Web design
The way you imagined
Together with talented graphic designers, I design clean and clear looking web pages which are usable, comply with web standards, are accessible to the widest possible audience - and with which clients are always delighted.
Want to keep reading? OK, here’s a quick picture first:
Usability
The main factor which turns a casual visitor into a “conversion” (a sale, a phone call, a charity donation — whatever) is the extent to which they can use the site. I take usability really seriously, following best practice User Centred Design (UCD) approaches and testing (with users) all sites before they hit the real world (you’d be amazed at how often that step is skipped). And I even read this guy sometimes…
Future-proofed
In the knowledge that I design all my sites according to web standards, you just know your site won’t ‘break’ (i.e. look rubbish!) when Microsoft releases the next version of Internet Explorer or when a prospective client visits it on their mobile phone. My sites are designed to degrade gracefully (or enhance progressively).
Beautiful
Although I can keep costs down and design some sites start-finish myself, I prefer to contract a designer and ensure that your site has been professionally designed and is as beautiful as it is functional.
Proven process
I follow a proven process to get web sites from your original concept/need through to implementation. And beyond. For example, a bonus of following web standards (see above) is that all sites are optimised for search engines such as Google.
Accessibility
“one argument for accessibility that doesn’t get made nearly often enough is how extraordinarily better it makes some people’s lives … Blind people with access to a computer can now read the daily newspaper on their own. Imagine that.” - Steve Krug
The zen of website “accessibility” is to make a site that works for everyone, in particular regardless of disability and regardless of browsing technology. I’ve taken this seriously since my eyes were opened to it in about 2004.
There are several reasons why your website should cater for all — for one, legal action can and has been taken against companies who fail to do so. But I tend not to focus on the ’stick’ to motivate me on this; referring to the quote above, web designers have the ability to dramatically improve someone’s life by doing their job a bit better.
And as Jamie Freeman of Message says, designing a good website is only about as difficult as designing a bad website; it’s just a question of knowing what to do.