Design philosophy and resources

Acme Web Maker^SM

Current location: Home / Design /

Design Philosophy

Usability

As few users as possible should be excluded from a site
The site should move as fast as the user, something we should always strive for
- Time wasted is money, attention and users lost
Users think and interface differently, we should provide different navigation and content delivery methods
The information used the most should the fewest clicks, scrolls or shortest load-time away
The users should trust the site to give concise, valid data
A happy user comes back!

Programming

'Top down-Bottom up' programming defines program goals and divides coding into managable units
The simplest code usually breaks the least and executes faster
Modularity facilitates changes
Documentation facilitates memory

Clients' Needs

Are unique and their site should be also

Why is this site so plain?

We wanted to access the most users, so this site is largely text-based which allows translators; PDAs; WAP; vision-assist and older browsers to surf it. I still see site hits from people using NetScape 2.0 and DOS browsers! We do not create sites that are only formatted this way (it is up to the customer), but we do strive to be compatible with the largest user base as possible. The additional benefits are speed in loading / navigation and ease of updates. The downside is that they aren't very 'sexy'! If you want to see 'sexy' visit the MediaCenter on our Experimental page.

Design Resources

Project Tools

We use a Site Plan and a Web Design Questionaire to outline each clients needs.
We provide a test site for look, feel and function approval before a design is committed to your site.
A Client Support Page with:

Support Request Form - a priority message system to report problems / make requests.
Web-based Tracking System - for up-to-the-minute project progress and cost data.
Project Calendar - for project planning.
Contact information.

If you host with us we provide usage ort example reports to help you understand your site's traffic.

We design and test our sites with these platforms and browsers:
Internet Explorer - Versions 4.0, 5.5 & 6.0 Netscape Navigator - Version 4.07 Opera - Version 6.0 HomeSite - Version 4.5.1 Web TV Viewer - Version 2.5
Safari - Version 1.0.1 Internet Explorer - Version 5.2 Mozilla - Version 1.4 Netscape Navigator - Versions 4.76 & 7.1 Opera - Version 6.03
Lynx - Version 2.8.3
WAPtor - Version 2.3 M3Gate - Version 0.4 Bigwapsite - XML & WML Validator mobone - web-based WAP browser gelon - web-based WAP browser - Wapalizer

Current location: Home / Design /