Valentine’s Day illustration by the St Louis web designer
Category: Random Thoughts
What does it take to become a successful web designer?
I was appraoched recently by the Rockwood School district about attending a Middle school career fair to talk about a career as a web site designer. I thought it would be a great way to give something back to the community.
I am putting together a presentation and thought I would share with you today the characteristics it takes to become a successful web designer.
- Creative Ability
- Technical aptitude
- Eye for detail
- Ability to improvise and problem solve
- Love of learning…the internet is an evolving field with new technologies being introduced all the time. Web design is not a field where you can consider your learning ”done”
- Self starter…staying abreast of new technologies, design trends etc.
- Good communication and people skills
- Knowing your strength: With so many technologies available you will have more success with and in depth knowledge of a handful rather than knowing a little of all of them.
- Ability to multitask
Color Creativity and Inspiration for Web Site Design
When working on a web design project, inspiration can come from many sources. Estabilshing a color palette is often where I begin and a great resource is COLOURlovers
COLOURlovers is a color and design community that offers a wealth of resources for picking colors and staying on top of color trends and is great for kick starting inspiration.
“Business contact manager has encountered a problem and needs to close”
Don’t you just hate it when you computer goes wrong. I have had my fair share of computer glitches already this year. Maybe I am getting them all over and done with in January and the rest of the year will be plain sailing.
Yesterday I upgraded my version of Quick Books resulting in a complete melt down of Outlook. It would not open and every time I tried I was greeted with the message.
“Business contact manager has encountered a problem and needs to close”
It has taken me 5 hours to sort this problem out but only thanks to an excellent post I found on Google Answers
I was so thankful for the advice I thought it worthy of a link just in case anyone else is encountering the same problem. St Louis web designer tip of the day!
Computer Problems Drive You Crazy?
About a month ago I needed to renew a subscription to Symantec for my Norton anti virus protection. When directed to the renew page the price to simply renew was the same price to upgrade to the latest and greatest protection, Norton Internet Security 2008. A no brainer ..I upgraded and spent the next 20 minutes or so downloading, installing and rebooting.
A week ago I get a message from the application telling me my product required activation but my current activation key has been used too many times and is no longer valid. I can connect to the internet but have no protection from all the nasties out there.
Time for a call to technical support …and the number of hoops to have to jump through before you reach the magic tech support number or the 20 minute queue before the phone was answered was enough to make even the most patient person crazy.
But I have to say once my call had been answered the service was amazing. The tech guy asked me a few basic questions and then asked if I would grant him remote access to my computer. He logged in and did lots of geeky test to figure out the problem. It took him 15 minutes and successfully sourced the problem and fixed it. There is no way this could have been accomplished the old fashioned way with tech support directing you to click here and there. Progress at last for technical support!
Our approach to designing web sites
We follow a very methodical process in the creation of web site , here is a simple description of our process…what I like to call the 4 D’s
Phase 1 : Define
During this stage we learn from our clients the full scope of their project.
- What do they want to achieve with the website?
- Who is the target audience?
- Who is the competition?
Armed with this information a tactical plan is developed and a full proposal produced to proceed with the project.
This phase of any project is always FREE
Phase 2 : Design
Keeping in mind usability and good web practices a polished concept design is created. This is a collaborative phase where client’s feedback is used to refine the design and helps us “home in” on the optimimal “winning” concept design.
Our tools of chice for the design phase are Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Phase 3: Develop
The “pictures” created in the design phase comes to life in the development phase of the project. The designs are coded to be understood by web browsers and undergo strict testing to ensure cross browser compatibility. Any functionailty assocaited with a web site is added during this stage.
Phase 4: Deploy
Once the site is complete it is ready to be launched online. The site is uploaded to a hosting account and publicised to the world.
Color and Productivity
I recently experienced first hand how the color of your surroundings can affect your productivity.
My office is painted a soft pale green, “Adratic Mist” according to the paint pot, and creates a great relaxing enviroment where I can focus to my fullest.
In a moment of craziness a few months back I decided that a change was in order and I wanted to funk things up a bit with a jazzier more energetic color. As a graphic designer I love color, I selected a yellowish green ” Cabbage green” and got to work.
It took me just a day after I had finished to acknowlege what a huge mistake I had made. I was unable to concentrate at all and very distracted by the color bouncing around the room. I lived with it for about a week thinking I would get used to it … but no. The office got re painted the very next weekend.
Web Design Projects: Testimonials
I have had some nice compliments of the last couple of weeks for two of the sites I have lauched this year.
The first was for The Rockwood and came from Nathan Shurtleff of RetirementCommunity.com
“nice site design…I have seen quite a few websites geared toward seniors and The Rockwood is one of the best, nice color, good layout and most important… easy to navigate.”
The Senior Vice President of the Rockwood agreeed:
“I also certainly agree that you have done a fabulous job with the website…we have gotten many compliments on it as well.”
Then today a nice testimonial from Loomis Bros:-
So far, we’ve had good response to our new website. Thanks so much for all of your help and patience!
Happy clients make me a happy web designer!
Graphic Designer Satisfaction
As a graphic designer one of the most satisfying moments is when you finally see the designs you have been working on in their finished form.
Yesterday a client from Building Products Corp dropped by with a binder and tabs set I designed for then a while back… his comments were “Everything has been printed and looks amazing “
I dont want to appear boastful but I have to agree!
Your blog voice
In a post I wrote last week I talked about creating branded blogs and mentioned we were currently creating one for St Louis based Throttlenet.
The blog is now up and running, visit it here>> ThrottleBlog
Throttlenet have their blog set up so various team members can contribute, which is a great approach for a multi faceted corporation. It will give the blog a very rounded “voice“.
We have two “voices” on this blog me..St Louis Web Designer and St Louis Marketing Executive
We have very different styles but that is exactly how a blog should be. Each contributor has a unique voice and personality, and brings to the blog something that no one else can.
It takes time to develop a blog voice but the more you write the more your style and voice will evolve.