[thelist] process question: hi-end multimedia sites

Marlene Bruce marlene.bruce at cdgsolutions.com
Wed Feb 7 14:35:19 CST 2001


Hi Erika,

Whew, big question.

Firms which work with large clients (like ours and Proxicom - I was talking
with one of their art directors the other day) break the site development
and production process into very little, specialized pieces. 

There are numerous phases.
1. Needs assessment
2. Information architecture 
3. Content development
4. GUI development (concurrent with platform/browser testing)
5. Usability study (paper or screen comps, sometimes on simplified HTML)
6. GUI refinement
7. Launch
(client review at various phases)

In more detail:
* Meet with client to assess needs
* Develop a design brief 
(summarizes recommendations to the client: gen'l overview; scope and
approach; goals and objectives; user scenarios; overview of content,
functionality, design, and technical issues; branding information; IA;
audience targets; who the competition is and what they're doing; launch
strategy; etc.)
* Develop a functional specification 
(for the client, a production "blueprint" of each page, or of the generic
template pages)
* Develop a requirements document 
(internal - specifies further information necessary to production ... design
directions, elements, comps needed, time budget, schedule,
browsers/platforms, etc.)
* Develop a content outline 
(spreadsheet detailing the sections and sub-sections of a site)
* Develop database specifications (internal/external use, depending on
client)
* Develop a production schedule
* Various in-house meetings (starting with the project kick-off)
* Designers develop numerous design directions, one is picked
* Design is refined...
* Reviewed...
* Tested...
* Approved, and handed off to one or more production specialists and
back-end/high-end programmers
* Design files are sliced and basic html templates (or whatever) are
produced
* Additional programming is developed as needed
* Database is developed (I won't provide more detail, as this is not my
area)
* Programmers pull all the pieces together
* More user testing, more customer review
* Get sign-off from the client
* Launch

Oh, I left out multi-media. Storyboarding occurs, mock-ups occur, it's
approved and goes into production.

It might be helpful to look at Aquent's Web Skill and Salary Guide
(http://www.aquentpartners.com/info/free_tools/index.cfm) to see how jobs
can be broken down.

Some firms have designers only doing design, and not touch coding. Large
firms may even have numerous project managers, managing parts of the
process.

I'm curious how others view the process. This is just my perspective, based
on my experience.

I found an excellent job-search resource to be http://www.careerpath.com/
(oops, now appears to be http://www.careerbuilder.com/).

HTH,
Marlene

> ----------
> From: 	Erika Meyer
> 
> This leads me to ask, since I have never worked on sites as ambitious as 
> either nike.com or adidas.com, what is the process that goes into creating
> 
> them?  I simply can't imagine there is a single sole web genius putting 
> these things together... or that the marketing director dictates ideas to 
> one person who builds the movies...  how do they divide up tasks?    What 
> is the process for designing, building and testing?




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