John Pape Online Blog » Web Design

Web Site – Solutions Directed Coaching – Design Process

johnpape — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:34:17 +0000

Project Description

This is a website for a business coach that helps financial advisors and attorneys. What Solutions Directed Coaching does is help individuals grow their business and improve their personal life. The website was created to introduce the services that are available to the client. The owner of the company is Thomas Fuchs. Site visitors can learn more about the ways Thomas can help them grow there business through various coaching programs.

Design Process

In the beginning I spoke with Thomas regarding the primary goal of the site. I also requested that he provide some sample sites that he liked. We also looked at web sites from others in the industry to see what they were doing. After looking at the sites and the competition, I set out to create the graphic layout. Also for this project I decided to build it using WordPress. By doing this I allowed the client to create the primary content.

Graphic Design

As this is a newly formed business there weren’t any graphic assets to work with. Therefore I needed to start from scratch. Using the ideas and concepts collected in the initial phase of the project I designed a layout. During the process the idea of being global kept coming up. As you can see the main heading is a map of the world to indicate the global aspect of the company.

As I mentioned before there were no assets to work with so I also designed a logo for the company.

Because the site was built using WordPress, I knew that certain areas of the site would require certain design features. Even so, it seems like 80% of WordPress site use a horizontal menu. The layout that the client liked had a vertical sidebar navigation menu.

All of the site layout was done in Photoshop with some elements built in Illustrator. Several variations of the design were created and the best solution was selected.

Building the Site

Once the design was approved, it was time to built the site. WordPress was installed and now I needed to modify it to match the design. For the Theme I started with Thematic. This gave me a starting point and I built it from there. During this project I learned that it is best policy to leave the main theme alone as much a possible and modify it using what is called Child themes. Child themes basically modify the main theme. In some ways it is like using layers in Photoshop.

One thing that make this a distinct WordPress site is it has a vertical navigation in the side bar. I happen to like side menus because they can expand as more or less items are placed in the navigation. The menu was styled using CSS. Also I used the new 3.0 menu function. This made it easy to add only those pages that we wanted in the navigation. Here was the final navigation at the time of publication.

Home Page
About the Coach
Coaching for Financial Advisors
Coaching for Attorneys
Program Options
Guarantee
Contact
Blog

One great feature of WordPress it the ability to add functionality through plugins. There is a great community of contributors and you can find almost anything you want. Here are some of the plugins used

All in One SEO Pack – Make page optimization easier.
Audio player – Allows easy installation of MP3 audios
Blogger Importer – Previously Thomas had a Blogger account. This plugin made it extremely easy to import all of those posts into WordPress.
Contact Form 7 – This plugin allow for custom forms
Easy Sign Up – Use for lead generation
Google Analyticator – Add Google Analytics code and allows for custom attributes to be added
Google XML Sitemaps – Helps the site get indexed in Google, Bing and Yahoo
Smart Youtube – Really easy way to embed videos into posts or pages
Subpage Listing – Needed this to keep track of subpages, especially because I used to WordPress menu
Enhanced Paypal Shortcodes – Allow the addition of Paypal buttons

I decided the build the site in WordPress because I knew it could be build quickly and economically.

You can visit this site at Solutions Directed Coaching to learn more about this organization.

Technorati Tags: Child Theme, coaching website, Photoshop, PHP, thematic, Web Design, Web Development, wordpress

New Website – Questions

johnpape — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:53:41 +0000

Project Description

This is a website for an author who is self-publishing his book. He needed a website to help promote and sell the book. The book is written by Tim W. Turner. The web site is a place where visitors can learn the book and other item available as well as request Author Visits

Design Process

For this project I got an advanced copy of the book in PDF format. By browsing through the book I was able to get an understanding of the content as well as the general look and feel of the book. I was able to design the layout using graphic elements and page layouts to develop the basic web layout. I was also in communication with the client to get information regarding what they wanted to website to do.

Graphic Design

A logo was provided by the client. It is basically a question mark. It was important to include this in the design.

