What to Expect
Honesty, integrity, reliability, jargon free and a professional, personal attentive service.
I studied web design via The Open University and hold their Certificate in Web Design as well as a BSc (Hons) (Open) and I keep up to date via the web standards consortium and books. You can expect to deal with me direct, no call centre, no press 1 for technical, press 2..., just me. Unless I am out meeting clients or taking a rare holiday, a quick change to your website or question that requires an answer, will be dealt with by me immediately if at all possible.
Web Design Process
1. After your initial contact, I will normally arrange to meet up with you so we can talk face to face and we can identify whether you do need a website and whether I can provide what you need - this visit is at no cost nor obligation within a 25 mile radius.
2. We discuss your requirements and, if suitable, I will advise on the completed price - this can be in stage payments if the site is going to be large and we can develop the website in stages thereby getting you online quicker. I normally ask for 30% up front to pay for domain registration and web space plus the initial design activity. You then provide me with images and text etc to populate the website or you can ask me to do this for you.
3. I will then design a draft page and populate it with some of your details and allow you to see it to comment, amend and to ensure you are happy for me to continue building the website. Throughout the development I will keep you informed of progress and the draft website will be available for you to monitor as it develops - again you can advise and change things as we go. The website will be built with Search Engine Optimisation in mind which will help in promoting the site.
4. Once the draft site is complete, I will ask you to confirm that you are fully content with it before I go ahead and prepare it for publishing. This process involves:
- Reviewing the code to ensure it is properly formatted and unbloated.
- Checking every page against the W3C HTML and CSS Validators to ensure the pages are both valid and accessible. The W3C is a consortium (the C) that was set up to standardise the code used for web page building, the Director is Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the world wide web (the W3). They set the standards and the validator checks web pages to ensure they meet the standards for both validity and accessibility. You'd be surprised that apparently not all web designers check or are aware of this!
- Viewing the website in detail on Mozilla Firefox, one of the best standards compliant web browsers which is free to download from Mozilla. This is well worth doing as I find it is more stable than Internet Explorer and is easier to use.
- Reviewing the website on the following web browsers to ensure it displays correctly:
- Internet Explorer versions 6, 7 and 8.
- Google Chrome.
- Opera.
- Safari for windows.
5. When your website is live, I will ask you to review it one final time and provide you with details of the website, hosting and support you have. I will also provide instructions on how to retrieve your e-mail and demonstrate how to use the website and Content Management System if applicable. It is only then that I will produce your final bill.
6. I will then be available to support you throughout the year including 2 hours of amendments to the website for price/photo changes etc. Additionally, I will contact you 2 months after your website goes live to ensure you are still happy with it and I will be available throughout the year to answer questions regarding your website etc. You will then hear from me around month 11 to advise on the annual hosting charge due for the coming year and any domain re-registration if applicable.
