Q: So, what can our clients expect from us?

A: Why, the H18 Treatment of course! Here's how we like to do things...

We came up with the H18 treatment cycle last spring when we'd completed a number of fairly large projects and fallen into a tangible rhythm that was really helping us to get results. We know that if we can establish the same kind of rhythm with each and every client we can reliably achieve great results really efficiently, every time. This is one of the keystones of the H18 treatment, and something we're pretty strict about implementing.

The H18 treatment cycle

Click on the elements of the wheel to see what happens at each stage

1. Meet

Once we have received your initial enquiry we will set up a meeting during which we can discuss the project and its objectives in more detail with you. During this time we can answer any questions you may have, gain a greater understanding of your business's needs and give you guidance and advice on the best way to proceed.

2. Define

Now we have met you and discussed your project in some detail we set about creating a project specification document. This document will outline and define all work to be undertaken by us, project milestones, timescales and, importantly, how much you should budget for the work.

Once this been agreed and signed off we are ready to start the design phase.

3. Design

Every design phase starts with brainstorming, with the outcome being a mood board (a collection of ideas that include such things as layout, colour, typography and imagery) either on paper or as a PDF. This stage can also form part of the meeting phase depending on prior project information received.

For web-based projects we then set about defining the sites information architecture, creating a static mock of the site's pages in Photoshop. Only when the design has been approved and signed off can we move onto the next stage, and any reworking of the design must be done at this time as changing elements in Photoshop is very easy at this stage rather than at the development stage.

Print work is also completed on the approved/sign off basis.

4. Develop

This stage involves building the site template and then the inner pages. Depending on the platform and software solution chosen for the project (CubeCart, CakePHP, Trinity etc), we will set up a local development site that allows us to build your project on our office web server. Once the project is at a stage where we're ready to either show you the finished article (where we've agreed to supply or add supplied content) or for you to add your content yourself, we put the website onto a temporary "staging" domain that is accessible from any computer with an internet connection.

Once your site is on its staging domain we issue a final invoice and are on-hand to show you how to use the back-end admin software where appropriate/required. Once you're happy with the content and images we're ready to deploy to the live server!

5. Deploy

Finally your work is ready to go live - we never launch without the nod from you and we always run a complete check over the site to make sure there are no problems. In the flick of a switch the whole world can see your website!

Once your website is deployed this is not the end of our relationship - we offer a wide range of aftercare services and support.

6. Aftercare

We take care of our clients. Our Focus maintenance package (see Focus) is the most popular choice - we take care of your site as if it were our own, helping you to climb the Google rankings, keep on top of your analytics and to keep your content current.