The next point of action was to create an effective web layout that was clean and easy to navigate. From here Photoshop and Illustrator was opened and began to create the basic layout. Several ideas were created and the best solution was selected.

Building the Site

One the design was approved it was time to built out the site. For the images, I spliced the Photoshop image to get the header, footer, navigation and page background images. Using CSS I put together the page elements and place each image as a background for each area.

Home Page
About the Author
Authors Visits
Questions Stuff (Ordering)
Contact the Author
Site Map
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use

Because the site has under 20 pages it was build on a static rather than a dynamic platform. A site with under 20 pages can be easily managed without a CMS. However as the site grows it can be converted to a dynamic site that utilizes some kind of CMS. PHP was used for the form submissions and JQuery was used for form validation. Once all the pages were created and link through the Navigation system it was time to upload and test the site.

For common elements like the header, footer and navigation. I stripped the HTML code and created separate files that can be included using PHP. The primary reason for doing this is the ease of maintenance. By including the files there is only one file to change or edit rather than going through all the pages. Make life easier.

The client wanted to have scrolling review and testimonials this was accomplished by using jQuery. This made for quick and easy implementation of the scrolling function.

You can visit this site at http://www.questionsthebook.com/ to learn more about this organization.

Technorati Tags: css, jquery, Photoshop, PHP, usability, Web Design, Web Development

Kingdom Presenters – New Website

johnpape — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:00:24 +0000

Project Description

This web site is for a ministry that assists people in sharing their faith. Specifically, they teach presentation skills. Individuals will learn how to present their unique message to small, medium and large groups. This ministry is headed by Mary Ann Mariani. The web site is a place where visitors can learn about various workshops that are available to help them with presentation skills.

Design Process

For this project I wanted to learn as much as I could about the organization and what their goals were. I needed to get an understanding of what Kingdom Presenters wanted the user to experience. In the beginning phase the goal was to provide information about Kingdom Presenters and to provide credentials and principals of the organization. Also in this process it was important to get an understanding of the visual elements that would augment the message.

Graphic Design

With an understanding of the organization I started to create the Kingdom Presenters logo. The idea was to show the kingship of God. The elements of the heraldic shield with wings, banner and crown was selected. The color theme would be Gold and Purple both very royal colors.

The next point of action was to create an effective web layout that was clean and easy to navigate. From here Photoshop was opened and began to create the basic layout. Several ideas were created and the best solution was selected.

Building the Site

Upon approval by Kingdom Presenters it was now time to develop the website. First, the graphic image was spliced in Photoshop. Each graphic element was them placed on in the HTML and was positioned using CSS to create a master template from which all the pages would be build. Creating the master template helps in developing as site and keep pages consistent. Once the master template was created I could now develop the navigation. In order to create the navigation a site map that show each page and its relationship to adjoining pages was needed. Some of the pages decided on were these:

Home Page
My Story
Workshop
Workshop Descriptions
Registration
Date
Reviews
Contact
Site Map
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use

You can visit this site at http://www.kingdompresenters.com/ to learn more about this organization.

Technorati Tags: css, design process, HTML, HTML web development, jquery, Kingdom Presenters, PHP, Web Design

Is It Time to Redesign Your Website?

johnpape — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:09:34 +0000

You may be wondering when a good time would be to redesign your existing website. What I hope to present here are some ideas and thoughts that will help you make that decision.

First off I want to say, changing a site just for the sake of change is not really to best approach for a redesign. Design requires a specific purpose in order to be successful. Understanding your current site will help you understand its function. If care is not taken you could lose that function in a site redesign.

One reason for a site redesign is if the site looks outdated. Perhaps you’ve been online for 10 years and have the same web design. Over the years there has been a lot of improvement in the way sites are delivered. You can take advantage of these technological advances. What you don’t want is to lose visitors because your site looks old fashion. An out dated look is a good reason to consider redesigning your site.

