Circus Creative Process

Ever really wondered what goes into a project? Every creation has carefully chosen ingredients; and the recipe used by Circus Creative allows us to offer our clients a consistant premium digital services and platforms. Circus has refined and cultivated our interactive ingredients to ensure we have the shortest development cycles with the highest quality outcome. Here are the key stages in our project lifecycle:


Discovery

This stage is about defining your objectives and goals in detail. At this stage, the Master Service Agreement has been signed and a Basecamp project has been established. From here, we will dig-in, and establish a deep understanding of the task at hand, which will outline the details of the Scope of Work (SOW). This will include:

  • Vision and Scope -Now that we are working together, nailing down the exact scope of the project and vision will be a joint effort, either over teleconference or preferably in-person (location permitting).
  • User Requirements -With a basic understanding of the demographics, we will want to establish the user requirements – which can include navigational considerations, site size/speed, breadth and more.
  • System Requirements -Depending on the size and scope of the project, we will identify the technical who, what, when, where, why and how – a critical step at the inception, and will usually be further defined in the Kick-Off.
  • Logistics and Planning -Here, we will identify the resources involved, timeline, approval process, project management, deliverables and check-points.


Project Kick-Off

Finalized Scope of Work in-hand, this next stage sets the foundation of every successful project. Here, we will agree on the workflow, target audience and strategy to reach and engage them. This will include:

  • Workflow Establishment - During a Kick-Off meeting, our respective teams will be identified, and responsible parties (team members with sign-off and approval authority) will be assigned.
  • Project Discussion - Paper work in place, this discussion will allow both sides to explore the intangibles wrapped around the project holistically; this typically involves reviewing a list of questions from both sides.
  • Personify Demographics - Each project has a target, and this is where we carefully identify everyone we are trying to reach; here we will identify the User Profiles – this is an intellectual property mixer.
  • Target Strategy - With the Demographics Personified, the next task is to identify how we are going to reach our intended audience with the greatest amount of success, and least amount of effort.


Early Production Process

Now that the holistic project details and marketing data has been organized, sorted and documented, it is time to get down to the actual production. This is where solutions are explored. From page layout to interactive prototypes, this stage defines the design and functionality. This will include:

  • Wireframing - The architectural blueprints for each project, we create our wireframes in Visio to provide our clients with a transparent view of what we are building, before we begin to apply the final pixels.
  • Blueboxing - Different from Prototyping, a Bluebox is a mini-prototype, quickly built (typically in Flash) of a key interaction point within a project to provide a proof of concept for user testing and "feel".
  • User Scenarios - After the User Profiles are defined, we must now analyze the various scenarios of use, which include step-by-step points from the discovery of the project, to its use, and return visits.
  • Design Direction - While the Wireframing process is being defined, the design direction, look and feel is being created in parallel to assure we manage to hit the deadline – once chosen, the design is implemented.
  • Milestones - Defined during the Kick-Off, we will encounter the first milestones during this phase, which vary in degree and intensity depending on the size of the project.
  • Prototyping -We are finding more and more often that clients like to have a clickable Prototype with a defined click-trail of key pages for executive approval, this prototype will be built for maximal reuse.


Production to Delivery Transition

The final stage, where development is completed, designs tweaked and a final round of review is completed to ensure it meets Circus Creative quality. Only then do we deliver the project to our client, carefully organized and furnished with a guarantee as outlined in our MSA. Steps include:

  • Development - Once the Wireframes have been completed, and the Design Finalized, the project undergoes the development process, which includes the technical build and any third-party integration.
  • Design Finalization - After rounds of feedback, the final design is approved and implemented to the sites information architecture; in addition, we deliver a style guide for all projects.
  • Circus Q and Client QA - Circus Q stands for Circus Quality, our internal gauge of quality; we will often conduct multiple rounds of Circus Q to ensure we meet the QA standards of our client.
  • Delivery - After the journey has been nearly 100% completed, we deliver the project to our client, carefully organized and furnished with a guarantee as outlined in our Service Agreement.
  • Post Launch Support - We offer standard Post Launch Support, and guarantee each line of code we deliver; we are always interested in establishing ongoing engagements to help build a relationship.

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