Our new location is in Blue Ash Ohio. We moved our marketing agency from Cincinnati's Over the Rhine in December of 2019. If you would like to arrange a meeting, please call us at (513) 463-3429. In order to keep our employees healthy and safe, walk-ins are not currently welcome.
We all know that a vested interest in the future is what keeps businesses operating. What better way to showcase your investment than working in a green building? Not to mention, the employee perks associated with green building: cleaner indoor environmental quality, more natural lighting, green cleaning products, etc., all of these components contribute to the wellness, health, and productivity of your employees. Helping them stay happier and productive longer.
(Thanks to Bob for an always thoughtful editorial. As I read David Eagleman‘s new textbook on the brain and delete anybody who has ideas I don’t like from my social media, Bob brings up some great points, but I don’t think we are a computer program simulation. We’re just on or off, black or white, positive or negative. Now quantum mechanics is something else. Until we know more about the universe, we’re just winging it. I’m praying for the scientists to figure it our before we make a boo-boo like the Egyptians, Easter Islanders, Mayans, etc. Those guys that couldn’t deal with climate change.)
By Robert Brooks, from FOUNDRY MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY, June 2016
“Customization” simplifies things so that the world will seem to meet each of us on our terms. That doesn’t make us exceptional, and it doesn’t change the truth.
A constructed, programmed universe
Watch, and wait
Responsibility of being human
We select a channel, lower the volume, and check in occasionally to see what’s happening. At that moment, it doesn’t seem to matter if there is some artificial intelligence controlling the universe. Some of us might prefer that.
Visionary industrialist and omni-genius Elon Musk recently let forth his belief that all of us are all living within a constructed and programmed universe, powered by computers and guided by some form of intelligence. It’s a startling claim, even from one who seems to have a propensity to startle, but it’s also a remarkably familiar theory about the place of humanity in the universe. Allowing for obvious distinctions, 16th Century Calvinists had a similar view of the human condition, and it’s a beguiling argument now for anyone who wonders about the sources of knowledge, or who is challenged by all the vital and trivial information that connects us to each other, or stressed by the changes we sense happening to us and to the world around us
How could anyone not wonder about all this? Understanding and managing the universe we inhabit is the mission of humanity, and as a species we have made extraordinary progress in that effort. If we never seem to satisfy the initial curiosity it’s perhaps because each of us has a different starting point. I know where my understanding of the universe started, but lately I’ve begun to think we have altered it in some fundamental way.
We moved to new offices a few months ago and among of the improvements offered in our new ‘space’ are several large flat-screen monitors. Being somewhat recusant about new technology and the gadgets that go with it, these are not especially impressive to me but I am reminded by colleagues that we are professional communicators, and the screens allow us to conduct videoconferences, or to watch different informational or instructional programs. All true. Usually, though, the screens are showing a Web-only channel now offered by a traditional network news division. What’s on view doesn’t seem to be news as much as a looping review of political and financial commentary, dishing over and over again something some candidate or office holder has said or done in the past 12 hours. In form and content, it’s gossip, though I cannot state this categorically because the displays here usually are muted (we’re working, after all.)
The human and financial resources leveraged over decades to achieve all this are impressive by any standard, and I accept the practical value of such a connection, but I wonder why people seem to want that linkage available all the time. The office TV (sorry, that’s what it is) is not the only example; people keep smartphones and tablet devices in position so they can be informed at a glance, checking in to what they’ve missed. Others move about with the Bluetooth clipped in place for some immediate update, or they keep an IM or mail window open in the background, ready to receive. Similar arrangements are seen in homes, stores, on the street, in cars and planes, everywhere. Always.
Let me make clear that I am not discounting the value of data networks or intelligent systems, and I know that life as we know it now depends on machinery and information technology. At the risk of contradicting Musk though, I am reaffirming the central role of humanity in this universe: we built this complex of devices and systems, we filled it with information, and we can manage it if we accept the responsibility, even though we seem to be losing enthusiasm for that role.
True, the system is vast, and it grows ever more complex. What it reveals about our circumstances is often unwelcome or disturbing. Of course, it’s preferable to keep some distance, and let the system do whatever it’s designed to do. We select a channel, lower the volume, and check in occasionally to see what’s happening. At that moment, it doesn’t seem to matter if there is some artificial intelligence controlling the universe.
