Web Site Design

For the foreseeable future I am not looking for freelance work because I am happily employed, however I know other web designers to whom I can refer you.

In 1995 I shared an office with the man who was building the first ever version of the Press Association web site (www.pa.press.net). It was one of the first high profile web sites in the UK. Those were the days when servers were UNIX and browsers were unforgiving. Code was written by hand and if it wasn't perfect it didn't work and that was that. My colleague wrote the code in vi and I checked it with vi and ggrep. By that time I had been with the Press Association for three years and was ready to move on. I took a new job at Intuitive Systems, Ltd. (which later became part of IMRglobal Corp, subsequently acquired by CGI Group Inc.) and became responsible for the corporate web and intranet sites. Since then I have designed and produced numerous commercial, government and nonprofit web sites.

I have eschewed unnecessary and buggy gimmicks and nailed down the important issues: message, download time, navigation, structure, usability, content. However, you will see from my portfolio that I do work with the whole range of resources when appropriate.

Some of my clients have a clear idea of what they want, and simply need someone to execute it, and other clients are looking for consultation and advice. I have clients with in depth technical knowledge and those who are unfamiliar with all but the simplest concepts and for whom I am happy to translate. My role in building sites has varied from the aesthetic to the technical and has typically covered the range of tasks from helping the client analyze audience requirements, define and select content, through planning the navigation, the look and feel, and technical strictures. My technical goal is always to provide a site that is robust, manageable and maintainable, and my wider goal is to provide a site that supports the goals of the client organization in whatever ways are appropriate.