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SHIFTby Guruge

Process

From first conversation to live site.

Eight stages, in order. Most of what decides whether a website works is settled in the first three, before any visual design happens.

Structure first. Design second. Both before code.

  1. 01

    Discovery

    Understand the business before designing anything.

    What the business sells, who it sells to, how people currently find it, and what visitors need to be able to do. Where a site already exists, we review its structure, speed, mobile behaviour and search visibility.

    Output — A written summary of goals, audience and scope.

  2. 02

    Structure

    Decide what the site contains and in what order.

    Pages, navigation and the hierarchy within each page. This is where most of the value is decided — a clear structure makes design straightforward, and no amount of visual polish rescues a confusing one.

    Output — Sitemap and page-level content outlines.

  3. 03

    Direction

    Establish the visual language.

    Typography, spacing, colour, imagery and tone, applied to a key page or two so the direction can be judged as a real layout rather than as a mood board.

    Output — Design direction applied to primary pages.

  4. 04

    Design

    Design the full set of pages and states.

    Every page designed at mobile and desktop, including the states that get forgotten: empty results, form errors, long content, short content.

    Output — Complete page designs across breakpoints.

  5. 05

    Build

    Develop the site to match, responsively.

    Clean, component-based front-end development with accessibility and performance handled as the work is done rather than audited at the end. Content is loaded and reviewed in place.

    Output — A working site on a staging URL.

  6. 06

    Testing

    Check it properly, on real devices.

    Cross-browser and cross-device testing, keyboard navigation, form handling, page speed and metadata. Then a review pass with you before anything goes live.

    Output — A tested site and a resolved review list.

  7. 07

    Launch

    Go live without losing what already worked.

    Domain and hosting setup, redirects from old URLs where relevant, analytics, search console, and a walkthrough so you can manage what you need to manage.

    Output — A live site, with handover and documentation.

  8. 08

    Improve

    Keep it current.

    Monitoring, updates and ongoing changes. Small improvements are handled continuously, which is what keeps a site from needing a full rebuild in three years.

    Output — Ongoing maintenance and a route for changes.

Start a project

Start at stage one.

Discovery is a conversation about the business, not a questionnaire.