Design philosophy

I practise a simple philosophy when it comes to Web site design: I want you, the customer, to be delighted with the end result. I therefore invite and encourage you to make an input throughout the concept, design and construction stages. I will supply alternative designs if required and agree the preferred one with you before committing excessive time to the project. As we proceed, I will happily provide draft versions for your comments and approval if this is what you require.

Web site content

I pay particular attention to the following aspects:

• getting the message across from the start (uncluttered, punchy Homepage);
• professional but not overly elaborate or ostentatious;
• easy, logical and consistent site navigation with no broken links;
• well-written text, with perfect spelling and punctuation;
• fast loading of pages where practical, provided that image quality is not compromised by excessive compression;
• attractive and appropriate design and colour scheme;
• appropriate use of Page Titles, Metatag Descriptions and Keywords to optimise Search Engine ranking;
• registration with leading Search Engine sites;
• publication of site within budget and on time.
  

I will write the copy if required and, given my extensive experience in the manufacturing and service sectors, I am likely to do this with much greater insight than the typical design company which has its roots in graphic design or public relations. Copy can also be written in French if required (I have a Degree in French and am fluent).

Extended site features

Depending on the nature and size of your business or organisation, your site could include a database-driven Guestbook, an on-line Enquiries facility, eCatalogue and on-line purchase facility (e.g. Shopping Cart) or even an Intranet for efficiently making company information and forms available to employees, whether office-based or working remotely.

For visitor enquiry/comment forms I can provide Active Server Pages (.aspx files) which immediately forward the input data to you as an e-mail. Moreover I can provide you with a password-protected form via which you can securely view an on-line Access database or run selective queries on it according to which criteria you require.

For the corporate environment I could provide your authorised employees with remote access to your in-house databases, e.g. customer, order or stock details. Using password-protected ASPX pages, they could easily run predetermined queries on the databases from any Internet-connected device. If your databases are particularly large (i.e. with many thousands of records), such data interrogation would be practical only with a fast broadband connection.

An extension of such a service which you might wish to consider offering to top customers is an Extranet, whereby they could access information on account history, stock levels, order progress status or technical data sheets for example. This gives the benefits of reducing your administration/communication time and allowing the customer 24 hour access to critical information. It also serves to consolidate the customer/supplier relationship and give you competitive advantage vis-à-vis your rivals.

Anti-spam measures

As soon as you have an Internet presence, you can unfortunately often become a target for unsolicited junk e-mail ('spam'). Automated software ('robot Web crawlers') are hard at work, 'harvesting' e-mail addresses to which spam is relentlessly sent. I would discuss with you the best ways of minimizing this annoying attention.

Design Tools

Your Web site will be built and maintained mainly with 'Dreamweaver', a versatile programme in the Macromedia Web Design Studio, a sophisticated software suite regarded by many in the business as the most professional and powerful of the web authoring tools. Original graphics will be created with 'Fireworks' and animations and "movies" with 'Flash', both programmes being part of the Web Design Studio suite. (Click here to see one of my Flash movies (39 Kb file size) and here to see other original images (16 Kb file size). ASPX files linking to Microsoft Access databases will be created with Microsoft ASP.NET Web Matrix software and powered by efficient and versatile VB.NET programming script. This is one of the most commonly used and successful interactive Web technologies used today. However, before selecting your Web Hoster, it would be necessary to check that they can actually run ASP.NET on their servers.

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