The Atlanta Web Designers Influence
Influential Web Design in Atlanta
Design plays a pivotal role in changing your visitors into customers.
Web Design is a growing industry that has been around long enough that the average computer savvy person is beginning to understand the value of optimizing and testing their websites. The web is becoming finicky and more demanding when judging the design and construction of today’s websites. A good web designer or web developer should implement a healthy marriage between site architecture, website function, web design and optimization. I’ve found at least 2 out of 4 of these elements are left out on almost 90 percent of the websites I analyze while surfing the web. As with many vocations, the real work is in the details. Everything from solving problems with tableless design, to implementing WC3 standards has become a whole new obsession with my work. A designer can only put so much work into a website before their time and resources go over budget, but improving your design strategy and processes can make a huge difference in the quality of your work. Blue Light Labs is an Atlanta web design company that welcomes change and innovation.
Building a list of tools and resources to help you improve the quality control of your work is essential. These tools will continue to change just as your skills will. A huge part of our job as website design professionals is to keep our skills and processes up to date. I spend about 20 percent of my work time researching new website technologies and concepts. We can't afford to fall behind when the internet's rules and requirements are changing every day! Being proactive and engaged in daily research has not only improved the quality of our work but the trust and satisfaction of our clients.
At Blue Light Labs, it has become essential for our team to communicate and build bridges between our skill sets. For example, Atlanta web designers working with us needed to understand the fundamentals of a sites dynamic architecture in order to assist the programmer. The Marketing expert needs to communicate how the optimization and structure impact the projects marketing goals and so on and so forth. Understanding the fundamentals associated with each skill set is extremely valuable for each team member. With excellent communication between our staff, our templates are stronger, our development time is cut in half and our clients are satisfied.
We take the time to put together an IA (Information Architecture Document). This document is an invaluable tool for communicating the projects specifics to our programmers. An IA can also be applied to other facets of a project.
Website Objective
This should be a 2-4 paragraph summery of the project and its objective. A little inside knowledge about the company, its competition and its direction is very important when setting the mood for a project. This area can also include some of our recommendations and additional questions we might want to ask the client.
A great article I read in the December issue of StomperNet covered these objectives. This article drew the conclusion that the visitor coming to the website should always have the feeling they are getting closer and closer to achieving their goal. Using strategic (Call to Action) placements and intuitive content and graphics help dramatically. We must never forget the primary objective of the project.
Template Web Design and Site Structure
This section is a combination of general notes and box diagrams based on the websites structure and layout. Each box diagram is separated into modules with numbers that associate each segment of the site with the technical specs that will be outlined in the following areas.
Front and Backend Functionality
In layman's terms, this section of the AI should describe, with as much detail as possible, what each numbered area does and how it corresponds with the functionality requirements of the project. I struggled with this part of the document a good deal. I was surprised how hard it was to take my way of thinking and understanding and then turn it into a set of instructions that our programmers could decipher without confusion. After some good communication and mutual agreements on common terminology this important section of the IA can be ironed out.
Administrative Requirements
Many clients we take on already have a site and want to make the administration more intuitive and easy to use. Everything from grouping products for ecommerce systems to blogging and adding SEF friendly content can always be improved on. Typically we will use the same backend look and feel for each project unless there are specific needs pointed out by the client.
Internet Marketing Requirements
Most of this area is dedicated to outlining page navigation, site map structure, core SEF URL outlines and CSS output requirements. The website's general titles, descriptions and primary key phrases are drawn out in order to get a good idea of how the traffic will flow.
Project Hosting Requirements and General Information
Outlining general details saved us a great deal of time searching the server or calling people for lost details. Any email addresses, ftp accounts, domain transfer passwords or project hosting requirements we list here, so we have it all in one place.
Getting us all used to this outline was not easy and in all fairness still has its kinks. I do have to say, the response we are receiving from our customers is worth the extra effort
Sincerely,
The Team at Blue Light Labs
Markus H. Nelson
markus(at)bluelightlabs.com">Markus(at)bluelightlabs.com
Lead Project Manager and Senior Partner
Chris H. Nelson
david(at)bluelightlabs.com">Chris(at)bluelightlabs.com
Designer
Blue Light Labs, Inc
172 Laurelwood Ln
Alpharetta, GA 30009
The Lab: 404.551.6480
E-mail: support(at)bluelightlabs.com
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