Zee Designs

Discussions regarding the format, direction, and processes of development for the project(s) and services you are exploring with Zee Designs.

We start by listening. We discover exactly what you wish to achieve with your website, its content, and its functionality. Our focus is you, your business, and how we can create website and print media so you can successfully market your business. We eventually use this information and insight to develop a design and development and production plans.

Plan Ahead -The Timing of Your Projects

It’s always a good idea to plan at least 30 days for all projects. This usually gives everyone enough time to be thorough with all processes of most projects.

Websites are a completely different project, as you certainly understand. Small websites will typically take up to 15 days from the receipt of all content. For extremely large or complex sites, it may take as much as 6-8 weeks. When custom software applications are involved, the timing depends on the scpope of the project.

Quick Requests are minor modifications to text or layout. We’ll squeeze this into our day(s) and turn them around quickly for you without incurring rush fees whenever possible.

Receipt of All Content
Timely receipt of content is an important factor which contributes to project delivery time. Most often than not, the client delays their own projects. We understand what it takes to run a business and how challenging it can be to focus and follow through on one project at a time. With multi-tasking commonplace these days, people can forget what it takes to really get something accomplished.

Realizing this, Zee Designs does its best to support our clients with retrieving as much data as we can with as minimal interaction with the client as possible. For instance, “Give us the contact information for your photographer, and we’ll make the request.” “Give us the contact information for your assistant and we’ll ask for copies of this and that.” “If you can provide us with a draft, we can acquire professional writing services.” The faster you respond, the sooner we can have your website up.

When we receive content in “dribs and drabs,” that’s fine by us. We don’t mind reviewing and organizing materials as they come to us. However, I’m sure you will agree it’s easy to see how a delay with receiving ALL content for a project can cause delays and rushes with a project’s final delivery date.

When it comes right down to it, we rely on the content that is provided by you and your associates as well as the time you make for us during the many project phases as indicated above to get your projects done in a timely manner.

Based on results of the Development Consultation, we work with our team to translate the information we have acquired and create a working website structure to provide an empowering experience for your customer (website visitors). This is the framework that holds the website together. How is the content organized? How will people navigate and interact with the site? We define key destinations then build the pathways to get there. The deliverable is a document that will include some or all of the following elements:

1. Proposed site architecture including navigation and site flow
2. Indications of module implementation
3. Indications of dynamic feedback forms
4. CMS Website Manager contents
5. Client-specific, custom programming tasks
6. Project work order hours by task
7. Annual and one-time fees
8. Website hosting service detail
9. Search engine registration service detail

This information, when agreed upon for accuracy, becomes the basis for developing the Content Outline that will result in a bid.

The content outline sets forth what information will be contained on each page of the website design, which website visitors are most interested in that information, and what the desired user action is on each page.

Project Development

The information collected during the Consultation is then translated and organized as a bid which may include the following documents:

• Work Order
  • Project Description
  • Fees Detail
  • Other Considerations
  • Materials Delivery Date
  • Project Completion & Delivery Date
  • Total Work Order Estimate
  • Priority & Super Priority Fees & Service Terms
• Corporate Identity Specific Terms
• Website Flow
• Web Hosting Costs
  • Monthly Fees
  • License Fees
  • Setup Fees
  • Custom Programming Costs
• Web Element Costs
  • CD Media Storage
  • Color Proofs
  • Film & Pressmatch
  • Scanning
  • Stock Photography
  • Stock Element Art
  • Stock Animations
  • Domain Name Registration
  • Search Engine Registration
    any additional costs related to project such as shipping, courier services, etc.
• Work Order and all other project related Terms

With the bid information, you and Zee Designs can discuss a strategy for moving forward. You may choose to do the whole project at once or break it down into parts to satisfy your budget. Whatever the outcome, the work done during the Development Consulting and the Architecture Design are valuable, even if you decide to go with a "cookie cutter" site elsewhere.

How will your site look when it is finished? Where will the information be on the screen? These are things we have to decide before we start setting up the creative concept for the site style. 

Wire frames are prototypes showing the placement and hierarchy of elements on key pages within the new website design. Wire frames utilize colored boxes and divisions of content. This stripped-down approach provides the web design team and client a way to look at the proposed interfaces from a purely functional and hierarchical perspective, without color scheme and other specific elements influencing decisions on placement and layout. A smart layout will promote wise use of screen space and help website visitors find information.

Our team conceives of creative ways to achieve your objectives. We start with incorporating your logo, review considerations for appropriate color schemes and elements, and decide how best to present your content clean, smart, interesting, informative and, when appropriate, fun.

In this step, the web design team creates the look and feel for client review. Typically, we develop a home page and sub-topic page for each design to illustrate navigation progression. Based on client feedback, changes are made to the design until we agree on a final website "look."

Acquiring of photography, pre-existing art, scanning, reference materials, stock samples, permission-to-use items, and articles, etc.

The coordination of custom photo shoots, gathering of copy, data, and possibly biographies and other information for your website can be a large undertaking. We work with you to let you know what is required so that you can get the information to us in a timely manner.

Copy can be handled several ways. We can receive and implement finished copy by you or provide professional writing services. These services may include editing copy you have provided or even creating original copy. We know how challenging it can be to write about yourselves, so let our professional writers do it for you. When completed, copy is incorporated in the CMS.

