I believe that the content and usability of websites is of the upmost importance. I also believe that both are enhanced by appropriate, aesthetically pleasing graphic design; something I try to keep in mind while designing. It is also important to keep the intended function of the website in mind while designing and building it, this will help keep the structure focussed to the task and prevent unneeded functionality. Also staying in close contact with the client is important to make sure they are happy with their site in each step of the design process.
As a designer, I try to keep all of my sites XHTML and CSS compliant to the W3C Standards, although there are good reasons for some sites not to be valid. However, on the whole I believe it important to keep to the Standards laid out by the W3C in order to help strengthen the web as a presentation technology.
Below are appropriate examples of my work for clients I have done as a freelance web designer. The projects that I have undertaken for my university course can be seen here.
Image Release
Image release was built for Neil Edbrooke, a very talented photographer based in Bristol. This site incorporates a gallery framework called Plogger. It took a lot of time to work out how Plogger worked and edit the code so just the gallery was left, this is because Plogger gives the user an entire page rather than just the picture content that was needed. It has a very easy to use content management system, allowing Neil to upload as many photos as he wants and giving him the ability to edit the size and quality in the admin section.
Research on other photography sites has shown me that many are cluttered by superfluous links that increase the difficulty of navigation. I built Image Release with a very clean design, trying to make the navigation as simple as possible. I believe this enhances the function of the site, as the simplistic design does not interfere with the viewing of the photography. This was reinforced by making the site very dark to make the images and their colours stand out against the background.