“Customization” — currently a craze in manufacturing as it has been in tech and consumer products for decades — allows us to simplify ideas and messages so that the universe will then seem to meet each of us on our individual terms. Then, there is no pressure to acknowledge facts or conditions we don’t find welcome, and we can choose to believe that makes us the center of it all. That doesn’t make it true.
The falsity may be found, as ever, in the temptation to see oneself as a distinct being able to subsist in that customized environment, rather than what we are: individuals charged with improving the civilization we have been provided.
Learn more about our marketing philosophy at our Marketing Handbook page.
The developer of Cincinnati’s first tiny houses is getting ready to start construction on the homes in Over-the-Rhine.
Brad Cooper, who launched Start Small Homes after he received a $100,000 grant from People’s Liberty, expects construction to begin soon on the two small homes. Cooper’s project explores tiny homes as a solution to affordable housing, working to create a market-rate solution for diversely affordable home ownership opportunities.
Construction of two tiny homes in Over-the-Rhine is expected to start soon. COURTESY START SMALL HOMES
“We’ve had a good deal of interest,” Cooper said. Each home will be a total of 440 square feet, with 290 square feet of livable space. Each building’s footprint is 16 feet by 13 feet, roughly the size of a large second bedroom. Sansalone and Associates is the general contractor for the homes.
One of the homes will be sold at market rate, with a list price of $200,000. Going by the usable square footage, that’s about $690 per square foot.
But Cooper said it’s not fair to compare the tiny house’s price on the traditional per-square-foot measurement since it requires all of the infrastructure of a full-sized house.
The other home will be sold to a low-income household rate. Cooper said he is still working out the details on pricing for that home.
Cooper, who is a trained architect, originally wanted to price the homes at $70,000 each. The homes also were originally designed to be smaller with a total of 200 square feet of living space. But he still says at $200,000, a buyer would be getting the tiny home at a good value.
During events held throughout the summer, about 75 people have showed up to learn more about the tiny houses.
Each two-story tiny home has a kitchen and living space on the first floor complete with a refrigerator, butcher block counter and cabinets, and the second floor has a bathroom and the bedroom.
People’s Liberty, a philanthropic lab that invests directly in individuals, has helped Cooper through the process. Jake Hodesh, vice president of operations at People’s Liberty, said they have been working to understand all the processes that go along with building a tiny house.
“We’ve learned alongside Brad what it means to build a tiny home,” Hodesh said. “We’re investing in projects that haven’t been done before.”
The homes, located at 142 and 144 Peete St., will have solar panels and are designed to take advantage of passive cooling. Cooper expects utilities to cost about $50 per month.
Cooper doesn’t have additional sites for more tiny homes at this point, but he has learned ways to bring the prices down. By building more tiny houses at one time, as well as getting smaller lots or building multiple tiny homes on the same lot, he believes he would be able to bring prices down.
Demeropolis covers commercial real estate and development.
AFTER SEVERAL YEARS OF GRADUAL PROGRESS, THE ECONOMIC STARS ARE ALIGNING IN FAVOR OF A MORE ROBUST COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENT.
(The economy is booming, be sure you focus on the markets that are growing. Take Donald Trump’s advice, “Don’t get into an industry in decline.” Or don’t make the mistake we did, getting into Green Building Marketing right at the downturn. No problem, now we’re prepared. Chuck Lohre)
“WE EXPECT 2016 WILL BE A GOOD YEAR, WITH INCREASED consumer spending driving economic growth,” said Sophia Koropeckyj, managing director of industry economics at the research firm Moody’s Analytics. Why the sunny outlook? Economists point to a number of conditions favoring businesses: Higher employment, lower consumer debt, greater credit availability, and trimmed gasoline prices all lead to a more robust American economy. All should do their part to help en – courage stronger growth over the coming 12 months.
RETAIL
Performance in the retail sector is a critical driver for the American economy in general—and one in which economists see an improving picture in 2016. “We expect core retail sales to grow 5.5% in 2016,” said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Analytics. That growth rate is notably faster than the 4.2% rate anticipated when 2015 sales are finally tallied. The 2015 experience was slightly better than the 3.9% growth of 2014. If Moody’s Analytics is accurate in its forecast, businesses can rejoice, as the anticipated rate is not that far off the roughly 6% increases retailers commonly enjoyed during the robust decade of the 1990s—as well as the period they fondly remember just prior to the Great Recession. What will drive the anticipated retail sales increase? Primarily higher wages, fueled by the growing number of people gainfully employed.
