Web development

In 2014, I published the first Czech book on the razor-sharp Web design process. Even after five years, the book is still up to date, but the technologies and possibilities of web creation have shifted. So I decided to publish an article expanding the original book. In addition, I have 5 years more experience. 😃 In this article, you can freely confuse the words web and e-shop.

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The web is the key place to present the brand. Unlike a page on a social network or the search results of your favorite search engine, you are in full control of the site and therefore for most companies it does not make sense to get rid of it, but they need to develop it. The goal of the company is not to have a website, but to have a website that works. This means that it brings the maximum amount of money to the company. In the case of public administration, this can be, for example, a measure of simplifying the lives of citizens...

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A functioning website has three key features:

1. People walk on it
2. They do something that brings you money
3. Satisfies the Sponsor's Ego

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Let's look at it in more detail.

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People walk on it

In order for a website to make money, someone has to go to it. It means that you develop activities that put on the site either presses on some people — like through advertising or a website will attract your content or your brand — for example through personal recommendations or sharing with other people on social networks. Something different works in each industry and there are countless agencies that will get people on your site at different prices. In our jargon, such activities are called integrated marketing communications.

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People on the web do something that brings you money

After people come to the site, they start consuming its content. It must be understandable, beneficial, trustworthy, persuasive, interesting, meaningful,... it must fit their inner motivations and overcome their internal obstacles. Only then do you have hope that:

• Your website will excite people
• People will remember you
• They will come back to the site
• Sooner or later they will order something
• Recommend you to others

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The web is part of your customers' buying cycle -- in some industries people buy impulsively, in others you need years to build a relationship. For many companies, it makes sense to learn how to strengthen their brand through great content. What a run for the long haul.

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Web satisfies sponsor's ego

Point three is still a mandatory item in 2019. The site must be liked by the person paying for it, so it must be aesthetically handled accordingly. This point has no effect on the business performance of the site, but it has a substantial effect on sponsor satisfaction and its future taste of anything to do with the site vendor.

Recommendation: Resolve first communication of your brand, then the content of the site, and then bring people to the site.

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How is the website created?

Now let's take a closer look at how such a functioning website is created. The web is basically divided into three visible components — graphics, content and technical solutions. These components have different return potential on investment. The order is as follows:

1. Content — texts, photos, videos, illustrations, infographics,...
2. Technical solutions — editorial system, infrastructure, data migration, technologies and procedures used,...
3. Graphics — visual rendering of the site, system of graphic components,...

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People go to the web for content, so it is the most important and has the best chance of making you money. The technical solution must be good enough not to throw sticks under the feet of visitors when consuming the content and make the task of managing the site easier for the submitter. There's a lot to go wrong with him. But instead of the first two components, the sponsor's ego focuses on pleasing graphics, which at the same time have the least impact on making money. It doesn't apply to all sites, but it probably does for yours.

Recommendation: do not put money in beautiful graphics, but in great content. Good enough graphics for most sites is enough.

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Example from life

The firm decided to select the site vendor based on the graphic design. The selected supplier was subsequently unable to deliver a reasonable technical solution, so after a year of waiting and a lot of lost opportunities, the client wrote off a quarter of a million CZK and tried again.

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Specifying the site

Content, technical solutions and graphics are visible components of the site. The invisible component on which all three depend is the so-called Specifying the site or also Website Design. The site specification describes what the site will contain and how it will behave towards visitors. The website is created on the basis of the assignment.
Video course Strategic web design describes the entire creation of the site:

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A site specification is a defakto set of documents that describe the form of a future site — as text, interactive prototype or various diagrams and frameworks.

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The most important thing about specifying a site is not its form, but the process of creation. Typing a site either can arise on fantasy or on facts. Fancy means that you sit down with a web contractor, who will interview you and supply you with wireframes, that is, wire models of the site. If you ask him how they came about, he will say something about many years of experience. For you it means only one thing, you can throw them away.

