Our Process

We think differently than most web design firms. Many freelancers and development agencies will recommend a generic solution, perhaps a Wordpress site, for your website needs that isn't 100% in your best interest.

A lot of developers seem to focus on what's known as 'developer experience' and this can get in the way of finding the most cost effective and forward thinking web solution. We put a process in place that allows us to serve each customer's unique situation to the best of our abilities.

Free Consultation

Everything starts here. We have to get to know you a bit before we can help you, and we like doing that, so we do it for free 😉.

Our goals for the consultation is to do the following.

1. Identify gaps in your understanding and address them.

   We want to make sure that you are totally informed before you invest a lot of capital into your web project. The web can be complex sometimes so we provide a lot of free information to help you understand what you are investing in. We also try and guide you towards the subjects that matter most with respect to your bottom line.

2. Determine your Business Needs

   We need to find out what exactly it is that you need your Web Machine to do. We have lots of ideas for what the best use cases of a website are, but talking about your specific goals puts us in the best possible position to help you leverage the web. Do you need a simple landing page to flout your brand? Do you already have a plan to drive traffic or do you need help there too? These are just a few of the things that we want you to start thinking about and help you address.

3. Discuss your budget

   No one likes to talk numbers, but its important for us to get a handle on what you want to spend and help align your expectations to what is feasible. We do this up front so that we can help you identify the best solutions for your long term success. Web sites aren't static anymore- they are constantly changing and continuiously improving machines, or they get left behind as the web technology progresses. Its important to make technology selections that are maintainable and affordable in the long term.

4. Make a plan

   The ultimate goal is to fabricate an actionable plan for moving your project forward. This lets us put some concrete steps on paper that you can consider. We can talk about your timeline goals and further inform you on the overall scope that your project will entail.

Paperwork

You have probably done a lot of thinking about your project at this point. Hopefully by this point, you have shopped around and made sure that you fully understand what your web project will be doing for your business. If you decide to team up with us, which we think is an excellent choice, than the next step is to get a few things in writing.

We will present a combined Scope of Work & Purchase Agreement to you, which, in the interest of total transparency, you can find here: Purchase Agreement.

This document lets us formally record what work we are providing for you and provides a framework in case of any disagreement down the road. Should you need to make a change to the original scope of work, we use a change order form.

Design Document

A Design Document is drafted up that outlines all of the requirements, any technical hurdles and potential solutions, a list of technology used, a detailed action plan and a design log that makes the document a living record that tells the story of your project. This document is more for us as we engineer the project, but you may find it fun and/or useful to follow along if you'd like to. It will be made available for you to see at a special page on your site.

click to see the sample design doc 👉 Hyperion Web Design Document

Wire Frame

Before committing to the hours it will take to build a design, standard practice is to make what is called a 'Wireframe'. This is essentially a mockup of your site in pictures (or sketches) that lets us as the designer play with the user experience and layout, and lets you, the client, make as many changes to the details as you want while the medium is still very inexpensive.

Changes can always be made after the site has been built, but we try and get as close as possible to that final design space before we build anything.

We have a wireframe sign-off document that we ask you to sign at this point that tells us we can begin work on building the site without expecting major changes (except via Change Order).

Build

Here is where we get to work doing the actual programming of your site and getting all of the details nailed. A lot of fun for us, but probably pretty boring for you for the time being.

Test

A rigorous test checklist is followed that keeps us honest and holds us to the highest standards. If something doesn't pass, we fix the site and test again until it does. Once we pass all of the tests, we hand you the checklist showing that everything passed and move on to the final customer(that's you!) approval.

Final Customer Approval

Your site is complete, but not published, and we hand it over to you to play with and make sure that you are happy with the way everything looks and operates. If you have any last minute changes, we make those updates before publishing. Once again, we have you sign off saying that you are fully satisfied with the final product before we launch.

Site Launch

We make the last few connections to get everything totally available to the public and put any marketing efforts into place so that visitors start to show up. Voila! Your site is up and running!

Continuous Improvement Program

...but we aren't done yet. Long gone are the days of setting up a site and letting it run on its own. Like any machine you deal with on a daily basis (eg your car) you have to make sure that your website is properly maintained and up to date.

We offer different programs for each of these. A maintenance program is recommended so that you can keep up with the ever changing technologies like the browser, responsiveness on new devices, keeping your security up to date and making minor content changes as needed. Another highly recommended program is the Continuous Improvement (known as Kaizen in the automotive industry). This program sets us up to keep the codebase changing and progressive in order to be able to adapt to emerging technologies. We dedicate time to refactoring and finding and resolving bugs that may not surface immediately. We also develop a plan for consistently adding content (teaming up with you, the expert in your field, of course) in a way that works with any ad and marketing campaigns to maximize your exposure.

More information on each program can be found here: Maintenance Plan and KaizenPlan.