All designs come fundamentally from the client. That is to say, we design & develop your project based on your overall ideas, in much the same way that you might tell a builder what you'd like to have in your new kitchen. But where and how to start?
Keep it simple. Take those ideas that form in your head and make them visual. Sure, you can use all kinds of fancy software and design tools to do that but ultimately nothing beats paper and pencil. Do some jottings. Start by thinking about your own business:
What is my business?
Do I have physical premises and can customers visit?
Who are my customers and what sort of new customers do I want to attract?
Where are my customers located and do I want to reach a wider area?
What product or service am I selling?
Do I need to ship physical products to my customers?
Do I need to provide customer service via telephone or email?
Will my new website require frequent updating and if so will I want to do that myself or pay for that service?
What is the purpose of my new website, i.e. will it be to advertise my presence, display detailed information to customers, gain more calls, or allow customers to place orders directly for goods and services, or simply sell more product?
No, you won't need to "design" every aspect of your website. If you've engaged us to do it for you then we will of course take the lead on this and/or make suggestions and offerings for your approval BUT the very basics need to be supplied by you.
Every website starts with a homepage. That's the page that first loads when someone clicks on your website, so, as they say, you only have one chance to make a first impression. The homepage therefore should include the main things you want to say/show about your business such as:-
A clear (brief) message about who you are and what your business does.
This is usually best done via large photo that fills the screen on loading, and should be relevant to your product or service. Text can be overlaid on that to tell customers directly. Think about whether you want to use stock photos, your own, or have photos taken professionally. The same applies for your product/service photos (see below).
More info about you.
A further, more detailed textual description about your business, product and/or services. Remember you can have additional pages that expand on this in great detail, but crowding out your homepage with too many lines of text is to be avoided.
Your contact information and location (if you so wish your customers to have that information).
This might be a phone number, email and/or address location, Google Maps image etc.
Photographs that highlight your products or services.
Best done as a showcase showing a limited number of your products/services (links can always be added to other pages displaying further information)
Photographs of you and your staff (if appropriate for your business).
Introduce yourselves to customers so they can see who'll they'll be working with.
Video embeds.
You may have a video of your business on YouTube. If you have then the homepage is a good place to locate it.
Other.
Your business may have something else to shout about. If so then be proud of it and display it; this is your "shop window" after all. In short you have almost any number of things on your homepage, but overcrowding can lead to confusion, boredom, and a quick exit...Keep it as simple as you can!
Call to action (very important!)
What do you want your viewers to do once your page has loaded? Phone you? Email you? View your catalogue? Then say so! This is usually achieved via button links
(visible with the default loaded viewing window) inviting the viewer to "click" to do something. Again, refer to the About you section and ask yourself what you want your website to achieve.
Navigation.
This is the "menu", i.e. clickable links that take viewers to your other pages (or sections within pages). Generally these menus are direct links to your other pages, so will obviously differ in number/layout depending on how many pages you have. If you have dozens of pages then your menu will have to be sub-divided further. Again, you won't need to worry about "how" the navigation works (as we take care of that) but you may wish to tell us how you want it to look (see further guidance on "styles")
Further considerations:-
Number of pages.
There are websites which consist of simply one page, but more often a minimum of a "homepage" and a "contact" page. However most business soon realise that they want to show much more information than can be conveyed thus and will have at least half a dozen pages, sometimes more.
Styles
A very important factor in website design, and something you may want to think very deeply about. It's to do with colours, font styles and other visual elements. A great starting place is colour. Of course one could spend a great deal of time studying colour as a design medium (and we have done so!), but there are natural intuitions in the subject that most people can appreciate. Let's say your business is a wine bar. Then think about the colours that naturally associate themselves. Cosy: Black. Wine: Red. Wine: White. But those colours would never work for a pet shop! There browns & greens would want to dominate. A beauty salon may want very subtle shades of pink, purple etc. None of these examples are hard and fast rules (there are always exceptions) but they are a good example of colour associations, and food for thought!
Choice of font style and weight are also very important considerations. Is your business concerned with a serious theme or is it more of a fun theme? Your pet shop website business may want to use the comic sans font to convey a sense of fun but that would be wholly inappropriate for an architect's offices. We can of course show you suggestions as to what we think would work but it may be worth your while to take a look at different font examples and have a think about what may suit your business specifically. Google Fonts is a good resource for this (opens in new tab).
