Background
As a high-performance web development agency, we often face tight deadlines and high expectations. Our team once received a project to develop an 80-page website for a client with an extreme 24-hour timeframe. This case study outlines the strategies and tools I used to achieve this ambitious goal.
Objective
The content was ready. We were to design, develop, and deploy an 80-page website within 24 hours, ensuring quick user experience and functionality.
Approach
- Preparation and Planning
- Client Briefing: The marketing team had conducted the briefing to understand their requirements, and key functionalities.
- Wireframing: Created wireframes for the main pages to establish a clear structure and layout.
- Tool Selection
- Content Management System (CMS): A platform that supports rapid development. WordPress was the first choice for its flexibility and rapid website development features. However, we went with old-school HTML/CSS generated platform, which was completely under our control.
- Themes and Plugins: A pre-built theme that matched the client’s vision and jQuery-based scripts for additional functionalities and navigation.
- Content Gathering and Organization
- Content was provided as word documents, and were organised in correctly named folders.
- Client Collaboration was not necessary considering the tight deadline. The team had already gathered all necessary content, including text and images in advance.
- Development Process
- Focused Workstreams: Divided the work into focused streams. This was a one-man job, so only one function was undertaken at a time. Design, layout, scripts and navigation, templates, and finally content areas.
- Automated Tools: Nothing was available at that time which could meet the requirements. We relied only on experience and sheer will power!
- Quality Assurance
- Testing: Conducted testing on different browsers to ensure compatibility and correctness. This was done after every step before adding content. One final run was done at the end of the 24 hours.
- Client Feedback: The good part was no client feedback in real-time was required, as the client trusted us to build a standard corporate theme based website.
- Deployment
- Hosting and Domain Setup: This was a straight HTML/CSS website so a standard server was sufficient.
- Final Review: Performed a final review with the client to ensure content and navigation was in place before going live.
Results
- Timeframe: Successfully developed and launched the 80-page website within the 24-hour deadline.
- Client Satisfaction: Our biggest challenge was the image quality since this was a carpet and rugs catalog. Thankfully, we had worked on images right in the beginning before moving ahead. The client was highly satisfied with the quality and functionality of the website, praising the efficient and specialized approach.
- Performance: The website performed well across all devices and browsers, with fast load times and a user-friendly interface.
Conclusion
This case study demonstrates that with proper planning, the right tools, and a highly focused approach it is possible to achieve near impossible deadlines. The key to success lies in preparation, efficient use of resources, and clarity in communication with the client. This one example of how to manage and execute a high-pressure project effectively. Please note, we no longer accept such short deadline projects. In our experience this has never resulted in any advantages in terms of long-term success for the client, or any financial benefit for us.
