Dionysus approached us with a brief to realign the website to better leverage the online medium. The site features a full CMS implementation, user registration, search, a blog, events calendar, discussion forum and a photo gallery.

This project for Dionysus went from initial consultation through information architecture, interface design, HTML/CSS coding, CMS implementation (Joomla!), content insertion and training.

The client was an absolute pleasure to work with, and we wish Irene, Seth, Kathy, Angie, QJ,  Jeannette and everyone else all the best with their new website.

How to resize an image online from Ross Allchorn on Vimeo.

Here is our checklist.

1. All links checked
   Are your internal and external links all correct? Think about hardcoded links and dynamic links. If your site is database driven, you can check all internal links with a script.
2. Page title tags consistent & optimal
   Your page title tags are those that appear in the title bar above File, Edit, View etc. It’s important for search engine indexing that the title is clear, concise and depicts what is on the page.
3. Search engine friendly URLs
   If you’re using a CMS you should ideally have some form of URL rewriting feature in place that converts dynamic URLs to search engine friendly ones (example.com?pageid=15 to example.com/product-name)
4. Search functionality
   If you have search functionality on your site, does it work correctly? Is it intuitive and are the search results accurately portraying the information the searcher is seeking?
5. Screen resolution
   Does your website display nicely on screen resolutions your visitors are likely to be using?
6. Content rendering
   Sometimes content can become a bit mangled when copying characters from MS Word or other web pages, and as such a good thorough toothcomb inspection of your content should allow you to rectify any issues.
7. 301 redirects
   If you’re redesigning your site, you want people who have possibly bookmarked your old URLs to automatically come through to the new pages. 301 redirects are the universally recognised “change of address” for web pages and to retain existing traffic and rankings this is gravely important!
8. Custom 404 error pages
   When someone hits a URL on your site that does not exist it will display a 404 error page. These can be customised, and are an effective catchment system for preventing the loss of visitors that hit a generic 404 error page. The page should ideally display with the same/similar aesthetic as your site and offer a clear explanation, navigation and search.
9. Analytics implementation
   If you have a website online, you want to measure it’s efficacy. You can track visitors, bounce rates, conversion rates and a multitude of other interesting and useful information by simply installing analytics software.
10. Favicon implementation
    A small visual feature which can give your site a more “complete” look. Not only will it be an icon used in tabs, but also in bookmarks making it easier for people to find your pages if you make them stand out.
11. Meta tag implementation
    Not as important as they used to be, but still worth doing once you’ve researched your keywords. Don’t stuff your keywords in, but rather keep them relative and to the point.
12. XML Sitemap
    A sitemap is an important feature which tells the search engines what your pages are and how frequently they can expect to be updated. This allows them to index your site at intervals which are in line with your updates.
13. Form to email/database
    If you have forms submitting to email addresses or to a database, make sure they all send correctly, and to the right people/places. Make sure those responsible for responding are aware of their duties as well as any autoresponders are setup correctly and working.
14. User administration settings
    If you have more than one user, you’ll need to make sure they have sufficient (and not too much) authority on the system managing your website.
15. Speed tests
    Is your server performing as it should? Are there scripts/flash/large images causing slow loading times?
16. www and no-www
    If visitors access your website at www.example.com, they should be able to also access it sans-www (http://example.com). It’s a setting your host should enable, and if not perhaps consider another host.
17. Browser compatability
    What browsers are your visitors using? Global statistics can tell you initially, and soon enough you’ll know what your visitors are using from your analytics. At the time of writing, we feel it important for your site to work in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.

These items are in no particular order and bare in mind that depending on the project, there could be more or less items to consider (eg: spell checking, proof reading, legal requirements etc.)

Here’s a snapshot of one design I did recently for Fry’s vegetarian. The site is still to be coded and developed, so perhaps this is a bit premature. I suspect it will act more as a teaser of things to come. The site will feature delicious recipes, information for agents and a whole lot more.

Well, now you know I haven’t just been sitting around and playing with Photoshop. In fact; if you add the preperation for the impending web design course I’ll be teaching next year for Hirt & Carter, I’ve been pretty damn busy.

Have no fear though. I’m currently available for freelance work, so if you need any design or website development work done, please feel free to drop me a line. </shameless marketing>

8 Week Comprehensive Web Design Course

The course is comprised of comprehensive training in the aesthetic and structural aspects of website design. Following a day on Mac basics, candidates receive in-depth training in web standards based design, markup and site creation. Starting with a theoretical and practical introduction to the web and semantic markup with HTML, going through page layout and styling using CSS. The course continues through the principles of beautiful web design including designing web graphics, layout, composition, colour, texture, typography, imagery, animation and usability. Students will also be taught to upload and download websites using FTP, the different file formats on the web, the business of domain registration and web hosting, an introduction to web server basics, databases, content management systems and an introduction to the programming languages on the web. Candidates will leave the course with the ability to effectively design and create valid web pages to be published as is or integrated into any modern web content management system. The final project of the course will involve students publishing their work in an online portfolio, hosted on the Hirt & Carter server or their own (www.studentname.com) domain name. The minimum pass mark is 70% and a certificate will be awarded to each student on graduation.

Prerequisites for the course:

• Photoshop skills required: Making / working with selections, Quick masks, Layers, Shadows, Colour correcting, Cropping, Deep etching, Modes, Cloning, Adjustment layers, Resolution + image size adjustments & Saving in the correct formats.
  A 2 week Photoshop course will run prior to the Comprehensive Web Design course if students don’t have this prior knowledge.

If you are interested in the course, please send me an email so we can add you to the list. More details to follow.