It can be tempting to think about homepages that are very "flashy", i.e. with lots of moving images, banners, pop-ups, carousels etc. While these elements can be effective we would advise against employing them unless they are appropriate: Viewers of your website may get annoyed (and leave!) if your interactions are distracting. For instance, many websites load a huge "sign up to go on our mailing list" box that obscures everything else a few seconds after the homepage has loaded. This can be annoying! It may be better to have an email sign-up form elsewhere.
CMS (Content Management System) for Webflow projects.
The CMS is a powerful tool and can be used to huge advantage by website owners (you!). It works like this: There are essentially two main types of website (in this respect). There is the type where everything visual is typed in (and/or photos inserted manually) by the website developer. Once completed any additions or edits then have to be re-typed (etc) by either the developer or the owner. The website comes with an Editor so you can make changes easily, but you might have multiple pages where the same information needs to remain consistent throughout all the pages (prices for example) in which case the CMS model (see below) would be more practicable. Where layout and style changes are needed the website owner might have to ask their developer to make those changes (users doing this job themselves can often get themselves into trouble by disturbing the layout!). This is usually chargeable, either by a monthly fee or hourly charge.
The second way employs the CMS: Explained simply, the website is built in a manner that takes its text (and often images too) data from a user-friendly interface, i.e. the Content Management System (CMS). So as an example, the restaurant that wants to update its menu simple opens the CMS, types it's updates/edits into user-friendly "boxes". Once saved, this new data replaces that which was previously displayed on the website (that same data may actually be displayed on multiple pages so editing it once in the CMS ensures continuity throughout). That menu can not only be updated, it can also be increased as we will configure the relevant website page to automatically generate new items as a list grows. This might be a restaurant menu but it might just as easily be a product catalogue, an estate agent's sales portfolio, an events list, blogging page, almost anything you want to show to your website viewers. Have a look at the examples below:
A product menu collection built using Webflow: The text lines on the left in the above pane are dynamic text links, automatically populated via the Content Management System (CMS), as is the accompanying photo.
This is the Webflow Content Management System (CMS) where the website owner (you) can very easily and quickly update/add items to any dynamic element within the website: Menus, products, itineraries, events, contact details, staff details etc. etc.
This is a product collection built using the Shopify platform. Data is fed in a similar manner to that of Webflow (above), though layout choice is more limited.
This is the Shopify Content Management System (CMS) where the website owner (you) can very easily and quickly update/add items to dynamic elements within the website, but unlike the Webflow platform is limited to Product Pages and Blogging pages.
We can, if required, provide an eCommerce website built as a combination of Webflow & Shopify together, so you get the best of both worlds. This will however lead to increased cost as a monthly fee will have to be paid to both hosting companies.
There are a number of different eCommerce and general website development platforms available: Squarespace, Wix, Wordpress among them, but after much exhaustive research and trial & error we've concluded that for functionality and value for money nothing beats Shopify and Webflow.
When a client asks us to provide a dedicated, reliable & secure eCommerce website we choose to build it with Shopify for a number of good reasons: Shopify is a fully functional eCommerce platform that has to be configured to suit the client's needs. It provides everything a business needs in terms of inventory management, customer information, marketing tools (so as well as having your own online selling platform your products and/or services link to Google Shopping Channel, Instagram & Facebook), together with secure checkout and business analytical tools.
Many of these services are not unique to Shopify but the Shopify platform at its basic level offers unlimited product inventory size. This can be of great benefit to many business that have a large product database. Neither does Shopify charge commission on sales, only a small card processing fee (as per industry standards) of around 2%. There are also a host of third party apps available that are built specifically to integrate with Shopify to provide extra functionality. All in all the Shopify platform provides a robust & reliable service at an economical price.
Once your project is handed over to you you'll need to open a subscription plan with Shopify to take a look at their subscription plans to see which best suits your business here (opens in new tab).
While the Shopify platform is a truly excellent eCommerce solution it does not allow for sophisticated design outside of its templated layout system (unless expensive and time-consuming coding is employed). The Webflow platform does. And because of its unique interface allows for almost unlimited design without the need for expensive coding (the website you're looking at now was written without the need to write a single line of code!) So sophisticated designs that traditionally cost thousands of £s can now be provided for hundreds and in a fraction of the time compared with hand coding! However, although we can provide eCommerce solutions through the Webflow platform there are limitations on inventory size, larger sizes being charged at a higher monthly rate. Neither does the Webflow platform provide the sophisticated level of business management (though this is something Webflow will be further developing in the near future) that Shopify does. So we tend to recommend Shopify for eCommerce, and Webflow for portfolio/showcase, blogging and other non-eCommerce websites Between the two platforms we have just about everything covered and of course can quote for other specialised requirements too.
