Appreciations:
Views:
I researched her competition and came up with an aesthetic that would stand out among her competition and feel like a up-standing company to do business with.
Live Site: Your Light Shine
I was approached by my Mom shortly after re-designing the the static version of my site and was told she was interested in starting a business. She told me it would be an online site where people could go to receive advice and coaching for different things. In addition to the website, she was applying for a business license and was going to use her home as her brick-and-mortar. I was thrilled for the opportunity to help make a small dent in all the kindnesses my mother has done for me by doing this project for her.
She wanted her site to be approachable and friendly. So she chose a light-hearted script font for her heading text. Next she wanted the ability to do transactions through her site. As we discussed this, based on her needs, we decided to use a PayPal account instead of the extra expense of an SSL certificate and additional responsibility to secure and maintain user accounts. I researched her competition and came up with an aesthetic that would stand out among her competition and feel like a up-standing company to do business with. She also wanted Forum integration which is easy enough to do with bbPress.
I designed the site in mock-ups first, and once I got approval I started building the static templates. While I did that I recommended a hosting provider that she went and purchased hosting with, as well as registering the domain for Your Light Shine. Once I had FTPS access, I moved it to WordPress, integrated the loops and styled the site. I recommended a very talented copywriter that went over my mom’s content and scrubbed, cleaned and re-structured it to get ready for production. She also gave advice on future posts. Then the site went live and had an impressive 411 unique visitors to it within it’s first 30 days.
Then the site went live and had an impressive 411 unique visitors to it within it's first 30 days.
One of the biggest strategies I came up with early on was the idea of testimonials. I came across a statistic somewhere that around 78% of Americans from the ages of 18-65 rely on online reviews to make purchasing decisions. Since this was my client’s target market, I really wanted to incorporate a review system. You’ll see the final product styled off to the side, the “What people are saying” image.
Another important thing was to focus on the blogging portion of the site. This will be the “money maker” so-to-speak, because visitors will gain trust by reading these posts. So I styled the latest post in an attractive way to make it stand out as a feature.
In the end, the best reward for a designer is a happy client and a successful website, and I feel like I have achieved that here.
