I pride myself on being able to help you understand web design by bringing it down to a level that’s more common to the average everyday person.

If I were to say to you “We want to develop a content driven database system using the latest PHP and MySQL technologies to help you achieve a strategic goal” I  might as well have been speaking in a different language.

So when we sit down to talk about web design you’re going to get an analogy from me that compares web design to building a house. For example our process follows three industry standard levels to complete the job which are discover, design and deploy. To make the house comparison think of it like this:

#1) DISCOVER – What is the address of your home? Which suburban neighborhood would you like to plop down that new home and is the ground level enough for us to build on?

#2.) DESIGN – Now we’re looking at some walls, a little plumbing and some wiring. This is the stage in which we want to make sure the switch in the living room turns on the lights there instead of the master bedroom. But we’re also starting to decide on carpet types, wall colors and how the kitchen cabinets will be laid out.

#3.) DEPLOY – The house is built, all of the utilities are hooked up and the landscaping is ready for some plants and tress. We’re also finishing off hanging pictures, moving the furniture around and cleaning up the little piles of construction materials that are left over from the earlier stages of building the home.

There is a lot more to all of this, but in this short little post you can see that not once did we mention geek talk or speak in a tech language that is more suitable for some science fiction show.

I just went out and did a search for “indiana web design” and Google brought back 12.9 million results. Now I’m not saying there are 12.9 million web designers in Indiana because we only have 6.3 million residents anyway. But at a quick glance I see at least a half dozen firms on the first page of Google that are located in Indiana.

So how do you choose? Who’s worth it? Who can you afford? There are many factors in deciding how you choose your web design firm, but let’s go through a short list here to help you make some decisions.

• Location: Would you prefer to work with someone you can actually sit down with and speak to in person instead of phone calls and email? That might make a difference in how you decide. So let’s say you live here near us in Fort Wayne. You might want to search “fort wayne web design” to help narrow your results.
• Firm Size: The Internet is a double edged sword in that it’s very cost effective to set up shop and be a business owner. A few dollars here for a domain, a few dollars here for hosting and voila you’re  a business. But that could be to your disadvantage as well because you might get pulled into working with a brand new company or young adult who may not have the business experience in dealing with clients. At the same time you might find that big fancy firm that woos you over until you see that the estimate is 10x as much because they have to cover a 10,000 square foot building and 20 employees. Something to think about for sure.
• Design: Let’s face it, if someone’s portfolio is poor or lacking the “feel” you’re looking for it’s not a reassuring feeling that they can present your business the way you envision it. Gonink has a pretty broad range of clients ranging from multi-million dollar corporations to very small businesses. I would highly suggest you look through a portfolio before making any decision to call the web design firm.

Obviously there are many other things you probably have to consider, but through our experiences these three things are usually part of the decision making process when choosing your web design firm.

My answer?

It’s nothing more than a text message that is sent to dozens if not hundreds of people in just seconds.

But then the really neat thing happens, your ‘tweet’ can be ‘re-tweeted’ by those very same people. And then those people and their people and so on. As you can see this 140-character limit message can grow almost exponentially.

Consider the Iran elections last June where anyone in the world could get updates on the chaotic and tragic situation in that country. Do a search for “twitter Haiti” and you’ll find a host of stories. Just wait until you’re done reading this however.

So how does this relate to business or even the little state of Indiana where we call home?

From the business aspect you have to consider the ramifications of how quickly a message (good or bad) can fly across the Twitosphere. What if you’ve created an amazing new product line and need to get the word out now. Are you going to wait for that magazine to publish and print next month or are you going to drive people to your web site to be one of the first to have one of your Wadget Gadget Gizmos?

I’m thinking the latter is more obvious and less expensive.

So Twitter can be viewed worldwide and anyone can keep track of what’s going on second-by-second. So who would care what’s going on in Indiana? Well I would of course because I live here! And today it was quite interesting to watch a snow storm verging on blizzard unfold just to the south in Indianapolis and move northward towards Gonink world headquarters.

