Methodology: Building a WordPress Website

We use a phased, goal-driven methodology that ensures the website structure, content, and technical implementation are aligned with real user needs and long-term sustainability. We employ an internally developed task-based project tracker that allows for collaboration and a bird’s eye view of the entire project.

We begin by clarifying why the site exists before deciding what it contains or how it looks. We like to know the end goal of this website, and what success looks like to the client once the website is completed.

This phase focuses primarily on:

• Defining the primary purpose of the site (what problem it solves)
• Identifying 1–2 priority outcomes for this phase (e.g., capacity building, resource discovery, program support)
• Agreeing on what “success” looks like at launch and post-launch (qualitative and quantitative)

This prevents feature-driven builds and ensures decisions are anchored to outcomes, not preferences.

Rather than designing for “everyone,” we identify priority audiences and the situations in which they will use the site, if it hasn’t already been defined.

Activities can include:

• Identifying primary and secondary user groups
• Defining key use cases (what users come to do, not just what they read)
• Establishing content depth and tone appropriate to professional audiences

This informs navigation, content hierarchy, and page template design.

Once goals and users are clear, we determine how information should be structured and presented. This takes into account the initial request for proposal, content standards across similar sites, and a logical user-flow.

This phase includes:

• Reviewing existing content and identifying what is reused, revised, or newly created
• Defining core content types (e.g., framework pages, resources, stories, professional development)
• Designing a clear information architecture and sitemap
• Establishing relationships between content (e.g., bundles of related resources, stories linked to frameworks)

The output is a structure that supports discovery, not just storage.

With structure defined, we determine how content should appear to end users.

This typically includes:

• Defining page templates for different content types
• Determining how users navigate between related content
• Establishing accessibility, readability, and cognitive load considerations
• Aligning presentation with branding and audience expectations

Wireframes or low-fidelity layouts are used to validate layout and flow before visual design begins.

Design is applied once goals, structure, and display logic are agreed upon. Typically, there are three review cycles, with two designs supplied initially. The client is encouraged to provide feedback about features and elements that they prefer, and we amalgamate the best pieces of both designs into a cohesive final product.

This phase includes:

• Creating a visual system aligned with existing brand standards
• Designing reusable templates rather than one-off pages
• Ensuring accessibility standards are embedded into design decisions

Design reviews are structured and time-boxed to support efficient decision-making.

Development focuses on flexibility, maintainability, and future growth. WordPress is highly customizable, and we use a framework on top of the CMS platform to enable ease of use and plan for future additions.

Activities include:

• Configuring WordPress to support defined content types and templates
• Implementing navigation, search, and resource discovery patterns
• Integrating analytics and performance monitoring
• Ensuring accessibility, responsiveness, and cross-browser compatibility

The CMS is configured so non-technical staff can manage content confidently.

Content is integrated iteratively rather than all at once. This gives us the ability to get a working site up and running sooner, and removes the need to have everything done by a specific date. That being said, we will still need to have fixed timelines for certain content, but it reduces the urgency on your end if you are developing new content types and bundles during the course of the development.

This phase includes:

• Content population and refinement
• Accessibility and usability checks
• Cross-device and browser testing
• Validation of analytics and tracking

Feedback is collected against agreed goals, not subjective preference. Ultimately your team has final say in the overall look, feel, and functionality of the site, but we will also recommend – and explain the reasoning behind – design and user-functionality choices that differ, to meet accessibility or modern web standards.