Website design and development

Straightforward website design...

Good web design is more than just laying out pages in a pleasing way.

I believe that straightforward website design works best for the type of businesses I design for. They're many factors and issues I consider when assembling a website (also see my page on effective websites).

• Consistent page layout, fonts, colours and navigation throughout the website
• Sites are made 'sticky' - to retain visitors and encourage venturing beyond the first page
• A website's purpose (goal) is paramount
• Pages are assembled to ensure fast browser loading
• Search engine friendliness is built in from the start
• Accessibility guidelines are taken into account
• Privacy issues are addressed
• Web standards are adhered to
• Site navigation is designed to allow easy movement throughout a website
• On long pages 'return to top' navigation is provided
• Simple explanations are provided if something on a page is not apparent
• Text is broken up into columns, blocks or sections to aid readability
• Lines and images are used to break up long sections of text
• All images are optimised to the smallest possible file size, consistent with high quality to reduce loading time
• The possibility of horizontal scrolling is avoided or minimised
• The website is checked for compatibility across multiple web browsers, computer types and screen resolutions
• Features that may be disabled on a visitor's computer such as scripting or cookies are taken into account
• Thought is given to ease and speed of future web management and updating
• The website is published to a temporary URL for your evaluation and to encourage you to try the site out independently
• I proof and fully test the website before final publication to your website's domain

These are some of the many aspects I take care of in website construction! Having highlighted these, I'm happy to listen if you have any particular requirements for website design. I aim to provide the website required, not what I think is required!

Please use the contact form to contact me.

A note on website content...

Most of the site content will come from yourself. I provide guidance notes on how to supply your website content which covers things like how to provide text copy, images and acceptable file formats for electronic media as well as copyright and privacy considerations. I can help with writing website copy if required.

No idea where to begin to put your site content together? I've a website planning guide you can download and print to assist with getting it together!