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The other option is that the assignment arises on facts, which means that the contractor puts quite a lot of energy into making the facts in the project actually be. Necessary minimum of activitiesthat must always happen if you want the entry of a working marketing website is the following:

1. The site vendor understands your business — this means joint workshops, interviews with your employees, gathering information about you as an organization operating in some market.
2. The website vendor will understand the people you are doing the website for -- that is, he will do user research. The minimum scope is keyword analysis and conversations with your customers.
3. Vendor will design the content of the site — on the basis of analysis of all previous information and ideation, the structure of the pages of the future site and the content of individual pages will be created.
4. A prototype is created from a wireframe — the content will be converted by the supplier into a visual mockup of the future solution. This mockup must pass testing.
5. There will be a technical assignment — if you are creating a tailor-made website, it must be clear what performance parameters it should meet, how it will interact with third-party systems, etc.

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A prototype from a wireframe and a technical assignment can be skipped if you have opted for a rented site solution. About the rental more below.

Thus, there will be a lot of work that is not visible at first glance and at the same time you can work with their outputs outside the web, for example, to optimize the functioning of your own company, products or communication to customers. Just to be sure, I'll repeat this — is not an essential mockup of the site, the essential is the process of getting to it.

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The site entry is not visible at first glance, so many vendors skip it and go straight to the point. Their sites then often don't work because they have crappy content as well as technical solutions. But the firm, in turn, was wasting money cheaply. It does not mean that you cannot be lucky as a submitter, just that chance is relatively low and the more complex the project, the lower the probability of success without an assignment. Without a good assignment, the submitter risks the entire investment in the site.

Recommendation: If the site is to work, do not skip assignments, especially user research. Demand is not assignment.

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Example from life

We were asked as a supervisor for the selection process for about 60 sites. The contracting authority said at the first meeting that it would not do any expensive analyses because they already agreed in a narrow circle of management how it would be. Without specifying from our point of view, it is impossible to list the tender on the site, so we said goodbye. They are repeating this process for the third time in the last 10 years, so far with no visible benefits. But again they get nice graphics.

The client from the example probably burned out with the companies that supplied him with fancy projects and now he has no confidence in the contractors Expensive analysis. On the other hand, it's publicly funded, so it can afford to have a crappy website.

In the case of smaller web projects, the assignment of a website can also be the highest item of the entire budget, especially when you do not have any. user research. Count on the fact that specifying the site will require dozens of hours of work on your part and hundreds on the vendor side.

The site entry should target as little relevant site as possible at startup (so called. MVP (Minimum Viable Product). The reason is simple — the more you make up for it, the bigger the initial investment and the longer the time to launch the site will be. Once launched, you can develop the site further.

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Example from life

The owner of the future e-shop was constantly inventing new and new functionalities to be available at the launch of the e-shop, only to later turn out that most of his great ideas were not used by anyone. The project dragged on for a year and there were million-dollar losses in opportunities as well as write-off investments.

Specifying a site is the basis for creating a new site. If you just want to improve your existing website, get started By auditing the site.

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Choice of solution

In 2019, as a client, you have a wide variety of possible approaches to creating a website. Both the requirements for the professionalism of suppliers and the price and time of delivery differ.

In the options below, I give price estimates. When I write about the minimum relevant price, it means that the project will not be underinvested. There are suppliers on the market who will make a customized website for you even for 50,000 CZK, but the result is likely to be very poor and you will then write off your investment along with the amount of time and energy invested on your part. Prices are calculated without creating a site entry.

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Totally tailored website

You will have a unique solution built directly for your needs. This approach has been quite standard in the last 20 years, so many contracting authorities require it. You will need carefully select the supplier of the site and thoroughly test its technical capabilities to ensure that it is truly capable of delivering such a solution to you. Technical supervision of web projects will help you with this. The minimum relevant investment in a tailor-made web/e-shop is CZK million, the creation takes at least a year. Tailor-made e-shops consist of e.g. ShopSys.

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Website on a template and/or a ready-made editorial system

You will have a unique solution built directly for your needs, but you will use existing components. Unlike a bespoke website, the vendor buys a graphic template for a few dollars and puts it on your editorial system, e.g. It's wordpress. This also includes e-shop systems It's shopio. It means faster and cheaper web development, which can have many tailor-made edits. The minimum relevant investment in the website/e-shop project on the template is hundreds of thousands of crowns.

