WEB DESIGN SERVICES

WGS&A provides various services relative to the design, construction, testing, maintenance, and evaluation of websites for small to medium-sized businesses and non-profit institutions.

DESIGN OF WEBSITES

• There is a philosophical war between two polar views of how website design should be done. The "utilitarian" designers believe visitors to websites generally want to find, see or do something as quickly and efficiently as possible, then go on with their business. Therefore, the design of websites should be very efficient, efficacious, businesslike, and utilitarian, with very clear, direct and unambiguous navigation, and no fluff to distract from the purpose. The "decorative" camp of designers believe visitors to a website want to have a very creative "experience" when they visit a website - that they like to search and wander, look at visually attractive, colorful, and image or sound-packed pages using creatively challenging and sometimes obscure navigation, and will sacrifice speed, clarity, and efficiency for a great exploratory "experience".
 
• WGS&A tends to lean toward the "utilitarian" approach, but being artists, we have plenty of empathy for the "decorative" view as well - everyone wants an attractive website, regardless of the purpose. There's a vast area of middle ground between these extremes, and we let the purpose of the site dictate the design. Clearly, there are websites which are purely for entertainment, or stunning visual, audio, or video experiences. There are other sites where visitors want to see, do, or learn something as quickly and efficiently as possible, then move on. Our single inviolable rule is that the purpose of the site, and the needs, desires, and interests of the intended visitor must be very clearly defined, and then dictate the design.
 
• In designing a website, we begin by helping our client to very clearly and concisely define the purpose of the site, who the expected/targeted visitors to the site will be, what they will want to see, do, and learn there, and what their likely skills, knowledge, capabilities, and technology will be. If applicable, we also question out and document likely scenarios which reflect what a targeted user of the site will want to do. These "use cases" will be used to design very clear and natural navigational paths through the pages of the site, to optimize the content of the pages of the site, and to make the use of the website as simple, easy, and natural as possible.
 
• BUSINESS IDENTITY: Another issue which is pertinent at this point is "business IDENTITY", sometimes referred to as a "BRAND" or "BRANDING". Most websites have as either a primary or secondary objective to create an attractive, memorable, and credible image or identity of the business which owns the website, and to root that image into the minds of the visitors. A name, a graphic logo, a typeface or font, a motto or slogan, and colors may all be interwoven parts of this business identity (think of the word "Coke", and the image of the word, right off the side of the Coke can, in red and white colors, springs immediately to mind - you can even visualize the typeface, with a capital "C", lower case "oke"). Older, established businesses will all have invested a considerable amount of time and effort to create their identity, and expended great effort and cost to root that identity into the minds of the public, and their potential customers. The name "Kleenex" is the word everyone uses when they need to blow their nose - it is literally synonymous in the minds of people with the idea of soft paper tissue. Younger, start-up businesses usually have not put the necessary thought and effort into the creation and repetition of their identity, and they are thus at a considerable disadvantage in the marketplace. WGS&A offers this as one of our services - to help our clients design and create the comprehensive identity of the business. The elements of a business identity -- a logo, a name, a typeface, a slogan, and perhaps images or colors -- will all appear on the website (usually in the banner or masthead at the top of each webpage), as well as on all other business communications (signs, print advertisements, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, email message templates, brochures, stickers, postcards, t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.). The key is to have an attractive and interesting IDENTITY which is used consistently and repeatedly on all corporate communications - so it is firmly entrenched and embedded in the neurons of the potential customer. If our client already has an established business identity, we will of course incorporate their name, logo, motto, etc. into the banner and pages of the website as appropriate; otherwise, we will help our client create a superior business identity, and incorporate it into the design of the website, business cards, letterhead, brochures, etc. that we may design for our clients in addition to the website.
 
• Based upon the analysis and definition of the purpose of the site, and what the targeted visitors will want to see, do, or learn, we work with our client to create a top-down conceptual design of website (layout of the webpages, navigational links, etc. with no content yet), beginning with the home page, and proceeding down the hierarchy of pages. We determine the basic "look" of the site - design and placement of the banner/masthead on the pages, colors, backgrounds for pages, type faces, positioning of navigational links/cues, colors and behavior of navigational links, text colors, etc. We counsel our client about the tradeoffs for each design choice. We ensure that all content which will be necessary to fulfill the purpose of the site, and the needs of the visitors to the site, has a natural and easy-to-find home on some webpage in the site, and that navigation through the site will be very simple, natural, logical, and sensible to the visitor. We strive to adhere to the three cardinal virtues of good web design: CLARITY, BREVITY, and BANDWIDTH (fast loading and response).