HOUSING
Businesses depend on a healthy economy to support strong sales. And one of the most important drivers of that is a robust housing construction sector that employs more people and generates more disposable income. “The ever-tightening market for new homes will likely spur stronger construction activity in 2016,” said Sophia Koropeckyj, managing director of industry economics at Moody’s Analytics. Indeed, housing starts are expected to rise 29.5% for the year, a considerable improvement over the 14.5% figure expected for 2015 when final numbers are tallied. (The rate for 2014 was 5.8%.) Why the spike in construction? According to Koropeckyj, the nation’s inventory of new homes has been falling steadily to the point where builders are now expected to perceive solid economic benefits in gearing up into higher production. The decline in inventory over the past year came about as builders held back from constructing new homes, concerned that consumer demand had not met expectations. That demand, in turn, was soft because, said Koropeckyj, “many young families saddled with mountains of student debt were opting to continue renting.” Granted, some conditions will have to be met before the housing rebound occurs. “The tightening housing market by itself does not guarantee a resumption of singlefamily construction,” noted Koropeckyj. “Household debt burdens will still have to fall significantly before buyers of new homes start to return to the market in strength. Even so, the U.S. recovery, with some outside help from low gasoline prices and consequently low inflation, is pulling that date forward.” The expected housing rebound should have a related effect: Home prices are expected to increase by only 2.9% in 2016, a deceleration of the 6.3% expected for 2015.
MANUFACTURING
Of special importance to all businesses is the performance by one subset of the larger corporate world: manufacturers. Any growth in that sector has a dramatic effect on employment—and therefore on the economy in general—because manufacturing is heavily dependent on a skilled labor force. It seems that manufacturers are looking ahead to a 2016 that will match or exceed what has been a reasonably good 2015. “Conditions are positive but not robust or booming,” said Tom Palisin, executive director of the Manufacturers’ Association (mascpa.org). “Manufacturers are doing slightly better than they were a year ago. They are reporting low to moderate growth, solid orders, and a good backlog.” Low energy prices are favorable for the sector. Looking to 2016, Palisin said, “Members are cautiously optimistic.” A telling indicator of that optimism is a new initiative to bolster the workforce. “One significant change is a move by many companies to invest more in their training budgets,” said Palisin, adding that manufacturers are doing so in response to a number of conditions: an improving economy, several years of cost cutting that has led to a lean workforce, and a lack of available skilled talent combined with low unemployment. “Employers now seem more eager to retain the employees they have by investing in training of their existing workforce,” Palisin added. That will translate into higher salaries and still more disposable income in consumers’ wallets. Manufacturers will be helped by a growing availability of credit, which has loosened considerably since the tight years of the Great Recession. “Rates are low and banks are willing to invest,” said Palisin. “However, there has not been much demand for commercial loans because many companies have sufficient cash on hand to finance their growth needs.” Others, he said, have delayed capital investment due to economic uncertainty and a tough regulatory environment.
LABOR
The most important contributing factor to a more robust marketplace, said Koropeckyj, is the growing health of the labor force. “Wage gains are now materializing across a number of industries and regions,” she said, noting that consumers will have more disposable cash to spend. Moody’s reported that unemployment fell to 5.1% in late 2015, a full percentage point decline over the level 12 months previous and a rate nearly identical to the 5% economists believe represents a condition of “full employment.” “While there is still slack in the labor market, it is declining quickly,” said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Analytics. “At some point in 2016 the labor market should become tight, which should translate into faster growth in wages and consumer spending.” Indeed, Moody’s expects the nation to reach full employment by mid-2016 and the average unemployment rate during the fourth quarter of that year to be 4.8%. Gains in employment nationwide have helped create a population more confident of the future – and therefore more prone to spend. “Consumers have been feeling reasonably well,” said Walter Simson, principal of Ventor Consulting. Economists expect consumer confidence to continue to rise over the coming 12 months in response to a brighter employment picture.
