Custom Web Development
Wouldn’t it be nice if your website or online application did exactly what you needed it to do and nothing else? Well, with custom development, it can!
The chief benefit of custom Web development is that the resulting website or application provides all of the features and flexibility a company requires without any unnecessary functionality to cause confusion and add unwanted bulk and expense. Additional benefits are ease and efficiency of use for both front-end and back-end users, and the ability to leverage online technologies for organization-specific purposes.
While developing completely custom products tends to require a greater investment of both time and money than customizing prefabricated systems, the payoff is far greater in the long run. Every minute and every penny spent on a custom project applies directly to the company’s goals.
The Custom Web Development Process
Developing a custom website or application starts with identifying the requirements. What is it you need the site or program to do?
With this basic information in mind, you can begin planning the features, user flow, and general architecture. For a smoother, ultimately more time-and-cost-effective development process, formalize these aspects in a technical description.
Once the technical description is approved, the developer can move forward building the database architecture that will power the site, application, or software. Custom Web development relies on the functionality and responsiveness that can only be provided by custom database solutions.
With the architecture in place and the technical description as a guide, the team can now begin designing the project. Having spent the time and money to lay a solid foundation, you’ll start to see a return on that investment here. Custom Web design proceeds far more quickly and with fewer errors or issues when it’s just a matter of applying specifications and filling out wireframes from a technical description.
Implementing the project in stages, set out during the planning phase, further streamlines the process. First, it provides milestones against which to track progress. Second, it produces deliverables by which to gauge quality. And finally, it reduces waste by providing opportunities to identify issues early, when they are still relatively easy and inexpensive to fix.
Even if each element has been tested during phased implementation, it is important to review the entire project as a whole when it’s completed. Testing the final application, software, or website is essential for quality assurance (QA). And nothing beats the feeling of going live knowing your product is the best it can be.
While many people think launch is the end of the project cycle, there’s actually an additional step to custom Web development that can make all the difference for a new website, application, or program: marketing. Search engine marketing and search engine optimization, as well as offline promotion, will help get the final product to the user that much faster.
A Custom Web Development Success Story
National Pro Staff is a custom-developed website that helps turn general anglers into sponsored ones. Neither fishing websites nor networking sites were new ideas when the site launched in 2011—there were plenty of both. But no one had yet thought of combining the two, leveraging the connective functionality behind dating sites and social media to help anglers find sponsors.
Knowing that only custom Web development could bring his vision to life, CEO Dan Miguel sought the experts at Superior Web Solutions (SWS). Just three short years later, National Pro Staff is the premier site and application for Canadian anglers and winner of a prestigious tech start-up competition (and $25,000 prize).
Begin Your Custom Web Project Today
If you have a unique idea for a website, program, or application, consult a web development firm. Discussing your ideas and getting expert advice before you start the actual planning process will save you time and money.