Tekpals

With such head-starts, the five figure medium-sized website cost quickly becomes four. The four figure small business website cost becomes three. The home-grown sideline business goes from three figures to two (many premium WordPress themes designs are available for only $50). You can even get a WordPress website on their sister site for free. Buy a domain name for it and you’re in business for just $10.

To the short-sighted web developer or designer it’s the end of days. To the business owner it should be the start of getting the website they always thought they were going to get, but never quite did, for a price they can justify, and that everyone can use. via – WordPress The Quiet Revolution

I found this quote on a website for web developers and I think that the implications of this trend are fantastic. In the old day of web development, any organization had to throw their hopes over the webmaster wall and hope for the best. They were dependent upon the webmaster for every part of the website including the design and getting the content just right.

The result was that websites were expensive, cumbersome and really didn’t help an organization deliver their message.

In my experience in developing many sites, I’ve actually found that the most challenging part of the process is defining the organization’s message. I actually believe that developing a website is the best thing that any organization can do because if forces a reflection on what the organization is all about.

I’ve worked with several organizations to refine their organizational message – their elevator speech that describes what they do in less than 30 seconds. Let’s look at an example. I recently completed a project with Taproot to help a small non-profit redo their website. The technical work to redo the site took less than 40% of the calendar time; the bulk of the calendar time was helping this non-profit define who they are.

Stagebridge helps older people fully express themselves and live life to the fullest. Their old site made it difficult to quickly understand what the organization was all about. Studies show that most people take around five seconds to decide if they’re going to stick around on a site before moving on. These five seconds are important to let someone know who you are ans what you’re all about.

After several brainstorming sessions we quickly narrowed all their work down into four overall categories. These categories not only helped Stagebridge refine their elevator speech, it formed the foundation for the organization of the new website.

The new site uses few words and some rotating slides to convey the message. It shows the possibilities of healthy aging and how Stagebridge’s offerings help older people live life to the fullest!

So, yes, I’m glad that the days of expensive unresponsive website design are numbered. I’m excited about the possibilities of using a new website as a catalyst to refine any organization’s message!

Next we’ll integrate your brand. Any business needs to develop and manage their brand. Think about how you want your business presented to the world. What do you want your audience to take away? What images or emotions do you want to convey? Look at your level of professionalism, innovation, enthusiasm, attention to detail, reliability or many other categories. These will all have an effect on your brand.

The most tangible element of your brand is your logo. For example, the Tekpals logo is intended to make technology accessible and friendly. That’s why we picked the ‘dough boy’ and had him with a friendly greeting sitting on a laptop – all to make technology easy and accessible. We consciously chose a non-traditional font to emphasize the approachability and openness. Your logo will become the basis of the look and feel of your site and it needs to be designed carefully.

The next thing to look for is the overall graphic feel. Every page will have common features that clearly identify the page as yours. Are you going for light or dark? Are there any colors that you’re looking to use? Even color choice has an impact. Once you have a logo and an idea of your brand, we’ll look at colors.Colors convey a message.

Blue is actually the most popular color. It conveys honesty, trustworthiness and loyalty.

Black means authority, power, elegance and sophistication.

While shows purity and peace. It is neutral and calm.

Red shows passion and energy. It’s full of excitement.

Green conveys feelings of nature and earth. It also suggests growth and rejuvenation.

Orange is equated with happiness, creativity and playfulness.

Purple shows a mystical or spiritual quality.

Primary colors are usually associated with childhood and simplicity, while pastel colors are associated with warmth and happiness.

There are also many cultural connotations with color. Different cultures associate different meanings to colors. For example, in the US a dark green often conveys a sense of wealth and fortune. However, in many Asian cultures wealth and fortune is usually associated with red.

Whitespace

Judicious use of whitespace is also important in web design. Just because it’s possible to do something doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to do it. Whitespace helps the eyes manage the content and makes it easier on your reader. Back in the early days of web design people thought that blinking and flashing text and graphics was all the rage. The problem was that it was also extremely distracting. We’ll work with you to keep your pages easy on the eye. The flow of the page is important and lots of whitespace helps your reader.

Screen Dimensions

We are often asked about the empty space down the sides of the Tekpals page. That’s there for an important reason. When you design for print everyone knows the dimensions of the page you’re designing for. Whether it’s a 8 1/2 by 11 page or a huge billboard, the dimensions are known in advance. The web is different; you don’t know the capabilities of the user’s computer. They may be viewing your site on a 27″ wide monitor, a small iPad or netbook or even a mobile device.

So we need to make some base assumptions about the intended viewing device. More often than not, that assumption is a width of around 1000 pixels (dots). This accommodates most computers sold in the last 10 years. If you’re viewing the page on a monitor that’s about 1000 pixels wide there won’t be the empty space on the side. If your monitor is wider, you’ll see the space. This way everyone is happy!

Designing for mobile devices is an entirely different endeavor. We’ll cover that in another post.