Once your project is handed over to you you'll need to open a subscription plan with Webflow to take a look at their subscription plans to see which best suits your business here (opens in new tab).
We've put together a comprehensive guide to help you through the process of deciding what you want for your website, which you can view here (opens in new tab)
Our contact form is there to let us know your general requirements. We'll then give you a call (or contact you via email if you prefer) to discuss things in more detail. We'll then send you a detailed form where you'll enter your specific requirements together with information (like your business details) that we'll need in order to build your project. What is important here is that both parties are clear on what is required and agreed upon before work starts. Once completed we'll send you a firm price quotation (which will usually fall within our pricing schedule listed above unless you require additional work). Once accepted we'll ask for a securing deposit and commence work, the balance to be paid upon satisfactory completion.
Before your project is handed over to you you'll be able to view it for approval. This is the review stage and our quote includes for three reviews. That is to say you may ask us to make changes up to three times. These changes however must be only minor (like changes to colour and font styles, and layout order, e.g. you may wish for a text section to be placed above rather than below a photo). Oher changes that fall outside of our original Agreement may be subject to additional cost. The project must then be "tested" by the client to ensure that everything works in accordance with our brief and any issues, if any, rectified by us.
Once a project has been fully handed over we are still here to help with any user issues within reason, i.e. if you're struggling with a minor user issue then we are happy to help if it's something that can be quickly sorted via phone or email. We are human here, and fully understand that people need help from time to time. If, of course, your issue relates to something we ourselves have been in error over then full support will be given to rectify. For both the aforementioned reasons it's a good idea to retain us a "managers" of your website. You will still have full control but it will mean that we'll be able to look at your site and make any changes needed.
Yes. You could. But like all skills it takes time to learn. So a project that might take you a month to produce can be done by us within a few days. How would your core business manage without your attention in that month? Our rates are very reasonable and we'll be here after the project has been handed over to you if help is needed.
Please see our homepage for our package prices.
Projects that fall outside of those listed there will be quoted separately, based on an hourly rate of £25.00 + VAT.
Hosting costs.
All our websites need to be hosted by a service provider. That will usually be Shopify or Webflow. Typically that will amount to around £20 per month plus VAT, depending on what level of provision you require. Their hosting fee prices can be viewed here (links open in new tab):
Shopify pricing
Webflow pricing
Hosting platforms often have introductory offers and/trial periods so their pricing schedules vary from time to time. It is also often more economical to pay for a yearly subscription rather than a monthly one.
Domain name.
A domain name is a website that has a .com, .co.uk, .org etc. etc. suffix., and will need to be purchased from a domain name provider (see below). The whole name must be unique, so you might find two websites, one as mywebsite.com and another as mysebsite.co.uk that could be two entirely different business, but you won't find two that are exactly the same. Often large organisations will buy any or all their domain name suffixes available simply to stop competitors using them!
Domain names are registered to you the user and need to be renewed yearly (this will usually happen automatically so you don't need to worry about suddenly losing your domain name) and prices vary depending very upon what you wish that name to be. But typically an annual charge is around £12 per year (often with much lower prices for the first year).
Domain names can be purchased through as number of online sources, such as (links open in new tab):
GoDaddy
Google
Your website can however be built without the need for you to sign up to either domain or hosting, but you'll need to do so before it's handed over to you, and we'll be on hand to guide you through that process. It's not complicated and will only take 10 minutes or so to set up.
Copywriting costs.
Copywriting is the process of crafting text for your website. This is not just typing! Rather it is the process of putting thoughtful text together that is appropriate for your business. For instance you might want to show your website viewers the story of how you started in business, something about you and your colleagues, and also your products or services. This can be very time consuming work, and therefore relatively expensive if you wish for us to do that for you. Remember we are having to write well-constructed sentences with correct grammar and spelling, so diligence is key! So you may wish to do this yourself. You may already posses textual descriptions pertaining to your business or product. If so then all you'll need to do is email that to us and we'll insert it where it needs to go. The same applies with things like your Terms & Conditions, Return Policy, Privacy Policy etc. These can, incidentally, be found online, copied, and tailored to your own needs.
Finally.
Like so many things there is more to it than meets the eye. That's what we're here for - to take care of those details, which is why we take care of a number of things not mentioned here. But should you need to know anything else about the process then do contact us.