CODING / CONSTRUCTION OF WEBSITES / WEBPAGES

• When the page layouts are approved by our client, we usually create (encode using HTML and CSS) the "empty" pages for the website, with the banner/masthead, and navigational links, so it can be accessed online and evaluated in terms of the basic pages the visitor will encounter, and how they will be able to navigate from page to page through the site. Any changes are addressed before content is introduced to the pages.
 
• Next, we populate the pages with actual content (images, text, etc.). Usually, the content of the pages must be provided by our client, who must ultimately decide the content on their webpages. In some cases, we will create or assist our client to create textual or image content, then have them review and approve it; in other cases, they will need to generate this content themselves and transmit it to us for layout and encoding into the webpages. We always review provided content to ensure there are no problems or errors on the webpages. We always try to strike the proper balance, to make the site visually attractive (colors, images, graphics, etc.) but also utilitarian (words and text which inform the visitor).
 
• We continuously share the pages under development with our client, and demonstrate every page and navigational path to our client, using the visitor scenarios if they were formally documented in the design phase. We carefully note all problems and desired changes, if any, and agree with our client as to the best way to implement them. One final adjustment cycle usually completes the project.
 
• We use a number of tools, markup languages (HTML and XHTML, along with CSS), scripting languages (JavaScript and/or PHP when active site functions are needed), database management tools (MySQL) and sometimes third-party services (forms, "donate" functions/buttons, etc.) when coding the pages of a website. We also create and use template pages as much as possible, so future design changes (yes, they'll always happen!) to the website can be made very quickly and efficiently. We also design for ease of ongoing maintenance and update, whether we or our client will be doing the maintenance.
 
• We are very conscious of speed and responsiveness issues, and strive to ensure that page text, images, or other multi-media content loads instantaneously from the visitor's point of view.
 
• We strive to comply with current W3C web standards by separating the content (XHTML) from the presentation and appearance (CSS), and test our pages using a variety of web browsers, and different types of computers (and other devices) to understand and eliminate unwanted browser rendering differences and anomalies whenever possible.

ONGOING MAINTENANCE OF WEBSITES WE BUILD

• At the client's option, we contract to perform the ongoing management and maintenance of their website - to become the "webmaster". We will establish a mutually-agreeable contract for these services, and either fixed, or proportional rates will be negotiated relative to the amount of time/effort which will be required on our part.
 
• If the client wishes to perform their own management and ongoing maintenance, or wishes to contract with another party to do so, we turn the site over to the appropriate party, and will provide training of the client, or a third party, to competently perform maintenance of the website when required.

TESTING AND EVALUATION OF EXISTING WEBSITES (FROM THE VISITOR'S POINT OF VIEW)

• WGS&A has an outstanding capability to evaluate the effectiveness of existing websites from the point of view of an uninitiated visitor. We begin by working with the client to clearly define the purpose of the site, who the intended/targeted visitors/users of the site are, what they will want to find, see, and/or do at the website, and what their likely capabilities, skills, and knowledge will be. We then step into the shoes of the intended visitor/user, attempt to find, see, or do what they will want to find, see, or do, and evaluate whether or not the purpose of the website is achieved, and whether the use of the website is easy, clear, natural, effective, and pleasing from the perspective of the visitor.
 
• To evaluate the site, we may work with our client to develop a set of different visitor scenarios or "use cases" (different things the visitor would want to find, do, or see at the website), and then navigate the website according to each of those scenarios. We may use a completely uninitiated (and non-technical) tester, who is chosen to reflect the defined capabilities, skills, and knowledge of the intended user/visitor. This "blind" tester is accompanied by a silent observer/recorder, who notes each difficulty the tester encounters, and any outright errors in the design or function of the website.
 
• After the evaluation of the website is completed, we deliver a complete, point-by-point report documenting each issue/anomaly we detected during the testing, and recommendations for redesigning or re-coding some portions of the website so that it fulfills the intended purpose, and/or makes the website faster, easier, or better for the intended users/visitors.

Please CONTACT us if you'd like to discuss the design, construction, testing, or evaluation of your website. We look forward to working with you to make a great website!