carricdesign.com

I have been working alongside some very dedicated volunteers over the past few months on the Kingston WritersFest website. Everything is geared towards the five-day festival that runs in September.

One of the challenges has been in getting changes up on the website when more than one person has access to the files.

Even in my careful moments, I need a system to make sure that I am not overwriting the changes that my colleague has just made. Right now, the system consists of a big sticky note on my file folder, reminding me to download a fresh copy of the file…before I start working on it.

Despite the fact that we have both made errors, having only two people working on the files is fairly safe. If more were involved, it would definitely be time to head towards a project management system that would allow users to check out the files and require them to be checked back in before another user could modify them.

On another note, I want to recognize the hard work of Susan Olding, who has, with a few notes from me, schooled herself in tech-speak and has been doing a fabulous job of making updates to the site. My hat is off to her!

The Rearrangements website was a great opportunity to redesign a well-functioning website and take it up a notch.  The overall goals included not only making the site look professional, but re-organizing the material to make it easier to find.  A common problem with websites, this one had been added onto over the months since its first creation and had become a little disjointed.

One thing that this website owner understands is that content is king on the web.  The site is well-indexed by Google and shows up well in organic search results because the of excellent, keyword-rich, readable content that has been prepared and installed on the site.  While Google had no problem with the content, the key became re-organizing things so that humans were better able to find what they were looking for.

The result is a clean-looking, easy-to-navigate site that presents a great face for the business of home staging for this owner.

screen shot for Rearrangements Home Staging Services

Visit the site at www.rearrangements.ca.

The website for Celebrity Professional Teeth Whitening was a whirlwind wrapped in a hurricane.  The design and development happened over about 3 days, since we were racing the clock to get things up and running before the radio ad started.

screenshot from Celebrity Professional Teeth Whitening

The result is a very minimalist kind of site (which I like anyway) that is still able to portray the fun, energetic spirit of Celebrity without the clutter that can build up during a prolonged planning stage.

Would I like to build every site like this? Probably not. However, it was great to see how things could come together quickly and how elements, like the polaroid-type pictures, repeated throughout the site, could add continuity and flavour without clutter.

The site can be found at www.celebritywhitening.ca.

GT Air Home Comfort is launched!  The website features a nice clean, friendly look, thanks to the rounded corners (yay Web 2.0!) and the stock photography.  My favourite is the guy with the coffee cup.  Just makes me way to sit down for a chat on a sunny summer day at a cafe.

Screenshot of GT Air Home Comfort website

Check it out at www.gtair.ca