As well the email interviews I had done, I realised I needed more insight to help me further understand 'What
elements constitute as an effective website when acting as a vehicle for
showcasing personal information of your skills as a design practitioner and
what promotional elements need to be considered?' hence strengthening my independent study.
I emailed some local Designers in Worester and called them up and managed to arrange some 'face-to-face' interviews:
- Andy Screen- Anjara Design Worcester: http://www.anjaradesign.com/
- Azmat Baig- K2designers Worcester: http://k2designers.com/
- Jonathan Campbell- Accentika Internet Worcester: http://accentikainternet.co.uk/
- Sam Collet- Phenotype Malvern: http://www.phenotype.net/
-------Interview One: Anjara Design Worcester-------
Thank you so much for doing this interview. Can you give me a brief
background on yourself?
OK, I have been working in the design industry as a full time
freelancer for the last 10 yrs. now in that ten years I do a mixture of design,
illustration, fine art and web and multimedia design amongst other this, and I’ve
worked for clients pretty much now all over the world ranging from bands,
corporate design, large multinational toy companies like Mattel, big companies
like that. So it’s a fairly broad range of clients I’ve worked for.
What methods/approaches did you take to promote/ establish yourself and
your portfolio?
Well the first step really with a portfolio is to firstly identify with
a personal portfolio, that the portfolio itself should reflect creativity and
not just focus on the work. I know opinion is divided on this, but I think the overall
design and creativity express within the site should be there to support the
work. Solely focusing on the work to me shows a lack of creativity and attention
to the method of ‘catching the eye’. My studio is called anjaradesign.
What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?
Well that’s varied over the years, I initial used directed mailing,
providing them with the link to the site, providing them with a list of my
skills. Hoping that the work would come in that way, as I’ve progressed I tend
to find that I spend less time emailing clients and now clients email me and
that’s something I think naturally evolves over the course of operating as a
freelancing, because word gets passed around and recommendations tend to feed
work into your business rather than the other way round. My only means of
promotions now are purely by various portfolio sites I have and the supporting
portfolio sites I have, which include social media as well.
How effective do you think a website is for promoting yourself, your
brand ID?
I don’t think that the website is the primary means, I think it’s there
to support it, I think it’s imperative that It is there to support it, one of
the first questions when your networking is, do you have a website? So that question in itself and having a website
is crucial and I don’t think you would get very far if you didn’t have a
website, or a dedicated website, just pointing somebody in that first meet to a
stock portfolio site or a social media site, I don’t think it’s enough. I think
there’s an expectation that should have one, it’s a door really I would say into
getting work. So I would say as far as it being important I would say it is
imperative.
Do you think a website alone can attract clients?
Potentially it can, it really does depend on search engine
optimisation, and bear in mind that a number of potential websites are out
there, with designers peddling there way , a potential client is going to have
allot of difficulty shifty their way through the designers, in order to find a
designer they want. Now normally you will find that, well from the feedback I’ve
had, that they will see some of your work somewhere else and it has led them to
your site or they have been directed to your site, so they can establish
whether they like your style of work you do is suitable for them. I can’t say
of the top of my head whether I have had any work as a direct result of
somebody searching for my website, I think they have gone through various steps
before they get to that.
What elements do you consider when creating an effective site?
Simplicity is crucial, partially with a portfolio site, I’ve seen a lot
sites with too many links and pages on which I think is unnecessary, because if
you again think about your audience and what they are looking for, really what
they wanting a portfolio site is, a site which expresses originality, the work
that’s presented on your site should be example your best work and secondly and
equally important a means to contact you, and a rationale really a brief break
down of what you are about. Some people put things like price lists I don’t
think that necessary, I certainly haven’t found that to be necessary, and I
think that putting up a menu of a pricelist to me shows because
I think each job has different requirements. So main thing are the creativity
of your sites, the focus of your work and your contact details and a breakdown
of your what you about and what you do.
What principles do you think should be considered when designing a
website?
It’s got to be accessible, got to be useable and those principles of hierarchy
in design and usability are crucial to meet the needs of the audience. A website
as an interactive piece of media relies
on the user navigating through the user interface, it can starts becoming
problematic unless the user interface is intuitive the user can then
instinctively navigate and move around.
What other promotional materials did you use to establish yourself and
attract clients to your website?
