technical Contact will be the main point of communication with the client. The Client Technical Contact needs to be available to answer any questions during implementation. During this period the Account Manager will ensure the Client Technical Contact is kept up to date on all development activities.
• When the development is complete internal Alpha Testing begins. Alpha testing is performed by the developer to verify all features are included and can be demonstrated. Once completed the project is transferred to a live Staging Server and Q/A begins.
• QA is performed by the Quality Assurance manager and guarantees the project conforms to the TRD and wire-frames. Once complete the project is turned over to the Account Manager to present the Client Technical Contact for Customer Acceptance.
• The Customer Acceptance is where the client performs acceptance testing in the staging environment. Customer acceptance testing is complete when the client signs the “work is complete, authorization to publish” form.

4. Site Launch

Deployment occurs when the project has QA, Project manager, Development, and customer acceptance. The Developer then publishes any remaining changes to the production server. We work with you to ensure your DNS is set up correctly, schedule the switch then test again to make sure everything works the way you expect it to work.