Web Design
Not just a pretty face
There are many ways to design a web site, as a five-minute surf through the
world-wide web will show you. What techniques should be used on your
organization's site?
Professional Design
First and foremost, it should reflect on the professionalism of your
organization. It should support and enhance your image, not detract from
it. Flashy features shouldn't be added for their gee-whiz appeal; they should
be used intelligently to help get your message across.
The tone of your site should also reflect well on your organization: A
fun and casual approach that makes perfect sense for a creative organization
could be a disaster for an accounting firm.
We work to be sure that all aspects of your site's design reinforce the message
that you want for your organization.
Simple Navigation
The #1 complaint of web surfers is that some sites are too hard to navigate.
They can't tell what's on the site, and can't find what they need.
Our sites feature straightforward navigation tools (like the menu of choices
you see at the left side of this page.)
We believe
that logical information architecture and simple navigation tools are
the best way to make sure your audience can find the information you publish.
Design for the Future
Not only should your site work for you today, but it should work for you
tomorrow. We believe that a well-designed site can serve you for years, thus
protecting the investment you make.
Our designs incorporate the concept of extensibility, allowing more content to
be added as time goes on. The architecture we build for your information will
grow with your organization. Obsolescence is designed out.
Content housed in our SiteCentral system can be output today as HTML pages for
viewing on a personal computer, and can be presented tomorrow using entirely
different technologies as users' habits changes. Color cell phones? PDAs?
Yes and yes. The choice is endless.
We also stay on top of changing standards and new platforms. For some clients,
wireless support for your site via phones and PDAs may become important, even
though at the time of this writing (March 2002) these platforms represent a very small
audience. When your site is ready for the latest platforms, we'll build in support,
without compromising its usefulness for your mainstream audience.
Design for Performance
Even though we're in the 21st century, many individuals browse the web via slow
dialup connections. We believe that it is crucial to design web sites built from
pages that load quickly and efficiently over dialup connections.
We've seen some very pretty sites that work well over broadband or LAN connections,
but are unusable over a dialup. We don't design sites like that. Our sites work
well over dialup connections, and flat-out fly over broadband or corporate LANs.
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