In the earlier days I would use printing materials such as mail outs, I
find myself doing that less and less now, I’ve now got from promoting myself
with printed materials to promoting myself through the web using a pdfs
document of my portfolio and periodically send out to clients who I want to
work with or who I would like to work with.
When you are putting that together you have consider how that’s going to
be dissimilated on the other end. Will they be viewing it as a PDF or will they
be printing it off, or photocopying it, then you have the issue of how your
work looks in black and white. So you have to think about all of that. There’s
less focus on print materials as now you can distribute using electronic format
so that’s a big change.
How many years have you been in the field, and how has the field
changed during that time?
Probably have been designing fulltime for ten years, so just a couple
of years short of the life span of the web. One of the most significant changes
of the web has been the way it has been used. When it first started out it was
fairly rudimentary slow, clunky reference tool, and as internet speed has
increased the types of media that you can put on the web, you can be richer
with that, high resolution images and video, music and motion graphics all
those sorts of thing aren’t such an issue now as they used to be. One of the
key things now is the development of the web into a social piece of media
everything now is linked in some way to social media, so it’s a huge networking
tool now. So as a designer its essential to take advantage of or anybody to
take advantage of a networking site, that certainly wasn’t available when the
web first started, so the focus back then it was just the website or their
portfolio, now you have got numerous other means to support that with dedicated
portfolio sites, social media, numerous ones out there.
How has the changes in the web design industry benefited the designer?
Primarily because of the increase in connection speed, the type of
media you can now present, you have allot more scope and stream videos audio
and high resolutions images are less of a concerns, because of the bandwidth ,
and broadband, the size is less of a concern now. It’s still a crucial
consideration because obviously you want the site to load quickly as possible,
but less of a concern in terms of the type of media you can put on there. So
that’s a big advantage to the designer because obviously our world is visual
one, so you want to get that across, and the scope really through things like
social media to further expand yourself promotion so your ability to put
content rich media to represent yourself and associate that with social media
to expand your potential audience.
In 10 years, where do you see yourself? Where do you see design, the web,
and development?
That is such a difficult question to answer because the last 10 years
have showed how difficult it is to try and predict where it will go. I would
like to see a huge development in the web, whilst the way that it has been used
has evolved, the output and the means has remained relatively static, all we’ve
seen really is the different ways it has been used and an explosions of the
number of websites that we have got. In some respect the web has got it’s self-stuck
in a corporate rut. Got its self-stuck in a corporate rut because clients will
generally air in the side of caution, there are a numerous number of principles
of web design, I tend to lean more toward ‘the more creative, the better’
corporate minds tend to lean more towards safety, the upshot is that you get
quite allot of corporate boring over ‘emphasis’ on the functional. So I would
like to see the web to developing creatively alongside technology. It’s a
pretty exciting time, when you look at the next big step will be the way in
which we interact with the computer and is really going to evolve the web.
We’ve seen the evolution into mobile devices now, that was never an issue four
or five years ago, it was Wapp nobody cared about Wapp, now we’ve phones with
new technology dedicated PC or mac based browsers on them and allot people are
using that as a mean to interact. so as the technology evolves the means to
which we interact with the internet evolves, then we will see the web in
evolving in what way I really couldn’t predict, it’s the case of just rolling
with it and that’s the main things with a designer is that you role with the
changes and be prepared enough to adapt with the changes.
Explain your process of how you typically start a new project?
The first step really is to get a picture from the clients as to exactly
find out who their audience are, I’ve mentioned this allot academically,
because that’s only because it’s crucial, unless the site caters for the
audience of your clients then it can be creative, but only if it caters for the
audience. You really have to stay focus on the purpose of the site and how it
caters to that audience. So that’s the
first key point and what feeds into that is, things like issues with
accessibility , for example if you have an ecommerce clients, they would want
to maximise their potential audience, so accessibility things like play into
the design. You need to consider other visual disabilities, for example things
like Dyslexia as well can play an issue so that will have an effect on the
design. If you have a wide cross section of age groups that is going to impact
on what you do. So you got to consider accessibility and usability in the
design will facilitate for the particular demographics. So those a particular
key things to start with, establishing your aims, establishing your audience, establishing
their needs and that really is the foundation for the designing side. The function of the site has a big impact on
the design, especially if it’ for something like a creative portfolio , then
traditionally you will have more creative scope, because creative site are more
likely to be more creative and more intuitive in relation to how you put it out,
is a lot greater than it would be for example for an ecommerce site where the
focus has got to be on finding the information as quickly as possible, so in
that particular case you will look at
the web design principles and usability to give yourself the best chance to
create an intuitive and invisible interface as possible, so the user can go on
their find what they want and leave. So
the audience and the purpose of the site play a crucial part of the design.
