Written by :
Hani Ghalayini
Posted on : 11/03/2024
Tags :
UX & UI
Design
ecommerce
Last week was great, stirring up some comms with clients about SHOPLINE and who they are. Great outcome from a simple blog post! Onto the next topic, where we veer away from talking platforms, and get down to a bit more implementation.
As part of a traditional offering in the agency world, Superior follows a strict five stage progress to gain as much of an understanding of your requirements as possible.
The Superior Process
Stage 1 – Uncover
During our Uncover stage, we dive into your requirements, what you need from the website, what third party integrations you need, how your products are set up, variations, etc. Essentially go through a thorough process to uncover and understand as much about your requirements as possible. At the end of this, we should have a clear understanding, and agreement with you, about the project scope.
Stage 2 - Commence
We take the scope and break it up into sprints, tickets, user stories, and then build out a thorough and in-depth timeline with an achievable date for pushing your website live. We keep track of things with daily stand ups and weekly reports for our client team to really be able to digest what is happening before our weekly scheduled call, that way we’re both prepared to tackle any blockers that arise.
Stage 3 – Design
Now this is where things get interesting, and really the main talking point of today’s post. We don’t do anything without a proper understanding of why we are doing it, and what we are hoping to achieve, with this in mind, we go through your current analytics and data to understand, comprehend and advise what the best route to take to achieving your company goals are. Then, after we’ve decided what route to take, we look at what your audience is telling us, what device are they accessing your website via? Desktop, mobile, tablet? But more importantly, what device are they transacting with you using? There are many industries that people reserve for desktop browsing, whereas other industries (like if you wanna buy new trainers) you’d just do that on your phone. We take all of that information and advise you on the best route, but ultimately it’s your choice.
We noticed that larger purchases, more traditional things like electronics, Sofa’s, TV’s, general house furniture, these are all massively skewed towards desktop buying behaviours, so in this instance, we’d prioritise the desktop version of the design and build the mobile after.
It's interesting to see how some agencies approach all of their designs either mobile first, or desktop first, seeing as if there is no middle ground, but there always is!
Stage 4 – Develop
Our tech team are impressive, and that’s not just because we like to keep them happy. We make sure that everything our tech team is Superior. You’ll get some real experts in their tech field, looking over, scanning, building and discussing your technical requirements with you, making sure that you have as much transparency and information about what stage your build is at as possible, all the way until Go Live.
Stage 5 – Support
After Go Live, you’ll have a 21 day ‘free’ maintenance package, where we fix bugs and make sure everything is working well. We could even make some minor changes if needed, if we’re seeing that there is a clear issue with something that’s been built. After this expires, you’ll have the option to continue enhancing your platform with us.
Final thoughts from Superior
Ultimately, the basis of a successful project comes in its structure and understanding across the board. We’ve always believed in the fact that if you don’t know it like the back of your hand, it won’t go well, and that goes for everyone involved.
After years and years of experience, large and small projects, we’ve devised a smooth approach to understanding your project and getting it over the line properly.
It's important to always be able to look objectively at data to guide your decision making, not absolutely own it. We've seen a lot of mistakes made previously where poor information becomes a fixation, and then projects are doomed before they've even launched!
As always, thanks for reading, if you'd like to discuss a project, give us a shout.