You may wish to have more audio or video elements, such as podcasts, videos, walk-ons, or slide shows. Zee Designs is happy to help with these features that are often included in modern websites. Slideshow and other animations are developed and created inhouse to your specification. Our professionals can help with any scripts that might be involved in podcasts, walk-ons, or video productions. Zee Designs has spent many years developing relationships with a vast array of vendors to provide any services we do not handle inhouse, so that the interaction with vendors is seamless.

We are users creating solutions for users.

Part of the website creation process is determining what type of databases you require to service your visitors or deliver your data. We ask many questions about your requirements and then design and code solutions. Our modules make many solutions turnkey, and if you wish something new and different, we can program it for you.

Typical questions we might ask at this point include:

• Are you thinking about having your users join your mailing list and then having the option of sending them announcements and notices of special offers?
• Do you have information like employee info, articles, or other resources that would be better managed in a database?
• Would you like to offer a membership?
• Would you like to have a schedule of events, classes, or public appearances?
• Would you like to collect testimonials from people who use your products or services?
• Is there going to be information on your website you would like to be able to modify on a periodic basis?

All these interactive online tasks, and many more like them, are fueled by the power of dynamic database development—where the website interacts with a database of information.

Making your website interactive means dynamic database development and that takes a team of creative, technical-oriented people who know how to program code that is reliable and efficient. We specialize in internet, client/server, intranet or stand-alone applications. Our software experience includes several technologies. Zee Designs and its Artistic Code Engineers have been programming code for many years, some before the internet even existed, so we care about using a diverse and progressive set of code options, including the latest technology, to fit just about anyone's needs.

We provide you with a technical analysis of your website's dynamic needs to see how we can help you define your specific requirements and do the programming necessary to make it possible.

Once we have the architectural framework defined and built, all the content and artwork gathered, the databases defined, we can get into the actual building of the site and any programming that will entail.

Content and artwork is entered into the website pages, modules, and databases (where appropriate).

Our cutting-edge Content Management Systems, have Search Engine Optimization built right into the process as we create your site. We offer additional SEO services where appropriate.

The site style is programmed and applied.

Any custom programming is developed and integrated into the system.

When everything is in place, we move to the test phase.

The time it takes and the value of the Testing Phase is often under-estimated and misunderstood. Typically, the ZDI Team will have three to six people test a single site and a minimum of two complete passes through all website pages and records.

We test the links, pay attention to load times, proof the copy and optimize every aspect making sure it works as expected across multiple platforms and browsers. Comprehensive testing of all aspects of the site is performed to ensure every aspect is working as expected.

We agree with the Website Standards Project about stability which reads:

"Most web standards are generally designed with forward- and backward-compatibility in mind — so that data using old versions of the standards will continue to work in new browsers, and data using new versions of the standards will “gracefully degrade” to produce an acceptable result in older browsers."

"Because a website may go through several teams of designers during its lifetime, it is important that those people are able to comprehend the code and to edit it easily. Web standards offer a set of rules that every Web developer can follow, understand, and become familiar with: When one developer designs a site to the standards, another will be able to pick up where the former left off."

The ZDI Team continually refers to the following resources:

W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), along with other groups and standards bodies, has established technologies for creating and interpreting web-based content. These technologies, which we call “web standards,” are carefully designed to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users while ensuring the long-term viability of any document published on the Web.

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0: W3C Recommendation

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
The Web Accessibility Initiative provides strategies, guidelines, resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities. WAI develops...

• guidelines widely regarded as the international standard for Web accessibility
• support materials to help understand and implement Web accessibility
• resources, through international collaboration

Web accessibility evaluation tools are software programs or online services that help determine if a website meets accessibility guidelines. While Web accessibility evaluation tools can significantly reduce the time and effort to evaluate websites, no tool can automatically determine the accessibility of websites.

• Complete List - to show all tools in the list maintained by WAI

Web Standards Project
The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all. Founded in 1998, The Web Standards Project (WaSP) fights for standards that reduce the cost and complexity of development while increasing the accessibility and long-term viability of any site published on the Web. We work with browser companies, authoring tool makers, and our peers to deliver the true power of standards to this medium.

The standards:

• W3C Standards
• HTML 4.0 - HyperText Markup Language
• XML 1.0 - Extensible Markup Language
• XHTML 1.0, 1.1, XHTML Modularization
• CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
• DOM 1 - Document Object Model Level 1
• ECMAScript (standardized JavaScript)

The advantages of using web standards:

• Accessibility to software and hardware
• Accessibility to people
• Stability

Read more about what the web standards and the reasons we, to the best of our ability and the tools that are available to us, use them.

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Section 508 Standards for Electronic and Information Technology
Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications (1194.22)
Updated: June 21, 2001

These provisions of the standards provide the requirements that must be followed by Federal agencies when producing web pages. These provisions apply unless doing so would impose an undue burden.

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Assistive technologies: Screen Readers
Screen readers are software programs that allow blind or visually impaired users to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer. For more information about this topic, please visit the website for American Foundation for the Blind™.

• The Web Standards Project's Accessibility Task Force plays a key role in assisting product developers and manufacturers to improve Web standards support within their products. The Task Force also works towards promoting a better understanding of Web accessibility by designers and developers, corporate organizations and government institutions. Read the full WaSP ATF manifesto here.

After requested content and functionality has been validated and refined, and client has thoroughly reviewed the entire site, it is made accessible to the public.