A STRONGER ECONOMY
So just how good is “good” for 2016? That depends on how much consumers and businesses spend nationwide on goods and services. The faster the rise in that figure—the GDP—the healthier the economy. For 2016, Moody’s expects GDP to grow 3.25%. That’s considerably higher than the expected 2015 rate of 2.5%. The 2015 results, to be confirmed when the year’s sales numbers are tallied, were just slightly higher than 2014’s 2.43% growth rate. One big driver of the rise in GDP is expected to be an improving performance by large employers. Businesses of all sizes benefit when major corporations rack up healthy profits. Good earnings stimulate business expansion and an attendant investment in buildings and equipment. That generates still more business for suppliers, along with more employment and disposable income for consumers. In this area, again, the future looks rosy. “Corporate profit growth is expected to accelerate some 9.2% through 2016,” said Koropeckyj. That’s a considerable improvement over the results for 2015, when profits actually declined slightly as a result of the strong dollar (which weakened exports) and a decrease in energy revenues following a drop in commodity prices. Why the rebound? Moody’s is looking to a recovery in global economies, along with a diminished drag from the dollar, to help turn things around. Several factors, though, could cause a delay. “Our narrative rests on the assumption that wages and productivity will rise in lockstep,” said Koropeckyj. “But this may not hold. Productivity growth has been weak, allowing even modest wage gains to push unit labor costs higher.” Wage growth is likely to grow faster than productivity, she added, noting, “This would further compress margins and lower the outlook for corporate profits.”
DARK CLOUDS
Challenges remain. Businesses should keep an eye out for further developments in lingering issues such as the softening of European and Chinese economies, a volatile American stock market, and political gridlock in Washington. “Businesses prefer stability and consistency,” said Tom Palisin, executive director of the Manufacturers’ Association (mascpa.org). “Right now, we have anything but that.” Even so, signs point to continuing marketplace strength. “We think the economy should weather the current uncertainties,” said Hoyt. “A lot of our optimism centers on the strength in the labor markets.” A healthy jobs picture, then, should make all the difference in 2016. “Early in the year businesses should watch what is happening with wages,” said Hoyt. “If the labor market tightens as expected, that will lead to higher wages and more consumer spending.”
Perry is a business journalist based in New York City and a three-time winner of the “Value to the Reader” award from the American Bar Association. Reach him at [email protected].
Residential Green Building / Green Living Member Circle, OTR Condo, Green Home Tour
November 1 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
OTR Condo
November 1, 2015, 1 pm till 3 pm, Over-The-Rhine Condo transformed into LEED Platinum. Meet Architect Martha Schickel Dorff and resident Chuck Lohre who did the LEED renovations and documentation. Features include a renewable energy pellet stove, 91% Energy Star plug loads, 31% water savings and 100% sustainable sites credits. Contact Chuck Lohre to register [email protected], 513-260-9025. Learn more.
There is another USGBC tiny space tour on November 14 in Covington:
Tiny Home
November 14, 2015, 10 am till Noon, Center for Great Neighborhoods’ Shotgun Row, Covington, KY. Bradley Cooper’s Tiny Home Project “Start Small” in OTR ( Learn more. ) will not be ready for a tour in November so we are going to tour the best example of existing of tiny homes in Greater Cincinnati. It is the Covington, KY Center for Great Neighborhoods’ Shotgun Row restoration of five vacant and rundown shotgun houses. Here are some articles on the project, provided by the Center for Great Neighborhood, Program Director Community Development, Rachel Hastings: “First phase of $600K artist homes project unveiled,” Cincinnati Business Courier, Jan 23, 2014 (photos above from article) “Westside’s Redevelopment Continues with More Projects by Center for Great Neighborhoods,” River City News, Sep 3, 2014 “Covington Project Wins State Preservation Award,” River City News, May 22, 2015
For 2015 the Southwest Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, Green Living Member Circle is producing nine Green Home Tours. Contact Chair Chuck Lohre to join, receive newsletter or register for any of the tours, [email protected], 513-260-9025. Chapter members get preference for the tours and can bring a friend. Attendance is limited to 20, the address will be provided after you register. There is no charge for the tours just your help in promoting them is asked. Learn more.
The 2015 tours are sponsored by The Sustainable Partnership of Cincinnati, a group of businesses offering sustainable products and services to create sustainable homes and offices. Learn more.
We compare NYC’s Frye store with Lohre & Assoc.’s LEED Platinum Commercial Interiors
Yesterday we visited the Frye store in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood. You might recognize Frye’s heritage as a shoe and bootmaker, but today it’s a lifestyle fashion brand. The Spring Street store serves as one of its flagship locations and this particular one earned LEED Platinum. The store manager didn’t know much about the LEED certification (and the store doesn’t point out its LEED status through graphics), so we enjoyed filling him in on what we saw and suspected. Both Lohre & Assoc. and Frye obtained LEED Platinum under v2009 so it’s a direct comparison. Using credit sheets for each, we were able to quickly scan and compare the projects.
