Web Concepts

My idea of a web concept is the ability of looking at all the whole development mentioned on the following pages from beginning to end and bringing this altogether into one website which is easily and quickly understood by everyone.

Just to start the ball rolling, in simple terms, what will your websites main function be?
For example: An online bookshop, an artist’s web gallery, a live function band.

Web Strategy

It is useful to simplify the description of what the business is trying to achieve through a web site.

'A web design site' for example, this gives us a good idea to what the content and style of copy writing will be.

The following looks at formulating a strategy for the web, which is created with a communications plan in mind:

Vision, values and goals of the business

Also looking at the companies unique selling point also what content or product can you provide that no-one else does?
                   

The communications strategy / plan

How do we convey these points as simply as possible?
                    

The media strategy / plan for the web

Who is our target audience (gender / age / interests / profile building), how do we reach them? What are our three main keywords / phrases?
                    

Content outlines, navigation and information layout

How do we present our content so that our audience finds what they are looking for quickly and easily?

Web Site Copywriting

There are three main content styles for web sites and these differ greatly from commercial shopping carts to information web sites and news content.

The reason copywriting (or content writing) is mentioned so high up in the steps is because without it, it is very difficult to actually design the layout and navigational elements of a web site.

The content is so important to your web site that it is a step which should be reviewed in the early stages of development. Don't leave the content for me to write for obvious reasons, I will be able to help guide you naturally, but seeing as I don't know your business as well as you do, I won't be able to show your strengths and uniqueness as well as you will be able to.

As most business owners don't write web site content for a living, maybe someone you know in the company is good at this and can help. The best thing to do is to write the content anyway, don't hold back, let it all spill out on pages of A4.

From the steps mentioned before, keep in mind your USP, your target audience, write the content relating to the main navigation headings and also bear in mind your main keywords for the search engines to pick up on later - don't go too mad here 2 or 3 times per keyword per page is fine.

For the icing on the cake, I can get the copy proof read and amended by a professional editor. You may be able to have this done yourself too.

Web Site Design

The design of a web site either gets people happily clicking around the site or clicking off to the next, it’s important to know who the target audience is so I can research the styles they are used to seeing on a web site. To help with this, make a list of all of your competitor’s web sites and also any web sites that you happen to like the look of.

If you have corporate colours with specific CMYK or RGB values, please supply me along with your logo also.
I have designed many company logos, so if you need to re-brand or invent a logo, I normally present three ideas for a set fee.
By this stage we will have discussed already whether you are looking for a unique custom design or an adapted template design. I will then get on and design the look of the finished site in Photoshop for you to approve or to work on further.

Normally by the second or third design brief the design will be approved and signed off ready for the next step of development.

Web Site Development

Once your lovely new design is approved I can begin to turn all the information into an easy to use web site.

Your web site will be made search engine friendly during the build, saving time and money later. Pages and filenames will be titled to correspond with content and your main keywords, stylesheets will be used to implement header tags and obviously meta tags will be written. There is more information on my SEO services here.

A test site will be put up on the internet so that you can view progress and make any changes as I work through each page.

The functionality of the web site will depend on whether you want to be able to update pages yourself, or post your own blog or photo gallery. This can be tested before going live to make sure everything works well.

Browser Compatibility

Final checks will be made to ensure the web site is compatible with all modern browsers. So it provides the best experience to all your visitors.

  


Fully tested in...

• Firefox 2.0+
• Internet Explorer 6
• Internet Explorer 7
• Safari 3.0+
• Opera 9.0+

Accessibility

It is important to check that the web site makes sense if all the images are turned off in a browser, so that each image is called something relative to the image. Navigation elements should be readable by text and not just by an image. This helps with screen readers.

Rather than having all the code for fonts, colours, tables on the same page as the main content, stylesheets are used to help keep the source code to a minimum which helps to speed up the pages as a result.