When redesigning a website think of it as doing plastic surgery. Your current website has an identity associated with it. This could be good it could bad. What you don’t want to do is change it so much that your current users don’t recognize it. You risk losing them because they think they landed on the wrong website. To help facilitate updates, the redesign should constantly improve by ‘nip and tuck’ in areas that need improvement. Most elements will probably remain consistent like your logo and even color scheme or type style. Drastic changes can have an adverse effect. Making small, subtle changes over time is the best approach.

Your site’s visitors are an excellent resource that will let you know if your site needs to be redesigned. Their feedback is helpful in making this decision. As users they will know what works and does not work. If they believe that you need to update the look they will tell you. If they tell you a new look is warranted, that is a good indication that you need to do a site redesign.

Technorati Tags: Web Design

Web Tip: Website Accessibility and Usability

johnpape — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:53:10 +0000

In this article I am going to explore two area in web development. The first is the concept of “Usability“. The next idea will be “Accessibility“

In the world of web development usability is a major issue. By usability I am talking about testing websites to make sure that the visitor can quickly, easily and simply navigate a website. This makes the user experience better.

The idea of Accessibility goes even further than usability in that its goal is to allow access for all people.

A little history

Nearly 1 out 5 individuals in America have some level of disability. This translate to about 30 million people. As the population grows older this number is expected to increase as there will be more and more senior citizens. Do you know that in the past 10 years there was an increase of 25%. Unfortunately, with age come physical changes. Some of these can limit a persons ability to do things. But keep in mind this is not the only segment of the population that suffers disabilities. And there needs need to be met.

Making the Internet Accessible

The Internet has become an integral part our everyday lifestyle. It allows us to do things unheard of a decade ago. The web offers us ways to communicate. We can obtain information on nearly every subject under the sun and beyond. We now have social online gatherings. The opportunities abound will limitless ways to engage cultural activities. The list could go on. But the sad reality is that the disabled are sometimes excluded from totally experiencing these benefits. However there is hope in providing for standard of accessibility that will help these individuals.

Ways to Improve Accessibility

Here is a list of ideas from the Web Content Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 that was created by the Web Accessibility Initiative of W3C. These are way to increase the accessibility of web content.

This is by no means a comprehensive list but they are some practical tips to make a website more usable. Careful consideration needs to be taken to make sure that Accessibility is included in the design process and that viable alternatives be provided.

Benefits

There are many benefits to improving accessibility of websites. These benefit not only help those with disabilities but also improve the entire web community. Businesses, Service Companies, Organizations and you as well will benefit.

Technorati Tags: accessibility, information technology, usability, Web Design

Web Tip: Why You Need a Good Website Design

johnpape — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:27:10 +0000

The center of your online business is your website. It represents your company’s image virtually. This image provides your prospect, clients and users an opportunity to interact with you even though they cannot visit or see you in person. Still, people will judge you by what they see and experience. That is why good web design is important to your online success.

Let’s say you are operating a physical offline organization. Within your organization you have a staff of sales personnel. How would you want them to appear to the client? Most likely you will want them to look their best. You would want their appearance to be clean, shaved, hair neat, with nice business attire. This tells your prospects and clients that you care about quality. You want to make a good first impression.

Let’s now look at your website. If your site look shabby and was put together by an amateur, you are communicating to your visitors you are not professional and and don’t care for excellence.

On the other hand, if your website is organized in a professional manner, you are communicating to your visitor that you care. You tell them that you pay attention to the detail. A well designed website shows that you are serious about business.

Your business image should be consistent. That means that your website should reflect the image of your business cards, letterheads, brochures. The idea is to emphasis your image in a positive manner. Your business image is the “face” that people remember therefore much consideration is required to insure that you have a good web design.

Technorati Tags: accessibility, Web Design

Web Tip: Ways To Improve Sales Through Your Website

johnpape — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:50:29 +0000

Anyone who has been marketing online knows that the lifeblood of a business is the traffic of a site. More visitors equal more sales. However, here are some ways that you can tweak your sites with to improve sales without the need to get more visitors.

The first method is to weave in your personal touch in your sales message. Nobody wants to be sold to by a total stranger, but many people will buy what their close friends recommend to them. If you can convince your audience that you are a personal friend who has their best interest at heart, they will be convinced to buy your products. Remember to speak to an individual in your salesletter, not to your whole audience.