Jaws dropped around the modern kitchen in the two-story home in Mount Airy.
Visitors were there for a tour of the energy-efficient three-bedroom, three-bath home – equipped with an office, woodshop and garage. They’d just learned that heating and cooling the house cost only $300-$400a year.
“You want to go see it?” owner Edward Wright asked, referring to the geothermal system in the basement which pulls heat from down in the ground in the winter and circulates cooler temps up from below in the summer.
Heads vigorously nodded. And Wright led the group into the basement to see how green energy works on a small-scale.
There are no gas lines running to the airtight home, architect Wright continued to explain, everything runs on electric. Much of the cost will be made up in energy savings and tax abatement, he said.
The Wrights were the latest homeowners to open their doors to a tour started at the end of last year by Chuck Lohre, a marketing professional and Clifton resident with apassion for green living.
Lohre is a volunteer and former board member of the local chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, an organization on a mission to “transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life,” according to its website.
These tours show the public what is possible, Lohre said, and they help individuals understand what sort of tax breaks are available when going the green route.
Brad Cooper’s tiny home – a winner of a $100,000 grant from People’s Liberty – is on the tour in November and a farmhouse in Verona, Kentucky, where a woman is growing edamame will be featured in September.
On the first tour, visitors saw the Kinsman home in Northside. LEED Silver certified, it was built with a tight form and heated with solar hot water panels on the roof, Lohre said, which send warmth into the floor on the first and second stories of the house. There is no furnace.
“I’m trying to start a movement for the general public to learn that there are better ways to live – and your home and community should be a central part of it,” Lohre said. “I have gotten to know just about all of the architects, engineers and developers in the region but the public still wasn’t learning about these better ways to plan, build and live.”
Spots are still available for the free tours coming up this year. To register, email [email protected], or call, 513-260-9025.
The tours include:
The Nutter residence in Mount Carmel, March 21 is fully booked.
Imago for the Earth Conscious Community in Price Hill, April 25, 9-11 a.m.
The Fritz residence at Sun Sugar Farms in Verona, Kentucky, Sept. 12, 10 a.m. to noon
The Fischer residence in Milford, Oct. 3, 10 a.m. to noon
Nov 6 FREE ReSource Shred Event for Non-Profits8:30 am to 4 pm Help divert thousands of pounds of paper from local landfills by volunteering to help with ReSource Shred Event. Contact Chuck Lohre 513-260-9025 to select the morning or afternoon shift. Non-ReSource member organizations…
Though our Cincinnati web design agency tends to advocate repairing and improving cheap, DIY, outdated, or otherwise bad websites wherever and whenever possible, sometimes a new website build or complete website redesign is necessary.
If your company is new to the web, or if your business has a new website to build, it is important to have a solid web design plan in place before moving forward.
If you are hiring a web designer or web design company to do the work, pre-planning can still save an incredible amount of time and frustration, and guide the process toward having the best results from what will likely be your company’s most important sales and lead generation tool for years to come.
In this post we’ll outline the best process to build a great website with the best marketing potential.
Top most important steps toward designing your new web site:
Bad: “Elmo Haletosis Dinglefaartz the IIIrd: drinks lots of gin, and wears an eyepatch. Hates hayrides and squirrels.” Good: “Inigo Montoya: Parking lot mogul and CEO with properties in Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport. Has purchased 15 demolition sites in the downtown area and is looking for concrete to pave them with. He does not want to interact or commit at this time, just wants basic questions answered.”
Step 1: Buyer Personas – Know your website’s ideal visitor
It is easy to go down the path of designing a website for the company itself. Many designers go into web design projects with the company’s image or even their own portfolio in mind first, and already in great danger of turning the website into a very expensive vanity project for the designer and company alike.
In this case, let’s imagine a Concrete company whose website boasts that they are the greatest, oldest, and biggest in the area. They have lots of pages on CEOS, CFOs, pictures of big trucks and big projects, and are wondering why the site fails to generate new leads and customers.
While it is important to impress and even dazzle visitors, it is more important to consider the ideal visitors’ primary needs. Knowing what will bring your ideal visitors to your website, knowing what information they’ll be seeking, knowing how to inform and how to boost confidence, having a plan to help them them become satisfied customers should be the primary focus.
