Photo Galleries
Display and share photos of products, people and places.
Virtual Tour
Using a floor plan, visitors browse photos of your premises.
Slideshow
A continuous carousel of photos on your home page can be a great way to greet visitors to your site.
Tickertape
An eye catching way to to deliver a short message.
Video
If a picture's worth a thousand words then a video must be even more!
For advice on these and other features please contact me.
Website Design
Winning Websites
Creating winning websites is not rocket science. It's all about promoting your organisation and giving visitors what they want.
When designing websites I wear three hats - The Visitor Hat, YOUR Hat and My Designer's Hat - though not necessarily all at the same time. That way I can design a website that not only looks good but, more importantly, a site that will
- Sell your organisation
- Communicate effectively
- Be easy for visitors to use
- Be search engine friendly!
Recipe for Success
Ingredients
- My understanding of your organisation
- The content you provide
- Clear and effective copy
- Intuitive navigation based on logical site structure
And of course... a Great Design!
Simple really!
News Feeds
Keep everybody up to date with national, international and specialist news.
Weather
Often appreciated if your site attracts mostly local visitors.
Blogs
Do you blog? Your website can include a feed from your blog.
Google Maps
Very helpful for people who wish to visit in person!
Google Calendar
To share times and details of events, a Google calendar is perfect.
For advice on these and other features please contact me.
Website Features
A basic no-extras, feature-free website is fine but for most, it is simply not enough.
There are many extra features that can be added to a web site and some of them are shown on this page.
If what you want isn't shown here just let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Just like this...
The teachers at William Gilpin Primary School saw a tickertape on another school's website and decided they wanted one too! They emailed asking if I could add one to their website. A couple of days later they had their tickertape, beautifully integrated into their home page.
It always pays to ask!
Abbotswood Junior School wondered if I could embed their teaching videos (which were on a free website) into the maths pages on their school website. I had to do a bit of research first but two weeks later it was done.
Content Management Systems (CMS)
Manage your own website using a content management system (CMS).
TDECMS
This is a single-user CMS with limited facilities. This is a cheaper option than concrete5.
concrete5
concrete5 is a full blown multi-user CMS with a comprehensive range of facilities; ideal for small to medium organisations.
eCommerce
For businesses selling products or services online.
Zen Cart
This is a dedicated eCommerce package.
concrete5
concrete5 has an excellent eCommerce Add-on making it a very user-friendly option for small businesses.
For advice on these and other features
please contact me.
Design Process
There are six main steps when designing a website:
- Consultation
This is where we discuss your requirements so that I can give you a quotation. - Design
I create the design for the website template... the parts of the pages that remain the same e.g. header, footer, menu. - Website
I convert the design into a webpage template and create the website with its pages ready to accept content. - Content
The content you provide is placed on the pages and styled. - Approval
You need to check the site content when it's complete and give it your approval. In practice this is an ongoing process. - Go Live!
As your site is now complete I upload it to the web host's server then run through a series of final checks before finally activating your website.