In designing or redesigning a website, I consider the nature of your business, what information you need to communicate, what kind of image and tone you want to convey, and the needs of your site visitors.
Navigation: Your site visitors need to see, within the first few moments, what’s available and how to move easily around your site to find information or products. CommuniCrafter-constructed menus may be horizontal or vertical, one-level or more — determined by the scope and depth of the content as much as by stylistic considerations.
For example, on the Environmental League site, I didn’t want the key environmental advocacy issues to be hidden in a secondary menu, so I placed them in a separate side panel. Now a user can access information about any issue in one click from the main page or two clicks from any other page on the site. (Previously, multiple, uneven menu-diving was needed to access information about these issues. The user also did not know when clicking a link if the destination page was going to be on the ELM site or on an external site.)
Organization as Communication: In addition to clear navigation, your site-wide and page-specific contents should be thoughtfully organized in ways that are conceptionally important to both you and your visitors.
For example, before I redesigned the site for the Environmental League of Massachusetts, people commented that they couldn’t tell from looking at the front page what the organization does. In my redesign, I emphasized Leadership, Advocacy, and Collaboration — because those are the major methods ELM uses to protect the environment. I also display a tagline — safeguarding our air, land, and water — at the top of each page.
I designed the News-Issues pages to share the same layout, content organization, and functionality. The user can access information about any issue in one click of the side navigation panel common to these pages. The content organization is based on 1) a short introduction to the issue, 2) a legislative summary with a related legislative link, and 3) Related Links that are clearly described as external links.
CommuniCrafter sites are designed to adapt to common screen sizes and resolutions. This means that your visitors will not have to scroll sideways to see the whole site, or see your site crowded into the leftmost side of the screen with a lot of empty space on the right.
CommuniCrafter websites are either completely fluid (screen canvas) or center-fluid (with a color background or pattern on either side of the content) while remaining centered regardless of the screen width. This choice also reflects the content considerations and graphics considerations involved in the design of your site.
Built on cross-browser web standards, using XHTML and CSS, CommuniCrafter sites keep the same layout look and functionality in all modern browsers. CommuniCrafter sites have attained validation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
W3C standards and modern best practices provide:
CommuniCrafter can give your site a distinctive look-and-feel, consistently applied style elements throughout the website, and a good balance of text, white space, and graphics for an uncluttered interface that’s easy to view and easy to use. Choices for graphics, colors, and other design elements are appropriate for your business or service and what you want your website to accomplish.
Many people misunderstand Search Engine Optimization, assuming that it’s added after the site is built. SEO is an integral part of the organization, navigation, and content building. In designing or redesigning a site, I build legitimate, effective SEO techniques into the whole site structure.
Writing-Editing: As an experienced writer, I can provide assistance with writing or editing your content, if needed.
General PR-Marketing: Knowledgeable about marketing concepts, I can create landing pages or help with other promotional strategies. I can also initiate or enhance HTML-based emails.
Initial Logistics: For clients just getting started on the web, I can help with choosing and registering a domain name or finding a reliable web host.
Relationships: I promote ongoing relationships with my clients. I also use sliding-scale pricing to allow servicing clients large and small.
I am in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Contact me for a free consultation.