What features are necessary to attract a user’s attention at first
glance?
It’s got to load quickly, it’s a main consideration got to bear in mind
the three second rule, if nothing positive happens most users will click away,
so you got to get something on the screen quickly and it’s got to be your work,
it’s pointless setting up things like pointless splash pages, so the users got
to click through two or three pages before they get to the work, I believe the
first thing somebody once to see work they onto a site is your portfolio work.
So focus on the work on the first page is fundamental with that.
What techniques/software did you used to develop your own site? Or a
site for your client?
I think you can produce a site of professional quality using notepad,
theoretically, but as a designer to code and see what you have done, then
Dreamweaver would probably be the most successful and popular one as a primary
production software combined with Photoshop and illustrator and third party
elements. I use Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver
for the individual and organisation, I’ve used various in the past, first one I
used was one called ‘Trelix Web’ that was one of the earlier software put
together for designers to use, it wasn’t code base, it was drag and drop base.
Then there was Microsoft front page, all of these were pretty much table based,
then Dreamweaver stepped into the fold, it was originally macromedia had Dreamweaver,
it offers you the ability to code or drag and drop, so it suited both sides.
Now we have moved away from tables now Dreamweaver integrates divs and layers,
it’s a fairly intuitive simple way of putting something together. So I would
think the main one for me is Dreamweaver. I also use jquery, the reason I use
jquery, is that flash has been around for a long time, now adobe has finally
admitted defeat with flash recently. We have got HTML5 coming in now and
obviously things like the Ipad and iPhone does not support flash, the new windows
8 operating system, have said they are
not going to support flash and allot of new mobile devices now have all jumped
on that band wagon. So adobe has finally conceited defeat now they had
developed a new piece of software called adobe edge, which is going to be
compliant with all these devices, now this is an early incarnation of flash,
it’s a bit more intuitive, slightly less complex, I mean the issues with flash
have always been the drain on the processor, now the processor has always been
sensitive now f there’s alit of flash in a site, on a low connection speed
you’ll be waiting for a long time for thing to load up. So there are obviously
userbitly considerations with that. And more importantly recently by producing
a site with flash or a site with flash elements, you are precluding a large user
base, people weren’t that concerned when the mac only really had a small
percentage of the overall market, but they have got a big percentage of the market with tablet PCs and phones. So
I would actually avoid using flash at all now.so for anything needed to enhance
the interactively of a site I would use and use Jquery. When HTML5 becomes
ready then I’ll probably step into that and have a look at Abode edge for the
multimedia as well. But at the moment Jquery is fairly young and versatile and
very fast.
Where do you go for design inspiration?
My normal process is when I get a brief and have established an overall
theme. I look at books which are full of visuals, probably spend half a day or
a day just get impressions. And then put together rough visuals of my own and
just get a sense of what I want. The web is good resource just key words put it
onto the search engines and you can get a really broad range. It can I suppose
start an idea. And as well really I find just walking around, even walking
through town or driving to A to B, can visually inspire.
How has your site been successful in targeting clients?
When I looked into it, I found that people come to my site by looking
at the supporting sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter, so I would imagine the
site its self really just support those.
How are you monitoring the success? E.g. are you using SEO, social media
networks, publications? Please give a detailed answer.
Primary social media networks I use is LinkedIn, Behance Facebook and
twitter, the main things with those is that the more avenues you use and have
your work promoted on then logically the wider the audience the better, so
social networking is so good because they even shows your site statistics on
the page.
I also use search engine optimisation, I used Meta tags and key words, it’s
less about summiting your site to search engines, and it’s more about your site
being searchable in a search engine. It takes a while for the site to be
indexed, but using text and images with the site is crucial because that’s what
the search engines look for and that’s how the site is indexed. If used a structure, it’s more about making
the site readable for the search engine than just submitting the site into a
search engine for indexing. It’s crucial because without that, use can have a
really nice looking site, but unless people can find it then it’s useless.
How can a website be improved for higher trafficking for promotion
oneself?
SEO to make sure your site is indexed, having lots of sites linked to
your site.
