Behind the Scenes: Working With Me on a Squarespace Site

Today I wanted to go over my process for working on Squarespace websites. This will give some insight into the behind-the-scenes action as well as what you get as a client. I’ve found a lot of people aren’t sure what to expect out of a website design project, especially if it’s your first one. So this is here as a helpful guide to walk you through working with me.

Step 1: Initial Consultation

Well, the first step actually starts with you. You have to decide to contact me to express interest in a project. But don’t worry! I think I’m a pretty nice person and I definitely don’t bite. Once we decide to chat initially, we’ll schedule a call to talk over the needs, timeline, and terms. Before we meet I’ll send you a quick website questionnaire to make sure your selected package matches up with what you have planned and to give us talking points. I’ll also make sure you have a general idea of your content and have branding for the site.

Step 2: Project Kickoff

After we have the initial consultation and decide to book the project, I’ll send over a contract. This is when you pay your initial deposit if the project is immediate. If the project is planned in advance you’ll pay a non-refundable booking fee (10% of the project price) and then an initial deposit and contract will be signed 7 days before your project starts. I hold on the contract until right before the project starts so that if anything changes we can be flexible about your project!

Step 3: Let’s Get Started - Mockups!

This is the part where I do my magic, so you are getting a behind-the-scenes view of my working process, here!

Based on the information you told me, I will create mockups for the website. We have a certain number of pages agreed to, and I create mockups for each page. That starts off with a wireframe or sketch so I can get the content laid out on the page. Then I go in and add colors, imagery, and other design elements to make it pleasant and establish a hierarchy of information as well as tuning the site to your brand. When I do this I make sure that there’s consistent colors, fonts, and shapes. I even make sure any stock imagery has the same mood to match your brand.

Once I’m done with the mockups we have a review. That’s where I show you each page design to present what I’ve done in addition to my thought process behind my decisions. You can give me your feedback and I make rounds of revisions until we get everything looking perfect. We do this because I like to get the design set in stone before I do extra development work. That way you will know what to expect and I will have a set plan!

Step 4: Development & Creating the Website

Another behind-the-scenes part of the process is the Squarespace development. I’ll take the mockups that you approve and turn them into a working website! A lot of my work is customizing the easy-to-edit content sections in Squarespace into the unique design that I created for you. I also add in any custom coding I need to do to add details to the website and transcend the out-of-the-box Squarespace look. You already have the mockups so you’ll know exactly how the site will look. When I’m done we’ll have another review to go over functionality and make sure everything is ship shape.

Step 5: Site Launch

Once the site is approved we’ll need to launch! Before we launch I test extensively. That means we both test links and forms and proofread the site. If it’s an e-commerce site we will do a test purchase on one of the products. Any other custom functionality will also be tested.

For launch day, we’ll take your website live. Before that happens we have the final payment that is due. After that is settled, we’ll go ahead and launch! If it’s a brand-new site we’ll simply flip a switch. If you have an existing site we will need to point your existing domain to Squarespace. After the launch, we will test everything once more.

After everything looks great, we’ll do training to make sure you know how to edit content areas on your site.

After your site is live, I include 30 days of maintenance.

Examples of what that includes:

Fixing any broken images or links that were pre-existing to the launch that was not caught in testing
Any problems with products, contact forms, or other functionality that was pre-existing to launch or originate from my original code

Examples of what that doesn’t include: