November 6th, 2009
Sometimes what a client wants is above and beyond the typical, and sometimes that is because the client has a business that is itself above and beyond the ordinary. This is the case with studio jeweler Dawn Russell who creates marvelous pieces of art inspired by nature.
Dawn came to VT Web Properties with a need to get her site built and live in a real hurry. Her online portfolio is an extremely important part of her image as she presents her work to museums, art galleries and shows around the country by pointing them to her website. When she approached VT Web Properties she was already beyond the deadline she had set for her site and frustrated by the lack of progress her previous web developer had made.
Taking the intricate design, VT Web Properties forged ahead with a plan to nail down the portfolio first so her most critical business need was met. After rebuilding the database and administrative functions on the site, we then progressed on each page to complete the project as quickly as possible.
Among the technical challenges presented by the design were custom scrollbars, complex layouts and the need to maintain Analytics on the AJAX-heavy portfolio. We worked together to create a reflection of the inspirations in nature that drive her fabulous jewelry designs and came away with some inspirations of our own.
No Comments | In: Web Design, Website Launch | tags: Dawn Russell, jewelry, Website Launch. | #
July 24th, 2009
Our method for web design starts with obtaining a clear understanding of the objectives of the website and how they relate to mission of your business or organization. This is not as clear-cut as it may at first seem, because often in the process of creating the specifications for the job early assumptions about the project turn out to be false and information that impacts design is often missing. We avoid these situations by assuming nothing about what you want from your website beyond best practices for its’ construction, usability and search engine optimization.
We start with defining what would make your project a success in your eyes. How will you measure the success of your website? Will it be measured in online sales, inbound email, an increase in web traffic, completed contact forms, user-generated content or something else entirely? When we have an understanding of your concept of success we have a guiding principle for the design process. Many of our clients define success on more than one level, and that’s fine. Getting at what is vital for your success should be the overarching goal as we move forward on your design.
We follow our understanding of your success with an in-depth look at your business process. Once we know what it is you do we now have a place from which to understand how your new (or newly redesigned) website should fit within your current business model and practices.
We look at your business model in order to develop our database structures. By getting to know you and your business we can better design our data structures to more closely represent the real-life details and relationships in your business. For example, if you sell widgets we will want to know all we can about the widgets you sell and what pieces of information are important to keep in data and to present on your site.
Once we have the database design (schema) created we can finally then look at what most people consider “design” – the look and feel, colors and fonts, layouts and theme of your new site. We’ll discuss this more in another blog post later.
Knowing you is the first step in our design process. If you want a web developer to get to know you, request a quote.
No Comments | In: Web Design | tags: database, design, success, website design, website redesign. | #
July 6th, 2009
We’re pretty excited to be launching our new site which we believe better features some of the work we have done for our clients. The process of redesigning our own website was much the same as the process we use for redesigning client websites as well:
- Discover what information is vital to keep and create a plan to retain it.
- Look at the site structure for opportunities to better express the vision of our client (in this case, ourselves).
- Walk through every current page and determine if it serves its’ purpose well.
- Create a new design mock-up.
- Code the new site.
Often times our redesign process aims to keep existing branding or theme rather than completely change what already exists. In the case of our website the redesign is evolutionary rather than than revolutionary. You can see the before and after images below where it is apparent we kept the general color scheme and navigation structure.
Website redesign is not rocket science, but it does require careful planning to make best use of the assets from the current site. Without this attention it is our experience that many developers and designers would rather simply start from scratch. Our method – our philosophy – is to avoid as much as possible recreating the wheel. It saves time and saves money to leverage what already exists as much as possible.
We’re glad you are here at our new site, and we look forward to working with you on your own redesign project!
No Comments | In: Web Design | tags: website redesign. | #