Social media, that’s crucial now. You can also pay per click, so it
jumps above the ranking in the search engines, you can do the same for Social
media now where you can put add to appear on various pages. At this stage I
don’t feel the need to do that, because I get a fairly even streak of work atm.
If I was too does that I’d probably end up with more work than I can handle and
I don’t like saying no to work. Particular with portfolio sites you generally
have a wide audience; additional promotional tools will benefit more than a
small company site.
How do you test the usability of your site?
The user should have access to your work and how you present it for the
user to click on it.
I generally put that into the hands of the client to check the usability
and I will apply the principles as I see them for their potential audience, and
they will generally assess its usability for their target market and I will get
the feedback from their marketing department, to what changes I need to make.
When designing a site how do you consider the accessibility issues?
Such as catering for the hard of hearing and visually impaired.
I’m not a corporate web designer, and I’ll be honest with you, it’s not
something I consider at all. I should maybe, but I generally am quite selective
with the web work I take on. And my motivation for doing web work is more of my
ability to be more creative with that project rather than churn out some sort
of corporate clone. Slightly different to dedicated web designers because they
have got to do the whole gamble and this is not my bread and butter, it
something I do, but I select the ones I do.
I personally with the sites I do, I’m very protective over it, I don’t
want it to be ruined by having to cater for these accessibility issues. But
yeah making the site accessible can impact and is very much dependent on type
of site design you are trying to achieve. I will mention it to the client that
there are accessibility issues and I’ll leave the ball in their court as to whether
they want to and whether it’s necessary to make the site accessible. I have to
the extent of providing them the ability to increase the site text size, but to
be honest with you there’s allot the user can do with the browser now
without having to go into that, it’s not
something that had to put allot of considerations, to be perfectly honest.
Do you think content management system should be use in a website? If
so how does it benefit yourself and your client?
It doesn’t benefit the designer it benefits the client, and it benefits
the client usually it benefit the designer to offer that, because it’s very
useful and it’s almost imperative if u can offer that to a client. The reason
why it benefits the client is that it lets the client update their content without
having to come to the designer constantly to make these updates. Before the CMS
was developed, there was maintenance cost as well and designing the site. And
now with cms you generally find that it’s evolved, financial it’s the sole benefit
OD the client, as designer it’s a good selling point, so they are very useful.
Do you have a mobile app; is your website optimised for mobiles?
It’s optimised for mobile to an extent that its view how I want it to
be viewed in a mobile, but I haven’t had the need for my portfolio site to
provide the need for producing a separate site for mobiles and mobile apps.
Any advice you could give to your fellow young designer?
Be creative and always strive to push the medium forward. That is my
mantra, Got to be forward thinking how the mediums going to change, keep on top
of the changes, it’s crucial that you keep abreast about all the changes
happening. You’ve always got to think ahead.
Once again thank you for your time.
-----Interview Two: K2designers Worcester -----
Thank you so much for doing this interview. Can you give me a brief
background on yourself?
Yeah sure, firstly I’m Azmat representing K2Designers Worcester, to
answer your question I have studied in Worcester, I am a graduate in Computer
Science, I currently hold two Diplomas in the IT sector, I am a web designer
specialising in Search Engine Optimisation and landing page optimisation.
What methods/approaches did you take to promote/ establish yourself and
your portfolio?
We primarily use Google search to get rankings that’s our main form of
conversion, we also do a bit offline but mainly Google really. I am self-taught
web designer, K2Designer wasn’t my first job, I established my CV and I have
done things like customer services and sales, I think that helped me quite
allot because when trying to get new business client, I can use those skills to
try and get new client i.e. through picking up the phone, or via email I think it’s
quite important to have good English and communication skills as well and
really understanding the customers is quite important as well.
What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?
Best method we use is our website in a nutshell, our website needs to
look and feel professional our website needs to be intuitive. We primarily use Google
to attract business for example if somebody is to search ‘web design Worcester’,
or ‘web designers Worcester’ which are key words. We come at the top of the
ranking, the dry tail of our business come through there, and also word of
mouth and repeat business, so it’s really sale and service we believe we can
provide a good service then people will naturally recommend us to their friends
family etc. and people will use us again for repeat business.
How effective do you think a website is for promoting yourself, your
brand ID?
