At Fluid, we provide a comprehensive suite of services designed to ensure that your website not only looks great but performs exceptionally well. Our role in the website design process encompasses user research, UI design, brand photography, copywriting, analytics integration, and collaboration with third-party development partners to deliver engaging, high-performing digital experiences.
At Fluid Branding, we specialise in solving a wide range of business challenges through strategic website design and development. Whether your current website is difficult to update, you’re undergoing a rebrand, or you need a new platform to better serve your customers, Fluid’s digital services provide tailored solutions that meet your specific needs. For businesses struggling with outdated websites, Fluid offers custom-built sites on platforms such as WordPress, Squarespace, Drupal and Shopify, ensuring easy management and scalability. Government clients, such as those in Victoria, benefit from our expertise in Single Digital Presence (Vic SDP), where we design compliant, high-performing websites for public sector use.
We also support businesses undergoing a rebrand by creating visually cohesive UI Kits that streamline the transition process. Fluid’s collaborative approach ensures that your website not only reflects your new brand identity but also enhances functionality for long-term success. For businesses with complex requirements, our ability to integrate essential plugins and CRM systems like Salesforce or POS systems ensures your website remains agile and ready for growth. Our role in the website design process encompasses user research, UI design, brand photography, copywriting, analytics integration, and collaboration with third-party development partners to deliver engaging, high-performing digital experiences. Whether creating a new website or revamping an existing one, our focus is always on elevating your brand while meeting your business objectives.
Strategy
Our strategic process begins with a deep dive into your brand, audience, and competitive landscape, ensuring that every design decision is informed by data and aligned with your objectives.
Workshop
- Strategic Workshop: We kick off the process with a workshop, engaging key stakeholders to gain a thorough understanding of your brand’s personality, values, and goals.
- Audience Insights: We analyse your target audience, uncovering their needs, behaviours, and expectations.
- Brand Insights: An in-depth exploration of your brand’s identity helps us craft a digital presence that resonates.
- Competitor Insights: A competitive analysis provides context for your brand positioning within the market.
- Personality & Values: Together, we identify the key traits and values that should guide the user experience.
- SMART Goals: Clear, measurable goals are established to guide the project’s direction and define success.
Analysis & Strategy Development
- Brand Strategy Documentation: We formalise the strategy in a detailed document, articulating how the website will reflect and enhance your brand.
- Presentation to Stakeholder Groups: The strategy is presented to all relevant stakeholders for review, ensuring alignment and approval before moving forward.
Digital Insights
After establishing the strategy, we move into the Digital Insights phase, focusing on user research and data-driven discovery to ensure the website’s design is aligned with user expectations and business goals.
Discovery
- Web and Data Analytics: We analyse existing website and user data to uncover insights that will guide design decisions.
- Experience Research: In-depth user research helps us understand how your users currently interact with your digital platforms and where improvements can be made.
- Persona Development: We create detailed user personas based on real data, representing your key audience segments.
- User Journey Mapping: We map out the steps users take as they interact with your website, identifying pain points and opportunities for optimisation.
- Information Architecture (IA): A well-structured IA ensures that your content is organised intuitively, improving navigation and user flow.
- Sitemap Creation: The sitemap is built to reflect the new structure, ensuring clarity and alignment with business goals.
- Scope of Work Review: We define and present the scope of work, covering all aspects of the project for stakeholder approval.
- Content Development: We begin developing key content elements that will be featured in the design process, ensuring brand consistency and SEO alignment.
Wireframing
- Workshop: We engage in a collaborative workshop to explore initial wireframe ideas, ensuring alignment between the project team and stakeholders.
- Wireframes (Low-Fidelity): These early wireframes provide a basic layout, focusing on functionality and content hierarchy without design distractions.
- Wireframes (High-Fidelity): High-fidelity wireframes refine the structure with more detailed visual elements, providing a clearer sense of the final product.
Prototyping
- Prototype Development: We develop interactive prototypes that simulate the website’s functionality, allowing stakeholders to experience and interact with the site before it’s built.
- User Testing: The prototypes are tested with real users, gathering critical feedback on usability, navigation, and engagement.
- Key Insights: We analyse testing feedback and refine the design to enhance user experience and functionality.
Concept
The Concept phase is where creative exploration begins. We develop multiple design concepts and refine one direction based on client feedback.
Concept Development
- Initial Concepts: We create several design concepts, each exploring different approaches to solving the identified challenges while aligning with the brand strategy.
- Concept Refinement: One concept is chosen and further refined based on client feedback, with a focus on enhancing user experience and visual appeal.
Concept Refinement
- Design Adaptation: The refined design is adapted across key pages and tailored for both desktop and mobile experiences, ensuring responsiveness and functionality across devices.
- Final Design Production: We produce and finalise all page designs, incorporating stakeholder feedback and ensuring a cohesive digital presence.
Artwork and UI Development
In this phase, we focus on finalising the visual design and preparing the necessary assets for the development phase.
Final Design Amendments
- UI Kit Development: We create a comprehensive UI Kit that includes all visual components—buttons, typography, colour schemes—ensuring consistency and ease of future updates.
- Image/Video Specifications: We optimise all media for performance, ensuring that images and videos are correctly sized for both desktop and mobile devices.
- High-Fidelity Prototypes: These final prototypes showcase the completed design, including all interactive elements, across both desktop and mobile versions.
- Brand Asset Creation: We finalise any necessary brand assets, such as icons or illustrations, and upload them for use across the website.
- Developer Preparation: We ensure all design files and assets are organised and optimised for a smooth handoff to the development team.
- Quality Check: A thorough quality review is conducted to ensure that all design elements meet the project’s goals and standards.
- Developer Handover: The completed design package is handed off to the development team, including all UI Kits, assets, and documentation, ensuring a seamless transition to the build phase.
Web Development
In collaboration with your chosen development team, we oversee the website’s build, ensuring that the designs are translated accurately and the final product performs to expectations.
Development
- Asset Development: We work closely with developers to ensure that all assets (images, videos, UI components) are correctly implemented and optimised for performance.
- Testing: We conduct rigorous testing throughout the development phase to ensure that the site functions as intended across all devices and browsers.
- Pre-Launch Checklist: A final pre-launch review is conducted, covering technical performance, SEO, accessibility, and compliance with the project’s objectives.
Review and Post-Launch Support
After the website is launched, we continue to provide support to ensure everything runs smoothly and that your team is empowered to manage and maintain the site.
Post-Launch
- Training and Handover: We provide comprehensive training to your team, ensuring they can efficiently manage and update the site post-launch.
- Technical Support: Ongoing technical support is available for updates, maintenance, security checks, and troubleshooting.
- Maintenance and Warranty Period: We offer maintenance services, including plugin updates and security monitoring, ensuring the website remains secure and fully functional during the post-launch warranty period.
Working with Your Team
Fluid excels in collaboration, whether we are working directly with your in-house team or third-party development partners. We ensure a seamless handoff, providing clear documentation and assets for your developers to implement with ease. In cases where we collaborate with CRM developers, like Salesforce, we guarantee alignment between your business objectives and the digital user experience, ensuring optimal performance and integration.
Our process is designed to be flexible and adaptive, ensuring that whether you are launching a new site on platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, or Shopify, or modifying existing CMS systems like Drupal or Vic SDP, Fluid remains a strategic partner throughout.