Web Site Design is the process of creating web pages of a given theme or style in order to convey a message to the visiting reader. Web design has come a long way over the last 20 years, from the early days of using microsoft page writing software such as Frontpage, through to state of the art graphics design packages and web site creation and maintenance tools such as offerings from Adobe, Wordpress and its components and many more.
Our preference for almost all of the web designs we create for Manchester or Stockport based companies is to use raw PHP programming along with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and SQL if a database is required.
We prefer this because we are in a strong position moving forward, as we (and therefore our customers) do not rely on sketchy third party products and support.
Wordpress, for our company, is another no. We have very little faith in many plug ins and other add ons. Some of these are written by amateur programmers rather than experts or award winning web designers
and we feel it is not in the best interests for ongoing support and development to provide wordpress designs as a primary web solution for a content management system (CMS). It should be noted however,
that in the event a customer would actually like a blogging facility, we do install a copy of the wordpress blog software for free - alongside your main custom website - but
we will not provide support for it.
A huge part of the web design process is the creation of graphics for elements of the pages across the website. These form the site navigation (menu) and call to action facilities - such as email us or click here to buy now.
Additional graphics are photographs (especially for photographers) for creativity and larger area fill designs. These can be found on photo studio websites or design studios in general. They can be obtained either on a shared license basis or exclusive to give
your web design a unique look and feel to enhance the user experience.
With so many companies to choose from it can be difficult deciding where to go to get your web design work started. For small bespoke website ideas, such as five or ten pages
which contain information about your services and companies location, along with online reviews, you might be better off sourcing your design from a small but full time
freelancer. This can sometimes be more cost effective than using a large studio based web design agency.
For bespoke e-commerce projects or custom designs - depending on a number of factors a multi-skilled web agency might be more appropriate - but not always. Design and development of
a website can sometimes be done faster by a more flexible company or individual who is not bound by the limitations of many other ongoing programming projects.
Custom or Bespoke software solutions need designing by a company with a web design team willing to sit and perform business analysis - the scale of the project development and ongoing marketing
should play a role in determining who you hire to complete the coding and implementation.
Search Engine Optimisation
In an ideal world, your web design services company will also provide digital marketing services with a marketing strategy. These should at the very least include Search Engine Optimisation or SEO.
We have a separate section on our website which has a guide to SEO services in a lot of detail. Overall though, the developer should be able to incorporate the underlying code framework
to support any future work on the search engines. Some web designers do not always tie design and seo together.
Designing for Social Media
Once your website development is in place, then you will need the web designers to create social media pages with the branding to match their domain designing looks, especially for e-commerce. This is
to ensure that the brand is shown across multiple platforms meaning clients know who they are dealing with.
Your business website should be consistent with your social media designs. For example whether you are a Chimney Sweeper or an Electrician or Plumber your style should be the same at each presentation.
Business Information and Branding from a Design Company
A design can be creative and heavily branded but it has to perform a given task identified during the development process. It is not enough to have the very best Adobe graphics or the latest CSS tricks and
flashy icons if the site has not been thought through in terms of what it has to actually achieve. A website can be either a company business information source, for example a Daycare / Childcare site or a functional
part of the business process which could include administration, customer ordering with a shopping cart, contact facilities via phone or online forms.
Always ensure that the final website design will give you want you want, refer back to original concepts with the web design company if you need to along the way.
Your Brand
Web designers and providers of complete web design projects should always ask whether your business has a known brand identity such as many hair salons would, or whether you are looking to create one or make changes. It is important that the
final web design incorporates your brands identity prominently throughout the site. It may be that your company already has artwork and branding on marketing material
including the side of vans or posters and business cards.
Logo Design
We can provide logo design for your company which can be derived from existing graphics and artwork in PDF, JPG or Paintshop pro format along with SVG (scaleable vector graphics).
Alternatively, new logo designs can be produced for your digital strategy and a selection of variations can be presented from which one can be chosen.
All designs can be ported to printers and other logo branded merchandise providers for replication.
With everything from website design (and responsive web design) through to web hosting, email, search engines, cutting edge content marketing and social media marketing, graphic design and logos under one roof, you can't go wrong with Photon Flux Web Design. So for an informal chat about what you need, get in touch via a phone call or contact us using the form below