This page is a showcase for some of the web sites I have designed. some are small with only a handfull of pages, some larger, with fully content managed sites and online shopping areas. All however were designed to meet the requirements of the client as closely as their budget would allow. With specific reference to placing of content, ease of navigation and general look and feel of the site
It is definitely true that content is King within web design, you will return to an awful looking site if the content is exactly what you want but if the site was the most aestheticly pleasing on the web but the content was diabolical, you would walk straight on by. That's not to say of course that we should not strive to get a beautiful looking site with great content but sometimes the content itself does not lend itself to highly visual designs.
My aim is to listen to the client, interpret what they want and deliver a site that meets their requirements in full, not a visual tool for my portfolio. Some of the following sites are included not because they are visually stunning but because they gave the client exactly what they wanted.
| Polkadot Productions |  |
Polkadot Productions are a local performance art company, they produce pantomimes and other theatrical productions, run the Limelight Youth Theatre and have many community projects, such as involvement in the Spalding Flower Parade. Their brief was to produce a site that would be instantly recognisable as the website of a dynamic theatre company. The site has many colourful images of past and present productions, giving a visual feel of what Polkadot are all about. Personally I'm not so sure about the stars but sometime you just have to go with what the client wants! |
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| Deeping St James Primary School |  |
This was a re-design of a site I had produced 3 years ago. A new head teacher wanted to put his stamp on it. The site is fully content managed by the school. They can make new pages and edit existing ones, add images and documents to any page and place them wherever they need them. The site now encorporates an SQL database driving all the content within the site. THe data is drawn in to the site using ASP, as with all my CMS websites (in fact just all my websites!) scripting is done using HTML, ASP, VBScript, Javascript and AJAX, wherever necessary. I also go in to Deeping St James Primary School and take a class of year 6 (10-11 years old) children for simple web development! |
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| East Midlands CPD |  |
East Midlands CPD wanted a clean, clear and accessible site that could allow for a degree of content management, in particular the ability to update courses, events, jobs etc. Also a password protected users area was required. This was all carried out with the use of an SQL database and ASP pages. The pages are viewable in various font sizes and can be switched to black on yellow, or black on white if required. |
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| Chambers Hair Design |  |
Chambers Hair Design is a local hair salon that required a stylish web presence but only really as an advertisment for the business and to give simple information about location, opening times etc. The site produced only has a few pages but each one is heavily framed around a single image, evoking the styling of the salon itself. |
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| Spalding Horticultural Training Group |  |
SHTG wanted a fully content managed site that allowed for complete control over the content of each page, whilst also having tables for lists of courses and events that would dynamically appear on the relevant pages. The site encorporates an SQL database driving all the content within the site and the course and events tables. The data is drawn in to the site using ASP and vbscript, the user back end allows the administrators to add new courses and events and to upload documents that are linked to particular courses besides being able to upload images and documents for inclusion in any page. |
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| South Holland Migrant Workers |  |
The South Holland District Council asked for a fully functioning content managed website that could be viewed in different languages, font sizes and colours. The site includes information for both migrant workers and their employers The site is fully content managed and the administrators can choose what menu options appear with what page, a full wysiwyg editor allows full control of the content. There is also the ability to add documents and links, specific to each page and to add new discussions and news items. It was decided early on that because of the legislative nature of the site that any foreign language pages would need to be kept within the content managed database and not left to the vagueries of a web based translation program. This means that a user can state what language they want to read the page in and if there is a translated copy of the page it will appear, if not however they will see the English version I have found that human translation is the best and safest way to translate, especially when complicated legislation is involved! |
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| St Norberts Catholic Primary School |  |
St Norberts, a local primary school wanted an easily editable cms system that would allow them to edit every page on the site, whilst also allowing for a news item on every page. The ability to upload documents and images was also needed. All content managed systems I produce are tailor made to the specific client, using modules that can be added and taken away to find the perfect solution for the individual client. |
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| Hemingways Hotel, Kenya |  |
The first thing to say here is no! I did not get to go to Kenya to research this site :~{ more's the pity. but the site relies heavily on the spectacular imagery of the Kenyan plains and the wild animals that live there There are no special requirements but the site needed to be visually appealing and the imagery needed to transport the viewer to Africa. Subsequently a discussion board was added to allow visitors to keep in touch with the hotel and each other. |
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