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Renting a site

Renting a site is a completely different approach than the previous two options. It's actually an operating lease for sites. You choose one of the systems for renting a site and click on the site. You don't need programmers, graphics, infrastructure or technical supervision. The minimum relevant price is tens of thousands of crowns (if you let an external contractor click on it, otherwise only your time) and a low monthly flat rate.

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Example from life

The company had a website created for 100,000 CZK on the Wordpress editorial system. The result is more expensive and qualitatively inferior to the same site on a rented solution. They still need a programmer for continuous updates, plus they pay for hosting and system maintenance.

Project promoters feel that they need a custom-made website or Wordpress. This is not the case. Evolution and competitive struggle have caused you to get an order of magnitude better deal with renting sites than inexpensive web of peace. I know that hundreds of thousands of kronor doesn't seem cheap, but in the context of tailor-made websites, it's petty.

Marketing web projects that do not have hundreds of pages and complex functionality enough almost always a rented solution. For a few bucks you get an order of magnitude better website than in the case of an underinvested tailor-made website or a ready-made editorial system.

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Of course, the systems for renting a site do not yet have to deal with all the functionality you need on the site. No one says that you need to solve everything on one system — for example, the booking system can run as a separately rented product that the supplier links to the site.

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Website rental solutions

• Shopped—e-shop rental
• Solid pixels — marketing websites
• Wix — marketing websites
• and many others...

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Choosing a site vendor

Video course Strategic web design describes the entire creation of the site:

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In case you have decided to go to a tailor-made website or on a template and a ready-made editorial system, then you need to choose a supplier. Our experience is that within the company, suppliers have competence in either graphics, technical solutions or content creation, so if you want a high-end solution, you will need to select and allocate more suppliers.

All contractors are not the same. A couple of things you should be aware of:

• The most important is the technical supplier. You will work with it for years and you will not be able to replace it. The portability of the technical solution of the web is only theoretical and in most cases it's cheaper and faster to throw it away and start over.
• You do not recognize the real technical competence of the company. At House of Řezč we most often cooperate with Nehoupat to help us examine the technical capabilities of the supplier. This step is extremely important because of point one — you're actually getting married with a technical contractor, so it's a good idea to know where you stand before you say yes.
• All arrangements with the technical contractor must be agreed and an agreement on the operation, maintenance and speed of response of the supplier in the event of error correction must be part of the contract. So-called SLA. The agreement must be concluded in writing before the start of cooperation, otherwise you will be very sad at the stage of Development and maintenance of the site. The absence of an SLA puts your entire investment at risk and cannot be done retroactively on good terms. In general, we cooperate with contracts SEDLAKOVA LEGALIwho combine legal and technical competencies. This is especially important because ordinary lawyers have no idea where the technical pitfalls of an agreement can arise.
• In addition to technical competencies, you need to be sure that the supplier has competence to carry out a given project. This depends a lot on the skills of the project manager who will be assigned to your project. Want to see him ahead. Let him show you how he works. Ask for references from customers whose projects he managed.
• Beans entering the site there is no point in negotiating the price of the project. You can do a maximum of comparing the competencies of suppliers and hourly rates. Sometimes this is enough, but most of the time you need to have your assignment ready before the supplier selection begins.
• Content creators and graphic designers are replaceable fairly quickly and well if you have a well-treated collaboration, i.e. the ability to do whatever you want with content and graphics. Again, therefore you need a good contract.
• Choose a graphic design based on the graphic references. In case you want to organize a design competition, get ready pay the sketch fee to everyone involved. Otherwise, only amateurs will sign up for you.

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Example from life

The client invested millions of CZK in a custom-made web system without a proper contract and SLA. The contractor subsequently demanded multiples of the usual price for managing and maintaining the project. In retrospect, you won't make a good deal.

How to choose a website vendor? It depends on the specific project. The most important parameter is that already has a project of a similar scale behind him and his former clients are happy with it. You can also choose a less experienced contractor, but be prepared to put the difference in price to technical supervision and an external project manager.

Recommendation: Do not underestimate the choice of supplier, especially the technical one. The wrong choice puts your investment at risk.