Here’s how it unfolded:

9:34 AM

The first reports of snow are coming in and people begin talking about it…

9:34

9:43

9:53

10:06 AM

People are still reporting the start of the snow fall and even posted mobile videos….

10:06

10:23

10:34

10:52

11:06 AM

More reports are still coming in and people are mentioning places like Carmel & Greenfield Indiana…

11:06

11:16

11:20

12:02 PM

Slick untreated roads, school closings and accumulation totals start rolling in…

12:02

12:30

12:33

1:32 PM

Now users are starting to tweet and re-tweet (RT in the Twitosphere) others reports so everyone can be filled in…

1:32

1:37

1:51

2:30 PM

Not everyone is happy about being in Indiana because they’re missing out on the snow. But others are starting to wonder about the road conditions…

2:20

2:31

2:43

2:52

2:56

3:05 PM

Reports, photos and a latecomer to the Twitter chatter is wondering about “what snow storm?”

3:05

3:23

3:29

3:34

3:35

As you can see I easily tracked something local and this easily could have been a business story. Sure it may not catch on as fast or be as popular, but what if you had even half this many people talking/Tweeting about your product or service? Would you be interested?

Up next, how did I track all of this without losing my mind?

Just recently I attended a business networking and training event in Columbia City and one of the participants expressed an interest in re-designing and/or updating their current website and it got me thinking.

Can an outdated website hurt you or does it even matter?

In my professional opinion it’s going to hurt you and here are my reasons why.

1. A visitor to the site could see your outdated material and interpret that as a lack of dedication to your business. If you’re not dedicated to your own business, how can you be dedicated to them?
2. As Internet users grow more and more savvy they expect legitimate businesses to have legitimate websites and one that is full of past information could be viewed as not legitimate
3. Employees or potential employees might feel that you’re not staying current with your own business needs and it could harm their own future

So what’s a business owner to do?

1. Get it updated – yesterday. Find a reasonable, reliable and most importantly professional designer that meshes well with your personality and your business. If you’re a tiny mom and pop shop and want that special attention from a small firm, go for it. If you’re a corporation and want the bells and whistles of a massive marketing firm, call them.
2. Keep updating information. Just because you added something new to the site at the beginning of the year, doesn’t mean you should then let it slide until December that same year.
3. Market the updates. Get on Twitter, design a Facebook page, send a newsletter with your updates. These are easy, inexpensive ways to get the word out about your business that allows you to have time for the one specific thing you need to do every single day – run your business.

Is your website out of date? Could we possibly help? Contact Gonink today and see how we might fit into your business and help you get that site updated that was first launched years ago!

Contrary to popular belief images on the Internet are not free at all. Sure it’s easy to search for one, see it, right click and *poof* the image is yours, but in all reality that’s basically theft. No worries, I’m not the image police and don’t plan on knocking on your door anytime soon.

But what I am going to tell you in our first meeting is that we have to have images that you have “rights” to. In a nutshell images that you have rights to are ones you’ve taken yourself or “royalty free” ones that you pay for and these can be as cheap as $1.00.

So before you go out and start right clicking all over the Internet to supply me with images for your website, please use this little tip and make sure you have the right to use them.

Yep, believe it or not we never just jump on the computer and start working on your design.

Typically I’ll start off just doodling and making chicken scratches hoping to find a little inspiration and an idea to work from. As soon as I see something that makes me say “Ah-ha! That’s the right direction!” then I start to refine that image into some other more refined images. Rinse and repeat.

The next thing you know we have some fairly decent designs laid out on paper and we either present them to you to refine some more or we move towards the computer.

Once at the computer we scan in the image(s) and start to do our computer magic. Okay, it’s not really magic, but I like to think of that way when I see the looks on my client’s faces because they’re in aww of what I’ve accomplished for them.

Here are 5 questions to ask me when we first meet.

TIME

How long will this take?

Obviously you don’t want this project to carry on for as long as your in business, so you probably have a target date in mind. After a little digging I should be able to give you a fairly accurate estimate on just how long it will take and I also should be able to point out key milestones in the project.

PROGRAMMING

Do you use accepted web design standards?