The second method is to publish testimonials and comments from your customers. A good idea would be to publish both good and bad comments; that way prospects will be really convinced that these testimonials are real. When prospects see testimonials on your website, they will have the confidence to buy from you because human beings follow the herd mentality; when others have bought and proven it authentic, they will jump on the bandwagon and buy too.

Use visual representations for the problems and solutions that your product offers. Not everyone will read your text copy from the head to the tail, but most people will pay attention to images on your website.

Offer quality bonuses to accompany the product. When you offer bonuses that complement your product, your prospects will feel it’s a very good deal and it would be stupid to miss it. Be sure to state the monetary value of your bonuses so that people will be even more compelled to grab your good bargain.

Lastly, ask for the sale! Many people entice their prospects with the benefits of their product, sell to them with stories of how it has solved many problems, even offered killer bonuses but forget to ask for the sale. Give a clear instruction on how to buy your product (e.g. “click the button to buy now!”).

Technorati Tags: ecommerce, selling online, Web Design, Web Development

Web Tip: Use Graphics Wisely to Improve Website Usability

johnpape — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:44:25 +0000

Design is one of the defining element that attract Internet user to your a site. A major deterrent that keeps someone for staying on a site is the lack of appealing graphics. The challenge for a Web Designer is the create a site that not only is attractive to the user but to keep them interested as well

Just putting graphics on a website isn’t the only factor to consider. Graphic must be used correctly. If the graphic cause the user to turn away because they are just plain bad or they are overwhelmed that’s not good at all.

It is important to have an attractive design. It it the choice of design that needs consideration. And the main consideration to be concerned with the the final user. A successful design that is attractive and functional is one that reached its goal.

Graphic on the Web is considered of of the element of multimedia. When using several design elements like text, sound, animation and graphics your goal is to really a message to the user. When using multimedia in a web site it is vital that it is integral to the content. It must reinforce and support the message of the page content.

Using graphic can increase learning in a positive way. That is only if the image is being used properly. The concept is to remove all barriers to communication and increase understanding.

To help illustrate this point I’ve put together this short list of things to consider when using graphics on your website.

1. Make sure have to have the graphic

Don’t add a graphic for the sake of having a graphic. Make sure it serves a positive function to the content. It is easy to overuse graphics on a page. The real down side is that large unnecessary graphic slow down page load time. Remember time is important to your user. All graphic therefore must support the message and have relevance to its meaning.

2. Repetitiveness

Repeating a message or concept over and over increases retention. This can be true of graphic elements as well. A logo used consistently on your site will increase brand identity. Button with similar graphic elements are useful in usability.

3. Keep it Consistent

Keep thing it their place. If your logo is located at the top left it needs to be there at the same place on each and every page. The same with your navigation graphics. Don’t move things around this will confuse and frustrate your user. The same goes with the use of color. Find a theme and stick to it.

4. Media Loading Priority

As a page loads certain elements get loaded as the browser loads the page. Try to have the markup done is such a way as to load text before graphics. This will help the user know if the information is pertinent to there quest for information.

5. Page Loading

Keep in mind that graphics load much slower than text. The goal is less than 5 seconds. The maximum amount of time should be no more than 15 seconds. Also, with more people using High Speed Connections this frees you to add more multimedia to your site. Just make sure that your target users is up to speed.

6. Optimize Speed

Images need to processed to optimize speed. The web world is much more different than the print world. In the print world Hi-Res images are the standard. However Hi-Res does not work on the web. By optimizing the image you will save time for your visitors. Here are some thing to consider when optimizing for speed.

Make the graphic size a small as possible. Don’t use the browser to resize
Decrease image resolution. If your image is 600dpi you must reduce it to 72dpi
Limit the colors that will be used for the images.
Limit the use of animation in the graphic.

In web design there can be a conflict between total control of the look of the page and the needs allowed by the user. This is the great balance of design. A good design accomplishes both ends. It take a lot of effort to create an attractive and effective web site. By following the guidelines here the results will be better. But first is to satisfy the user above anything else.

