Quick Start Guide
Understanding your business
This may sound like a pretty straight forward question, but it's amazing how many business' don't ask themselves; "what do we want from our web site?" More »
Understanding your audience
Develop your web site around the needs of your audience.Wait! "It's our web site, surely we should build it around what we want?" WRONG More »
Developing site content
Always remember: content is key. In most cases this is the only reason people visit web sites. If the information they find is of poor quality or out of date then you will soon lose them as a site visitor. More »
Web site design
Designing web sites is a complex business, as a designer you have to put yourself in the shoes of both the intended audience and the owner of the site. So what do you look for in a web designer? Before we go in to that it's worth turning the clock back to the early days of web site 'design'. More »
Ongoing development
A web site is like a puppy - not just for christmas, for life. You may have spent months preparing the material for your web site, once that information is live however you need to devote time to keeping that information up to date. More »
Promoting your site
Creating a well-designed website is the first step in your internet marketing strategy. Once the website has been created and optimized, there are further techniques to employ that will drive traffic to your website for successful, long-term results. More »
home / our philosophy
Our Philosophy
We firmly believe that simplicity is the key to a good web site. A simplistic approach should be applied across all areas of web site development.
We believe a web site should:
- Provide your audience with the information/material they require.
- Provide the information in a way that is both accessible and quick to download. Ideally, the user should not be required to download and install additional software/plug-ins to view the information.
- Provide a quick and intuitive means of navigating the site. A navigation 'menu' is a good way of directing users to the information. Regular or experienced users may benefit from site search facilities or 'drop down' menus throughout the site.
- Use technologies appropriate to both the information being provided and the audience. Remember, most site visitors are looking for information and they will want access to that information as quickly as possible. Poor site design and inappropriate use of technology lead to a bad user experience - ultimately this will lead to loss of potential business.
- Be quick to access. A well designed and well constructed web site should optimize the speed at which the user sees the site. Slow web sites are one of the main causes of users hitting the 'Stop' or 'Back' button on their browsers. Large graphics, poorly constructed web pages and the use of inappropriate technologies add to the overall size of a web site and ultimately slow the site down - causing frustration amongst the site audience.
- Be visible by a wide section of browsers. At RSD we develop web sites according to HTML standards. Browsers that support those standards (IE, Netscape, Opera etc.) should have no problem viewing sites that adopt the HTML standards.
- Accommodate the visually impaired. This can be achieved via a number of different approaches, the simplest form is to implement a very basic 'text only' version of the site - this should be accessible via the home page.
- Content rich. Users visit web sites to retrieve information, regardless of its form, information is the key to fulfilling their visit to your site.
