Web design as a whole comprises many smaller attributes, all of which must be equally respected to properly tell your story, inspire trust and retain the attention of your audience. As a complete package this is known as “experience design.” It is an understanding of how all of the aspects of a website play into an overall experience, and offering the best possible solution at every turn with intuitive options and a reduction of obstacles. I cover the full spectrum of web design/development with an array of services:
Experience Design, sensible, intuitive and accessible
- Visual Design
- I work to create a successful visual-experience which engages people, reinforces brand and amplifies stature. A sensible design offers aesthetic without distraction, setting a tone for your audience that supports your story.
- Advanced User Interface (UI) Development
- Making websites accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities. Semantic markup built on web standards improves load times, augments search-engine ranking and successfully serves content to virtually any browsing device and platform. And compliance with both Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 and the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), ensures web content is available to those using screen readers or keystrokes to harvest information and navigate a site.
- Contingency Design
- This is a best practice which helps people get back on track when hurdles arise. I work to employ thoughtful error messages and to create easily-learned environments, minimizing dead ends. This is vitally important, and visitors to your site will appreciate the assistance you offer even in your absence.
Information Structure, findable and coherent
- Information Architecture and Information Design
- Facilitating information seeking is of the most vital importance to the overall web-design process. The foundation for achieving good information-structure is relevant page-organization, intuitive labeling for navigation and a logical hierarchy of information. I can build your information architecture from the ground up or assess your architecture for strengths/weaknesses, offering recommendations for improvement.
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search engines rank on a sea of variables. A logical information architecture coupled with relevant URLs, metadata, headlines and page titles will support your content and improve your page rankings. I offer a solid foundation for improving search engine performance using a handful of basic principles in production. And if search engine rankings are a primary goal, I partner with an industry leader to offer an comprehensive SEO package.
Technologies/Development, secure and extensible
I back up my front-end solutions with a suite of custom and third-party applications, covering a broad spectrum of possibilities. Following are some common technologies I employ:
- Content Management Systems (CMS)
- My robust CMS was built from the ground up to meet the common needs of my clients. It was built with a focus on security, productivity, usability and flexibility. Its core functionality can be extended with a set of existing modules or an array of custom components to meet your needs. I also rely on alternate, third-party CMS solutions for clients with simple needs in content management.
- Email Administration/Reporting
- I offer an email administration/reporting system which is very powerful yet easy to use. Please visit my email administration section to learn more.
- Multimedia Publishing
- I offer a full suite of web-video publishing capabilities including recording, editing and optimization. A variety of video players (custom and open-source) are utilized to meet the needs of each scenario. Full web-video projects are welcome as well as the simple publishing of your existing videos.
- Custom Blog Design/Development
- Blogs can be utilized for many purposes, and I can help you customize a blog application to suit your needs. Templates can be designed, built and seamlessly integrated into your new website.
- Ecommerce Solutions
- Whether you are accepting donations for your political campaign, registering people for events or selling items in a store, I can help you prepare to accept commerce transactions online. I can guide you through the process of setting up a merchant account and connecting to a payment gateway if necessary. I also offer shopping cart and product/customer-management admin utilities. Custom and third-party solutions are available, depending on your needs/budget.
- Visitor Analysis
- Understanding who is visiting your website, from where they originate and what they are doing is incredibly useful information. There are many visitor-statistic applications available, and I can help you choose the right one and teach you how to use it to your advantage. We can also plan for a long-term analysis by studying reports and applying what’s learned to evolutions to your site.
Interested in discussing a project? I invite you to contact me with more information about your project(s) so we can assess the viability of a short- or long-term partnership.