Why?
There’s a change happening in the marketing world, and it’s called inbound marketing. Instead of sending out mass amounts of direct mail, which is both a time and money-waster, now companies and website are turning to drawing people into their site. This is due to SEO (search engine optimization), social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and campaigns that send people free stuff (like whitepapers).
All these things are the reason why I redesigned the site, once again. I started working for HubSpot back in January, and they are all about inbound marketing. Their software is what I use to manage the marketing aspects of this site (although the backend is WordPress), and even if I wasn’t working there, I still would be using it. When I started there, I realized that web design shouldn’t only be about aesthetics and how the site looks, but how well it’s able to be found.
What?
Before this latest redesign (version 4), I didn’t have a platform for the site. There was no CMS (content management system) helping me to easily make changes. I did have the blog that was on WordPress, but all the other pages were manually edited. Now, however, things are different.
The administrative side of my site is ridiculously easy. I taught a client of mine the other day how to edit pages and upload photos in WordPress, and they were blown away at how much they’ll be edit the site themselves (instead of having me do it). Now, I’m not complaining about editing customer’s sites, if you need me to do maintain your site, no problem. Their issue is they always have new ideas or photos or videos, and want to make edits to their site on the fly, or even mess it up a bit without having to call me to fix it.
The front-end of my site doesn’t show that it’s on WordPress at all. I have a custom theme, designed from scratch, that incorporates all the elements that I want, not what a generic theme would deliver. There are quite a few themes (paid) out there that would be great for use as a CMS, but that’s for another time.
How?
Old Design
New Design
I started this redesign project like I do with any project…sit down with my sketchbook and write/sketch/doodle/whatever. I came up with a list of elements I wanted on the site…things like you see in the sidebar, my latest work, testimonials, social media buttons, a redo of the logo, client login area, etc. I then moved onto the website architecture. This is basically determining how the navigation will work, what pages I actually needed, etc. Only once the plan was setup did I start to design the actual site.
I wanted it to combine two prior designs of the site. Version 1 was really basic, with embedded galleries that gave me no control and a real lack of focus. Version 2 and 3, however, are both incorporated into the latest design. Version 2 was a whole lotta whitespace. Very minimal, very basic and to the point. Version 3 had a lot more going on, with a lot more interactivity and sub-pages, but almost too much design.
I think the latest version is a good combination of those two, I still have all the functionality I want, but now with more whitespace, easier to read, and geared towards SEO purposes, rather than all out design.
I’m still refining a few things, but refinements are happening in the backend, SEO-related stuff. For the most part the site design is done. Your thoughts?
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