Our Methodology

Designing for the Web

Graphic design is important, but usability is the key.

The visual design of your website, sometimes referred to as its look and feel, says much about your company. However, the key to making sure your users get the most out of your website has less to with funky graphics than it does with usability.

The SitePoint team knows what works on the Web -- and what doesn't.

The Front-end Interface Development process is divided into three distinct stages:

1. Information Architecture
2. Design
3. Production

Information Architecture

Usability is a key factor in the success of a Website, and SitePoint pays particular attention to the creation of an intuitive experience for your site's users. As such, we prefer to begin the design phase by addressing the site's information architecture.

Through the information architecture development phase, we identify the best ways to present the site’s content and achieve optimum usability and accessibility. During this process, SitePoint will produce simple diagrams that map the site's information flow and hierarchy. 

Graphic Design

Once the information architecture is agreed upon, one of our experienced designers will introduce colour, branding and other graphic devices to develop the site's ‘look and feel’.

In developing the design of the website, SitePoint seeks input from the client to determine the design objectives. Considerations might include:

• Existing logo
• Supplied style guides
• Examples of other websites

SitePoint will produce a visual concept (in GIF or JPEG format, viewable in any browser) that defines the look and feel of the site's landing page. SitePoint will present the concept to the client for approval, and any feedback will be integrated into the final design.

Production

Upon approval of the concept, SitePoint will proceed with the development of the website in line with the approved front-end design.

This stage includes several steps:

1. Page layouts are created in CSS and XHTML.
2. Necessary graphics, illustrations, photos, title graphics, graphical links, logos, etc. are developed.
3. New imagery is manipulated and compressed in order to optimise it for the Web environment.
4. The new design is integrated with the Content Management System.

Quality and Standards

The quality and standards considerations address the areas of:

• Web Standards
• Accessibility
• Compatibility

Web Standards

SitePoint develops websites to the highest possible standards: XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 1&2.

XHTML1.0 is the current incarnation of HTML, and is widely supported by the majority of web browsers. 

CSS layouts are the future of web design and development. Working hand-in-hand with XHTML compliance, CSS layouts move away from table-based layouts and other hacks used by web developers to overcome their frustrations with the previous generation of web browsers. CSS layouts successfully separate content from presentation.

Benefits include:

• A faster loading website and lower hosting costs due to smaller file sizes.
• A forward-compatible, device-independent site that will work well on everything from PCs, to hand-held devices, to Internet-enabled refrigerators.
• Improved access to search-engine spiders.
• A highly accessible Website.
• Centralisation of the location of the site's presentational elements.

Accessibility

SitePoint also recommends that clients choose to have their websites built to the Accessibility Guidelines specified by the Web Accessibility Initiative. Conformance to these Guidelines has benefits for all users, and helps to make websites more accessible to users with disabilities.

Compatibility

SitePoint solutions are optimised for all World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards-compliant browsers on the Windows, Mac OS and Linux platforms. Compliant browsers include:

• Internet Explorer 5 and above
• Netscape Navigator 6 and above
• Firefox and Mozilla 1 and above
• Opera 7.2 and above
• Safari

Our solutions degrade gracefully in text-based and legacy browsers, such as Netscape 4.

SitePoint offers clients a number of ready-made solutions that meet the common requirements of content management, intranet/extranet, and ecommerce systems. However, we also focus heavily on custom Web application development, which enables SitePoint to deliver purpose-built solutions that meet the distinct needs of each client.

The Database Application Development process is divided into three distinct stages:

1. Model Development
2. Database Design
3. PHP Library Development

Model Development

The first step is to plan the underlying architecture of the system. This involves the determination of the system’s scope, from which we cultivate the relationships between various components, including:

• Functional interactions between separate modules
• Data interchange within internal system modules
• Data interchange between our application and our external systems

Database Design

Upon completion of the model development, the first back-end production stage is the initial database schema development. SitePoint generally utilises MySQL or PosgreSQL for Web application development, as these database systems facilitate an easily extensible data framework that's well suited to rapid prototyping.

The initial database schema facilitates the next stage of development, at which PHP libraries enter the equation. The schema also allows the model’s suitability to be further evaluated and refined through the more detailed consideration of data output requirements.

PHP Library Development

Comprising the bulk of the back-end development work, this stage involves the design and implementation of the API libraries that comprise the framework and functionality of the site as a whole.

This process includes full documentation of the system, including both code-level (PHPDoc-style) and overview “road-map” style documents.

In-Development Testing

SitePoint’s testing process is to develop in a “test often, release often” style, allowing the client to witness the evolution and implementation of functional requirements as they become available. This approach is facilitated by the provision of a staging server, which allows developments to be publicly viewed and tested, subject to appropriate user authentication.

This process ensures that both SitePoint and the client are always at a mutual understanding and agreement of the projects’ progress, and can be confident that all functional requirements are met at appropriate milestones. 

In this approach, any problems or miscommunications are exposed sooner, rather than later within the development life-cycle, and can therefore be resolved swiftly and effectively.

Milestone User Acceptance Testing

As the major phases of the development are completed, they're submitted to the client for acceptance testing. Clients sign off on each milestone as completed in line with the stated requirements once they're satisfied with SitePoint’s implementation.