our process
Every opportunity and client organization is unique. The following steps have shown the highest correlation with success on Citrus projects. Our definition of success is providing fantastic web sites on time and on budget.PROJECT MANAGEMENT
To manage project materials, facilitate design review, and allow for quick and easy consultation, Citrus maintains a password-protected project intranet site with access restricted to authorized Citrus and the client. The site serves as the development and staging area for all aspects of the project's life cycle. All team members can review schedules, concept documents, design studies and revisions, research findings, digital assets, revisions, and prototypes. The project site facilitates on-demand reviews, communication, and collaboration between Citrus and the client to ensure that all parties are informed and ready to move forward through each phase of the development process.The Citrus project manager assigned to the client will be available throughout the project's duration to address any needs or concerns. Citrus will communicate through client meetings, telephone, email, and fax. As the project develops, Citrus will advise the client if any of the requested work is outside the original project scope, and will provide time and materials estimates required to accomplish the additional work.
At the close of the project, all final components – including designs, information architecture, graphic files, web page templates, and functioning web pages – are delivered to the client.
DISCOVER/PLAN/DEFINE
We listen to you. Successful projects always involve clear communication and a deep understanding of the client's business situation. We study your customers and learn to put ourselves in their shoes. By learning how real-life users interact with products & web sites we can provide a web site that is easier to use.Most likely your project has many important business goals, with various levels of priority and difficulty. Citrus will carefully study your technical and content constraints and help you rank everything into an actionable roadmap that can drive the design process.
Most web sites require painstaking definition before any development can realistically begin. We will help you define your web site technical requirements and provide clear cost estimates so you are never surprised at the end. We're learned that innovation comes from mastering organizational and technical constraints instead of ignoring them and from listening patiently to clients and digging deeper instead of clinging to our first few catchy ideas. We know we've only done our jobs when the projects we launch get our clients the results they envisioned back in the planning phase.
i. Strategic Planning and Information Architecture
ii. Project strategic planning (including defining requirements and goals)
iii. Information architecture definition
iv. Information architecture design
v. Information architecture revision
DESIGN/INVENT
In this phase, solutions come into view. We take our detailed understanding of your customers and start solving their problems in a way that leverages the strength of your business. We continue to discover fresh solutions as we define the conceptual design. The best answers are not always what we expect them to be.vi. Concept/creative design
vii. Design revision
viii. Design presentation
BUILD
Depending on the client's level of technical expertise and resources, our involvement in development can be minimal or comprehensive. In all cases, Citrus delivers detailed and clear designs and specifications and provides ongoing support for development. Our technical capabilities include e-commerce, and content management systems.ix. Programming and database production (this phase includes inte grating content management, ecommerce, and email marketing solutions, if applicable)
x. Pre-production
xi. Production phase one
xii. Mid-production review
xiii. Production testing
xiv. Production presentation
DEPLOY/MANAGE & GROW
We make sure that designs are ready before they launch. All user testing, quality assurance, and reviews are conducted within Citrus' testing environment, a site to which clients have access. When all development is complete, we work with you to deploy and launch the site at a live production environment.It's not always possible, or smart, to do everything at once. We work with you to make changes that have the most effect first, and provide for how a solution may grow in the future. We also guide that growth, by continuously evaluating the effectiveness of designs and building on their successes, increasing your return on investment.
xv. Testing & launch
xvi. Testing (functionality, flow)
xvii. Delivery (all digital assets via FTP or CD, as requested)
xviii. Site launch
xix. Maintenance (as needed)
The ability to define the project's scope of work at the outset of any given project is of paramount importance. This comprehensive testing is a keystone in the Citrus process. Any bugs that are found within acceptance period will be fixed and retested accordingly. Prior to delivery, Citrus will test all aspects of the site's interface and functionality on each of the major web browsers:
Windows XP + IE 7
Mac OSX + Safari 3
Mac OSX/Windows XP/Vista + Firefox 2