I could easily go into a long list of ‘geek’ things that would blow your mind, but it is important to know that we do our very best to adhere to current ‘accepted’ standards. As an example web sites use to be designed using “tables” which really are nothing more than a glorified Excel spreadsheet. This really isn’t an accepted format for designing anymore, so we stick to the more common practices in design these days.

SEO

Will my site receive traffic?

Without a doubt just about any web site that is built properly should receive traffic, but I will admit right up front that I cannot guarantee traffic. Sure there are those out there touting lots and lots of ways to increase your SEO (search engine optimization), but you have to be careful with many of these people because they have a tendency to not follow legit tactics. I’ll put in every bit of my knowledge to get you traffic, but you also have to remember it’s up to you to market it as well.

MAINTENANCE

Who updates the site?

Well that’s entirely up to you. We offer solutions where you can update the content, photos, text, images, etc. all on your own or we can do it for you based on an hourly charge. Now this is not to say that some ‘geek’ stuff might have to be done from time-to-time and you’ll need to call on us to get it taken care of, but often times that happens less than once a year.

YOUR TEAM

Even though you’ll always be dealing with me, that’s not to say I don’t bring on other people from time-to-time. As much as I would love to know every single thing about web design, copywriting, marketing, etc. there are those moments where the left side of the brain starts arguing with the right side of the brain. Right then and there it’s in the best interest of you my client to just hire someone to reach the goal.

So that’s it, a simple little 5 questions to ask Gonink when we first meet and discuss your project.

So how do we try and eliminate as many as possible from the start and what do we do when a mistake occurs?

Prevention

One of the first steps in trying to prevent a problem from the start is having a good plan of attack from word go. Thinking from the end and working backwards is a good way to view a project. I often times will ask a client “Okay, we’re at the end, the site is live and you’re looking at it. What are your feelings? What are you seeing?”

This helps us envision the entire project and we can begin to build a solid foundation to start from.

Owning up to mistakes and problems

I have yet to work on a project where there wasn’t a problem or a mistake was made. I know, it sounds as if I’m not perfect and trust me I wish I were flawless but I’m not nor would I ever claim to be.

But what I do profess to you is that when that mistake occurs I am upfront, honest and focused on correcting the problem.

Even after watching it I myself thought “Oh boy do I hear that a lot”. But then I put some more thought into it and maybe we’re being a bit too critical in what the public knows, what they should know and what they really don’t need to know.

Let’s look at the every day mechanic and what he or she might go through. If you take your car in and say “Well it makes this hunkedy chunkety flippity flop noise when I put it in drive” the mechanic is forced to guess at what the problem might be.

And if you ask just about any person who drives if they have an oil filter, they’re answer is probably ‘yes’. But could they point it out to you? Do they know if it’s on top of the engine? Below? Is it long? Fat? Tall? Skinny?

I think we as designers are better off to try and educate our clients and help them understand some of the technical jargon so that as we progress through their project, everything can run a bit more smoothly.

As one of the premiere tool and die shops in the country and by some standards worldwide, you can’t discount their innovative thinking and progressive approach when it comes to technology. Having this sort of vision also meant that they knew the web was the place to be and in early 2005 they embarked on a mission to market via the web.

At the time it was a spectacular design and full of information for people to browse, but like many websites it began to collect a little cyber dust. Let’s face it, making products and money often times takes precedence over marketing and especially updating websites.

But in today’s market you can no longer accept that a website is just a website. It almost has to be a living/breathing thing.

In May of 2009 they contacted Gonink looking for an entirely new design and to get the site updated and in better shape.

One of our first steps was to create the site with newer technologies in programming which made it more feasible for current browsers and web standards. Follow that up with a lot of labor into the design aspects and their new site shined as bright as the floors of their immaculate shop.

Some of the key issues with the site that were a must are:

1. Different headers for each division of the company
2. A robust and strong impressive parts portfolio
3. Video showing their facility(s) and machining capabilities

We still maintain the site do this day (12/02/09) and are proud to call them a lifelong client of our design firm.