1. Needs Analysis
2. User and Task Analysis
3. Functional Analysis
4. Requirements Analysis
5. Design
6. Prototyping
7. Evaluation
8. Implementation

A Needs Analysis is a brief description of the nature and the purpose of the system to be developed. It describes the type of project: a website, a content management console, or a web application.

When designing a website, it is necessary to consider what audience it is going to reach. Some effective considerations at this stage are: age, education level, and experience with computers. Task Analysis looks into what the goals of your users might be. What are they trying to accomplish by visiting your website? This can also be broken down into tasks or activities. Too many websites fail because the overall design is flawed in the sense that it doesn't cater to their users needs.

At this stage, we try to identify the functionality-the specific services needed to allow users to carry out their tasks. For instance, a stock exchange website would need a search function that allows users to retrive up to date information pertaining to their stocks. Typically, there is a correlation between functions and tasks / activities.

Requirements Analysis covers the specific hardware and software needs to implement the website. At this stage, object-oriented modeling and entity-relationship diagrams may be used to convey and understand certain functionality within the site. Some of the topics necessary here include what programming languages should the website be designed in, how much physical storage space will be needed, and how many concurrent users will the website need to handle. Typically, this stage is referred to as systems analysis.

This step entails organization and visual appearance of the website. When generating content, it is effective to organize it fitting the users expectations. Design also covers individual page layout, and how to implement critical visual organization cues that create clarity and consistency between pages. Navigation is also considered at this stage.

Prototyping can be done in several different formats, and can vary greatly from project to project. Prototypes can be classified as either evolutionary, or throw-away. Typically, the main goal of prototyping in web design is to create an evolutionary, semi-functional website that contains design cues generated in the previous step.

At this step, we test the websites functionality, and try to generate problems that could occur. In a basic sense, we will try to "break" the site, test its security features, databases, and tasks. In some cases, it may be beneficial at this stage to ask actual users to perform representative tasks with the prototype. As the user performs the tasks, an observation of where problems are occuring can be documented.

Finally! the last stage of web development, the final product is published online, where we host the website, and domain. Keep in mind that typical websites are never completely "finished" in the sense that updates and changes may be needed as time passes. We will continue so serve you better by repeating some or all of the above steps on any new projects, or updates you may need for future growth.