Launching Our New Website: A Web Design Company’s Own Biggest Challenge

You’d think it would be a walk in the park for a web design company to create its own website, right? After all, we do it for clients all the time. A few clicks here, some code there, and boom, done. Easy. But the reality? A whole lot trickier. The truth is, launching a website for us was way more challenging than we ever expected.

Let’s break it down. On paper, it seems like the simplest task. We design websites for other people, so creating one for ourselves should be a breeze, right? WRONG. It turns out, when you’re a service provider and the client at the same time, things get a lot more complicated. On the client side, we’re usually focused on the customer’s needs: what they want in terms of content, features, and design, all shaped by their budget. But when you’re working on your own site, the budget doesn’t matter as much. You have all the internal resources at your disposal, and you know exactly what’s possible, which makes it harder to make decisions. You’re too close to the project, and everything seems important!

Our Approach to Web Design

In the end, we decided to approach our website redesign the same way we do for every client project. First, we gathered a solid list of requirements. Then, we looked ahead to what future needs might pop up and how we could accommodate them. After that, we moved on to wireframing (that’s where we sketch out what the site will look like) and then onto the final design. Sounds like a pretty typical process, right? Well, that’s because it is! But here’s the thing – deadlines. We set internal deadlines, but, let’s be honest, they were more like “guidelines.” In the world of internal projects, deadlines are a bit more… flexible. No biggie if we missed them; no one was really holding our feet to the fire.

And you know what? That was one of our first lessons learned. When you’re doing internal projects, it’s so easy to let things slide because there’s no external pressure. So here’s the takeaway: set things in stone as early as possible! When everyone agrees on the requirements, stick to them. No more changing your mind halfway through or adding a bunch of extra features because they sound good. This approach really helped keep us on track.

The MoSCoW Method for Web Design

Now, let’s talk about the MoSCoW method. No, it’s not a fancy cocktail or a new social media trend – it’s a project management technique we use to keep things in order. MoSCoW stands for Must Haves, Should Haves, Could Haves, and Won’t Have Right Now. Basically, we split our project requirements into these four categories, which helped us stay focused and prioritize what we absolutely needed versus what we could leave out for later. This was key for us in getting the project done without going off on too many tangents. Wikipedia has a great article on the MoSCoW method and how it works, and we’ve undertaken this type of project management approach before, such as with the projects we did for Levenes or Eden Hair.

By the end, after some internal debates (because let’s be real, what’s an internal project without a little disagreement?), we finally got to the finish line. And you know what? We’re super proud of what we’ve created. It may have taken longer than we expected and been more of a challenge than we imagined, but it’s a great reflection of who we are as a company.

Summary

As a business that works across pretty much the entire IT landscape, our new website needed to reflect the wide variety of work we do and the values we hold dear. Transparency, openness, cost-effectiveness – these were all things we wanted to highlight. And of course, our creativity had to shine through too. At the end of the day, that’s what we do best. And we think the website captures that spirit perfectly.

So, there you have it. Building a website for a web design company is a whole different beast than doing it for clients. It’s not as easy as it seems, and you end up learning a ton of lessons along the way. But in the end, we’re happy with the result, and we hope you enjoy exploring our new site as much as we do! If you’d like us to help with a project of your own, get in touch today or find out more about our web design services.