Create
The initial accelerated planning stages pave the way for this stage focused on the creative, or design, aspects of the solution. During this stage Mission Data design professionals execute on the critical creative aspects supporting the solutions "look and feel," navigation, and overall usability.
The Create stage consists of three core activities: Discover, Design and Information Architecture, and Prototyping. These activities often happen in an iterative manner that is closely aligned with the solution's overall testing strategy and release plan. Thus, the Create stage continues, to a certain degree, throughout the life of the engagement. In practice, however, the majority of the effort spent during the Create stage occurs prior to the Construct | Develop stage is first initiated.
Discovery
The discovery aspects of the stage often occur during the initial creative brief work sessions during the Envision stage. As described it is an open-ended but structured discussion of business objectives, target audience, design and style preferences. It provides the basis for the information architecture and content strategy of the website. Prior to and during the discovery, existing websites or web solutions that have been identified as favorites or benchmarks are reviewed with respect to web design concepts and techniques. The discovery process will guide the web design from a technical perspective as well. Technologies and techniques such as blogs, interactions with public social networking solutions, video, RSS feeds, podcasts and animation will be included in the discourse to ensure the use cases and requirements for the website are well defined.
Design and Information Architecture
Utilizing the results from the discovery tasks, the Mission Data methodology's activities focus on the creation of the following:
- Define Domain architecture
- Define a site map
- Create navigation design
- Develop the site architecture
- Wireframe the homepage and other significant page types
Wireframing is a technique Mission Data utilizes to establish the information architecture of the website pages. It allows the team to develop the organization and flow of a website without being concerned with "look and feel" issues. The wireframing process ensures all the features, elements and content types are accommodated before the design prototype phase begins.
Beyond the considerations associated with the navigation and layout of the site, the efforts also consider and support the strategies developed during the Envision stage regarding search engine optimization (SEO).
Prototyping
When the site map is finalized, the prototyping activities begin. A prototype is a detailed site design, but not yet a working site. It represents a non-working picture of exactly what the site will look like from a "look and feel" as well as a user experience perspective. The discovery process provides an accurate definition of the site's target audience and use cases.
As this stage is inherently iterative, the deliverables are maintained on a dedicated non-public development website accessible to the client and Mission Data team members enabling them to review and comment on the efforts as they progress.
Key deliverables and results include:
- Sitemap/Navigation design
- Information architecture
- Wireframes
- Experience design prototypes