Rowland’s Website Process - Rowland Creative · Over the years at Rowland Creative, we’ve used our proven process to launch over 100 sites ranging from one to hundreds of pages

rowland web.

Your website is one of your most important sales tools. It must quickly and easily convey information to visitors, build trust and engage them in the sales process. Over the years at Rowland Creative, we’ve used our proven process to launch over 100 sites ranging from one to hundreds of pages. Whether your site needs new functionality, lacks the creative look you desire or is begging for fresh copy, our website process can help.

One of our favorites is the site for HigherEdJobs (higheredjobs.com). They had the market cornered when they launched their online academic job posting service in 1996. But over the years, they’d focused more on serving thousands of happy customers than on the look and feel of their site. This situation is a common one.

Rowland’s Website Process

rowlandcreative.com | 814.308.0358 | 1

Phase 1: Discovery To have an engaging website, you first need to know whose attention you’re trying to capture, what they need from your site and what you want them to do during their visit. Is it a big picture C-level executive or a hyper-technical engineer? Or both? We take all of our web clients through a discovery process when the project begins to ensure that we all understand exactly who our visitors are and what they need to accomplish. As part of our discovery process, we go through a variety of exercises like surveying your team, conducting in-person interviews and investigating competitor sites.

For the HigherEdJobs project, we especially wanted to understand the differences in their two primary audiences: job seekers and job posters. While both are deep in academia, they have distinct and different needs. But in the end, they’re all browsing through one site. Through our research, we were able to learn what user experience elements both audiences valued and prioritize audiences appropriately.

rowland web.

1/ Discovery

2 / Information Architecture

3/ Content Development

4/ Site Design

5/ Site Development

6/ Launch and Maintenance


Phase 2: Information Architecture Once we learn all we can in Discovery, we move to Information Architecture. In this phase, we leverage our discovery findings to define exactly what each audience needs to find on the site and where they will find it. Then, we make it as easy as possible for them to find what they need. Outlining pages, structure and relevant calls-to-action all happen here. No matter the breadth and depth, we’re dedicated to defining an information architecture that works for your site and its visitors.

We’re experienced in architecting everything from smaller product-focused sites to larger, multi-faceted sites, like HigherEdJobs. Their site needed a far more detailed information architecture exercise because it was decidedly not your typical informational site. In fact, it was both a product and an information tool. With all the custom functionality and software that made up its job posting service, the architecture needed to be both considerate of each audience and technically feasible.

rowland web.

1/ Discovery



4/ Site Design

5/ Site Development



Phase 3: Content Development Content is the heart and soul of your website – and we start work on it immediately after we define the architecture. The words you want to say will heavily influence site design, so nailing copy early is imperative. The information architecture serves as our roadmap for the process. And while we can certainly craft copy from the ground up, most clients provide key content points as a starting point for our copywriting team. Keep in mind, writing copy for the web is different than any other marketing piece. It requires both a specific style and a fair amount of brevity. You can sleep well at night knowing we do it every day.

For HigherEdJobs, we were starting with an existing site. So, for most of the pages, we worked with the content already there. For new pages, we received content points from the client. With the architecture serving as our guide, we worked together with the HigherEdJobs marketing team to efficiently generate over 45 pages of content.

rowland web.

1/ Discovery



4/ Site Design

5/ Site Development



rowland web.

Phase 4: Site DesignDesigning the digital face of your company is one of the most exciting parts of our website process and one of the most important aspects of your entire marketing toolkit. A design that’s both unique and industry-appropriate will make you stand out in a herd of competition. That said, it has to be aligned with your overall brand and clearly fit with all the other materials you’ve put out in the market. If your brand needs some TLC, we typically tackle that rebranding work prior to the site. Either way, you’ll get a site that feels like you.

Fortunately, we had that exact situation with HigherEdJobs. Pulling again from our discovery efforts, we created a clean and simple look that we knew our academic audiences would love. Then we went on to design every unique page in the website – over 45 in total. We broke the site up into logical “chunks” and turned over each set of page designs to the client’s development team.

1/ Discovery



4/ Site Design

5/ Site Development



Phase 5: Site DevelopmentSite development is where all of the puzzle pieces finally come together, combining information architecture, content and design into a functioning website. Most Rowland development projects take place in WordPress, a content management system that currently powers over 25% of sites on the web. We wrangle themes, plugins, hosting and occasionally some custom code to create a powerful site that offers all the functionality you require. When we’re not using WordPress, we’re typically working with a client’s development team using a content management system they already have in place.

Because HigherEdJobs’ website was also their product, their livelihood was entirely based on their site’s success. To that end, they had an in-house development team that was just as invested in the project as we were. Our designers worked hand-in-hand with the client developers every step of the way. It was a great working relationship that ultimately turned into one of our favorite sites.

rowland web.

1/ Discovery



4/ Site Design

5/ Site Development



While every site launch is a success, the HigherEdJobs site launch was just the beginning. Their business experienced marked growth (including significant boosts in desktop and mobile traffic, account signups and newsletter subscriptions), and the Rowland team won a variety of awards for the design.

Phase 6: Launch and MaintenanceOnce development is finished, there are only a few things separating your new website and the outside world. We conduct rigorous testing to ensure your site will behave as intended. Your staff will also be trained in how to manage the site moving forward. We’ll work with you to handle the final DNS and hosting checks, and then your site will be live! But the website process isn’t over after launch. In fact, we don’t believe a website is ever truly finished. Every business grows and changes, and websites are meant to evolve, too. While your staff can handle most changes, we’re always here to assist as you go, especially if you need to add functionality, expand your offerings or want to kick off digital marketing efforts. In our experience, even today’s best websites will have a shelf life of only 3 years. It’ll be time to showcase how your business has grown and changed in a new site before you know it. And we’ll be by your side for the process.

rowland web.

1/ Discovery



4/ Site Design

5/ Site Development


Documents

Rowland’s Website Process - Rowland Creative · Over the years at Rowland Creative, we’ve used our proven process to launch over 100 sites ranging from one to hundreds of pages