When I started out with Nine Star Graphics I wanted to focus mostly on web design. However as time wore on it became clear that there were more aspects that linked to it. In this article though, I want to bring it a bit back to the basics. Let’s talk about how I designed parts of the site. I also want to highlight some of the common mistakes I made early on. What they taught me and how they shaped the site.
The basics
To begin with, I looked at sites of similar companies and created a list of the things I liked and didn’t like such as colours, button placements, images, fonts etc. I then looked at how easy the sites were to navigate. Was I able to get the information I was looking for? If the answer was a no I’d then ask how I would do it? Write it down in either my notebook or on a word document .
Once I had that, I began to think about the journey I wanted the users to go on. I wrote out the information I wanted in each section I spent hours trying to get the wording right. Running it by friends and family to make sure it was to the point. When I was satisfied with what I had, I then jumped into drawing out designs on a notepad. This gave me an outline of how I wanted sections of the site to look and feel.
Web Design
With the planning firmly out of the way I set out to design the site. I used WordPress as opposed to others since it was cost effective and it offered the things I needed and wanted. After installing the plugins needed to build the site (I use Elementor since I can tailor it to what I need). I spent weeks tweaking and designing sections of the site. Adding wire frames, sourcing images, playing around with the format and making sure the links were working.
Initially I had on the home page a video that would loop. It was of people walking on a busy street, but I got rid of it about 5 months ago since it was making the site take a while to load. Another issue from when I was designing that I’ve had to rectify recently was an issue with one of the sections I had built for the hompage. I had manipulated some of the sections so that they crossed over with one another and while it made the site look good it meant that when the software had an update information and some links went missing. I had to rebuild the section completely since no matter what I did it wouldn’t work the way I needed it to.
Looking back these are the mistakes of a first time developer, but they were valuable since now I’m able to look at the issues and find the solutions I need to fix and I bring that knowledge to every subsequent project.
The initial web design process was long and it took a while to get to a standard I was happy with. I wanted the site to seem professional, deliver information whilst not being cluttered. This was helped along by the next part.
Optimisation
In order to get the site found, I spent even longer trying to get the site optimal. I spent hours perfecting the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), compressing images for the web, sorting out the cache and CSS so that everything would run smoothly. Through this process I’d make tweak’s to the site, check in on links and get things to an even higher standard. The way I looked at my site was that it was like a tree. It was there and it was growing, but every now and again I’d need to prune a few leaves or change up the soil to help it along. It’s one of the jobs I enjoy the most because I’m constantly learning something.
You may wonder why I’m telling you all this. Well the answer is simple really. I, like many people, am suspicious of people who claim to have all the answers and that they can give you everything you ever wanted. By showing how I work and that while I make mistakes I also learn from them. I pass on what I have learnt to my clients so that they can avoid those mistakes. After all at Nine Star Graphics I’m all about Unleashing your business potential.
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