Imagine these ideal customers, give them names, ages, likely job titles, unique needs that brought them to you – and write these down. You are done. These are your buyer personas, and you are ready for the next step:
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Step 2: Consider the buyer’s journey, and draw them a map
Not a very good map for your website
Put yourself in your buyer persona’s shoes. Consider what problems they came seeking solutions for, what questions helped them find you, how you might help them. Realistically define the process. Is your solution one that might require days, even months of decision-making, or a fast and easy choice? Having buyer personas in mind, allows you to map your website accord to their needs.
You might ask yourself these things:
How will I attract my buyer persona?
What information will I need to qualify them as leads?
What solutions will I need to provide them in return for this information?
What further interactions will encourage them to change from leads into customers?
How do I make those customers into return customers?
How do I encourage them to give great reviews and word of mouth promotion?
If you have answered all of these questions in detail, congratulations – you’ve outlined your marketing path, and sales funnel.
This is not a very good sales funnel for your website. Chances are you will not be allowed to put people into actual funnels, or to feed them to bees.
That’s a little bit better… in a very generic and vague way. Show that you really have a plan for this specific site, for this specific business.
Try to design your funnel specifically for your website, not just *any* site. The funnel could demonstrate a strategy for an entire site or a business – but most often, it will center around only one primary offer.
Step 3: Outline and Flow Chart
Outline: Be thorough. Think how many pages and subpages deep this website will need to go. Also be sure to consider landing pages, which might not fall into the base hierarchy of the site.
An outline ensures that content flows in a way that is convenient and helpful to the average visitor. It also helps you to think of the process, and what content the process will require. You may find that you need more pages than you thought, but you might also find pages that can be ommited, or can be combined into one.
I recommend working on this outline in a word processing application, or anyplace where you can easily edit bulleted lists within bulleted lists.
When done, you have all you need to create a basic flowchart. Flow charts are simply graphical outlines for people who prefer flow charts over outlines (most people). Since this is mostly to illustrate how one could go from one page to the next, you don’t need to get very fancy with it – blocks and lines will do (like the very simple web site flow chart to the right).
Outline: Be thorough. Think how many pages and subpages deep this web site will need to go. Also be sure to consider landing pages, which might not fall into the base hierarchy of the site.
Before doing any graphic design, you need to know how the web site and its elements are going to work together – how they are going to present information, which elements need to grab attention, how, and why.
I like to use a styrofoam board, pins, string, construction paper, and multi-colored Post-its on an open wall or large corkboard. A large table will however do, but is not as fun, and you will probably need that table for other things before the project is completed. Don’t worry now about how the website will look. Think instead about how layers will interact or be animated, where slideshows or movies might go, whether sidebars will exist and where, the function of the footer, which pages might have forms, and how they are to be presented.
Use your content outline as a guide. If you have already selected a CMS and templates, you should also consult those from time to time. Content in this stage, might be as simple as sticky notes that read “colorful image to illustrate B2B”, “bulleted list with types of advertising”, “CTA: View our helpful video!”, or as advanced as photos and printed paragraphs.
Chances are you might eventually need something more portable than the crime wall or office table. If so, refine your flow chart based on the work from this stage, print it, and print numbered pages to correspond with each block. These pages and their content should reflect the pages on your wall.
Step 5: Software selection
By now you should a good idea what sort of CMS you will need for your web design project, as well as what you will need plugins and add-ons for. If you are not designing from a theme you have previously made, and don’t plan to build one from scratch, this would be a good time to choose a theme to build from. This is also a good time to search the web for compatibility issues between software, themes, and plugins.
If the company has graphic standards established, they’ll likely require a specific font stack for their website design. Make sure the needed fonts are available as web fonts, and know how much they will cost.
If the company does not have graphic standards established, this is a something you should discuss. Make sure that creating a corporate identity package is in the budget, or that graphic standards will be available by the time design work begins.
You now have a good idea of how the web site will function, know what software you will be using, and that there no known conflicts between. You also know that everything you are proposing to do can be done, how to do it, and have factored in outside costs.
Step 6: Mid-project meeting
No Skeletor, This meeting is not one of those. This is actually a great place to be and a very exciting time… halfway to launch! Source: memegenerator.net
If you are designing this web site for others, or need to consult with your colleagues, this is a great place for a mid-project meeting.
