Needing an intranet site that people would use, we designed a structure and templates for them to use with Sharepoint... more >
- Birdsall Social Media Blog featured on Alltop.com
- You know you've hit the big leagues when Guy Kawasaki's office calls you to make a comment on your Blog.(...) more >
- Dream Foundation gets a Facebook Page
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Birdsall Interactive built a Facebook page for the Dream Foundation.
For this project, Birdsall interactive developed the Facebook page with the same look and feel as their current web site.(...) more >
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HOW WE DO IT
Client Need Assessment
After receiving an RFP, the Birdsall team reviews and assesses the client's requests. When responding to the specifics of an RFP, we'll often suggest new ideas that we feel could be of further benefit to the client.
Research and Knowledge Collection
This phase occurs in tandem with steps 1 and/or 3. We take it upon ourselves to research the targeted industry and gain competitor insights. We'll also collect information about your customer demographics and the effectiveness of past marketing efforts.
Audience profiling/clustering
Using available data and industry research (provided by the client), Birdsall will subdivide and prioritize the various audiences within your target market in order to determine what type of site will reach the most people without exceeding technical requirements.
Analyze marketplace trends
Using available data and leading viewpoints, Birdsall will identify and examine important trends in the targeted industry's on-line marketplace.
Kick Off Meeting
This crucial meeting, addressing all the various issues of the site's future look and feel, gives our creative team the opportunity to further understand what the client is seeking. During this time, we may also deal with project management issues, such as the establishment a single point of contact for each team and the creation a project time-line. Our goal in this meeting is to set the expectation levels for both your team and ours as well as explain the process by which Birdsall will operate to complete the project.
Schedule
The schedule will be driven primarily by the completion date that you have selected. Though most projects will offer some flexibility, rush projects usually require tight deadlines with immovable dates. We'll let you know what kind of schedule you have when it's created. Keep in mind that it is vital that clients provide feedback, artwork, and content on time, as often Birdsall will not be able to push ahead otherwise.
Scope Document
The scope document will provide a summary of items discussed in the kick-off meeting and an outline of the work be done on the project. This is the most important pre-production item, as it insures that the final product will meet your requirements. This document will supercede any previous scope documents that may have been generated, as it will include information that was previously unavailable.
Design Phase
Once we have an approved scope document and information architecture, we can move forward with the actual design of the project. The initial comps require the following elements to get underway:
- logo in .eps or similar format
- graphic standards (if applicable)
- home page content
- signed scope document
Content Flow
After the graphical layout of the site has been completed, it's time to flow the content. This is often the client's most difficult deliverable, as it needs to be created from scratch or pulled from a number of existing resources and generally must be reviewed by several people before it is approved. Unfortunately, when clients don't provide content on schedule everything can get pushed back including the launch date, which is why it's important for clients to focus on content creation while we're working on the UI and design. Once content is flowed, there will be time to make minor revisions and edits.
QA Testing
Once we have completed any content edits, it is time to QA your final site. Although we test the everything as we progress, this stage gives us a final opportunity to double check functionality and find any unnoticed errors. Tests are conducted on a PC running Netscape 4.7 and IE 5.0 unless your project specifies other browsers.
Approval and Delivery
Upon completion of the testing phase, we will ask for your final approval of the site. Once it is given, all applicable files will be turned over to you in the manner requested (transfer to your web server, send via email, etc.) and you can launch your new site.
