Website Launch – Floral Chic Design
Today is the launch of www.floralchicdesign.co.uk.
It’s a website I have designed for a new business specialising in bespoke flower arrangements and bouquets. If you would like to see the website in all it’s glory then please visit
http://www.floralchicdesign.co.uk/
Below is a detailed discussion on the websites various features and the development process. If you would prefer a shorter description and a few more pics then please click on the image above.
Design
My client wanted the website to have a modern and “funky” feel, along with a floral, arty look. This proved a difficult look to get right and after much research we decided to use the background image you see before you. This excellent bit of artistry comes courtesy of gerard79. You can find more examples of his great work on his website or in his stock.xchange account.
Such a powerful background made certain demands on the rest of the website’s appearance and layout. I’ve used pink semi-transparent (png) images to provide a screen to the important contact information and contact form at the bottom of each page. This also helps to create a nice “section” for this information to help it stand out.
Structure & Layout
As previously mentioned, the powerful background has a dramatic influence on the rest of the website. The floral design in the top left corner meant that the logical place for the heading/logo was on the top right. A right-sided navigation system then followed, leaving the content to take up residence on the left hand side.
This actually works really well as you are drawn instantly (as a left-to-right reading person) to the image slideshows and text, without having to skip over the links. The photo’s of the clients work are what’s going to sell her products/service more than anything else.
Content.
Slideshows form the key component of the content. As each design is bespoke and has an inherently short shelf-life, photographic evidence of it’s existence is all that is left. These photographs are the deal makers. As such I wanted to give a large portion of each page, and indeed the whole website, over to the slideshow of photographs.
I considered a list of images rather than a slideshow, but felt this was an uglier and less dynamic approach.
The client is able to manage the content of these slideshows via her Flickr account. By uploading images and assigning them to specific sets I was able to set up an intelligent slideshow that would update as my clients Flickr photo sets update. This was achieved using the excellent www.flickrslideshow.com tool.
Other content comes from Facebook via a live stream. Using the Facebook API, all my clients posts, comments, and fan responses can be viewed from the website. This works particularly well for the “News & Events” page and the “Testimonials” page.
Other content is text based. This is also managed by my client via a lightweight Content Management System. Once again I have opted to use Cushy CMS. It really is terrific.
That’s that. Any thoughts, let me know.
DA
