In Dee Teal’s case, she didn’t always know she wanted to build websites for a living.

Dee is a freelance web developer. In a previous lifetime, she worked as a personal assistant for a non-profit organization. Part of her role there included updating the website- and she took to it “like a duck to water.” However, the other aspects of her job didn’t excite her quite the same way. She took the first opportunity to head to the IT department, where she took care of all eight websites her non-profit owned, and hasn’t looked back since. Today, she freelances, and works with designers and project managers on the back end of websites. She took a few minutes to answer some of my questions.

A bit about the process.

“The first step for me is to get a map of the navigation and site structure. It helps me have a clear idea of where we’re going- I find if I can get a handle on the structure the design will lay over the top… actually design is always the last thing I look at… So when the project manager and I have the structure down then the design kicks in… (usually. It pays to be flexible…) This is where Jumpchart has been really useful to get things mapped out BEFORE we actually start the build.”

I appreciate Dee’s perspective here, because it shows having the navigation and content laid out first is not only useful for designers, but for programmers as well. Whether you’re on a one-man-team, or collaborating with others, it helps to get that part nailed down.

So what other tools does Dee use in her process?

“As far as tools are concerned I ‘m a Mac user on an MBP15in and the software I primarily use is Dreamweaver/Photoshop and Fireworks all part of the Adobe Creative Suite 4. I also use Firefox with the Web Developer Toolbar and TextWrangler/Cyberduck FTP for editing static HTML on the fly. Oh, and Jumpchart too, of course!”

Some advice.

“The biggest, best advice I ever got is to Listen. The more you listen, not just to the text but the subtext of what clients want, however crazy it may seem, the better prepared you are to be able to give them what the didn’t know they wanted… We’ve all had those clients who appear to want the world, flashing gifs included, and it’s SO tempting to shoot them down and tell them what’s best… but if you REALLY hear them, in that they really want their logo to be the thing that people remember, then you can show them how it’s done WITHOUT the flashing gif… and then everyone goes away happy…

“The other thing I think is really important is to always bear the user of the site in mind – not just the client- I do my best to educate, in the nicest possible way, the client into thinking in terms of the users rather than just in what the client wants to say with their site… Basically, if everyone’s thinking about who they’re serving (client, their public, designer/developer, their client), challenging though that can be sometimes, then, in my mind, everyone wins.”

Dee’s proof that your process needs to be flexible, but that no matter what your role in building the site or app is, it pays to get organized first.

See her work here.

How’d You Find It?

A lot of people stumble across Jumpchart, but Steve was actually out looking for a solution- and Jumpchart landed in his lap.

“I was searching for a tool that non-tech-savvy clients could log into, build and manipulate a sitemap, and add simple content- that’s it. I didn’t want to scare them or have to spend time teaching them about some complex system. Jumpchart was exactly the solution I was looking for.”

Steve admitted it’s a rather giant leap from their old system, which involved shooting word documents back and forth via e-mail. He advised anyone who is still doing this to, “Seriously, stop it.” and warned how tricky things can get when dealing with a design by committee situation, or outdated versions of Word.

“Now,” he said, “everyone gets access to Jumpchart!”

How Do You Use It?

Steve found a way to solidly implement Jumpchart into phase two of his website building process.

“I use a brief online form to collect information, some of which involves a potential list of main navigation items for the site. Next I set them up a fresh, new Jumpchart and create some new pages and subpages based on the information from the form and possibly some other sections that I would recommend. The next step involves collaboration with the client. If they have a good idea of what they want I ask them to log into Jumpchart and write a brief sentence on each page describing what kind of content they are envisioning. We then go into greater detail as we address each page individually.”

He also took the time to create a video intro to introduce clients to Jumpchart’s interface. It’s here if you want to check it out! It helped his clients feel more comfortable being in control, and they can move pages around and play with the basic wireframe to test the feel of the navigation.

You Use the Export Feature, Right?

“I use the export feature to transfer the entire sitemap along with all the content we’ve been working on over to WordPress. Jumpchart generates a nice little .xml file I can upload to WordPress and have all my pages greeted, with their subpages and all the other necessary content we’ve put together. This process is smooth and it just plain works.”

“Jumpchart is like the Twitter of Website Planning”

Steve appreciates such features as the public view option so his clients can play around with something that feels more like an actual website. He also uses the comment section frequently- he has conversations with his clients specifically about each page, and the e-mail notifications help them all stay on top of the latest ideas. But what’s his favorite feature?

“I really like the general simplicity of it all; it’s what lead me to Jumpchart over all the over services out there.”

Boilerplate Info on Vectyr.

Located in Las Vegas, Nevada, Vectyr was formally known as “Suspended Studios” and made its transformation on January 1, 2010. Although Vectyr is advertised as a graphic design firm, they take their work deeper than aesthetics. They work with a lot of people who are unfamiliar with the web, and who are looking for guidance. Vectyr builds a solid strategy for the flow of the content, and directs the visitor to accomplish the goals set forth on the site. Steve Reed is the founder of Vectyr, a hard core designer at heart, and a ninja in his spare time.