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Client Spotlight: Community Services of Stark County

I am so excited to share with you my latest project!  I have recently completed a redesign for Community Services of Stark County.  This organization had a website setup by a firm years ago and they had since outgrown the functionality and design of the site.  By working together we developed a custom design which showcases all of their hard work and efforts!  They are a not-for-profit organization which seeks to meet needs in Stark County.  For all the details please visit their site to see the awesome work these people do in the lives around them.

 

Some of the key features we included in their site are a fixed background and navigation bar.  Creative and prominent use of photos and color.  Homepage slide show which is based on JQuery, not Flash so as to accommodate Apple users and non-flash supporting devices.

 

I enjoyed working with this client because of their mission and role in their community.  They also were not afraid to ask "what if we did this. . ." and pushed my designing and coding skills into new depths.  It's always a joy to complete a project which helps me learn new aspects of design and skills to implement in future projects.  Please check it out!
 
How to Save Time and Money

How can I save time and money when developing or redesigning a website?

I am so glad you asked!  Even though I love what I do and helping my clientele have the best web presence they can, I don’t like wasting my time or your money.  Coming to me unprepared will result in charges to you, your company, or organization that could simply be avoided.  Let me tell you how.

1.   Research other businesses, organizations or individuals that do what you do.  Know what a website for your area of expertise should look like and offer.  Keep a list of the good ones and make mental notes of the bad.  Know what you want to include and what you want to avoid.

2.   Know your style.  Know what you like – sounds like a no-brainer but trust me this is a biggie that gets a lot of people.  Do you like blue?  Do you like red?  Figure out your style by surfing the web and making a list (preferably electronic so you can send me a copy) of what sites you like and make notes about why you like them.  They don’t have to have anything to do with your mission or company. 

3.   Know your audience.  What’s best for them?  Is a calming blue-green site going to sell the rock concert tickets that you want to unload?  Just because you collect piggy figurines doesn’t mean the people in your church want to see them on the website.  There’s a balance here.  Mesh your style into what works best for your audience.  If there’s a clash put others first!

4.   Be organized.  I know, for some of you that may be a call on deaf ears.  But the more organized you are the less questions I have to ask.  It helps immensely when a client comes to me with a structured navigation.  Know the pages you want to include and the functionality you want.  For example, most sites have an “About Us” and “Contact” page.  What other pages do you need? Do you want a blog?  Do you want the contact page to have a form or just your physical location?  Be sure to reference those other websites you researched in step 1 to get an idea of what you want to include. 

There are plenty of other ways to save on time and money but these are the biggies.  If you start with this you’ll be well on your way.  And if you’re working with me, have a document ready with a list of site you like and why you like them as well as the pages and functionality you would like to see on your site.  If you send me that document I can get you a quote very close to the actual cost and begin to work some magic for you and your organization.  Just give me an inch, I’ll take you the mile!
 
Should I Redesign My Website?

A question only you can answer, but let’s take a look at some factors for your decision.

Change for the sake of change is simply foolishness.  If your website is clean, easy to use, somewhat fresh, and has been redone in the past five years, a redesign may not be what you need.  Part of human nature seems to be a resistance to change.  Your audience, probably all human, will feel the same way.  Change is jarring and harsh to many.  It can be costly.  It can eat up valuable time and resources.  If you have an established audience that frequents your website you must change with caution.  Make sure the changes are in their best interest, making things easier to use or find.

Changing because your competitor changed is not a good reason.  If your site works for you and your visitors then the other guy’s site shouldn’t be a factor.  Neither is the fact that you are simply bored with the site.  You look at your website more than any of your visitors, make sure they are bored too before continuing.  Not so much a “purple” person anymore and more of a “red” person - so what?  Are you marketing to yourself? 

Do not change because of one complaint, unless there are only two people visiting your site each month, in which case you have bigger issues.  While it’s true that genuine feedback is hard to come by, changing based on one isolated comment is not good for you or your other visitors.  If however you receive repeated comments about your site or a part of your site take the counsel into consideration.

Having said the above let’s look at the flip-side shall we?  Was your site setup 10 years ago?  Did your nephew do it while he was on break for the summer?  Do you still have a “links” page?  Dancing penguins, animated office furniture, or any cartoony anything? Are you on first name basis with all of your monthly visitors?  Then you may just have a great candidate for a redesign!  If the site doesn’t work for you, doesn’t work for your visitors or is just plain out-dated then you should check out your options.  Design has come a long way in the last 5 years and is shifting still.  If people aren’t visiting your site rethinking it is one of your options (there are certainly other factors here, but let’s stay within topic for now).  There are a lot of great, easy, simple and cheap ways to update your site.

So have you decided you don’t need a redesign right now?  Good, I’ll take the kids to the zoo, thank you and goodnight.  Or maybe you have decided this is exactly what you need.  There are things you can do to start the process before you call me or your friendly neighborhood web designer and you don’t have to know a lick of HTML, PHP or LOL.  See my article How to Save Time and Money in Web Design.