Most website projects that go wrong do so before any code is written: the brief was vague, nobody owned the content, or launch was treated as the finish line. This is the process we follow at Novaro for business websites and web apps, from the first brief to the weeks after launch, with what you need to bring to each stage.
The brief: one page is enough
A useful brief answers five questions:
- What the business sells, and to whom
- What a visitor must be able to do on the site: call, book, buy or sign in
- Which kinds of page you expect: home, service, product, article, contact
- Who will supply the text, photos and prices
- The date that matters, and why
It doesn't need wireframes or a long feature list. From the brief we book a 30-minute call, then send a written proposal with the scope, timeline and milestones.
Scope: count layouts and features, not pages
The size of a website project depends less on how many pages it has than on how many distinct layouts it needs and what the site has to do. Mr Antidot, a pest-control company in Ahmedabad, offers ten treatments, and its site has a page for each. The ten pages share one service-page layout, and every Book Now button opens the contact form with that service already selected. That is ten pages, one layout and one small piece of form logic. Read the Mr Antidot case study.
This is also the moment to agree, in writing, what the first release will not include. A short out-of-scope list prevents most arguments later.
Design: settle the pages that carry the traffic
We design the home page and the one or two templates most visitors will land on, usually a service or product page, at phone and desktop widths. Once those are approved, the remaining layouts follow the same system of type, colour, spacing and buttons, so they go quickly.
The decisions worth your time at this stage are the navigation, the main call to action on each page type, and how forms behave. Colours and photos are easier to change later than structure.
Content: the step that most often slips
Text, photos, prices and product data are the slowest part of most projects, and placeholder text hides layout problems until it is replaced. Agree early who writes what and by when, and put real content into the design as soon as it exists. If we write or source the content, that is part of the quote.
Build: something to click every week
We build in short cycles and share a working preview link every week, so you review real pages on your own phone rather than screenshots. Feedback is most useful while a page is being built, and it is cheapest then too.
Complex flows are easier to review in parts. On Quadrato Cargo, a courier platform, booking a pickup is split into four short steps: route and pickup, sender, recipient, then parcel details. Each step asks only for what it needs, which also makes each one easy to test on its own. See the Quadrato Cargo case study.
Testing before launch
Before anything goes live we check:
- Every form submits, and the message reaches the right inbox
- Pages work on a real phone, not only in a desktop browser
- Keyboard navigation, visible focus and colour contrast meet WCAG 2.2 level AA
- Every page has its own title and description, and the sitemap lists the pages you want found
- Speed, measured with Lighthouse on mobile settings
Launch: domain, redirects and measurement
Launch day is mostly configuration. The domain is pointed at the new site. If an old site existed, each old URL is redirected to its new equivalent, so existing links and search visibility carry over. The sitemap is submitted in Google Search Console, and analytics is checked to confirm it records visits and enquiries.
The first weeks after launch
Real visitors find what the brief missed. Plan for security and dependency updates, small content changes, and a review after six to eight weeks of what Search Console and analytics show: which pages are found, for which searches, and where visitors leave.
How long it takes
The timelines we publish are 3–6 weeks for marketing sites and landing pages, and 8–14 weeks for MVPs and web apps. Content that is ready on time moves these more than anything else.
What to do next
If you are setting a budget, read what changes the cost of a website in India. If you are comparing partners, read what to check before you hire an IT services company. Or send us a short brief and we will reply within one business day.