Summary: Building a website that lasts requires a structured approach beyond coding. ATStudio's web development process starts with understanding business goals and audience needs, followed by meticulous planning and collaboration. We use semantic HTML, reusable components, and thorough testing to ensure your website is high-performing, accessible, and easy to maintain. This blog post will walk you through each step, from initial concept to final deployment, offering insights into creating websites built to endure.
Understand the Content and the Design
Any successful engineering process begins with a clear problem statement. In web development, that means drilling down into clients’ business goals, researching the market, crafting unique solutions, and refining content alongside design. While these steps might feel “less technical,” they ensure that once we move into development, we aren’t forced into costly rework down the road.
Here’s the streamlined process:
- Clarify the Client’s Business Goals
- Market Research & Unique Positioning
- Polish the Content
- Collaborative Design (with Developer Input)
- Iterate with Client Feedback
- Development Build (with Designer Input)
- Quality Assurance (QA)
- Final Client Feedback & Hand-off
Notice that actual coding appears last in this chain. It’s far more efficient to spot potential pitfalls early rather than mid-build. Engineers’ decisions should stem directly from the business’s real needs, supplemented by best-practice technology and realistic scope-setting.
Draw Out Your HTML Structure First
HTML forms the backbone of any website. Changing fundamental structure mid-project disrupts styling and functionality built on top of it—akin to demolishing the second floor of a building once you’re already constructing the third.
- Use Semantic HTML:
This ensures your site remains maintainable, SEO-friendly, and accessible. - Focus on Scalability:
Semantics and clarity in structure make it easier to evolve or expand the site without breaking existing features.
Set Up Global Variables
Before coding specific sections, establish a consistent development system:
- Color Palette
Adhere to the brand’s values and unique identity. - Fluid Typography
Define font families, sizes, weights, and line-heights for a clean, consistent look. - Spacing & Layout
Standardize spacing and structural grids.
Reference Design Tokens
We organize all of these global variables—colors, fonts, spacing, etc.—as design tokens in Figma. By keeping these core style properties in a central location as CSS variables, we ensure consistent branding and faster updates whenever design needs evolve.
Build Out Reusable Components
Breaking the site into semantic, modular pieces streamlines maintenance and scales well. For instance, a “blog card” might appear in multiple places. Building a single robust component prevents repeated code—and repeated bugs.
- Handle Edge Cases:
Titles that run long, multiple tags, or missing content. - Maintain Semantic Structure:
Lean on CSS for presentation, rather than stacking generic HTML elements. - Avoid Over-Engineering:
Components should exist for repeated patterns, not just developer preference. Too much abstraction can slow progress and add unnecessary complexity.
Additionally, we maintain a shared Figma library that houses these components’ visual references, further aligning front-end code with design tokens.
QA Components Individually
Since websites adapt to different devices and browsers, test your components before final integration:
- Cross-Browser Testing
Ensure consistent rendering in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc. - Responsive Checks
Each component should handle tablet, mobile, and desktop gracefully. - Functional Tests
Verify interactions (hover states, transitions, animations, etc.) are working smoothly.
Designer / Developer Sync:
This middle “sanity check” ensures each piece is polished and avoids a massive QA backlog at the end.
Assemble the Main Website
Two major tasks remain:
Non-Component Content
- Most static sections still benefit from semantic HTML for accessibility and SEO.
- Proper heading hierarchy and well-structured markup can significantly boost search rankings—and streamline future maintenance.
Full-Page Layouts
- This is where all components come together.
- Watch for spacing, layout issues, and new edge cases that only emerge when multiple components sit side by side.
Even with frequent checks, new details often surface once real content meets real layouts. We verify each page before moving on—helping prevent endless minor tweaks.
QA the Entire Website
At this stage, comprehensive QA checks the sum of all parts:
- Complete Navigation Testing
Broken links or misdirected URLs frustrate users. - Device & Browser Consistency
Checking multiple browsers on tablet, mobile, and desktop ensures a uniform experience. - Performance Testing
Speed directly impacts user retention and SEO. - Accessibility & SEO Audit
Proper semantic structure, ARIA roles, and meta tags are essential. Using VoiceOver or other ScreenReaders to test real browsing experience - Security & Functionality
Confirm forms and integrations are robust enough to handle both typical and edge-case scenarios.
No matter how thorough your individual component testing is, the entire site can still present new challenges when everything is live.
Final Optimization
Optimization is where a decent website becomes a high-performing one. It should be part of the plan from the start and done continuously alongside development.
SEO & Performance
- Double-check metadata, alt text, and structured data for maximum visibility.
- Optimize Core Web Vitals (e.g., Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift) to improve both user experience and Google rankings.
Media Compression
Use lazy loading and responsive images to keep performance snappy on mobile devices.
Accessibility
Apply final touches to ensure everyone, including users with disabilities, navigates effortlessly.
Deployment
Staging Environment
To minimize risk, we deploy each release or new component to a temporary staging URL before production. This environment enables clients to perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and allows us to catch and fix issues early—without impacting the live site or confusing end users.
Final Deployment
Once all tests have passed and feedback is addressed, we push updates to the live environment. We also ensure that critical security measures—such as SSL certificates—are properly configured to safeguard user data.
We’re here for the long haul—ready to provide support and improvements as your business grows. By following these lean, collaborative, and thorough steps—from early planning to ongoing maintenance—you get a website that’s built to last, aligned with your strategic goals, and adaptable to whatever the future brings.