Web Site Design Pages

Beginners Guide to Websites

Website Content is Everything

What is Good Web Design

Beginners Guide to E-Commerce

My Approach to Web Design

Content Management Systems

Other Web Site Services

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Disability Accessibility

Hosting

Domains

My Approach to Web Site Design

Web design objectives

I normally design websites based upon the following principles:

• The web site should be designed to suit the Target Audience
• The main focus of the website is good, useful content
• The web site presentation should be clean, clear and attractive
• There should be common Navigation elements on every web page to ensure everything is easy to find
• The web pages should be designed to work well in Search Engines
• The web pages should be design to be universally accessible
• The web pages should be designed to download quickly

In practice this means

"I aim to provide professional and informed support for my clients covering all aspects of running a website."

My websites focus on content and clear presentation. The graphic design elements are normally subtle and complementary rather than the main focus.

My websites are designed using CSS style sheets extensively rather than using the traditional table based design techniques used by most web designers. This results in inherently more efficient web sites that appeal to search engines and are fundamentally accessible on all web enabled devices and therefore designed to satisfying the Disability Accessibility legal requirements.

My websites do not usually include any animations, intro pages, flash movies or other toys. They have their place of course, but are usually not suitable for most commercial web sites.

I pride myself on knowing how to build effective websites. I focus on good presentation and content. I know what makes a website work effectively in search engines and understand all about disability accessibility requirements.

So what is the web design process?

The web site design process I adopt is flexible and will be adapted to suit clients and projects however is likely to follow a pattern something like the following:

Meeting:

I prefer to meet clients to discuss face to face your requirements so I can give immediate feedback on what is likely to work and what might not.

Design Ideas: I will ask you for your ideas on the look you want for your website. If you are unsure it is a good idea for you to pick a small selection of websites you like the look of and we can use these as a basis for discussing possible web designs for your site.

Content: I will ask you for your text content. It is a good idea to draft your text content upfront. It helps focus us on what your website is really about and gives a better basis to design the website around - otherwise it is likely too much emphasis will be put on the graphic design. It also means that your website is likely to be completed much faster. Advice and ideas on preparing suitable content.

Search Engines: I will discuss search engine rankings and the impact on your draft text content. I will explain what works best in the search engines and give you pointers on how to amend your text to target people and search engines. By default I will design and code the web pages initially to give good Search Engine results. Beginners guide to Search Engine Optimisation.

Disability Accessibility: I will discuss the impact of the legal requirements on your website with you. By default I will design and code the web pages initially to current Disability Accessibility best practice.

Draft Web page graphic Designs:

I will provide several (3 normally) design concepts based on your requirements. It will usually take around a week to provide these initial web site designs.

These will be graphic designs and not real web pages. (They will represent a snapshot mockup of web pages and will not look exactly like the real web pages - they can't as they are fixed, nothing changes and text renders less clearly on graphics - but they give a reasonable representation.)

I will make the draft designs available online and ask for feedback from you - good or bad - design is a very personal thing so I don't expect my clients to necessarily like what I like.

Refine Web Designs:

Then based on your feedback I will revise the graphic design(s) until we come up with a final web design concept we are both happy with.

Create template web page:

I will then create a template web page - this will be a real working web page which will be the basis of the website. This will normally take around a week. I will ask you to review the desaign again at this stage as you will now be looking at a real web page not a graphic mock-up. Hopefully at this stage design amendments will be minor.

Hosting and Domain Name:

At this templating stage a hosting arrangement and domain name will be required to put the web pages on. I can place them temporarily somewhere but I would prefer to work with the actual hosting arrangement as it saves doing somethings twice and ensures the web pages actually work properly from the hosting arrangement.

Create web pages and review text content:

After I have a working web page template I will then start creating the rest of the web site pages and put their content in place. At this stage I will also review the text content you have provided and am likely to make suggestions for changes.

I will make each web page or section available for you to review as soon as I have it ready.

How long will it take to create my website?

I can only give you a general idea and it is likely your website might not follow the general pattern.

"It would be highly unusual if you find your are waiting for me."

You may be thinking you want your website completed in the next 2 weeks - well if it is a small number of straight-forward pages, you know exactly what you want and have the text ready - it may be achievable.

My experience is that it is seldom this straight-forward as most clients need to be guided through the process of deciding what to put on the website and drafting content and a 2 to 3 month timeframe is more usual. This is your website and I will require significant input from you in terms of defining the objectives of the website, providing the text content and possibly images, reviewing designs, discussing search engine optimisation requirements and so on.

Large websites are likely to take 3 to 6 months to develop.

An alternative approach if Search Engine Optimisation is the key requirement:

I take an alternative approach if you see search engine optimisation as the number one priority. In this case I would suggest ignoring web site design initially, instead focus on content, so we might experiment for a month or so with some simple web pages to see what might happen in the search engines. To do this I would need you to prepare in advance the text that might go on your website. I will advise you through this process. This approach helps you to make decisions about website design and content in advance and your approach to search engine marketing (eg do you consider pay per click sponsored links in the short or long term?). Thisd approach is quite likely to change the way you think about the text content and the presentation of your website and help you focus on what is more important to you.