Web Design & Development

You may have heard before that your website is essentially your “online store-front,” or the first impression you get to make with potential customers.

As web marketing and technology have advanced, your first impression to users could be a variety of things, from your business’s social media pages to your Google reviews. However, that doesn’t make your website any less important. A website gives you the chance to pull users in or turn them away, and our team is here to make sure you leave a lasting impression for the better.

a mockup of the Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired website

Custom Web Design Solutions

Your priorities are our priorities.

Whether you’d like an especially unique design, a simpler site that’s easy to use, or a site that integrates special features and third-party tools. Every website project we complete has a dedicated team consisting of a project manager, designer, developer, and content strategist to give you a well-rounded website. We offer static websites and websites with WordPress or Drupal as the CMS, so you can have as much access to the website post-launch as you’d like.

Taking Care of All Your Must-Haves

A lot of website components can be included or excluded depending on specific needs, but there are some items we believe are absolutely essential for a successful website. We prioritize the following on every website project we complete:

Responsive design (mobile-friendly)
Accessible color contrast
Good UX
CMS user training (so you can update your website after launch)
Installation of Google Analytics
Search engine optimization

The Marriage of Custom Development & User Flexibility

In the past, a highly custom website sometimes meant that while your site looked great, it was very difficult to change page layouts without paying for additional development time.
We believe you should be able to have a site that looks unique to your organization AND allows you the flexibility to reuse design elements on new pages if you like. Our team designs and develops component-based website layouts that allow you to combine the elements we design in a variety of ways that look great and fit the content you need to add.

LEARN ABOUT OUR WORK WITH WordPress

LEARN ABOUT OUR WORK WITH Drupal

Web Projects Informed by Your Specific Needs

Though we follow a similar process for most of our web design projects, the types of work we plan to do within that process is completely based on your organization’s needs! Your project manager will keep you in the loop every step of the way to view website progress, provide input, and allow you to voice any comments or concerns.

Project Planning Phase

Our project planning phase, or “blueprint” phase, is designed to lay the groundwork for a successful website project and partnership. We’ll ask questions about your wants and needs for a website, figure out what kinds of styles you like, determine special functionality pieces we need to include, and more. We’ll wrap up this phase by presenting you with deliverables like suggested navigation, design mood boards, and a detailed project quote for you to sign off on before we dive in.

Waterfall Process Approach

Each website project has phases for each member of the Webspec project team, and each of those phases crosses into the next. We’ll start with content strategy and copywriting (if needed), and once drafts are well underway, we’ll start moving into the design phase so you can see how your website content will look in your new design. As design pieces begin wrapping up, our designer and developer will collaborate to get a test site up and running for you to start to see your website come to life.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and Launch

Once your test site is running and your content has been entered, the Webspec team and any stakeholders on your end will be able to click through the website to identify any bugs or items that need to be adjusted. Our team tests functionality in all major browsers and all standard screen sizes. Once everything looks and works like we planned, we’ll move to launch! We’ll work together to plan a launch date, and our team will let you know the window of time you can expect the new site to be launched on your domain.

Check Out Examples of Our Website Projects

Webspec gave the new Iowa High School Athletic Association website a design facelift while improving the organization of content and flow of information for a wide range of users.

Iowa High School Athletic Association

View more of IHSAA

Ongoing Hosting & Support Relationships

You’ve probably worked with vendors in the past who suddenly disappear post-launch, making it difficult to get in touch. So have we, and it’s frustrating. With Webspec, you’ll always be able to reach out to our team with questions, and we’ll do our best to give you the answers you need.

If you know you’ll have regular questions beyond the month or two after your site launches, you may be a good candidate for a hosting & support plan with us. Our hosting & support plans come with regular security updates to your CMS, free site cleanup in the event of a hack, and you’ll have a point of contact who can answer regular questions & concerns about your website.