I think it’s extremely effective, especially in this day and age, it’s
very important we strongly believe everybody should have a website. It’s your
open door to your portfolio that people you don’t know can see, and it’s a
gateway to people that will see your
business before they see you, it speaks allot about who are, what you do, what
you are capable of what you can provide, so yeah it’s the face of your
business. For more traditional companies for example like Nike, or a small
business that you’d call, before they have seen your site, the person that you
speak to will give you your first impression, that person needs to be important
as the voice of the company. Equally the Website is doing the same thing so we
think it’s very important to have a website that will attract.
What elements do you consider when creating an effective site?
We use Jquery scrolling images because we use that on our site. We also
use a method called ‘bounce rate’ it is something that the customer will do
when they don’t like something that they see, and they click on the back button
that’s called bounce. So we will put all the element on the site to keep the
person busy, give them everything they need to keep them happy on the site, it
doesn’t stop there, I then move on to ‘landing page conversion’ something which
I specialise in. this is to actually try and convert the customer into a real
customer than just looking at the site and bouncing back.
What principles do you think should be considered when designing a
website?
I’d say it’s very important to have a good communications with your
clients from start to finish; we will build milestones with the clients to
ensure our project runs smoothly, that we’re hitting the right spot for the
customer. It’s very important to understand what they want and it also
important to put your own input into it, and explain why that’s done. Because
allot of customers they believe they are right, and that’s not always the way,
and allot of time you can say maybe we try this, or help you and improve or convert
customers more.
In general there are a few general rules in web design; layouts for
example, top header, and columns, left, right, body and footer. We tend to
stick to that certain rule, again it purely depends on the clients because each
websites different, although there are given rules for the design overall for
example the structure the ‘skeleton’.
How many years have you been in the field, and how has the field
changed during that time?
Approximately 5yrs, the field has changed dramatically in that period
of time. Its evolved into something that allot of people rely on, and as
technology moves on for example internet, allot more house hold users have got
internet. This means that there is more website. I Think it will continue to evolve
I think sky’s the limit, it all depends on the client, and how creative they
want the site to be.
How has the changes in the web design industry benefited the designer?
I think it has benefited the designer quite well Because essential
there more business for us again I think because it has evolved so much allot
of people feel the need to have a website, or update a website, renewed etc.
allot of traditional businesses such as builders, tractors they don’t need one
because their work speaks for themselves, but you will find now days allot of
them business.
In 10 years, where do you see yourself? Where do you see design, the web,
and development?
We hope to be a bigger company, expand and branch out, who knows what
the future holds.
Explain your process of how you typically start a new project?
We often get a phone call from a client and then we have to sell them
an Idea, because they need a push on how to start off and guidance of where
they need to go, our website again play a big part of this, because in our website
we have a pricing section so they can have a rough Idea of how much it may
cost, before they contact us, so that’s a head start for us before we arrange a face to face meeting, and then
guide them and meet their needs to help convert them into real customers.
What features are necessary to attract a user’s attention at first
glance?
I would say a website should look very clean looking, with simple
navigation, simplicity is very important. In our website, we have a few
important headings, such as pricing, which is our busiest important page, so
the top navigation is very important. There is a scrolling gallery; it used to
be flash but now it’s
Jquery. This feature is ‘above the fold’. ‘above the fold’ is anything
before you scroll down, so this is what the user will immediately see, before
they scroll down, we put the selling points quite high up. We also use social
media because it’s very important, because of Web 0.2 and our contact details
which is probably the most important thing.
Where do you go for design inspiration?
We tend to do more research, then design inspiration, if I’m being
honest because our industry is evolving quite quickly, we do more research for
example we use sites such as: Webpro, Mac Cuts, Google Employee, Cmpro Use, these
are all sites we use to gain ideas in the sense of what’s happening in our
industry, it think that sort of inspires us to stay on top of our game, I
wouldn’t really say it gives us inspiration. We would like to think that we
have the design skills naturally and that’s something we already have, we need
to keep update with it so we can deliver to our customers.
How has your site been successful in targeting clients?
I think it’s very successful, when we started of approximately 5yrs ago
we immediately wanted to target a local audience, Worcester. Because we are
Worcester based we got a higher probability of converting the local clients,
than target national clients and international. If you Google search web design
Worcester you will notice that we are at the top of the organic listing, we are
not on a paid listing, we got up there through our own expertise, and
essentially we have achieve the fulltime goal to get there, our next goal was
to expand out to the west midlands, I think we are 9th on the
listing for ‘web designers west midland’ in the search engines, however The
results do fluctuate. So that was our short and medium term goals, obviously
our long term goal are to go national.
