Web Design

While our designers come from a multiple discipline background of print, branding and marketing like traditional graphic design agencies, SolutionStream designers set themselves apart in as the experts in user experience and interactive design. Our designers span the gap between marketing to backend development. They walk you through the design process step by step from the project planning stage and flow mapping, to the wireframing of your concepts…ultimately creating beautiful and user-friendly designs. Our designers interface with development teams all along the way, creating one smooth process. From simple brochure-ware websites to complex systems and applications, our designers create powerful designs that make you more competitive.

Services include:

• User Interface Design
• Web Design
• Graphic Design
• Brand Development
• Flash Animation
• HTML/CSS

Our Method

Every client is different and has different needs. We are more than happy to adjust to whatever your process is and fill in the gaps as needed. However, if you're not sure where to start, here is our typical 4-step method to ensure your creative project is a success.

1. The Brain Dump Phase:

   This is where we find out all about you and your big idea. Who will be using your site/application, what type of things appeal to them? What goals do you hope to achieve? What is your brand presence?

2. The Planning Phase:

   In the past, we've seen clients rush into development without a clear plan of how things will actually work, resulting in miscommunication, missed deadlines, and many unforeseen gaps in steps or overlooked problems that cost time and money. To remedy these problems, we strongly encourage building a "Site Map" or "Process Flow" of your project, then moving to "Wireframing" the key pages.

   Wireframing is the design process where we build simple design "frames" of all the things that need to be on any given page. And since they are simple drawings, at this point we can move and change things rapidly in a fraction of the time it would take if we were working with a rich, full color design comp.

   In the end you have a document that everyone can easily understand that gives "the Big Picture." Development teams can get a much better grasp on the project scope and estimates are much more accurate after flushing out much of the "hidden" functionality.

3. The Design Phase:

   Now that we have an educated plan, we can move into creating a killer user experience design, tailor made for your needs.

   Usually there are 5-6 unique wireframe pages that serve as "templates" for any other pages. With you, we will select these key pages to be designed in full color comps. Since we took some extra time in the first two steps, typically the design phase goes much more smoothly.

   Because our designers are well versed in the interactive world, you get much more than just a "pretty picture." All things are being considered from the ease of use to how it will be integrated into development.

4. The Prototype / Templating Phase:

   Once we are all set with our plan and design, the design is then put into a usable format for the development team: HTML/CSS, Flash or XAML.

   For more complex projects, we highly recommend creating a static prototype of the project.

   What is the prototype? The prototype, while it may not be fully functional and has no dynamic content, is "clickable" to users, and they can click on links and be taken to the appropriate pages and processes almost as they would in the live application or website.

   Why create a prototype? While some projects may not be large enough to warrant this step, prototypes are extremely useful in getting valuable user feedback BEFORE any backend code has been made. Quick tweaks to the user experience at this stage are quite easy, and are much easier and more cost-effective than waiting until AFTER it's been put into production. Prototypes also greatly help development's understanding of elements on the page and how they will need to function. A prototype also helps with finding any "missing gaps" in the process that are typically found in the development phase.

   We have also found that many clients keep their prototypes for "demo" purposes when actual live data may be too sensitive or unavailable. Clients also use prototypes as a "Proof of Concept" to secure more funding.