What I Strive For

Here’s what I do – what I think about and strive for…

Designing

The Look

• Does it look good?
• Does the look and feel match your brand?

The Content

• Is the content concise and scannable?
• Does it ‘sound like’ your brand?
• Does it address visitors’ problems? Does it provide solutions?
• Does it encourage them to do what you want?

The Interface

• Are the main tasks easy to accomplish?
• Are answers easy to find?
• Is it easy to use, intuitive, logical, unfrustrating?

The Structure

• What content goes where on each page? What pages are there? What sections are there?
• Is the organisation, or ‘information architecture’, in line with the goals of your site and your business, as well as the goals of your visitors.
• Are the most important messages in the most obvious places.

Developing

Putting it all together and making it work. This is often the bit referred to as ‘coding’. It involves…

• Creating the HTML files or CMS templates.
• Creating the CSS files that style your site.
• Setting up any scripts and plugins required to make it function.
• Putting the initial content in.

I’m considering…

• If the site loads quickly.
• If search engines can find and index it easily.
• If it’s accessible to most people – can visually impaired people use it?
• If I’m using the latest coding standards and best practices.