You may be wondering what will be involved in getting your web site design or multimedia presentation from concept to completion. Here are the steps that will ensure success.

Ownership

The first thing we'll do is to consider your budget. Beyond the obvious concern of cost containment, this is is a matter of determining ownership. Perhaps several of your departments have a stake in this web site or multimedia presentation. Perhaps that stake is very different for each of them. Since this is typically the case except for sole proprietorships, we'll want to explore how to optimize the design to satisfy diverse requirements. Who in your organization will contribute their visions?

External
Specifications

External Specifications. It's a technical term that means planning, communication, consensus and certainty about the purpose and target audience of the presentation. At the end of this step everyone agrees on a single unified concept and is ready to think about what stylistic elements must be addressed and exactly what the content should be.

Internal
Specifications

Internal Specifications. Technospeak for more planning, communication, consensus and certainty relating to the project contents, look and feel, specific graphics and text, media, interactive structure, and any and all other details that will together comprise the finished product. The goal of all of this planning and communication is to produce your desired results on time, on target, and within budget, with no surprises except good ones!

Development

It's time to develop the presentation. It will come together like a jigsaw puzzle as we create and integrate the pieces we defined in Step 3. It will all be very familiar, but as it becomes real, everyone's perspective on it will improve. This means that during this step someone usually comes up with some great ideas on how to enhance the product. These are usually excellent ideas, a refinement on good design, and should be anticipated and budgeted for. Testing goes on all during this phase as pieces come together.

Completion

Completion! Once the overall product is functional and any approved enhancements have been completed, there will be a good two weeks of rigorous testing by everyone willing to bang away on it and try to break it until we are all certain there are absolutely no bugs. Then, if it's a web site we'll put it on line and publicize it, or if it's a CD we'll make a master and you can send it off to be duplicated. The design and production of CD packaging should be timed so that it's ready and available when the duplication occurs.

Congratulations! Everyone's impressed with your presentation since it provides real pleasure and satisfaction to your target audience while fully engaging their interest in what you have to offer!