How are you monitoring the success? E.g. are you using SEO, social
media networks, publications? Please give a detailed answer.
Web 2.0 was introduced approximately 2yrs ago, which is something that
can be looked into, by yourself, web 2.0 using things like social media and
design and much more. We use something called Google analytics and also quite a
lot of our clients will use ad words, which is pay per click. We measure all
the performance from A to z, USING Google analytics.
How can a website be improved for higher trafficking for promotion
oneself?
Mail shots, newsletter, directories, SEO to get higher ranking, sky’s
the limit really if you’ve got the money, you can do TV advertising. There’s
also offline promotions as well for generating traffic, such as magazine, for
us newspapers and leaflets weren’t that successful, because allot of times you
look for a web designer, you usually look in the search engines.
How do you test the usability of your site?
This is really important, because you need to maximise your audience,
and allot of people use different screen sizes, such as mobiles, so we test our
sites that we design on different computers, on different operating systems, so
anything from windows XP, to Vista to Windows
7, Mac and then we test it on the top four web browsers, Firefox, IE, Google
chrome and safari, and they are the top four, in order of popularity in the
UK. And it’s important for us to know
those facts and figures; we always design for the most popular browsers.
When designing a site how do you consider the accessibility issues?
Such as catering for the hard of hearing and visually impaired.
There is something called W3C compliance, it is an organisation that
lays down the rules and regulations. At first we meet the clients need in the
design and visibility, the second thing we do, we can sometime design using
something called ‘triple A’ this caters for small text, medium text and large
text, we also you ‘alt’ tag and ‘Title’ tags.
Do you think content management system should be used in a website? If
so how does it benefit yourself and your client?
They are very useful, they are a little bit more costly, and however
they benefit the clients because they have access over there content. They
don’t need to contact the web designer for small updates, so if they need to
change an image, they don’t need to contact the designer. Form the web designers point of view it can
help us as well as we don’t need to constantly update the site.
Do you have a mobile app; is your website optimised for mobiles?
We don’t have a mobile app; it is something that we have thought about
however at the moment mobiles such as IPhones have fully optimised browsers, so
our website still works nicely.
Any advice you could give to your fellow young designer?
Look around a lot of
web designers websites for inspiration, look at pros and cons, our website is a
great example and yeah just go for it really!
----Interview Three:Accentika Internet Worcester---
Thank you so much for doing this interview. Can you give me a brief
background on yourself?
Well I have been active in the
internet world since before Internet Explorer, Microsoft internet explorer we
tend to think of that as the heart of the internet. in fact Microsoft were quite to the internet, I’m not
sure when Internet Explorer came out maybe 10yrs ago or 11yrs, but I started
experimented with publishing Data on the internet. We were doing a lot of work
for the publishing industry during that time. So we got into putting product
catalogue on to the database then we moved that onto the web then I moved on to
programming. I have had my own company
for 25yrs, we started offering our services to the publishing industry services
and most recently we’ve started offering internet services.
What elements do you consider when creating a smooth interface?
Speed obviously a factor there,
and we have to balance speed between the richness of the interface, the graphic
burden of the interface. Now we are probably a bit more relaxed about than in
the past, possibly a bit more relaxed than we should be, we do pile a lot of
graphics in now, we have allot of JavaScript running for pretty trivial things.
Because clients want the site to look really nice, even sometimes at the
expense of usability, because if you have a lot graphics in there allot of JavaScript
running allot of jQuery running, these are all going to actually slow down the
users experience and aia think its really important for the user to be able to
navigate around quickly.
What methods/approaches did you take to promote/ establish yourself and
your portfolio?
How effective do you think a website is for promoting yourself, your
brand ID?
It depends how the website is
used, just having a website doesn’t mean you will be able to promote your
brand. It’s essential to have a website now, because even if you’re not
actively promoting through your website, your customers will still go to your
website. If you’re just doing traditional
marketing, inevitably customers who don’t know you come to your website, if
they don’t find at least a competent website; it will put a question mark over
your brand over your company. You at least need a good looking website, with
information on there, the very minimum, but of course you can do allot more,
people are expecting to visit websites, with a good degree of interactivity and
the aim of your website is to try and influence your customer, to try and build
your credibility with your customer and obviously to try and persuade your
customer to actually buy something from you, or some service from you and the
more you care build this relationship with your customer, the better chance
you’ve got from making a sale.
