This Lesson Task was about performance and I was to find 5 examples of websites coded and designed for performance.
Web performance refers to the speed in which web pages are downloaded and displayed on the user’s web browser. Faster website download speeds have been shown to increase visitor retention and loyalty and user satisfaction, especially for users with slow internet connections and those on mobile devices. Web performance also leads to less data travelling across the web, which in turn lowers a website’s power consumption and environmental impact. (Wikipedia, 2021)
For this week’s assignment I had to find a business owner and ask them what they want from a website, what their business strategy is and how the website would fit into it. After writing a detailed document about it, I should create the website architecture. Last, I was to create the website design strategy and justify all the major decisions I make on domain registration and hosting, design, target audience and programming.
ABOUT THE BUSINESS
Name Flores Marta (fictitious client)
Product or service Flores Marta is a small local florist’s located in Valladolid, Spain. We offer flower arrangements for events, interior decoration, funeral flowers and gifts. We receive part of our flowers and plants directly from Holland, one of the world’s biggest producers. Besides, we have our own nursery in the town’s outskirts, where we grow the rest of our products. This way, we guarantee the freshness of our plants and flowers, so they last longer.
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Business’ Name Flores Marta
Mission Statement Normalise flowers and plants’ use in day-to-day life by offering fresh, durable and affordable arrangements and solutions.
Objectives 1 – Sell flowers and plants 2 – Offer a wide variety of floral arrangements 3 – Grow a trust relationship with the community
Value Proposition 1 – Fresh and long-lasting products 2 – Personalised arrangements 3 – Support local commerce and community
Elevator Pitch Flores Marta guarantees fresher, longer-lasting cut flowers in your home or event.
How the website would fit into your business strategy I want my website to showcase the work we do, showing photos of the bouquets and arrangements we prepare. Initially, we will not sell online because we prefer to create a relationship with the clients first and offer them personalised assistance. We want to use the web as a catalogue for our customers, where they can also find the contact details and address for them to contact or visit us. In the future, when the community has grown, we would like to introduce online shopping. The web should clearly state the origin of our products and our involvement in the local community. I want the website to reflect our brand with a fresh, clean design. It must be easy to navigate.
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE
WEBDESIGN STRATEGY
Domain and hosting The domain name suggested to my client is the business’ name, which is relevant, memorable and usable. For the suffix, we chose .com since it is available. We also decided to purchase .es, the specific suffix in Spain, and redirect it to http://www.floresmarta.com. For hosting, I recommended BlueHost, as it is currently ranked as one of the best services for small businesses, ideal for WooCommerce and very popular for WordPress sites.
Design The website design will be clean and fresh, intuitive and user-friendly with a focus on visual content. It will display correctly in all browsers and be responsive on mobile. A picture carousel in the website header will show the florists’ most relevant work. The web will only be updated occasionally on special dates. The business’ Instagram feed will be displayed on the site to show pictures of the latest orders and work.
Target Audience My client wants to target local women between 25 and 55 who enjoy shopping in their town and support local businesses.
Programming The web will be built in WordPress, as it is easier for my client to manage the occasional updates they might need. Some features can be customised with additional CSS and modifying the PHP files. Once they are ready to add online orders, it will be easy to add WooCommerce to the web to create the shop.
This is the first Lesson Task (previously called Learning Activity) of the second year of Graphic Design (GRA2).
In this case, I was to create a detail brief for a client’s website. This brief should contain all the information that will be needed to achieve the client’s requirements. It should be good enough to hand over to any design/programming team and get a great result.
The brief should cover the following sections:
What is the client’s service/product?
What are their requirements?
What is the website’s goal?
How are you going to achieve this goal?
Build the website architecture (so we can see what sections will be needed)
What is the design style that will be required?
What are your suggestions for marketing the site?
I chose the same client as for my Semester Project last year. See the link here.
Mónica's Design Journey 