Website Roadmap & Design Doc Generator

📘 Phase 0 — Discovery & Foundations

Discovery

• Define website purpose (e.g., marketing, sales, booking, information)
• Identify primary audience
• Identify secondary audience
• Capture business goals & success metrics
• Define required features (MVP vs. Phase 2)
• List integrations required (email, forms, analytics, payments, CRM, etc.)

Content Foundations

• Create sitemap (pages required)
• Draft early content outline per page
• Collect or create brand assets (logo, colors, typography)
• Define tone & writing guidelines
• List all required images, graphics, or videos

🎨 Phase 1 — Design & UX

Structure & UX

• Create wireframes (mobile first → tablet → desktop)
• Establish information architecture
• Map core user flows (home → conversion actions)
• Plan accessibility requirements

Brand & Visual Design

• Define color palette
• Define typography scale
• Define spacing and layout rules
• Create component library (buttons, cards, CTAs, nav)
• Design hero sections for key pages
• Prepare mockups or prototypes

🧱 Phase 2 — Pre-Build Setup

Technical Setup

• Choose tech stack (HTML/CSS/JS, React, Angular, etc.)
• Set up repository (GitHub/GitLab)
• Set up development environment
• Install dependencies & frameworks
• Configure global CSS styling / design tokens
• Set up reusable layout system (header, footer, grid, spacing)

CMS / Backend Setup (if applicable)

• Choose CMS (WordPress, Sanity, Strapi, custom)
• Configure content models & fields
• Create admin roles / permissions
• Prepare staging environment

🚧 Phase 3 — Development

Global Components

• Header + navigation
• Mobile menu
• Footer
• Buttons, forms, input fields
• Reusable content sections

Page Development

• Home page
• About page
• Services / Products page
• Contact page
• Blog / Resources page
• Additional feature-specific pages
• Legal pages (Privacy, Terms, Cookies)

Functional Features

• Contact/booking forms
• Integrate email provider (Mailchimp, EmailOctopus, etc.)
• Add analytics (GA4, Cloudflare, Plausible)
• Add search functionality (if needed)
• Add dynamic content (CMS or API integrations)

Accessibility

• Use semantic HTML for all sections
• Provide alt text for all images
• Use ARIA roles where appropriate
• Test keyboard navigation
• Ensure color contrast meets WCAG AA

🧪 Phase 4 — Testing & QA

Functional QA

• Test navigation
• Test all forms + validation
• Test animations & interactions
• Check for broken links (internal & external)

Responsive QA

• Test mobile
• Test tablet
• Test desktop
• Test ultra-wide screens
• Test on slow networks

Performance & SEO

• Run Lighthouse audit
• Optimize images (WebP/AVIF)
• Minify CSS/JS
• Preload critical assets
• Add meta titles & descriptions
• Add OG/Twitter meta tags
• Generate XML sitemap
• Add robots.txt

Accessibility QA

• Screen reader testing
• Check focus states on all elements
• Re-check color contrast
• Reduce or remove motion for users with reduced-motion settings

🚀 Phase 5 — Deployment

Hosting & Deployment

• Choose hosting platform (Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare, cPanel, etc.)
• Set up environment variables (if applicable)
• Configure custom domain
• Set up SSL
• Test deployment build
• Set up redirect rules (www → root, http → https)

Final Pre-Launch Checklist

• All links working
• All images optimized
• All content proofread
• Favicon + package metadata in place
• Success pages (thank you / confirmation) in place

📈 Phase 6 — Post-Launch Improvements

Monitoring

• Review analytics (traffic, engagement, exit pages)
• Check SEO indexing
• Monitor live performance
• Monitor error logs or user issues

Content & Feature Improvements

• Add new blog posts/resources
• Improve conversion pathways
• Update visuals based on brand evolution
• Add new components or animations
• Refine accessibility

📦 Phase 7 — Optional Long-Term Enhancements

Extended Enhancements

• User onboarding flow
• Account dashboard
• Search & filters
• Payment integration
• Admin back-office
• Multi-language support
• Automated tests / CI pipeline