www.elliottimages.co.uk for crisp, clean photography.

Photography Portfolio WebSites Printing Formats Experience Creativity Price News

Elliott Images guiding principles for website design.

This site

This website has been designed, constructed and uploaded to the host server by myself, using the principles listed below, and represents my latest development in website design. I've half-read Steve Krug's book "Don't make me think", and he encapsulates my thinking on the subject very well - Highly recommended. The websites I've designed have all come as an addition to my photographic work, and are "information" sites, but I've got to the stage where I can offer this as a service separate from my photography. I've still to get into "shop" sites that take orders, and process payments, but that's coming.

Fit for purpose ?

People in today's active world are impatient, and will move on, rather than tolerate websites that don't quickly give them what they want. A lot of my time setting up a website is spent writing on an A4 pad, before I get anywhere near a computer, considering:-

Why do people want to visit this site ?

Will the required information be on the site, and located in an obvious and easily accessible place ?

How can I reduce the clicks (time) needed, to find the information they want ?

Will flashy welcoming pages, videos, mission statements, history lessons etc. be dispensed with, in favour of the most popular page being up front, with text and images that are to the point, and download fast ?

Will links to the other pages be available on every page so navigation through the site is obvious, and requires little thought ?

Will contact and address details be available on every page, so that if individual pages are printed from the site, the important info is still available ?

Will all the pages be dated and numbered, so it will be immediately obvious if outdated information is being referenced and quoted ?

Will the pages that people are likely to print out, be designed to print out on a single A4 page with margins ?

Then I start with the overall design, and work on the header, that includes the navigation buttons/links to the pages required, and get that part of the design approved before continuing adding the detail to the pages. Changing the overall design after the detail has been added, doubles the man hours needed to create the site, and adds considerably to the cost.

Search Engine Optimization

My aim is to produce practical sites rather than just a pretty ones. Simple HTML with a few lines of CSS has been used to do everything needed so far, including basic search engine optimization, that should rate this site's pages appropriate when relevant search terms are used.

Duplication

If you like the way this site has been laid out, why not pay me to do a similar one for you and your business ?