Building websites is hard work. And a lot of it isn’t that much fun.
To help explain the process, we’ve put together this tongue and cheek post that explains how we typically feel during the various stages of a web development process. Since we build sites for clients, this post if from the point of view of a web development firm. Clients will likely experience similar mood swings, but at different points.
As a web development firm, having people hire us to build websites is a pretty critical part of our business model. The process of signing up new clients can be time consuming and stressful, so it always feels great to get a win.
The beginning of a project is always sunshine and rainbows. Energy and focus is high and everyone is full of hope about the outcome. We are all in sync and working well together.
The design process usually starts out well, with a well received initial design set. We’re feeling confident.
In an ideal world, we just go straight from step 3 to step 5. But sometimes things go off the rails, and we’re hearing the intern’s opinion on san serif fonts ten edit rounds into things. When this happens, Tom may do his Bobby Knight impression.
The sun is shining and we’re feeling optimistic again. With the design approved we’re free to start turning the design comps into a working website. A big hurdle has been overcome.
At this point we’ve got a draft of the site that works pretty well on our desktop computers. On average, 20% of visitors to our client sites come from tablets and mobile phones. Given that, pretty much all the sites we build are responsive, ensuring they work well no matter the screen size. This sounds pretty easy, but the reality is that getting sites to work well on mobile and tablets kind of sucks.
As hard as testing on phones and tablets is, debugging in Internet Explorer is much, much worse. It is soul crushing. If you say the words “Internet Explore 7” to a web developer they will either burst into tears or punch you in the face.
Content is important. It seems obvious, but on many web development projects it is treated as an afterthought. If you have ever had to write the content for a website, you know that at certain points the only rational thing to do is assume the fetal position.
The really, really hard work starts after you have shown the client a working draft of a site. Working through those final edits and details is death by a million cuts. We need whiskey.
After months of work launch day arrives. No matter how much you plan, there are always a few last minute hurdles to overcome and things don’t go quite as smoothly as you’d hope. And somehow you get things done and things work out in the end.
And we’re back to sunshine and rainbows. The launch of a website is a new beginning.
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