News, information and articles
Stepping forward
Shoppers hunting for a shoe shop that prides itself on its fantastic levels of service need look no further than Young & Co's new website. [more...]
Anyone for Tennis?
Take a look at the work we recently completed for the Inverclyde Community Tennis Initiative, who promote tennis across the Greenock and Inverclyde area. [more...]
Simple but effective
Our single page web sites are highly cost effective and for many business represent a complete solution that is delivered rapidly to their specification. [more...]
Independant dancers
Glasgow-based Indepen-dance worked with us to create a new, accessible website that can be quickly and easily updated by their team. [more...]
Love pizza?
We enjoyed building a new website for Canadian pizza business Chris's Pizza. To find out more, read on! [more...]
Case study: Trees of Scotland
Find out more about the website we built for Trees of Scotland, an Ayrshire business that aims to recreate a natural Scottish woodland. [more...]
The design process
Thinking of getting a new website for your business, or revising an existing one? This article summarises the steps that we take when we set about building a new website.
Defining the project’s goals
It would be unusual to produce a website simply for the sake of it. Usually there is a specific end-goal, be it to use the website as a form of advertising or to use it as another sales-outlet. In some cases, for clubs, community groups or churches, for example, it may also serve as social venue in its own right.
You will probably already have a pretty clear idea of what your goals are – or, if not, we can always sit down and discuss them with you over a coffee. Which brings us on neatly to the next step.
Aesthetics
The look and feel of a website is important for a variety of reasons. For one thing, a poorly constructed website may not display properly on different browsers, but more obviously it may turn people off and give them a poor impression of your business.
A picture paints a thousands words, and if the first impression a visitor gets of your website is of a smart, attractive page then you’ve gotten off to a good start.
Our preferred approach to working out a look and feel for your website is to sit down and look at ideas over a coffee … though much the same process can be achieved via an exchange of emails.
The range of styles that can be applied to a website is really quite staggering. Textures, elaborate type-setting, collage-effects and more can all be readily achieved and convey exactly the mood and ambience you want, be that a brisk, professional look or a creative, arty style.
First draft
So now we know what the website is for and how we wish it to appear. The next logical step is to produce a draft.
Drafts can be prepared in different ways, namely as screenshots (kind of like a photo snapshot of how the page will look) or as an actual HTML-coded website that you can visit through your browser. In many cases, we feel that the most expeditious way to proceed is by using screenshots. It’s faster for us to make adjustments and you still get a good idea of how the end-product will look.
Producing the website
Pretty quickly we will agree on a good looking draft, and then it’s time to really get stuck in. The next step is to produce a fully functioning draft, so that all the links and features can be tested out and any ‘dummy’ content can start to be replaced with real content.
Inevitably, especially on larger projects, some tweaks may be required, but the process is generally a fast one. As soon as you are happy the site proper can be launched on its own domain and its time to sit back and enjoy the results.