What principles do you think should be considered when designing a
website?
I’ve come into the website
world from the publishing industry, the world of information and so my view on
this is a bit skewed, I do believe it’s all about information is the core of
the website not design, I think that too often we see with customers where they
have got a budget they spend 2/3 of their money on the design, and a third of
it perhaps on the information and they end up with a beautifully looking
website, that does not do the job, doesn’t
convey the information, difficult to update it, because they haven’t
through it. The information that you actually put on the site is really
important. And that is why content management is so important because that
enables the clients to take control of their website to get their information
up update their information, that product information, marketing information,
everything that you can do to build your relationship with your clients to
shows you’re an active company, you’re innovative company, if you have the
ability to update are site you should demonstrate that.
What features are necessary to attract a user’s attention at first
glance?
Well information, we had a
period where everyone was putting flash pages before the homepage and it’s
irrelevant, because some just get bored of it and just leave the site. So it’s
important that you get something that catches people’s attention, in terms of
the actual information, a call to action, something that will interest them.
There are so many websites and it’s so easy to click for one to another. You
have various little times to catch the user’s attention. However beautiful the
site is, you need to help a message, to reassure them or the user that they are
in the right place and they should continue clicking through the webpage,
because they will get something from it. The design should enhance the content,
it should show it off. There are occasions where the design can over take the
content and can work against it, a great example are flash websites.
What techniques/software did you used to develop your own site? Or a
site for your client?
Jquery is preferable to use,
rather that flash, and with our content management system, we use allot of
jquery and fade in graphics and all this in done my JavaScript. And the
advantage of using jquery is that we make it dynamic and so the client can
change their illustrations and graphics, they don’t have to come to us, we can
just have it fading between products. They can make them changes themselves
with use of site in a content management system.
How can a website be improved for higher trafficking for promotion
oneself?
You’ve got, conventional market,
email, pay per click and SEO for marketing
Newsletters, email, adverts, q
codes, also social networking that also provides links back to your website.
How do you test the usability of your site?
When designing a site how do you consider the accessibility aspects of
the site?
Do you think content management system should be use in a website? If
so how does it benefit yourself and your client?
Do you have a mobile app; is your website optimised for mobiles?
Any advice you could give to your fellow young designer?
-----------Interview Four: Phenotype Malvern----------
Thank you so much for doing this interview. Can you give me a brief
background on yourself?
Ok, I have been a web designer
for 15years, I did a degree in Graphics in Liverpool Jon Whirls University got
a first, I didn’t go to any of my lectures because next door was the first multimedia MA in the
country and I kind of missed my own lectures and sneaked into their lectures.
At the end of the year I was showing creative stuff, I then landed a job doing
flash because they said if you know director you can do flash, then I started
doing Web design.
What methods/approaches did you take to promote/ establish yourself and
your portfolio?
Well basically, the degree is
all about portfolio so essentially I went around London with my big printed portfolio, I had my cv which I
took along and I very quickly found that the jobs in the guardian are very
quickly gone, so you have to cold call people. I didn’t know the web existed
before I got my First job, this is like 1997.
What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?
All my clients are people that
I used to work with, used to work in London, in some big agency that got loads
of awards, so all those clients have
moved on doing other things, so they ring me up, that’s basically it, but I do
any new business it all just comes.
How effective do you think a website is for promoting a client, and
their company?
It depends on the company and
what they do, there’s a lot, I think the thing that people don’t consider is a
really bad website that they put people of. If you go to fends.com later, a
client of mine, there website is shocking, so I think it’s the fact it can
bring a negative image, they used have customers calling in, but now they don’t
anymore so I think It’s very important really.
Do you think a portfolio website alone can attract clients?
Yes, with social networking,
for example, Linked if I was looking to hire a designer I would look at their
CV in Linked and then look at their
portfolio website what they’ve don’t, who they, so a bit of both really. Or you can do a really cool website and get
yourself on Favourite web awards and get clients coming in.
What elements do you think should be considered creating an effective
website?
Big images of your portfolio,
if you’re a design company there’s two things should stand out, one is the
clients you’ve work for and the other is your portfolio, so there need to be
equally planned, of if you’ve created a logo for your client, that’s what they
want to see, and the work has to be good, so clients and your work on the site.
So If I’m looking for a designer I’m looking a design eye, I’d want to see a
hard worker and mad ideas.
