As a Project Coordinator here at Imarc, my role is to oversee projects, keep schedules updated and accurate, provide timely feedback to clients, and ensure a healthy project lifecycle. I’m just one of over 50 experienced engineers, UX engineers, designers, strategists and business and marketing experts here at our agency.
Not having worked at a digital agency before, I felt a little nervous when I started here since I wasn’t sure how the process worked. So what did I do? I grabbed an Expo marker, messaged a strategist teammate – shoutout to Mike! – who sketched out the process of a digital agency.
I wanted to understand the company structure from a high level and understand what each Imarcian was doing for the agency. Little did we realize, this conversation would take more time than a coffee-inspired, 20-minute meeting. The project lifecycle is a large, ever-evolving process. I reached out to my teammates, and I asked them to join me to explain their roles each step of the way.
The Production Process
The Project Production Map provides an overview of the journey your project will take through the production process. Don’t feel overwhelmed, the Project Manager/Coordinator will be with you throughout the whole process.
Research & Strategy
During this initial stage of the project, our Strategists will work closely with you and your team. We will host working sessions, interviews, and surveys to identify pain points, themes, and project goals that will guide the rest of the project. Once these details are extracted, we create a sitemap and move to the next stage: wireframing. Wireframing a website is the first visualization created from our discovery.
Learn more about what exactly wireframes are: What Wireframes Are, and Aren’t.
As a strategist I work with our clients to understand and support the project goals and user needs throughout production.Mike Flannery, Strategist
Let’s Get Creative
Once the strategy phase is complete, our creative team takes the lead to bringing the wireframe one step closer to reality. Through sketches and high fidelity design compositions, our Designers and Art Directors use an iterative approach to breathe life and brand into the framework established during the strategy phase. This is when our creatives turn a conceptual idea into visual design and continue to refine the design until we reach the final result.
This is where your project discovers its identity.Kelly Freitas, Designer
Getting into Development
Once the creative design is approved by the client, development will be in full swing. During this stage of the project, there are two key roles that come into play: the UX Engineer and the Web Engineer.
The UX Engineer is responsible for implementing visual elements that users see and interact with in a web application. They ensure the page performs well, and how dynamic data is presented to the end-user. The UX Engineer works closely with the designer to ensure that consistency is upheld during the build phase.
The Web Engineer builds all the features and functionality of the content management system, the back-end of the website, and integrates with external systems and services.
This is where the Engineers turn your concept into reality. This is where your project really comes to life.Dave Anastasi, Lead Web Engineer
Triple Checking . . . and Checking Again
Once the project has been built out and gone through review, we head into the quality control phase. Quality Assurance, or QA-ing as we call it, is done by our team of Imarc employees who are not yet familiar with your project. They are assigned to a variety of devices and browsers to review the site and test everything. We go through the site to ensure there are no bugs, that all content is in the right place, and that the site exceeds expectations.
Learn more about how we QA our work with the latest device lab enhancements.
Nurturing Your Business
Your website is part of a digital ecosystem. The website has to work with search, social media, apps, content marketing, email campaigns, and more. It must be accessible, usable and performant. And, of course, it needs regular feeding and watering.
That’s where our Digital Marketing Services come into play. You can draw on a deep bench of experts to support and extend your team. Imarc helps clients improve SEO, conversion, lead nurturing, content strategy, and analytics. Keep your marketing efforts firing on all cylinders.
To deliver real business results, your digital properties all have to work together – web, search, social, and content. Imarc’s clients can rely on a team of experienced professionals to bring it all together.Robert Mohns, User Experience Researcher
It’s Not Over Just Yet
Post Production with Client Services
Don’t worry, because we’re not done yet! Post-launch, our production team continues to work with our clients through a hypercare period of 90 days to ensure that the recent launch is exceeding expectations. Once the 90 days of hypercare has concluded, our Client Services team takes over the project. They’ll continue to optimize, update, and evolve the site from there on out!
Whether it is a small content update, a new tool, or feature upgrade, my dedicated team of engineers and I are here to help you through it from scoping and planning to testing and deployment. Imarc is never more than a call or click away!Victoria Andersen, Client Services Manager
There you have it! After months of hard work and collaboration, you now have a show-stopping website that’s ready to launch.
