Hello again, Linkshape fan.  Today I’m introducing a new topic series that focuses on the thing our little website design company calls “Linkshaping”.  We toss that term around liberally on our webpages and sales materials, but I feel it’d be helpful to prospective and new web design clients (or anyone else who’s interested) to understand what we mean when we talk about “Linkshaping” or “getting Linkshaped”.

Because it’s not a word in the dictionary, we do talk about what meaning our company places on the word “Linkshape” on our About Us page.  When we say “Linkshaping”, really we’re just applying our brand in reference to our creative service processes and the purpose of writing an “Art of Linkshaping” is to focus on some of those processes.  I’m always saying, “We’re big on branding,” right?

The first few posts will cover the following topics:

• Online Business project scope
• The Online Business creative brief
• Website design wireframes
• Website design mock-ups

These topics correspond to some of the natural phases of a typical custom online business or website design:

• Research
• Strategy
• Design

We may talk about three more phases (Build, Test, Admin) that follow those first three.  For now, let’s just focus on the topics and before we actually get into each, today we’re taking a look at a critical component in the Art of Linkshaping: the approval process.

Come sail away with me

I’m sailing awaaaaay.  Set an open coooourse… for the Virgin Seeeeeeea.

Why am I singing, unless I’m actually writing this post in the shower?  No; I’m not.  I’m just setting the stage.

Water is a great metaphor for creative thought.  When I think of creative processes such as Internet marketing and website design, I like to extend that metaphor to envision sailing down the canal.  Unless you’re going it alone, sailing is also a collaborative process, which is how we view Linkshaping.  Sure, there’s collaboration taking place between Linkshapers, but just as important – there’s a collaboration between us Linkshapers and you, our patron.  You’ve come to Linkshape because we’ve successfully made this journey before and you’re ready to set out on a journey as well.

Unlike sailing in real-life, in the metaphor of Linkshaping, we’re actually building the ship as we sail along in it.  So if you take a moment to chuckle at the ridiculousness of that image, we can promptly move along.  At the beginning of this journey we have the project scope, the blueprint of the ship, and at the other end, an open sea of possibilities.

Do you approve?

I personally like the canal metaphor because it includes stop gates, which separate the canal in to manageable sections of travel.  Like canals, managing the flow of creative thoughts and actions requires being aware of the dangers of breaks in the canal.  Because Linkshaping is a creative and collaborative process, one of the biggest challenges is ensuring we’re all headed the same direction.  When we’re not, that’s a break in the canal and it results in the wasteful diversion of valuable creative effort.  And much like the destructive force of breaching water, it can devastate a project if left unchecked.

Stop gates have the very important purpose of  managing breaks in the canal and during Linkshaping, the approval process is our system of stop gates.  Like stop gates, requesting approval ensures that we’re headed the right way along our journey and can quickly identify and fix breaks in the canal.

So as we navigate through the various phases of the production process, we will stop and request your approval to proceed.  These requests are not ambiguous and you’ll see specific language such as “please review and let us know if these meet your approval so that we can proceed with the buildout.”

What if I don’t approve?

First, don’t worry.  We’re professionals, and you’re not going to hurt our feelings.  We’ll close the stop gate, backtrack a little to the breach and repair it.

For example, if we submit a graphical mock-up to you and you’re just not digging that photograph we used in the background, you can request that we change it.  We’ll probably have a brief conversation to make sure we understand what type of imagery you’d prefer, take care of it, and resubmit it to you for approval.  No problem.

Problems only occur when changes are requested for deliverables that have already been approved.  For example, if we submit a completed HTML webpage to you and you decide at that point that you don’t like that photograph in the background – well, that’s a change order.  You’ve already approved the mock-up that we used to build the various files that make up that HTML page, which means that in addition to back-tracking through the build phase, we have to back-track all the way into the design phase in order to fix the breach.  That takes extra time.

Everybody hates change orders

Like all products and services, there’s a certain cost associated with building an online business or website design.  When we first sit down to talk about your upcoming project – your upcoming journey, if you will – we do our very best to make sure we’re all on board from the get go.  We factor in a certain amount of variability.  After all, managing breaches is just part of the business.

But there’s a cost for the extra back-tracking due to change orders and that cost must be passed to you, the client.  There’s also a time factor involved, which means project delays.  We derive no pleasure from it and I know my peers at other companies will attest to the fact that we all hate change orders.

I’m going to leave it there, because what we’re starting to talk about now is project scope, a topic I wish to speak to you about in greater detail later.  For now, just understand that we’ve established this system of approval requests to protect both parties in this relationship.

Looking ahead

There’s a certain exhilaration in successfully reaching this sea of possibilities at the end of our initial journey.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that this the end of the greater journey together: your company’s ongoing success.

Okay, so I’m using the word “exhilaration” in talking about building online businesses and websites, which is why we do just that and not actually sail the literal canals.  Call us nerds.  We don’t mind.

I feel at the end of the project, you’ll appreciate the care we take in making sure everyone is on board all along the way.  Hopefully, you won’t think we’re just being “canal.”  See what I did there?

What do you think of our approval process?  Are you interested in learning more?  Was that joke stupid?  Leave your feedback, comments, and we’ll talk more about it if you like.