Website Design
| Your website is as much a part of your corporate image as your logo, business cards, letterhead or even your reception and uniforms; your website needs to reflect a professional image that gives credibility. The key to a good website is to present information in a simple, easy to understand format with a consistent design that includes your corporate imagery, colours and branding. The aim of your site will be to inform and provide information to viewers, 24 hours a day.
As part of the development of your website our in-house Graphic Designers will work with you to create a Design that meets your aesthetic requirements. We have extensive experience in the design and implementation of websites, and we will use these skills to create for you a Design that is modern, visually appealing and contains a good balance between information and interaction. We will also believe that your Design should be intuitive and favour fast download times. Your Design will include the "look and feel" of your website, its colour scheme (including background colour), fonts, font-sizes, styles, the positioning and formatting of your navigation, header and footer, your logo, etc. During the preparation of your Design you will be able to provide feedback on these aspects and make changes as required up until you sign-off on your final Design Authorisation. Your Design includes the preparation of concepts, all project management and liaison with your organisation (or any other third parties you may nominate), access to our specialised graphic designers and then the presentation of a Final Design for your approval. More Information |
Example: ANZAN Professionals
Compare the following Designs to the finished result:
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Website Structure
We use the word "Structure" to refer to how the sequences of pages that will make up your website will be arranged. When you draw this sequence you will generally get a tree-like diagram starting from your "Home Page" and introducing branches each time a Page breaks down into sub-pages. While individual pages may have links to other pages on your website or even to other pages on the Internet, there is still a natural flow to the arrangement of your pages forming logical sections and sub-sections. The following diagram illustrates a fragment of a website next to a basic Structure sketch:
When you authorise your final Design you may be committing yourself to limitations such as the number of main sections that will fit onto your navigation menu or introduce constraints regarding how your pages can physically fit together. It is critical that you understand these implications before signing off on your Design Authorisation.
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Your Home Page: Your Home Page this is the first page that visitors to your website are presented when they access your website and usually has some introductory text and images are designed to immediately capture viewer interest. Your Home Page is the focal point of your website, and we recommend highlighting aspects of your products and/or services using "lead-in" stories or links which are intended to invite the viewer to read more detailed content elsewhere on the site. Standard Pages we normally include
The main sections of your Website are generally the first layer of options you provide to visitors from your home page. Refer to your Proposal for specifics but generally bos web systems will enter Content into your main sections as part of the deployment of your solution if you supply this to us. Sub-Sections and Downward More Information: |
Content & Imagery
One of the most important elements that goes into building your website is its content and imagery. Any logos, test, photographs, documents, links or any other form of "content" that you want to display on your site at some point needs to be entered into it either by us, or by you via our Content Management System.
If you have not already commenced preparing content for your site, it is probably a good idea to start doing so now as this can often take some time. If your solution includes our Content Management System you will be able to enter most of your content directly into your website once we have Deployed it for you; we will supply you with access details and organise a time to provide training once we are ready for you to do this.
During the initial phases of the project though content and imagery plays an important role. We generally ask you supply us with your logo and any other relevant photographs, URLs for other websites, etc. that we can use to get a feel for your corporate image ideas for the direction you wish to take your website. Our ability to understand your needs, likes and preferences, and then to deliver a Design that meets these can only be as good as the information you provide to us. The content that you provide to us during this phase can be both conceptual, providing us with ideas and guidelines, or actual content you want to place into your website once it goes live.
Should you wish us to take photographs or prepare or enter content into the website on your behalf, we are more than happy to do so at any point - our standard hourly rate will apply. If you have requested assistance with content development and/or imagery as part of this proposal (including where you have opted not to use our Content Management System) we will include an estimate of the time we believe it will take to prepare this for you. Please note that this is an estimate only and our hourly rate will apply for additional work beyond that quoted in your Proposal.
Images and photographs that are supplied by bos web systems can come from a number of sources including our internal stock libraries and from royalty-free resources on the Internet. We can also source a much wider range of images from online stock libraries on a case by case basis should you have specific requirements that we cannot cater directly. In this situation there may be additional fees to purchase these images, usually on a "per image" basis, and bos web systems will wait for your approval before purchasing these on your behalf.
More Information
Process Overview: Design
Copyright & Legal Issues
Stock Library: iStockPhoto (External Link)
Forms
Forms are specialised pages that are contained within your website that allow visitors to submit information which can then be handled in a number of ways. For example, if your website includes our EMailBlast product we will insert a form, usually onto the Home Page, that will allow a visitor to submit their E-Mail address to "opt in" to your mailing list. This is an automated process that is handled for you by our system. Another simple example is a "Contact Us" Form to allow you to collect information that will be sent to you via E-Mail to allow you to prepare a quote for them.
Generally we include a single "Contact Us" form standard in our Websites. This will collect basic contact information and some feedback/comments from visitors to your site and be sent to you via E-Mail. If your Proposal also includes our EMailBlast product we will also incorporate a "newsletter subscription" form into your Design.
Any additional Forms that have been discussed with you will be included in your Proposal. Should you wish to add any additional forms to your solution, you should discuss these with us before we commence work. Any additional Forms added to your solution once you authorise us to begin work will occur additional fees and may significantly delay your project schedule.
More Information
Non-functional Aspects: Security
Domain Names & Hosting
Domain NamesDomain names are the method by which people locate your website on the Internet similar to how your postal code identifies which City or Suburb you are located in. Typing "www.bosweb.com.au" for example into Internet Explorer will bring up the bos web systems website. Registering a new Domain Name Using your Existing Domain Name Please note that all domain names are provided through a third party Registrar and delegation of a domain does not exempt you from any ongoing fees. These fees will continue to apply once we complete the setup of your website. |
HostingHosting is what makes your website accessible to users on the Internet, and is essentially a large server that is permanently connected to the Internet 24/7. There are two basic options for hosting your website: we can organise and manage this for you as part of your wbeiste or you can provide your own hosting. Hosting Organised by Us Hosting Organised by You Please note that in this situation we do not provide support for hosting-related issues or additional services such as E-Mail, and that your hosting provider will continue to bill you directly for their services if appropriate. You should contact your hosting provider directly if you experience any of issues with their service. Please Note: More Information |
Search Engine Options
Once your Website has been launched, at some point it will become searchable on the Internet from search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc. Most search engines will automatically extract "search terms" from your content, however you also have the ability to provide explicit instructions to these engines in the form of:
- Specific Keywords you provide to us; and
- A short Description that will appear when your website is displayed in search results
- Think like your clients who are trying to find you;
- Select keywords that are naturally frequent in your content;
- Don't select common words like "zoo" - there's no point trying to compete with strongly established sites
- Keywords can also be word phrases like "dubbo zoo" which might be easier to compete with
- Order is important - put your most important keywords first
- Keywords also in your domain name or URL are worth more
- The ranking of other sites that link to your own affect your ranking for the same keywords
Our clients often just want to be "found on the web" and understanding all the variables involved and the techniques to improve your "rankings" can be a confusing and time consuming process. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a third party service that attempts to improve your searchability and raise your ranks through largely automated processes, although its important to realise that even with these services it can take around six months to produce any significant results.
We recommend the services offered by NetRegistry and Google for improving your searchability. Netregistry provides a very good "value for money" search engine optimisation process. You can get more information below. Internationally we recommend Google Adwords.
More Information:
NetRegistry Search Engine Optimisation (External Link)
Google AdWords (External Link)
