Web Design
Your Site Before It Goes Live
Right now, our team may be in the middle of creating a website for your business.
If so, you’re probably as excited as we are to see the finished product.
In this article, we’re going to explain what your site looks like during development and how it looks when it’s in the final stages before launch.
Your Web Design Doesn’t Look Like The Commercials
Most people have seen commercials or videos where someone is creating a website, and they’re just moving boxes around. When our clients ask to see their website, often they’re visualizing something similar.
Many people think what we’re doing in the final stages is typing text into empty fields, swapping out images from a gallery of choices, resizing page elements and basically just moving things around and customizing a “template.”
This is what many web design companies do, but Spade Design is very different. We actually develop sites from the ground up, so they are completely unique and fitting for your business.
We build our own framework that we have been developed for our custom version of WordPress. Which is what powers over 80% of the web, and most major websites that you use on a regular basis. This also helps us perform updates over ten times faster than other companies.
(Want to know a secret? Other web design groups have begged us to sell our system to them so they can use them. Don’t worry, we don’t allow this).
To put it simply, we create web designs that make businesses stand out and convert users to leads.
If you have Spade Design’s service, we’re not dragging and dropping pictures and locked into a template. We’re creating everything from scratch, however, we want, to fit our needs and our goals.
Why Custom Web Design Is Better
Say you’re opening a restaurant, and you’re planning what you’ll serve. You could go to the grocery store and get packaged food in the freezer section, then you just heat it up and make it look pretty on a plate.
Or you could hire a chef, someone who knows the subtle nuances of different flavors, how to pair them in revolutionary ways, and to create something no one else can.
The frozen package is still food. It probably tastes alright, and if your food is cheap and fast you might be happy.
You see where we’re going with this…
A chef is constantly blending their experience and background knowledge about food to take risks that make people’s mouths water. Every ingredient they use is of the highest quality and expertly prepared. They don’t just make food, they create masterpieces. The finished product is a visual delight and delightful to consume. It’s the difference between frozen chicken nuggets and magic.
But even in today’s “instant” world, masterpieces take time.
Magic is happening with your site, but it doesn’t look anything like it will at launch. We’re working with the components, the raw ingredients if you will.
What Your Website Currently Looks Like
Have you ever seen the science fiction film “They Live?” Roddy Piper finds a pair of sunglasses that show the world the way it truly is. When he puts them on he sees messages and aliens that were hidden without them.
What you see when you look at a published web page is a little bit like that. Your site isn’t at that stage yet, but it will be soon. We don’t have sunglasses that let you see aliens and subliminal messages, but we can give you a peek at the code if you really wanted to.
When people use website builders, what they see on the screen when they’re moving boxes and changing images isn’t the actual code. It’s the human-computer interface the software uses to make things user-friendly and have a pleasurable user experience (UX).
We work with tools that let us manipulate code. For example, when you look at the home page at EnjoyTyler.com, you see this:
That’s the front end of their site. Everything you see there is a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript all being displayed by the browser.
Your site will have fonts, buttons, contact forms, navigation menus and everything else you expect, it just doesn’t look like that until it’s finished. During the design phase, we’re working with code. Here’s an example of what it looks like while we are building everything.
It looks very different, doesn’t it?
HTML and CSS are at the core of web pages. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) describes page structure. We use it to produce pages that have headings, tables, images, and text. We also use HTML to add hypertext that becomes a link when users click, incorporate video clips and a host of other activities.
What you see above is some of the HTML on the homepage. Your site will have something similar.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the language that applies to colors, layouts, and fonts. It works independently from HTML and allows your site design to adapt for different devices. JavaScript is a computer programming language we use to create interactive effects within browsers.
Your Own Pair of Alien Decoder Glasses
Some people think coming face to face with code is as frightening as realizing you’re actually surrounded by aliens. However, if you’re curious about source code it’s something anyone can see on a published website.
To see HTML content and internal CSS styles, open any webpage in Chrome. Right-click anywhere and choose “View Page Source” from the menu. On a PC you can also use CTRL + U. On a Mac using Chrome as your browser go to menu button (the three vertical dots in the top right corner). From there choose “More Tools” -> “Developer Tools.”
Your Web Design Experts
Your custom-built site is becoming a powerful tool. Once it’s complete, it’ll be pretty easy to make changes. In fact, we see the launch of the website as one of the most fun parts. This is when you’ll be able to view the website as it is meant to be seen.
We offer our Success in Spades Guarantee because we’re confident in our ability to deliver the custom website design you need to grow your business. If you aren’t already working with us for your marketing needs, get in touch today.
