http://pioneerdesign.net/blog/ en dchism@pioneerdesign.net Copyright 2009 2009-11-06T14:01:06+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/m.b._jessee_painting_website_san_fransiscos_premier_paint_company http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/m.b._jessee_painting_website_san_fransiscos_premier_paint_company#When:13:01:06Z Pioneer Design and A David Creation have been working hard to complete M.B. Jessee's redesign of their existing website. They had a very good website that was designed 9 or 10 years ago, and the owner, Matt Jessee, was ready to create a new look and feel.M.B. Jessee is one of the most professional painting contractors in the San Fransisco and Bay Areas, and he wanted a website that reflected high end painting. It was rather easy for us to come up with a high-end design concept, especially after we viewed his portfolio. His work is beautiful. The project took us around 6 weeks from initial interviews, design concepts, samples, coding and final special finishes. The site, built on a Content Management program called, Expression Engine, includes  6 or 7 pages at this time. We have future plans to produce more relevant pages and content: including a customer area, where clients can download color schedules, request more work, and more. Finally, we created a improved blogging design, making it easier for his customers and visitors to browse and share his articles. The blog was built with better Search Engine Optimization techniques as well. View M.B. Jessee's Website The old website   Website Design, 2009-11-06T13:01:06+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/websites_for_painters http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/websites_for_painters#When:20:22:56Z Pioneer Design Group has partnered with a marketing management company called, "A David Creation." The company is operated by David Chism, who is a marketing manager and creative director for painting companies and small services businesses. David's background is rooted in the painting industry, which is why so many of his clients are painting contractors. He grew up in his families painting business in San Diego CA. In 2008, David moved his family to Maryland, not far from our Nation's Capitol. After he a time of adjusting to his new surroundings, David opened A David Creation full time. Pioneer Design Group has known David Chism for over 5 years and worked on many different projects together, primarily painting sites. Why so many painting sites? The very first website Pioneer Design Group accomplished was the Chism Brother's website. The two David's worked long and hard to make the website standout amongst its competitors' sites. The success was due to building a website that had the latest in web standards along with a few added creative fine touches. Most painting websites did not have good design, good use of color, easy navigation, or content. So, after the website was redesigned by Pioneer Design in 2004 with the new look, painters from around the country got a little, shall we say, jealous! We have gotten dozens upon dozens of inquiries from professional painting contractors asking us to do a website, quite a few saying, "And we want it to look like the Chism site." So, if you are a painting contractor that appreciates quality, wants an incredible looking website, does not want to manage the details and is willing to trust the design and creativity to Pioneer Design Group and A David Creation, we'd love to hear from you. Once again, we are a full service design company. When you decide to work with Pioneer, we can take care of the design, the copy, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), blogs, hosting and much more. So, if you think we are a good fit, contact us today. Website Design, 2009-10-22T20:22:56+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/marc_poulos_painting_website http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/marc_poulos_painting_website#When:19:31:21Z Marc Poulos came to use in May of 2009 to help him design a new website for his painting business in Chicago. Marc has been in the painting industry for over 20 years and had a strong client base. He recently changed the name of his company to Marc Poulos Painting & Decorating followed by a brand new logo. He wanted a website that would be search-engine friendly, easy to use and update and be a place to show off his incredible work. His clientele are very high-end and his work shows. With all of his priorities in mind, Pioneer Design created a website that met all of his needs and desires. The colors we and background give it an elegant look and feel. We wanted visitors to be “wowed” by the photograph of Marc’s work and the sophisticated look of the site. In other words, we wanted to attract Marc’s ideal client: people who would appreciate high quality painting services. Marc Poulos’ site is considered a “starter” site. What this means is that based on his budget and the economy, he wanted the site to look great but keep the amount of pages and information to a minimum at this time. We designed the site so that he can easily add additional pages and features in the months and years to come. View Marc’s Site Website Design, 2009-07-15T19:31:21+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/talking_human_walking_on_your_screen http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/talking_human_walking_on_your_screen#When:15:55:08Z One of the “creative” things I have been seeing lately on a few more “expensive” websites is a talking person appearing or walking onto the home page. A large contractor referral website, was one of the first I saw use this technique to capture a visitors attention. I then began to see other sites mimic their example. It is typical to see the CEO or the “voice” of the company walk onto the home screen (using flash) and begin all the reasons you should continue on his or her website.  The idea behind video and music on a home page seems good on the surface. It is typically attractive, well planned, organized but can be invasive! Sometimes, you can’t figure out how to turn it off! Now, do you really want to listen to a person start talking to you when you did not begin the conversation in the first place? It makes me feel like walking by a sales booth at a home show and hearing the salesman call out to me to hear his sales pitch as I try to avoid eye contact and move quickly by him! Most website visitors are probably sitting at their office with other employees nearby. The second their computer starts playing music or has a loud voice rambling on about the their company, the visitors get a little embarrassed knowing that others may be thinking they are “searching the web” during business hours!  If there is a way to pause the music or voice or simply turn it off, video and music can be used, in moderation! Site Evaluations, 2009-06-16T15:55:08+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/navigation_buttons http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/navigation_buttons#When:00:57:41Z I can’t help but notice the great job ATT Wireless did on their Home page since their last redesign. It is one of the best examples of good web usability I’ve seen in quite some time. They simplified their navigation buttons so it makes users less confused on where to start their “clicking.” Notice the three main buttons on the left-hand side of the page, it has the following: Explore, Shop, Support. Isn’t that the three main things people do on a cell phone website? Why is it that most other companies start their home page with 3x the amount of buttons: Business Solutions, Ringtones, Customer Service, Login, etc. It can be shorten into those three words mentioned above by ATT! A visitor will ask the quick questions? What do I want to do: Shop for a phone, Check out the latest phones and plans or get help?  