What other promotional materials did you use to establish yourself and
attract clients to your website?
None, I did some talks and that’s
about it.
What principles do you think should be considered when designing a
portfolio website?
It has got to be cool, and the
website has got to be something fun, but it’s got to work.
How many years have you been in the field, and how has the field
changed during that time?
Well from 1997, wow that such
a big question the thing web design and web coding it changes every couple of
years. So there’s like her HTML five and canvas now, and before was flash,
flash 8. . Every two years it changes completely, so things like and screen
size screen size, the way the code, browsers plug-ins. Which is why I love it? When I first joined And we got to loads of
awards for doing stuff for Levi’s, so I worked on the levis account for seven years,
And because there wasn’t so many web designers out there, we got loads of
awards because we were doing loads of cool stuff, that broke the browsers and
we got loads of awards, and I swear we got them because their wasn’t many
designers out there. Then there was
a do.com boob-and bust- boom and bust and so on.
How do you think the web design industry has progress its self in the
last 10yrs? How has it benefited the
designer?
When I started you had a web
designer and a web designer could close what they build and he designed. I think that has been lost a bit, now a
designer would design and the agency will give the design to a coder, but I
disagree with that strongly which is why all my designers have to code what
they design, I think they make you a better designer, but also you still get
print designers who don’t know how to design for the web, knowing the right
colours, so I am hoping that will change soon because everything is web, so you
can’t do a TV campaign without thinking
Web, or with thinking social or print, the web is the thing that links everything.
In 10 years, where do you see yourself? Where do you see design, the web,
and development?
No idea! I would imagine Flash
would be dead in a couple of years, and canvas is not ready yet but I would
imagine will take over Flask in a couple of years, Audio stuff like Seri in IPhones
will come a bit better. Mice’s have changed you can scroll more on a screen
more, so simple things like that. I don’t know.
What features are necessary to attract a user’s attention at first
glance?
Nice design, knowing what to
click next, it depends what you what to do, for example I had a brief to keep
people longer on the site, so we made the navigation really difficult to keep
people on the site longer, but having really nice design, nice layout, and it
works, you know what to do, and keep it simple.
What techniques/software did you used to develop your own site? Or a
site for your client?
It built with something called
modex, used Photoshop, bit of Flash in there. And we hand code, don’t use
Dreamweaver we use notepad++ and BB Edit.
Where do you go for design inspiration?
FWA, One Page Love, We do a
lot of word press stuff, so a lot of Word press themes. We have a virtual space
and office, so the colleagues put interesting things on there and the colleagues
are dotted around the country.
How has your site been successful in targeting clients?
Basically Its there because we
need one, It’s a bit old 4 years old, and needs a redesign we have one read to
go, It was up in a Modex award sites, so we got a lot of traffic from there. But
more importantly you have to focus on whether your site negative. If the site
is crap when people come there, they may be put off. So basically we made a
site because we need one.
How are you monitoring the success? E.g. are you using SEO, social
media networks, publications? Please give a detailed answer.
Google analytics and server
people. People find us mostly through linked sites and word of mouth
How can a website be improved for higher trafficking for promotion
oneself?
Analytic's is awesome, you need to
build your site properly in the first
place, like put meta tags to optimised in the search engines, and then it’s
about links shares, and they basically link you’re sites, and that’s how you
get traffic, and then you get like a network of sites linked to your sites.
How do you test the usability of your site?
The bleeding obvious test, you
watch someone over their shoulder and see how they are navigating through the
site, where they go first, are they getting lost. Also we are running through a
bunch of validators. And we this guy in Yorkshire whose registered blind whose
actually a designer and he checks our site on a large monitor.
When designing a site how do you consider the accessibility issues?
Such as catering for the hard of hearing and visually impaired.
So with accessibility there’s
level one, two, three etc. Level one is screen reader which we do cater for, the
level two is things like title tags and for W3C you have to go to level two.
Do you think content management system should be use in a website? If
so how does it benefit yourself and your client?
If you’re doing your own things, it
doesn’t benefit yourself, but if you are doing it for a client then yes
everything we do is content management systems.
Do you have a mobile app; is your website optimised for mobiles?
No, but is does work on your
mobile.
Any advice you could give to your fellow young designer?
Keep it simple, make it beautiful
make the navigation clear, big pictures of your work and write some texts about
it.
Once again thank you
for your time.