Understanding the web development life cycle
Have you ever thought about building a website? If you own a business, you most definitely need one. However, you can also build personal websites to showcase your talents. It might seem like a lot of work and – let’s be honest – it is. However, breaking it down into smaller steps can make things much easier. We can call the process of developing a website the web development life cycle. In this article, we will explore the different stages of web development.
The phases of the web development life cycle
The process of developing a website can be broadly broken down into 5 steps. Here are the 5 phases of the web development life cycle.
Research & planning
Planning is the first step of any project, and web development is no different. And, of course, in order to be able to plan appropriately, you will have to do some research. The first thing you have to do is think about the purpose of your website and what role it will play in the lives of your target audience. You then need to do some research about your target audience and their demographics.
Target audience refers to the people who are going to use your website and demographics refers to details about their lives such as age, gender, income, location, and even computer literacy. You will have to take these details into account while you are designing and developing your site. For example, if your users are not well-versed in technology, you want to make sure that your website is easy to understand and navigate.
In addition to this, you also have to plan out the content that you are going to put on your website. You have to decide what you are going to publish, as well as how often you are going to update your site. These are the three questions that you should ask yourself at the planning stage of your web development life cycle:
- Why are you creating a website?
- Who will use your website?
- How will you populate your website with content?
Design & development
Once you have a general idea of what content is going to be on your website, you have to decide how you want it to look and feel. This is the design stage. The first thing you have to do is decide the layout of your website, or how the end user is going to navigate the site. There are three basic layouts that you can follow:
A linear layout connects each page to the next. You should use this kind of layout if you want the information on your website to be read in a specific order.
A hierarchical layout organises pages in the form of a tree, with one page linking to all the others. This is perfect if you want to have an index or a content page.
A webbed layout has no set structure, and multiple pages can be linked to each other. If you are building a website for a business, this is the layout you want to use, because it will help with your SEO.
After you have nailed down the layout of your website, it is time to think about how you want it to look. This is where you can get creative with colours, fonts, and other design elements. In conjunction with this, you will have to work on developing your website, to make sure that your UX and UI work well together.
In this phase of the web development life cycle, you can ask the following questions:
- How do you want to present the information on your website?
- How do you want users to navigate your site?
- What kinds of media do you want to use?
Testing
Once you have your basic design and layout in place, you should start testing your website. Ideally, you should do this while the development is happening so that you can easily make any changes that need to be made. You should also get some users to test your website so that you get feedback about whether or not it meets their needs.
Here are some questions you should ask during the testing phase of the web development life cycle:
- Is the content on your website correct?
- Is your website easy to navigate?
- Do all the links function correctly?
Launch
While it may seem like you only have to press a button to launch a website, this isn’t the case. The background work involves finding a server to host your website. In order to find a server that has the features you want and that you can afford, you have to do a fair bit of research. Hosting is a recurring web development cost, and you definitely want to account for it in your yearly budget. In addition to this, you should continue to test your website for a couple of weeks after you launch. This will help you make sure that you take care of any bugs that you did not notice during the testing phase.
Here are a couple of questions that will help you at this stage of the web development life cycle:
Can your website handle all the traffic it will get?
Does the website work fine once it is online?
Maintenance
Once your website is up and running, you have to make sure that it stays that way. This is what is referred to as website maintenance. This is the last phase of the web development life cycle, and it lasts for as long as the website does. You have to make sure that you are constantly updating the content on your website so that you remain relevant to your users. You should also test for bugs periodically, to make sure that your users continue to have a smooth experience.
Here’s what you need to think about during website maintenance:
Are all parts of the website working?
Is the website up-to-date?
We can help you with your web development life cycle
If building a website seems like too much for you to handle alone, you can consider outsourcing this task to experts. iTrobes is a web development company in India that offers web development services all over the world. We will work with you to make sure that your website is designed to best reflect you and your brand. Contact us today to start building your digital dream!