It is a fact that web users, like yourself, like to find buttons and anything that can be clicked! However, you don’t like to second guess yourself wondering if the links work or be troubled about where to begin!  Building a website so that it reads well and is easy to Navigate is something we at Pioneer know how to do quite well. If your site is in need of a makeover and you want it done right, contact Pioneer Design Group. Site Evaluations, 2009-06-09T00:57:41+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/creating_forms_that_are_secure http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/creating_forms_that_are_secure#When:16:04:07Z I was looking over a website this morning for some advertising purposes and clicked on their “Pay Now” link. It took me to the payment section, and I could not believe what I found! This company, a publications company, has a VERY unsecure payment section. There is not a single icon or customer “peace of mind” that the site is secure! They ask for things like: Name, email, checking account #, routing # and even your credit card information! I cannot believe a company that is selling advertising spots for HIGH-END golf directories would be so careless as to have a website with these types of forms. The forms used are anything but secure!  When Pioneer Design Group designs a site, we will make sure we never compromise the security of your personal information or your clients. Site Evaluations, 2009-05-27T16:04:07+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/website_evaluations_marketing_services http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/website_evaluations_marketing_services#When:14:15:27Z Pioneer Design just added a “Marketing Services” page to their website. We’ve been offering this service for quite awhile but have now made it an active part of our company. If you have a current website, we can offer a website evaluation on usability, navigation and the overall design of the site. This would be a valuable service for you to consider as our suggestions to improve your site will improve your overall web marketing plan. No matter what your marketing or design needs are, Pioneer can help. Please visit our Marketing Page to see what we offer. 2009-05-26T14:15:27+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/keeping_your_site_fresh http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/keeping_your_site_fresh#When:23:15:41Z One thing that we routinely recommend is to keep your site fresh. Give your customers a reason to return to your site. Here's a few ideas. Post company news and specials. Let your customers know about the latest changes, new employees, and new services you offer. Highlight the latest specials you are running. It's also important to tie your website in with your complete marketing picture. If you are running ads include them on the site (preferably on the home page). Post TV ads, radio spots, newspaper or magazine ads. *You're already paying for these ads.* Extend the milage of this media by posting them online. Feature an "employee of the month" or introduce new staff. Keeping your site updated with current information will let people know you're growing. Another way to keep interest is to discuss your industry. Research topics of interest to your audience and write them in a blog. News, 2008-10-10T23:15:41+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/content_management http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/content_management#When:16:12:00Z Recently we’ve had clients ask if they could maintain their own websites and we’re happy to oblige. Having the power to update your own site gives you the freedom to make adjustments or new content anytime you like. The term used to describe this type of control is content management system (CMS). As has been explained in previous articles, by using CSS to separate the content of your site from its structure, management of information becomes much easier. Imagine if you were to take that a step further by creating containers for your information which could be arranged anywhere on your site and to which you could add content as easily as typing a letter in your favorite word processor. That’s the power of a CMS. By creating the site with a CMS engine no matter the size, the ability to update many areas of the site is in your hands - without the need for knowledge of any complex code. If that sounds like what you’re looking for, contact us today! Blogging, 2006-10-20T16:12:00+00:00 http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/web_standards_benefits http://pioneerdesign.co/blog/web_standards_benefits#When:19:36:00Z Now that we’ve explained some of the history of the web and defined what web standards are lets take a look at how you could directly benefit from the use of web standards in your web site. Lower Development Costs By using web standards your site’s appearance can be crafted much faster than with older methods. The key is the use of CSS to control the entire design of the site vs making changes to every singe file on the site.  A simple example of this would be the design of your site header. Previously the code to build the header would be complex and would have to be repeated on every page. If you needed to change a part of the header (make it larger/smaller) each page would have to be individually edited. By using web standards you could define the header once in the pages and once in the CSS. Then you could instantly change the header in the entire site by altering the single CSS file. Using web standards makes building a website faster and thus cheaper. And that’s something everyone can appreciate. Faster Loading Sites built with web standards load faster - sometimes much faster - than sites built with older methods. The reduced but more elegant code used allows browsers to draw the pages faster. Better Search Engine Rank Having a higher search engine rank can drive more business to your door. Search engines can understand sites built with web standards much easier than their older counterparts. Instead of having to wade through invalid markup a search engine can “see” your pages much more clearly. Having the content separated from the design lets the search engines get right to the “meat” of your site. This allows your site to rank higher and thus can drive more visitors to your web site. More Accessible Web standards were created with accessibility in mind. By making a site accessible to disabled visitors you get a larger audience. Blind visitors use screen readers to understand web sites. A well designed site is easily understood by these screen readers. In addition you would be in compliance with any anti-discrimination legislation. Cheaper to Update Websites need new content added from time to time in order to keep the site fresh.  An occasional site redesign also keeps a website interesting and more efficient. Because the content of a web standards site is separate from the design its is far easier to make these type of changes.  Adding or editing text is quite simple. And giving the site a new design is also made much easier since the single CSS file controls the look of the whole site. Conversely, outdated sites are very costly to make changes to and redesigns are like starting the job over. Universal Language When a site is created with modern web standards it’s much easier for a new developer to understand and change. This means you are not locked into using the original developer for changes should you need to change. Designed for the Future As new technologies and browsers emerge they will support web standards. It’s likely they will not be forgiving to incorrect and outdated methods of design. Building a website on these standards ensures compatibility for the years to come.  2006-08-31T19:36:00+00:00