Website design by blueweasel net - making the internet work for you.

It's a strange fact, but not everyone that can make you a website will design it!

Many websites are built with very little planning and regard to your needs.
Often websites are created from templates or pre-built packages with no consideration of layout suitability, ongoing development limitations and maintenance problems.
We know this at blueweasel net because we have spent many hours redesigning, rebuilding and rescuing these websites.

  • The brief

Design is much more than the creation of your website. It involves carefully analysing your requirements and those of your customers.

A pad and pencil - all it takes to get your ideas in order.

Only once your goals and message are fully understood can the means to achieve this be created.

Important questions to ask yourself :

  • - Why do you want a website?
  • - Who is your target audience / market?
  • - What are you trying to say?
  • - Do you have any specific requests that must be incorporated?
  • The design

Each page of your website design should tie in cohesively with the rest of the website and any other 'real world' marketing material.*Website design - composition and components.
This reinforces your corporate identity with your customers and makes the browsing experience more productive.

* Occasionally some marketing projects forcefully break these rules.

We understand that some clients have a very precise brief, detailing an existing corporate message and image, whereas others are unsure in which direction to proceed.
We are happy to work with all of these clients, leading the less experienced along the design process and working to exact specification with those that require it.

The sort of things you need to consider :

  • - Are you looking for a brand new design or a website that matches your existing image?
  • - Are there specific colours or images which must be included in the design?
  • - Look at competitors' sites and general sites on the internet. What do you like or dislike about them?
  • - Must a certain typeface be used? - Is this suitable for viewing on screen?
  • - Is it likely that customers will want to print out webpages?
  • Production

Our programming is never haphazard. We transform your brief into a new website through a standardized development process that takes into account the following five design requirements. The heirarchy of website design requirements.

The Production Pyramid :

  • - Functionality: Your website design must work well.
  • - Reliability: Your website design must always work.
  • - Usability: Your website design must be easy to use.
  • - Proficiency: If you are going to do something, do it well!
  • - Creativity: Stand out from the competition. It's nice to be different!

We will create your new website using a variety of programming languages, depending upon requirements.
Our favoured languages and methods are XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Javascript, DHTML & AJAX with occasional Flash, but we are also well equipped to use ASP, Coldfusion, Oracle and SQL Server where it is necessary to integrate with an existing infrastructure.

  • Testing and evaluation

With the help of a clearly defined brief we evaluate your new website against all of your requirements.Test browsers used when testing your new website design. Amongst others; Internet explorer, firefox, opera, safari, lynx and wev-tv.

Some aspects of our testing :

  • - We test all pages of your new website design on all the major web browsers.
  • - Testing on non-standard browsers where required.
  • - We test for compliance with published web programming standards.
  • - We test to ensure usability for all levels of user where possible.
  • - A secure area for you to view & approve the work we have done prior to publication.
  • - We run "hacker tests" to ensure your site's security.
  • Publishing & Marketing

We can organise all aspects of making your new website design visible to either a selected audience or the general public.
We can advise on the selection of suitable domain names, hosting packages and email packages, and may be able to offer you a suitable package ourselves.
We can provide marketing assistance that will help your website to become more visible to your target audience when they are searching on the internet.
If you have special requirements such as accompanying printed media or sample CD rom distribution then please contact us to discuss your needs.

  • Updating & Support

If you are hosted with us then all server software will be kept up to date automatically at no expense to yourself. Basic support (ensuring that your site is always running) will also be included at no extra charge.

As we want you to be happy with your website, small adjustments to your website will be made at no charge during the first two months after publication. This is at our discretion and a quote may be provided for larger jobs or significant changes.
If you require ongoing updates to your system or ongoing development an annual contract may be available to you at a reduced rate.