Step 1: Communication
We believe that good design always begins with good communication. Blackstripe makes every effort to discuss your project with you and help you determine the best next-steps. Typical things that we like to discuss with you are related to functionality of your product, who your target audience is, and what you are ultimately trying to achieve.
Step 2: Study
After we have discussed your project in detail, we like to study the information. This way, we are able to come up with solutions that are more tailored to your specific needs. We may come back to you with questions, or inform you that we have enough information to provide you with a proposal.
Step 3: Proposal
The process of creating a proposal for you takes about 2-3 business days. We include a summary of the project, the details of the project, and an itemized list of requirements that we receive from you. Our proposal breaks down the process further for you, and gives you a chance to review our timeline.
Step 4: User Interaction Design
User interaction design is something that is not always necessary (if not, skip to step 5). If your project has any type of special functionality, we recommend a set of wireframes in order to flush out the details. A wireframe is somewhat like a digital sketch, but much more clear and easily understood. By using the wireframe process, we are able to save time by mapping out the functionality before spending excessive time on visual design.
Step 5: Visual Design
We typically provide several concept designs of one piece of the project in order to get a variety of designs to choose from. In the concept phase of the visual design process, we discuss what you do and do not like, what you would like to change, and give you a sense of the design direction that we feel works for your project. We then refine a chosen concept and create a final design. With multiple pages we typically break the pages into groups, and do incremental reviews until the project is signed off and approved.
Step 6: HTML/CSS
The HTML/CSS portion of your project is important because this is what styles your pages. It is always a good idea to allow your design team to manage this process and then pass the HTML/CSS to your development team. If you do not have a development team, Blackstripe provides development service as well.
