Websites
Careful research, preparation and excellence in execution leads to the very best website results.
My Website Design services provide more than just a framework for online written content and media. They serve to create the fabric for all web communication with your audience, from that first critical impact to further engagement with the website and with your business. Those first few seconds that visitors have to look at your website must to spark an immediate interest to engage further.
The design communicates to your visitor that they have landed at the right place. But that’s only the first box ticked.
User Interface (or UX) design now convinces your site visitor to engage further, ultimately to act on your wish for them to trust and to deal with your business.
Designing a website has to start with a wide view, with consideration given to components like existing brand, the company values, purpose, the nature of the site visitor, how to attract the right audience. We work with you to get that spot on.
Content Management Systems (CMS)
I work with a variety of content manangement and shopping cart systems. Buy far the most popuar is “WordPress” and for most websites this is an appropriate platform. Some instances though may call for something more technically capable. Many of my websites, where performance and flexibility of design are required, are built with Craft CMS, a platform that is ultimatley flexible and appropriate for website platforms with admin interfaces and more complexities.
If you’re after a website that is fast and does not require frequent content changes then pure HTML with PHP and JavaScript are an option.
All my shopping sites are based on “WordPress WooCommerce”.
WordPress
- Great for brochure sites
- Easy to use
- Fast development
- Over 40% use worldwide
- Many feature plugins
Craft CMS
- Customisable
- Fast Performance
- Can use HTML templates
- Great for functional sites
- Risk-Free plugins
Pure HTML
- Not user customisable
- Super flexible
- Fast Performance
- Great for static websites
- No CMS overheads
WooCommerce
- Shopping carts
- Flexible payment gateways
- Easy to use and maintain
- Built on WordPress
- Many feature plugins
Website preparation and build process
Every stage, from the initial scoping to the final build, is well planned and implemented to completion. The initail SEO components of the website are included since we believe that no webiste is complete without them.
Getting the full picture
We work together to set out the full requirements. We get to know your business, your clients and your audience. We will focus on objectives of the website, discover how the user interacts, the value that it aims to bring and how we are guaranteed to achieve success.
Together we look beyond the initial design to the the functional requirements of the website. We will scope the project correctly from the beginning.
Here is also an opportunity to determine the areas that may be added to the website later on, things that may be unique to your requirements, such as functionality like booking systems, shopping cart, paywalls, user registration, data feeds or functional interactive buttons like the ones you're seeing here.
During the plannig phase we determine the best content management system to use.
We take a good look around
The online world is competitive. Out there will be businesses that have done or are doing similar things. It's always worthwhile to see how they are doing things.
Our research takes us beyond the borders of New Zealand. We look at the designs of many websites in other countries, and while our designs are original, there will be areas where we get inspiration from others.
In fact, we ask you look around as well and to provide feedback on the designs that resonate with you. The process enables us to become focused a few broad design options that we can take forward for consideration.
We put pen to paper
The first drafts of our design are usually outlined on paper as a "wireframe" design. Here we can see how the user would interact with various device types, desktop, tablet and mobile. We deliver 3 designs, one for each format.
In most cases, the home page design is the most important one and we focus on that. In the planning phase we will have established the source of imagery and content and we start using that as early as possible during the initial design. Where content is not available, we use placeholder content that is a close match.
This phase also gives us the opportunity to introduce some headings and present some critical website wording. More on that in the "content section".
We reveal our ideas
This is the first chance for you to see what we've come up with. We present only selected web pages and we present them on paper. The design(s) we present here form a starting point for a discussion and serve as a reference for that and any possible design changes.
Your input at this stage is important. We want to you be critical and we want you to think carefully about what we move forward with. Usually a design is developed over time.
Accepting a design at this stage does not mean that we can't make changes going forward. In fact, design changes are frequently done during the development process, since a design on paper is different than the screen equivalent.
Implementing the design
We're go. Now we can get stuck into the nitty gritty. The design is now implemented on all device formats. We prefer to do this on the actual website build. We create the templates for all pages, i.e. we start working beyond the front page.
The design however is not completed until the website is complete. As we meet to look at the website during the development, we frequently make minor changes to things like margins and perhaps even colours and layouts.
Ideally we start using the final content if that is available. If not, we can help with Content Creation.