By the mere fact that you are visiting this page — chances are pretty good that you’re interested in having a web site…or that you’ve gotten serious about making some changes to your current site. Or perhaps you’re one of those poor folks whose original web designer has gone MIA. Well, you’ve come to the right place!
I build web sites for people and small businesses…right after I take the time to understand who my client is and what goals their web site needs to accomplish for them. Web sites are great and many of them are very pretty, but if they don’t appeal to the right audience or can’t be found on search engines…well, then they’re just pretty web sites that don’t serve a big part of their purpose.
Here are some of my philosophies on web design:
- Your web site is a digital extension of you and therefore, it’s a reflection on you…so let’s make it a good one! Unfortunately, although practically everyone has a web site these days, not everyone has a good one!
- Websites must not only deliver information to your visitors, but also reinforce your branding while providing a great user experience through design, content and overall functionality.
- Cool technologies, such as Flash, will definitely engage your visitors…but should never be used so much that they become frustrating. In our minds, a frustrated user is an unhappy user and who wants that?
- Signature web sites are built with CSS managed, table-less XHTML/HTML5 coding… because those are the Web 2.0 standards adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
If your mind is spinning at that last sentence, just know that it’s a technical way of saying that there is a right way to build web sites and a wrong way. And there are very good reasons to make sure that your site is built the right way – like search engine optimization effectiveness. Web designers who build sites in anything less than today’s accepted W3C standards are doing the equivalent of selling you a cassette tape player while the rest of us are listening to digital music…and that’s just insanity.
Your website should not only meet your expectations, but exceed them. To your visitors, it should be as unique to you as your own signature and visually appealing. The functionality should be intuitive and the content should be compelling. It should be SEO-friendly in both its design and programming…and it should absolutely be coded to today’s W3c standards. Most importantly, however, your website should help you convert visitors to customers. Because if it isn’t helping you…it’s probably hurting you!