Technorati Tags: design, graphics, usability

Web Tip: Designing the Best Website Possible

johnpape — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:40:39 +0000

Today I want to explore the element of design. Design is an art and is subjective to the tastes of the individual that experiences the design. To put this concept into perspective I will present this scenario. Imaging you are going to but a T-Shirt. What do you look for? For most of us we will look for a design that works for us. So we can conclude that design is a key aspect in our decision.

One of the best ways to look a problem is to look at it from another person’s point of view. To do this I will present two different situation to help you understand this concept.

Site 1:

Bob is shown a website. This website has good design features, amazing images, good choice of color. All the images are relevant to the content. The choice of font are easy to read.

Site 2 :

Next, Bob is shown another website. This website features gross and ugly images. The resolution is out of whack. The images have nothing to do with the content. The color scheme looks like it came out of a blender. There are no less than 10 font styles used on the page. Each page has a different layout.

Observation:

Looking these two sites from Bob perspective might go something like this:

Bob really likes Site 1 a lot. He is impressed with the artwork and design. He found it easy to navigation. It was as though the design enhances the content. Bob, enjoyed the site so much he stayed a while, learned many new things and even came back.

As for Site B Bob could hardly wait to leave the site. Visually it gave him a migraine. There was now way he would ever want to return. It was so bad that he even removed from his browser history. Now that’s bad. The worst thing Bob did not fell comfortable, was distracted and was disappointed. Not very welcoming was it?

Analysis:

Like it or not most people DO judge on first impression. In these two cases the impression ranged from good to bad.

Often our ego gets in the way of good design. The primary thing to take away is to plan your websites carefully. Get feedback for others and get their perspective. Remember, everyone is different. Keep in mind design is subject to interpretation. The goal is to create a favorable impression the first time.

Technorati Tags: information technology, Internet, usability, Web Design, Web Development

Web Tip: The Importance of Web Linking

johnpape — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:34:28 +0000

The Internet is built on connections. These connections bridge one computer to many others. As a result we can access an abundance of information quickly and easily.

To get around the Internet we click on links. Now think of these link in the same way the synapses of the brain are formed.

With website design one of the most important feature that is required is a way to link from one page to another. Having a dead link is like crashing into a brick wall. It stops you in your tracks.

As a web designer I make it a point to include a link on nearly every page I design. These links are important. If there were no links there would be no other place to go and get additional information.

A website had different kinds of links. There are unspoken standards of design that should be followed for better usability. Messing with these convention can have a negative effect on the user. And as a designer I don’t want to see that. Understanding the rules of convention that need to be followed is the first step in understanding.

When you look a typical website you can imagine it is like a book. A book holds several pages. These pages are often categorized in chapters. A web page can be likened to pages of a book.

The two types of links: Internal and External

Let’s begin with Internal links. These are the links that join content within your website. If we look at the book example. The Index or the Table of Contents of a book contain internal links that connects a page to another page in the same book. On a website Internal links connect pages to other pages in the same website. This allows a visitor to access the about us page from the home page though an internal link.

The other type of link is the External link. This link will move you from the current site you are on to another site. In the book example this would be similar to a citation or reference.

Layout Conventions

Over time more users and website are added and certain assumption about the location of certain links.

One of the most common location for internal links is either horizontally across the top or vertically along the left margin of the page. In nearly every case this will be the main navigation to the website. Designer thought these area to be the most natural position for this grouping on links. As a result these area are prominent in graphic design of the page.

You will also find internal links toward the bottom of the page. This area is called the page footer. Here you will find links of secondary importance or are more informational.

Within the body of the content you will usually find External link. There are no set rules for this it is just a convention that has come out out common use. The location of the link could be within the body text or as a reference note at the end of the content.

Keep in mind these ideas are only convention and not set in stone rules. Designer have a lot of freedom to adjust the layout. These variations can make surfing the web more intersting. The important thing to remember is to not confuse of alienate your visitor.

Technorati Tags: linking strategy, usability, Web Design, Web Development