Hi Guys ... pain in the bum again  :shock:

I am in the process of redesigning my website from scratch but I am so stuck as to how I would like it to look I could do with different points of view as to what people would expect to see on a website such as mine.

I currently offer twisting, face painting, glitter tattoos, mini makeovers and SFX on my Loony Balloony site but am going to drop the mini makeovers and SFX as I just do not enjoy them nor do I do enough of them to keep my skills up.

The new site will be offering twisting, face painting and glitter tattoos but also balloon décor so the look of the site needs to be suitable to all these different activities which I do not feel my current website offers.  I am planning on having my galleries on each relevant page i.e. twisting gallery on the page for twisting etc and in the same way as it currently is i.e. thumbnails on the page and when you click the background gets faded out with a larger picture in the middle.

I have also had a logo designed and this is it:-

[attachment=0:1azao3ra][/attachment]Copy of noswirl2.jpg[/attachment:1azao3ra]

I feel a white background would look better with the logo but then again I don't have to use it on the website.  Do I go sophisticated to appeal to corporate and wedding clients or try to find a middle ground? Where do you prefer Navigation bars to be? Should I separate the services off into Décor & entertainment and then subdivide or should I just list all the services I offer and have a page for each all in the main navigation?  What things have you seen on websites that you like and what have you hated.  Are more pictures better or is it just distracting?

Okay so enough with the questions I am sure you all get the idea I am after any info any of you would care to share  

Hi Yvonne,

the design, its look etc is really your choice.

However please bare these points in mind.

1) Keep it simple and easy to use.
2) Keep each page quick to upload.
3) good photos are worth 1000 words
4) Contact details on each page
5) think who Your customers are now and who you would like them to be. Then make the site for them.


I did have one design idea - the flower logo that you have could be the welcome page with each petal linking to the page. Eg, one petal is twisting, another facepainting, another petal glitter stuff etc. You can add a contacts page, a quotes from clients page and so on....

Your welcome to use this idea or variations if you wish.
good luck

Danny

Cheers Danny.  The technical side I already knew as I have been designing websites for the last 7 years and although I'm not expert I feel I have been doing okay since I am certainly getting people to my websites.

My bigger problem is that since learning a bit about CSS (and seeing what is possible) I have totally confused myself as to how I would like my website to look and that is why I am asking for suggestions.  Obviously not everyone's ideas on what looks nice on a website would be the same as mine but it would be nice to have some input.  It is also nice to have alternative perspective as the first design I was working on my DH said to him it looked to business like and was not really suited to what I was doing and the second one was a bit "Humph" which I assume is code for Naff?  

Has anyone seen a website recently they thought was really good?  If so could you let me have a link? What design features do you like on a website and what do you hate?

Just had a quick look at your sites Yvonne and both look fresh and inviting.
The only thing that I would always have 100% of the time is a landline number, you can have the mobile as well but a landline is a must.
But this is only my opinion.

Graham thanks for the compliment but the face painting one is not really a good website technically and is full of developments bodges.  Not only that but it is also not at all appealing to someone looking for an artist to decorate their wedding or corporate function.

The Loony Balloony site is okay but again there is way too much code and to fix the problems I have caused would take me longer than it would to completely redo the whole site from scratch.  I am also thinking too many people (especially face painters) seem to be going for the black background and I would like to stand out in potential customers eyes iyswim?

I am thinking possibly white background with accents of colour but cannot decide on the layout i.e. similar to what I already have or whether to have a side navigation bar.  I am erring to the side Navigation bar because I can lay it out with main headers that don't take you anywhere and then the services listed underneath and indented slightly i.e. Entertainment > Face Painting > Twisting > Temporary Glitter Tattoos.

I think the problem I have is that I will have two separate markets that slightly overlap but that will be looking for different things and in trying to find a happy medium I am doing my own head in    I am still trying to work out whether if I designed my website to be appealing to potential décor clients would it put potential party clients off?  I feel if I did it the other way round a party style site would put off corporate and wedding clients.

To me "Loony Balloony" is about balloons.

So face painting, glitter tattoos, mini makeovers and SFX (what's sfx?) would not be relevant.

