The website is designed and built, and the content is in. The completion of a project is near, but now that all the major tasks are complete, there are a few items to be ironed out before launching a site.
Once launched, a website will need support for updates, maybe some site changes/additions, or even a social media campaign.
A pre-launch checklist including various details such as favicons, redirects, domain mapping at the same time supporting the QA team with design clarifications.
Besides website checklists, there’s usually Alpha and Beta Testing with the development team, an internal QA team, a few key stakeholders, and then eventually the entire company. Beta sites might be used for big changes to a current website’s design. Having the design documentation done ahead of time is a lifesaver, but the HTML prototypes have been the best reference for QA testing. And don’t forget all the little things that make a big difference in overall branding and UX, such as favicons, redirects, and analytics tracking.
Post launch tasks will usually include support and maintenance of the website, but also creating marketing and social media campaigns to help improve SEO.
Most of these tasks will bring us back to the Discovery phase.
