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Do you need a professional Web Designer?

Creating a web site must be easy, something you can do yourself over a weekend , right? Your nephew/cousin/admin assistant has just taken a six week class in web design at the local community college, are they now  fully qualified to produce that highly polished web site for your small business?

In all likelihood if you take these routes you will end up with a sub standard web site which, at its worst, can be detrimental to your business. It’s much better to call in the pros but what are the advantages of hiring a professional web designer?

To put it simply they know what they are doing. Consider the following

Design

Creating the look and feel of a web site is not just a case of opening Photoshop and playing around with a few pixels. A web designer will understand how to engage your visitors, enable them to navigate effortlessly all this while  considering the complexities of coding the design-what is and is not possible. How many pixels wide should the site be, what fonts are web safe, how should the files be saved, optimized for fast download.  What are the latest design trends? What type of design will appeal to your end user.  A web designer will be continually asking themselves questions as they design.

Coding

Coding involves rendering the design into a form that can be understood by web browsers. A professional web designer will be an expert in HTML and CSS and well versed in platform such as WordPress,  content management systems -CMS ( e.g Joomla) and be able to work with any shopping cart e.g PDshop.net.  They will constantly test the coding to iron out any bugs and make sure of cross browser compatibility.  Your site will look good irrespective of what browser of platform you are viewing it on. They will also remain up to date with all advances in the coding arena so you know your site will not be using outdated techniques.

Launching

The nuts and bolts of making a web site live,  registering a domain name, opening a hosting account, configuring email, stats packages. All bread and butter to a professional web designer.

Internet Marketing

Having a site which ranks well for particular key phrases is on the wish list of most, if not all clients. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the first step to achieving that goal and this end game will have been in the forefront of the designers mind as early as the design phase of any project. From researching the best keyword phrases, to naming files to optimize the potential of those phrases. What’s considered white hat (best practices) and what not do ( black hat practices) Getting the site listed is the next step, whether through organic ranking or paid placements through advertisers like Google. If social networking is part of your marketing plan your designer will help you implement.

So which route to take, the DIY  or the PRO approach?

I can guarantee by hiring a professional web designer you will end up with a far more effective web site.

2010 © Chicago web designer

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iChicagoWebDesigner.com. We have a new blog!

Inspired by my original  “Eye of the St Louis web designer” and now Eye of the Chicago web designer” series I have decided to launch an additional blog dedicated to my “Eye of the Chicago web designer” posts.

Chicago is a rich city full of inspiration for us web designers … my camera has hardly stopped clicking since I arrived here! I didn’t want to swamp this blog with my photos.

So without further ado click iChicagoWebDesigner.com and take a peak.

2010 © Chicago Web Designer

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Eye of the Chicago Web Designer: In the garden

My regular blog readers will know that gardening is my antidote to many hours sat in front of a computer screen designing web sites and the like. As much as I love my job I do need to get away from the technological world .

Moving to my web design company to Chicago has meant a new house and I have inherited a new garden. The garden is structurally excellent but it could do with a little color magic,  just like a web site a pop of color can make all the difference!

Chicago web design company

2010 © Chicago Web Designer

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Moving house and business: The power of the internet

For the last few months I have been seriously multi tasking. As well as running my web and graphic design business full time  I have also been coordinating our move to Chicago.

Moving is hard work!

The power of the internet has made things a lot easier than it could have been. Here are a few ways I have thanked my lucky stars that I have a connection to the world through my fingertips.

  1. Finding a new house
    My husband did all the leg work on this but sites like Realtor.com enabled us to preview so much information before we viewed and not just photographs. We could see a birds eye satellite shot and  find out information about schools.
  2. Selecting a Removal Company
    I visited a number of removal company web sites and selected three to give me estimates. I then used the Better Business web site to run a check on each of them. The company that came in with the cheapest quote had a load of complaints so that simple check was enough for me to strike them off my list.
  3. Changes of address.
    The number of address changes I have made is quite staggering but with so many companies and organizations providing online account access this has been a relatively simple process. The united states post office even has an online process to set up  mail forwarding.
  4. Setting up new services
    Gas, electric, telephone, TV, and that all important internet connection, all easily ordered and set up online. Automatic payments and paperless statements an added bonus.
  5. A BIG clearout
    One of the most liberating things about moving is the opportunity to get rid of junk. I have been in St Louis for 14 years (and in the same house) and my family has acquire our fair share of “stuff”.  Craigslist was my ultimate friend. I posted all sorts of junk (one mans treasure…right) and got rid of everything from  old filing cabinets to a kitchen sink.
  6. Company legalities
    Moving to a new state is akin to moving to a new country and getting the paper work set up so I would be up and running in the shortest possible time has been a snip with the info I got from both Missouri and Illinois state websites.

Everything is packed and being loaded today so I am looking forward to a new adventure in the land of Lincoln!

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

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Eye of the Louis web Designer:The five senses

Do you allow you customers to experience your brand through all five senses?

  • Sight
  • Sound
  • Touch
  • Smell
  • Taste

Not one medium allows  indulgence in all five. Take web sites for example, here we are limited to just two, sight and sound. These limitations  definitely affect my actions. When in come to buying things like sheets I abandon my online shopping experience and head out to a store. There are some things I just need to touch before I buy.

Talking of the five senses take a look at this fabulous sculpture, The Awakening, near the Mall in Chesterfield.  He was made to be touched!

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Social Networking Overload: Tips to Prevent Insanity!

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogging. Are you getting bogged down in managing your social networks? They can become like black holes consuming your precious working hours, sucking away minutes here and minutes there. Before you know it you have spent half your working day tweeting about this and that and checking your Facebook page.

Here are a few tips to keep your sanity.

  1. Set aside  specific time(s) maybe once or twice a day to engage in your social networks. Once your time is up, shut them down and get on with your work. Set a timer if that helps.
  2. Configure each application so updates are not emailed to you, this can be very distracting.
  3. Use an application like Hootsuite which allows you to manage  multiple social network profiles. You can also  monitor particular key words/phrases, and even pre schedule tweets and status updates.
  4. Relax! Social networking is not about how many followers you have, how often you tweet or how fast you respond. Ask yourself why you take part in social networking, what is your master plan? Stick to that plan.

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

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Emotions of a Type Face: A set of energetic fonts

Here is the next installment in my series “The emotions of a typeface”. Today’s set features energetic fonts.

They all convey a sense of movement, get-up-and-go, pep,  animation, activity, liveliness and zing

energetic fonts

Think “boot camp” – any one of these would work for branding elements.

Next time I’ll showcase a set of dreamy fonts. View the first in the series “playful fonts“

2010 © St Louis Web Designer