Web Design for Business

Website Design for Business Internet Web Page Design for Business

Designing a Web page is much easier today than ever before, thanks to tools developed by Microsoft, Netscape and others. These tools allow the designer to spend more time on the functionality and appearance of the site instead of laboriously cranking out HTML code. Individuals are even creating their own home pages and offer their Web services to others. But the construction of a personal home page does not require the careful consideration that is due the design of a business site which is the "face" of the company to the Internet world!

The new Website tools are not a substitute for a background in system design and an understanding of business requirements. Such skills are crucial for assuring the proper construction of a Website. When you need a Website for your business, make sure you select a designer who has sufficient technical and business experience to understand and implement the four criteria that impact site design: functionality, performance, appearance and maintainability.

Functionality:

A Website should communicate to the visitors efficiently, allowing them to quickly locate the information that brought them to your site in the first place. This means that consideration should be given to human factors in planning site navigation as well as the different brands and versions of browser software that visitors are likely to be using. Did you know that a thoughtless designer can easily place into your Website particular features that make your site completely unusable to a majority of visitors? Thoughtful and informed use of features, both simple and advanced, along with a logical flow, will make for an efficient site that your visitors will appreciate.

Performance

No one likes to visit a web site that takes forever to download. But a bland site is not going to be very attractive to viewers, either. An understanding of image optimization and proper site design is a prerequisite to construction of a swift site that looks good, too! SwiftStream has the tools and know-how to deliver an attractive site with good performance (or fix one with poor performance).

Appearance

Most web users today have color screens, right? Yes, but they vary in size from 640x480 pixels to beyond 1280x1024 pixels! And, images that look great on one color display could look terrible on another one due to varying color depths that each viewer's machine is capable of. Consideration should be given to how the site will look on a spectrum of machines, not just the newest, fastest models. This means images and layout should be optimized for your particular audience and message.

Maintainability

Business Websites should be refreshed on a regular basis: once a month, at least. The Website should be designed so that updates can be accomplished efficiently with your own staff allowing you to routinely keep your site fresh without the need of an outside resource. In addition, the site should be easily updatable as your business grows and changes.

SwiftStream will design your Website to meet these criteria and can also help you obtain the Internet Domain Name (your "street address" on the Internet). The Domain Name should ideally be the same as the company name to make it easy to remember, and to allow potential visitors to guess at your site location by just typing "www.companyname.com" into their browser to find your site. In addition to assisting you in obtaining your Domain Name, SwiftStream can advise you how to protect the intellectual property embodied in your trade and product names. Contact us for more information!

Case Studies:

St. John the Forerunner (www.theforerunner.org) needed a replacement for its original 1997 website. In 2004, SwiftStream redesigned the site to make it a resource both for visitors and for members. The site was optimized for 800X600 true color viewing, and contains both public and secure areas.

The Quigley Team, of Realty World, needed a site to serve their customers in showcasing sale and rental listings. SwiftStream produced a site which allows them to quickly update property listings as required, as well as giving site visitors the opportunity to search for properties in the Multiple Listing Service database.

Boundless Technologies (www.boundless.com) Quark-based product data sheets such as the Viewpoint Family of Windows-based terminals and PageMaker corporate documents such as the seven-page Corporate Capabilities document needed to be updated and made web-viewable in HTML as well as Adobe Acrobat PDF. SwiftStream performed this work, as well as producing an interim front page for their site while Boundless management deliberated how to use the Website in the future for marketing Boundless products.

Specialty Site Services, Inc contracted with SwiftStream to register their domain name and build a website which gave them exposure to those needing underground construction capabilities for trenching, rock sawing and containment of oak wilt. Photographs supplied by SSSI were edited and enhanced with Adobe Photoshop and optimized to reduce file size and improve download times. All text content was created by SSSI and adapted to the web by SwiftStream.

About SwiftStream's site:

This site was designed using FrontPage 98, but not using the automatic theme feature. We believe each site should be unique, just as a house in which people live takes on, over time, an expression of the ones who live there. The main page uses three frames: one for the logo banner at the top, one for the contents and other info on the left, and one main frame for the presentation of data that changes on demand from the contents window. Images were used sparingly to keep the site swift yet inject enough color and interest to keep the information from being too boring! See also the personal note on the company information page

Revised: August 28, 2004.