Different site for each skill would look less confusing.

Would a prospect looking for a face painter be put off seeing balloons. and look elsewhere?

Agree with Graham on mobile number.

No offence but I have had the 2 websites discussion before as well as the phone number debate too.  These are not going to change.

I have 2 small kids and have had calls from clients as late as 10.30pm so if just having a mobile loses me business then so be it but I am not disturbing my kids sleep for anyone.  With my mobile I can turn it off of an evening.

I have also been running 2 websites for a year now and it is a logistical nightmare ... I mean how do you answer the phone when you don't know which company they are calling and how do you have a business account if you have 2 different biz names?  I made the decision a while back to have ONE website offering everything rather than 2 websites and went with the Loony Balloony name mainly because I have my insurance in that name and because I would rather be known as the twister who also face paints than the face painter who dabbles in twisting.

At the end of the day all I am asking for input on is what people find ascetically pleasing about websites in general and what they specifically would expect to see on a website offering décor, twisting and face painting?

Oh do I know your probelm Yvonne - we moved our website rapidly from the guy who built it and hosted it for us earlier this year and at present it is a static site (killing me not being able to change it, but believe me better than staying where it was) and if we had moved all my picutres been told would have received 4 of each on the new gallery so having to in put gallery all over again.

I know at present all web designers promote 12-20 pictures only - but in an artistic company we need far more and I am sorry I wil have as many as I need, had 1200 on last site and wont be told different.

We too are now seriously looking at what we do with our site, but have a more limited knowledge than you seem to have and everyone seems to have upped thier prices so much, it may be down to me to sort..

I like your idea of galleries relating to each craft of each editorial page, so they can see what they are reading about.

I too do face painiting but it is not a big part of our business and I think our website and name reflects that.

Corporate, councils and Agencies will book you because you have a company name rather than a private name at the moment and your key words can bring up your face painting page.

We get a lot of brides interested in the entertainment and book it as an addition to the wedding decor and will spend more than a party because others are not aiming at that market.

I understand where Graham and you are coming from on the phone numbers - people like to phone a local number and I am afraid a mobile number indicates part time and an 08** number indicates national company.  

I know its a pain but why not promote it and divert it to your mobile or take on another local number different to your home one that you have permanently diverted to your mobile.. I find most people who find us on the web use email for first contact anyway.

I love your petals and agree with Danny, why not have that as a front page and links on the petals to the rest of the site

Pam
xx

well I am going with the tagline "let us add the colour to your event" so it does tie in nicely but I have found the logo does not sit nicely over background / banner images and without one it looks a little plain.

There are so many web design elements to consider I really wish I had some kind of idea of what I wanted the site to look like.  I can honestly say the more I look the more confused I become as to what I like  :?

I think you are right though Pam aiming at the décor market is preferable to the entertaining market.

Re: the landline number I am looking at getting a Skype phone at some point but with transferring the business over to Loony Balloony I have a lot of expenses and just cannot afford to get a landline for the business at the mo.  Also not sure if there are any available on cable at present as when we moved in we were told we had to wait to have broadband installed as there was not enough lines!  I may look into BT at some point too who knows ;0) but also at the moment I am only part-time and bringing in less than a part timer should so can't really afford it.

QuoteI have 2 small kids and have had calls from clients as late as 10.30pm

Fully agree calls in the evening are a pain.

That's why my voice mail says the office is closed or it's the weekend and I'm out doing parties. The unit I use can play different messages at times I pick.

I never answer phone out of office hours (10am -7pm)....If they don't leave a message then it's not important.

Having different Business accounts is not a problem I had 3 at one time.

As you are looking a Skype I assume you have broadband.

Have you checked out Vonage.

It cost me £5.99 p/m and that include all my calls. You can also have a any area number you want.

I do have broadband but at present have no internet phone but is Vontage a company or a service provider and does it require you to have a BT landline?  We get stuffed regularly on media deals because we are with Virgin and everyone other than Virgin want you to have a BT line  :evil:

Here is a link to their site http://www.vonage.co.uk/

Try their free phone for questions.

You would still keep virgin (or BT).