Website Launch – identity>the>salon
This website design project was for a busy, trendy hair salon in South Manchester. The website was originally launched way-back-when in the Spring of 2007.
Since the site’s initial launch it has undergone a few transformations. Some changes were cosmetic, some were the additional requests of the client, and some were more to do with my advancing knowledge of XHTML, CSS and other web design languages and technologies.
This site has progressed and expanded overtime and is still a website I am very proud of today.
Screenshots from this website can be found at the bottom of this article.
Below is an expanded discussion of this website’s attributes and features:
Design.
The web site evolved organically over the development process. I was given a great deal of freedom by the client. Only the main dominant colour and font were predefined. Whilst this isn’t ideal for every web design project, it worked well for this assignment.
The salon is modern and stylish and so, naturally, the website had to be the same. The textured, tiled backdrop gives a softer, less clinical feel to the site that matches the warm welcome and relaxed atmosphere you find in the salon.
Shades of grey and pink, along with white lettering provide a modern feel.
The use of lowercase letters for all text on the site, coupled with a “retro” font (Courier New) give the website a “cool” and “trendy” edge that fits in nicely with the salon’s image.
CSS is used to control the appearance and layout of the elements on each page, leaving the XHTML to take care of the web site’s content. This is not only my preferred method of working, but is bang on W3C Guidelines. Adhering to W3C Guidelines is very important. If you would like to learn more about the W3C please go to www.w3c.org, or read my philosophy to website design.
Functionality.
Navigation is primarily achieved through the use of the drop-down menu available on all web pages. Access to the vast majority of the website is provided by this interactive menu system, giving excellent navigational options throughout the site. This avoids “dead ends” and the need for the visitor to use the “Back” button in their browser. Whilst many internet users are happy to use their browser buttons to aid their navigation of a website, I firmly believe that forcing a visitor to use these buttons due to lack of other options is a bad idea. Always having a link back or onwards from within the web page is primary.
The e-commerce area of the web site is used to sell hair products online. All the secure processing of payments is handled by PayPal© or ebay©. Both the client and I felt that this was the best solution as both PayPal© and ebay© are well-known and trusted methods, giving both my client and his customers confidence in the process. I was able to blend this third-party functionality into the elegant and subtle styling of the website.
A visitor to the site can chose to sign up for a regular email newsletter. This is an excellent tool for collecting customer information and targeted marketing. The processing of the form details is handled by a nifty PHP script that I adapted from one featured on the excellent www.jemjabella.co.uk website.
Extras:
JavaScript is used to provide a slide show on the homepage and on the gallery pages. This helps to convey a lot of information in a small area. Photographs of the salon give an immediate indication of it’s style to the website visitor far more effectively than words alone could achieve.
Please visit the website of identity>the>salon and let me know what you think by leaving a comment.
DA
