How to Create a Website Documentation
Documenting the creation of a site means the development of a certain package of documents, including a contract for the development of a site, terms of reference, a brief, a prototype of the future site.
What Does the Website Development Documentation Include?
To develop a high-quality website you need to gather a full package of necessary documents that will be used throughout the project: from the development of website architecture to the website’s launch. This documentation includes technical requirements for the future website, development brief, agreements of different kinds, sketches of a future website, prototypes, source code documentation, QA docs, etc. If you aim to create a clear and usable website, you will need a clear plan for its development.
The Importance of Documentation
If all the development requirements and agreements are stored in one place, it helps to manage the cooperation of all the included parties, track the milestones and deadlines for project stages, and ensure user satisfaction with the final product.
For website development, there will be process documentation that documents the process of developing a website (meeting notes, business communication, etc.) and product documentation that will outline how the website is developed.
If you are not able to document something, it will never be done properly. That is why it is very important to allocate enough time for creating these documents for your project. There are reasons why you should push yourself to build up proper documentation for your website. So, who’ll benefit from the documentation?
Product team in general. No matter how professional and smart your developers, project managers, and other team members are, it is always easier to edit, improve, and work with the technologies and project parts you understand. Documentation fosters the understanding and creation of common concepts and language surrounding the project. That helps avoid misinterpretations.
Website developers in particular. When all the steps and actions are documented, it is easy to come back and see what could be wrong or how the development stages could be improved. Apart from that, developers keep their own technical documentation that allows website updates to go smoother and simplifies the onboarding of new engineers. Source code docs include frameworks that are used for website development, types of data binding, design patterns, security architecture, and other underlying development principles for engineers.
Users. Not all website visitors are proficient with the technologies and may not always know how to use the features of your website right. That is why little “how-to” guidelines and short descriptions of the used features and tools of your website will help them to figure out some things faster — that’s called user documentation.
But what are the most important parts of website documentation?
Website Development Brief
A development brief can be described as a project roadmap that determines the prototypes or references of the design elements, development requirements, and deadlines for project parts and the whole project.
The main aim of the brief is to provide both customer and contractor with all the necessary information about the future project and demonstrate the expected result in a well-developed website.
Website development brief should include the product description, product analysis (if the website is going to be improved and not developed), website’s main purposes and objectives, competitors analysis and comparison if needed, basic minimum technical requirements written in a way that’s understandable for everyone involved, budget (including allocated funds for promotion and support services), a deadline for the whole project, and payment dates.
Site Development Agreement
An agreement or contract between your company and any other institution you cooperate with is one of the most important parts of your website documentation.
Agreements should include all the cooperation rules, regulations, and security plans in case of any contingencies. Both parties should agree on all terms and conditions of the agreement — then, the contract should be verified and signed by them in two identical original versions.
Technical task
The site owner or the contractor should provide the development team with clear technical requirements for the future website. The task can be created by the client and developer or separately. All the technical requests should match with developers’ skills.
Determine the technologies the developer should use, expected site usability and performance, mention UI\UX requirements too. There should also be a separate document for software architecture — it should describe how the website will be structured, what services the team plans to use for development, etc. This doc aims to define the full scope of development work, with milestones, deadlines, and so on for the technical team.
Site Prototype
UXD (User Experience Design) documentation, among other things, includes prototypes. Prototypes are great for visualizing the most important features your website will develop — you can use tools like Sketch, Draftium, Mockplus, or Figma to build it. Also, prototypes are great for showing your interpretation of a client’s brief to them to confirm if it’s what they’ve wanted.