Web Design

What can I deliver to you?

I aim to deliver to my clients a website which includes the following:

• A professional graphic designed look (influenced equally by the graphic arts and user-interface design)
• A logo if required
• Front-end XHTML/CSS coding (I attempt to ensure all my coding is W3C-friendly. Web Standards like XHTML and CSS ensure content will be available to the widest possible audience by striving for improved accessibility by the sensory-impaired, support for mobile devices, and access in different browsers)
• PHP templating if required
• Scripting if required
• A variety of E-commerce options if required
• Content Management System set up and integration with front-end
• 3rd party hosting and domain name set up if required
• Product photography or stock photography for the design if required
• Training if required. Non-technical documentation is provided with all websites I produce. Further training can be arranged either via web, phone or on-site if possible (this training should leave you in full control of the management and maintenance of all content in your website, thus eliminating the need for a maintenance plan)

What about Myspace, Tumblr, Bandcamp?

• I also provide a design service for Myspace, Tumblr and Bandcamp pages. This complements my CD artwork design service as it brings a consistent look and feel across all of a band/artist’s online presences during the time of their newest release.

My process

All of the work I do involves a process of iteration. No two projects or the processes required to deliver them are the same. However, most projects will generally look like this:

1. Learning

I will learn about your business/product/service and understand what approach is required for your project.

2. Proposal

Taking what I’ve learned about you, I will put together a proposal which will address your requirements. If you are happy to go with it, we will start working together.

3. Mockups

I will produce a set of PDF mockups in Adobe Photoshop based on what I have learned about your requirements. These mockups will be purely graphic and aim to initially address the visual part of the project.

4. Iteration

During this part of the project we will work together quite closely. I tend to fix the number of rounds of revisions I will carry out. During this step I will provide you with a mockup, you request changes, I provide a new mockup, you request more changes, etc. and so on until you are happy. Obviously this step needs to have limits on it! If the agreed number of rounds of revision come to an end, we can discuss and agree on doing some more until we get it right . Most clients do find the results they are looking for within the agreed number of rounds.

5. Coding, Implementation and CMS Integration

Once the visuals have been approved, I will use them to code the bare templates of the web pages and integrate them into the CMS. At this point there is a fair amount of flexibility for us to add pages, change templates and make some moderate changes to the styling.

6. Addition of Content

Although your CMS will now be setup for you to carry out this step, I often add the initial content you provide to the bare bones website myself. Content is normally provided to me in the form of text in word documents, images, audio (.mp3, wav, etc.) and processed video.

7. Final Check

Once all content is in place, we work together to do a final check that everything looks as it should and works as it should.

8. Training

I will provide non-technical training documentation to all clients. However, some clients also require on-site training or training via web or phone. This training will have been agreed upon in the contract stage of the project.