In
web design, form
should follow function.
Your web design should be attractive,
reflect your business image, load quickly, navigate intuitively, and
enhance your other business functions. The keyword here is
"function." Before we can design your website, we need to know
the business functions you expect to accomplish with your website.
If the purpose of your website is to serve as a 24/7/365 business
brochure, you will need fewer features than if the purpose of your
website is to engage in high-traffic e-commerce.
For a business brochure website, you can provide location and services information
with a few "static pages" such as "home," "about us,"
"services," "contact us."
Static pages are web
pages that do nothing more than inform and facilitate
communication between you and your customers, like our web
pages.
On our website, we can talk you head off about the
technical stuff if you want to bother navigating through the pages
and reading it. But basically, all our web pages do are tell you
about us and what we do. Even if you become a customer, we don't
take money over the Internet. We don't ask you to think up yet
another
"user name" and "password." We don't track your
activities on our website. We don't set cookies. We don't have any forms where we ask for
your name, address, phone number, mother's maiden name. All we do is
show and tell, and for the most part we do that with words and
pictures that don't jump around on you while you're trying to read.
However, if you intend transacting
business online, that is, running an online store, you will need shopping
carts, credit card handling, product databases, accounting
databases, and some really heavy-duty "dynamic page"
programming to make it all hang together and work efficiently.
Obviously, the
cost for designing, building, and maintaining a few static
pages will be small compared to the cost of building and maintaining
a dynamic online
store with a large product selection.
Custom Websites
There are an almost infinite number of choices in colors, layouts,
and graphic images for a website. The key to having a unique, easily
identifiable and memorable website is consistency in color
or layout. The pages don't
necessarily have to have the same layout (some pages may need three
columns for content, some may need only two), and the pages don't
necessarily have to have the same color (we play around a little
with that on our website), but they should have a
"consistent" feel.
Business Image
If you already have company
colors and logos, then you will probably want to use those as your
website's basic color scheme, unless you're trying for a
"makeover." If your other advertising is formal,
stick with formal; if it's casual, stick with casual. For instance,
if you sell funky modern furniture, you might want a site design
that is more graphic art than furniture art. If you sell traditional
furniture, you'll probably want a more traditional website that uses
images from your wholesale catalog.
Homework
Before you contact us, take time to surf the web. When you see a website you like, think about
it a moment. Is it the color combination you like or the graphics
you like? Make a note about the things you find attractive. If it's
the layout you like, make a note of that. If it's the typography
(font type and size), make a note. If it's the slick business look
you like, or the homey country look you like, or the geek look you
like, make a note. While you're making notes, don't forget to make a
note of the
URLs (website address).
Look at the websites of businesses similar to yours.
Make a list of what they do right and what you want your website to
do better. Do they sell things and have a shopping cart? Does the
shopping cart function intuitively and efficiently? Do they have too
many blinking things or not enough?
Tell us what you're trying to do and how you want to do
it, and we'll build function into your website while we're making it
attractive, fast-loading, and search-engine friendly. If you like any of
the websites
projects we've done and want to know how much one with a similar
number of pages and features will cost, don't hesitate to send us an email.
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