Project Management & Planning
Understanding a site’s primary purpose is the most important part of a project. Who is it for, is there a business strategy, what are your user goals, does the site need to sell, inform or perform user-centered tasks? Once we have a clearer picture, we can draw up the site’s technical specifications, site structure and delivery schedule.
Information Architecture & Wireframing
For larger, more complex web sites and online applications, wireframes and task flows are essential. They help catch potential interface and development pitfalls early on in the process. And they make design and development a lot faster.
Code & Development
The back end structure of a site is as much design as the front end graphical design. In fact, it’s the fundamental part of the whole design. I take great care and pride in planning the information architecture and structuring the back end with foresight, simplicity and elegance.
Design & Art Direction
Once the underlying system’s functionality is broadly working, I start laying over the website interface design: its navigation, overall layout, typography and usability. Again, the guiding principles for a site’s design are the same as those for its code: simplicity and elegance. It sounds straightforward, but it’s not.
Expression Engine, a delicious cms
For almost every project, I opt for Expression Engine. It’s a marvelously flexible, off-the-shelf, php and database driven content management system with a small price tag. Besides it being a designer’s dream system, it’s real beauty lies in its ease-of-use for clients. Managing and updating content is simple and painless. For larger projects I team up with other talented friends in the industry.
Email Design & Campaign Management
html-rich email campaigns are much more fiiddley than websites. There are dozens of email clients and they all handle html email differently. Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, Mail, Lotus Notes, AOL, Gmail, Thunderbird all have their quirks. My preferred solution is to couple Expression Engine’s ability to generate the newsletter with Campaign Monitor’s superb online campaign management system.
Search Engine Optimisation (seo)
If search engine ranking is an important requirement, then we need to research and implement a site’s keywords at every stage of the development process. By following a simple set of rules during the site’s planing and information architecture phase a lot can be achieved. Canonical urls, section and navigation naming conventions, page titles and body content are some of the best practices to follow. Once launched, statistical analysis of the site’s usage and search engine visibility will need regular review.