Website Design
The look and feel of the site are by far the most important. This all comes back to first impression.
A good graphic designer is not necessarily a good website designer. To design for the internet an artist must have an informed understanding of minimum use of graphic elements, and how to optimize the graphics for fast loading web pages. This is an important part of search engine optimization.
A website is not a ticket to success, but is a must have for most businesses today.
Below are a few examples of my work.
I approached the town of Smoky Lake a few years ago offering to upgrade their website to modern standards with a promise to focus on marketing. The site is designed to outline the advantages of the community. I incorporated a Facebook window to further enhance the deliverables of the website. The site includes a video tour of the town as well as a focus on the great services the town can offer to a new business or resident. The site enjoys extremely high hit counts for a town website sometimes reaching almost 600 hits a day.
Kalyna Country Ecomuseum is a “heritage” and eco-tourism district that invites exploration by visitors from near and far and helps preserve the unique historical, cultural, and natural features of the landscape. Kalyna Country is a “living” outdoor museum encompassing 20,000 sq kms in rural East Central Alberta. Instead of going to one building or site to see exhibits and artifacts, visitors are instead encouraged to travel around the area to learn about the past, the living cultures of the communities, the landscape and the natural recreation areas.
The Village of Holden’s website where you can learn more about the community they are proud of!
Holden businesses offer a wide variety of goods and services. Be sure to check out the community directory.
The village offers an amazing number of recreational and cultural opportunities for a small village.
The Smoky Lake and District Cultural Society volunteers welcome you to the Smoky Lake Museum. Located in the historic Victoria School building which dates back to one of the first schools in the area.
A walk through the building will take you back in time to when homes were lit with cool oil lamps and bread was baked in an outdoor wood fired oven. You will also see locally crafted wood carvings as well as several taxidermy displays of regional birds and animals.
Come for dinner and stay the night! We are committed to satisfying our customers with great food and excellent service. We offer a wide variety of delicious dishes for Lunch and Dinner. With our affordable rates and beautiful rooms, you will love to spend the night!
Welcome to BirthdayTown™!
Is your birthday coming up soon. Or do you have a friend or family member who might enjoy a day of fun in Smoky Lake.
Plan an excursion to Smoky Lake on your birthday and be rewarded with lots of free activities and birthday presents all over town…all day!!!.
Book surprise parties in advance for that special someone!!
This is an example of a website I built on spec.
The News Advertiser is a newspaper based in Vegreville with a circulation that includes many surrounding communities. Their old website was quite dated and did not offer online advertising options. They liked what I submitted to them and took delivery. They have since further enhance the website and made changes to suit their unique needs.
A modern website is a delicate balance of colours design and structure. The designer must remember the first priority is to get the needed information to the customer as quickly and efficiently as possible. Too often I see websites concentrating on fancy animations with objects flipping and slide which often make it difficult for the Viewer to get the information they have come for. A professional web developer must remember people are coming to the website to get information and not to be entertained. Well designed website will get a client to the information they are seeking with one click.
Most modern websites are designed as content management systems. This means anyone with basic word processor skills and the needed login should be able to keep a modern website current without the need for a professional web developer.