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Creating a website

It's finally starting to form! This stage is for the most part in the hands of your contractors and they should be the ones to guide you through the creation of the site. But this does not mean that you can breathe out and throw energy in a different direction. There are several crucial tasks ahead of you:

1. Preparation of materials for graphics — logo, graphic manual, photo, etc.
2. Preparation of materials for content — a large number of texts, photos, meetings,... according to agreement with the content creator. It will be necessary to coordinate everything and create a lot of text.
3. Approving the graphics, content and behavior of the site.
4. Dealing with details and lots of bigger or smaller decisions. From connection to the payment gateway to the decision on the pricing of transport to the solution of technical details.

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Practically, this means that not only the supplier, but adjudicator must have a project manager on the team with sufficient competencies. Otherwise, the creation of the site will begin to stretch and, in direct proportion, the desire of your supplier to cooperate with you will begin to decrease.

The project manager of the contractor and the project manager of the contracting authority conclude an agreement on the course of the project itself. We managed to have regular meetings with suppliers about once every 14 days to review the progress of the project, resolve the necessary decisions and coordinate the work. At meetings, it is also possible to conclude agreements on the next stage of work. The alternative is to wait half a year for the first version of the site and then catch up with a contractor who did a lot of unnecessary work.

All communication regarding the project should go outside of email. The reason is simple — you want to see how the project evolves ahead and not forget anything fundamental. We use Asana for project management, often Basecamp or Trello is used.

Recommendation: Before starting the project, be clear about who will manage it on your side.

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Launching the site

The D! Wow. We've finally gotten this far, so let's get it started. Everyone is exhausted, excited and ready to finally get the site out into the world. Stop by. Before starting, you still need to do a few things if you are sure that the result will turn out well:

1. Test the site through User testing. This can be done by the company that prepared the assignment for you.
2. Read the website in detail. This should be done by someone who has not ideally worked on the project.
3. Keep indepth set up site measurements. The basic code of Google Analytics is not enough.
4. Let a third party verify that the website is technically working properly and everything is ready to start. We address this point as part of Audit of the site.

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Example from life

The submitter hired an inexperienced tailor-made site vendor who did not redirect the original URL of the site to new equivalents. The number of requests dropped to a tenth, and the submitter nearly went bankrupt.

Then all that's missing is the marketing campaign, shampoo and sandwiches. Enjoy it, you've launched the site!

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Development and maintenance

With the launch of the site, the work begins! After launching the site, you will have a lot of requirements for further development. You should have them because you launched the site as MVP (that is, in a minimal variant) and at the same time your vendors count on them thanks to a closed SLA. Development can again take place in the rhythm of the originally set meetings and through the set system for project management.

• After the launch of the website, the time of integrated marketing communication begins — people have to go to a functioning website. Marketing is typically supplied by vendors other than those who built your website. Again, it is necessary to conclude agreements and do away with all cooperation.
• It only makes sense to promote and develop a website when you measure the impact of your activity. It is therefore necessary to have detailed analytics, understand the numbers you measure and react to them.
• As part of development and maintenance, it will be particularly important to: Make your website reach its full potential. Incentives will bring demands from the internal team, but you can really find places for improvement through site audit, user research, user testing, and data analysis.
• Everyone has ideas, but not all ideas bring money. So in a lot of cases, it makes sense to first verify the potential of your idea before its expensive implementation on the site. Does it mean plan, design and evaluate experiments.

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Creating and developing a website is a project that can help you not only push the company's communication outwards, but also examine your processes and the direction of the entire organization.

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Where next?

As in 2014, today, for the creation of the site, the submitter needs to acquire knowledge, otherwise he will spend his money badly. We have three resources for you that can help you:

• Razor-sharp web — the first Czech book on the creation of a web assignment
• Training Strategic Web Design — comprehensive video course and materials for redesign and creation of marketing websites
• User research — an extensive article on user research followed by practical training

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How can we help you?

• Audit of the site — we analyze your existing website and suggest specific steps to make the site work better
• User research — find new opportunities for the development of services, products, marketing or the web
• Creating a website — we create an assignment for your marketing website and supervise the suppliers (we will then link the result to you in the rental system)
• Web Analytics — set up measurements for you and help you get the right data for decision making