You’ve got a lot of information to share and things to discuss before moving ahead, perhaps too much. You can’t cover everything here, but what is covered here will be shaped by the priorities, concerns, and schedules of those involved.
You have firmly established purpose, goals, needed software, server requirements, page count, content needs, new challenges, and additional costs. You also have a flow chart that serves as a map to build and design the site by.
This flow chart serves well as an itemized list of textual and graphical content needed for the site. You, the client, or your marketing team should begin creating and collecting the content needed for the completed website – Encourage them to tell their brand story, and to gather and create strong images to illustrate that story with.
Step 7: Installation, Setup, and Testing
Some web designers would jump to the design stage before this, and if you are designing for others you may at least have been asked to make graphical mockups in order to get this far.
If you have that option, get everything installed, behaving properly, and at least semi-configured before wasting everyone’s time on preemptive design. Hypothetical appearances tend to die horribly from compatibility issues, and actual needs.
If you build in a folder on the site’s intended server, and test it, you will know that the site, and plugins work in that environment. This also gives you the ability to design in place, directly working with the actual product of Javascript, HTML, and CSS that the server-to-be will assemble from the CMS, plugins, and themes you chose.
Step 8: Framework
By the end of this stage, using your outline, you should have a good working website with all navigation working, and all proposed pages created. These pages are likely populated with lorem ipsum and placeholder images at this point, and that is okay.
Step 9: Basic Graphic Standards
This is a mini-stage before adding content. At this stage, we are still not out to create any more design elements than we absolutely have to, but we want a good idea of what our content will look like in order to improve upon it, and to design for it.
Whether you are working from an existing theme, or you started off with a structure that was devoid of any styling at all, this is a small stage where you should change colors and fonts to meet with the company’s graphic standards, and remove styles and graphical elements that would compete with this branding.
Finish this stage by adding the company logo, preferably in .SVG format (Scalable Vector Graphics) so that it looks its very best at any size or resolution.
Step 10: Populate!
What? Still no design? Are you crazy?
Realistically, yes, but also consider that you already have a lot of finished design at this point:
If you have branding, you have fonts, a defined color palette, and a logo. You also have your crime lab-style layout from step 4, meaning that you have the user interface mostly planned out. You also know how navigation and pages will work together as a story to guide your visitors through the website.
If you were able to make it to this stage without submitting graphical mockups for revision, revision, and revision of purely-hypothetical concepts, you have an opportunity to think ahead about graphical styles and touches here, and are a very lucky designer for it. If your job is design only, hopefully you’ve been given content by this point, if it isn’t you should focus on your content creation before proceeding.
Add in all of your text with only general styles (h1, h2, h3, p, br, blockquote, etc.), use placeholders in place of images, use bootstrap rules for your general layout so that all elements of fractional widths behave uniformly and responsively. I’d recommend skipping on internal links at this point, else you’ll have to remember which content you were and were not yet able to assign internal links to.
Be sure to consider SEO in your choosing of permalinks as you go. This is easier to do now than to correct later. Don’t obsess on this if it slows you down though, you can always correct with 301s if you have to, and/or a good find & replace job if your website’s structure is data-driven.
Step 11: FINALLY! Design
This is not the stage where design typically happens, but it is the stage where design *should* happen.
Previous ideas and mockups here would have served more as constraint than inspiration. Making the functionality of the web site mesh with designs made information was gathered and framework, would be much like hammering a non-euclidian peg into a two-dimensional hole.
If you are like me, and have reached the point where working with CSS and HTML in place is much like, even easier than laying out a design in Illustrator or Photoshop, then you will likely be doing the bulk of your web site design with your text editor of choice and an FTP client, while keeping Photoshop, Illustrator, and/or GIMP open for making textures, creating graphics, and editing photos.
However you do your design work, having not spent too much time on graphics up to this point, allows for much better use of time every step of the way, and for a web site that is the product of inspired design, not remedial design.
You should be constantly testing, refining, improving, and expanding your site. Beyond testing initial functionality of your website, testing such as A/B testing for different landing pages geared toward different buyer personas is a good place to start.
Blog often, and every time you return to your site, try to think of one small thing to improve on a page or the site itself. If you mark what you changed and when you changed it, you might be able to track these changes against web traffic or visitor behavior.
Always remember: Websites that aren’t growing, are simply dying.
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Some web designers would jump to the design stage before this, and if you are designing for others you may at least have been asked to make graphical mockups in order to get this far.