Tag Archives: design

Why Wales

Lots of our clients ask us. “Why Wales?”

Why did we chose to come to base our web design company in Wales. A long way from the big cities and the big money.

The short answer is because of the quality of life, the surroundings, nature, beaches, rivers and forests; and of course the people. It’s from where we draw a lot of our inspiration.

Why Wales – here’s one reason… photo of the river at Newcastle Emlyn on a late summer afternoon.

West Wales is famously beautiful.

There is lots of space in Wales as it is mostly rural and has low population levels. Only about 2.8 million people in Wales altogether and its the same size as Israel (co-incidentally).

Pembrokeshire is known by some folk as ‘Little England’. It has some of the best coastline in the world and the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path is listed number three in the best walks in the world by the ramblers.

Ceredigion is the remote ancient kingdom of King Ceredig and overlooks almost all of Cardigan Bay to the west.

Carmarthenshire is often called the ‘heart-of-Wales’ and is still one of the most Welsh of all counties.

The lovely people in Wales.

Country life goes on at a different pace to city life. There is more time because there are fewer people. So there’s never a rush and almost never a queue. Of course you can find yourself stuck behind a tractor or lorry but the roads are excellent and most drivers pull in to let cars past.

People in Wales are mostly friendly and generally good natured. We find they usually have time for a chat and laugh. Of course there’s the odd exception but you get that wherever you are.

The Welsh language.

Our experience of the Welsh language is that most people are happily bi-lingual or mainly English speaking. There are one or two who prefer to only speak the ancient Welsh language of ‘Cymraeg’ exclusively.

Everyone we’ve worked with has awareness of the two languages and it is never an issue. If required translation services are available at reasonable costs. There is no known automated translator for the Welsh language so we hire real translators as needed.

‘Why Wales’ find out more.

Find out more about why we choose to base our web design company in west Wales.

Thinking about design

Good design can be vital to making your website work to its best potential.

Design is an important but subtle element.

People (like you and me) like easy-to-use websites. We like it to be so clear and easy that we actually enjoy the process.

Jones the carpenters is a classic design

So ‘don’t make me think’

A few years ago I came across a book on website design called “Don’t make me think!” by Steve Krug of Advanced Common Sense.

Steve’s point is that people don’t like to be made to think when they come to a website.

Just like if we go to a new town we look for reliable things like street names and if they are not there we can get disoriented quickly.

It’s not that we are un-intelligent; its that the Internet and computers, smart phones, tablets and all are actually not so easy to use.

Technology is even more challenging when the circumstances are pressured; low or broken connectivity for example disrupting you while you’re trying to book train tickets.

Simplicity rules

Another classic simple design is on the Custom House Cardigan site

Internet users like websites to be easy to use and understand. So it makes perfect sense to keep things as simple as possible.

Of course, you don’t want to over-simplify and lose the main purpose of your site’s offering. But concepts, ideas etc. need to broken into bite-size-chunks to make them easier to understand.

Think of any major website and how easy it is to use. These guys are spending millions of pounds on research and development to create their sites and keep improving. We can learn from them.

Take a look at your favourite websites with a view to their design and notice the elements and how they are working together.

Websites can be excellent examples of synergy – where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

As you can see from our own website we tend to prefer things clean and clear. How about you?

Planning your website

Start-out in the right way on the Internet and you’ll achieve success much faster.

Here’s a simple tried and tested step-by-step guide to help you plan your website.

The Basics

Every website is a combination of:

content
design
technology
and (much more subtle) credibility

Balance and synergy of these four elements gives your site a head start on the competition.

Know your Audience

Right from the start think about your visitors, your people, your tribe.

Who are they? Ages? Genders? How are you going to offer them something they want?

Have a Clear Theme

Your website needs to flow from your mission. At least it should have a clear theme or subject.

Be Credible

Most websites (yours included) require certain pages in order to be credible. These pages include:

home – a welcome message, introduction, links to products and services, call to action
about – aims and mission, history, who’s-who, principles and values statements
contact – all the ways your customers can contact you; telephone, email, postal mail
terms of use – includes the copyright statements and disclaimers notices
privacy policy – a statement about your commitment to keeping personal information confidential.

Of course, the above list does not apply to a one-page CV or PR site.

Your products, services, messages, articles, insights, testimonials, picture galleries, video sections, feedback forms, shopping carts etc. will also need pages too.

Talk to Search Engines

Keep on-topic and make your pages relevant to your main subject. Use deep-links to connect articles and pages together.

Search engines like it if you also have a sitemap and special ‘robots.txt’ file.

Think Community

Over recent years ‘Community‘ has become an increasingly important and relevant factor to consider. Particularly this aspect is covered by having a Facebook and Twitter presence.

Keep it Simple!

Remember to follow the 10 principles of online success. The primary one being, ‘keep it simple‘.

Make a Plan

Plan your content, your messages and how you want your visitors, followers, clients, customers, fans and friends to interact with you.

Keep it Fresh

Keep adding and expanding your offering. Don’t let it become stale.

Think Long-term

Maintain a long-term vision for your website. Allow it to grow for at least five to ten years. Longevity is a powerful influence on credibility.

Keep Focused

Remain confident and determined. Just keep building your website and it will grow and develop it’s own character.

Share the Story

Tell others about your website, your services, your blog, your offers. That way they will know to keep checking the site for new content.

Review Regularly

Regularly review your visitor statistics and the pages they are looking at and using. What number of contacts come via the site? Try to create content to increase the traffic, click-throughs, contacts, sales, newsletter sign-ups, etc.

The above is a quick guide to help you in thinking through your site.

Contact Tusler Design to get your website designed and online working for you.