The client: Ignite Life Weight Loss Retreat
The brief: Design a website, which promotes a new weight-loss retreat to potential domestic and international customers. Client supplied their current corporate colours. Site must be easily updated, with the flexibility to grow in the future to allow more content and space for advertisements.
What’s running the site? WordPress, and a base theme from StudioPress, called Lifestyle. This is a professional theme, well written for search engine optimisation (SEO), with a large scope for customisation. I am still customising the theme to suit the clients needs.
This is my latest online project. The site has reached a draft stage with layout, fonts and colour schemes almost complete. Content, including text and images is currently being either designed or edited. The next step in the process is to finalise the existing content and images and test on various browsers and platforms.
Below is a set of four thumbnails showing the evolution of the site to date, from template to customised design. (click to see an enlarged image)
UPDATE (July 20, 2009): The site if now launched and ready for viewing. Ignite Life Weight Loss Retreat
UPDATE (July 21, 2009)
Plugins used
Why? To allow better search rankings and results and have better control over the site’s description
Why? To rotate (only when entire page is reloaded) two promotional images linked to latest news and special offers.
Why? This plugin uses flash to rotate images on the homepage which are linked to all primary pages and two posts. It allows good flexibility in setup including image size, timing and displayed text. The images become one of the primary focuses of the site and allows another entry path to critical pages. For safety I have avoided other plugins that rely on flash, as I have read there may be some conflicts occurring.
Why? Redirect feeds via google feedburner and therefore monitor subscribers.
Why? The site was initially constructed behind a page which showed a ‘site under construction page’ and yet allowed me, as administrator to view the site as it was constructed. It was easier and more convenient then using an index.html page. In the future it can be used for site maintenance so that changes aren’t performed publicly.
Why? A very simple form creator. Used for a general contact form and a booking form. I have used cforms on other sites but MM Forms was quicker and neater, although it does lack the options of cforms.
Why? Helpful with plugins such as Featured Content Gallery where page and post IDs are required. IDs are displayed in the admin panel.
Why? Provideds a neat, simple button for bookmarking and sharing both pages and posts.
Why? While editing pages and posts this plugin allowed easy anchor placement and management and the ability to insert tables, for example, to show dates of certain programs and availability.
Why? Simple statistics of visitors, popular posts and page views within the WP Admin panel. Used for comparison with Google Analytics.
Why? Provides a very different variation on the standard wordpress sticky post feature. I wanted to permanantly display three posts and their custom field based images on the home page. In a sense these posts are the front cover images of all other posts in that category as well as being an index for further content. I felt this was more user friendly for those not familiar with standard blog layouts.
Graphics and photographs used on the site
The header graphic and other graphics on the front page were designed by Lyndal Chase. Most photographs were taken by me. Although some stock images have remained in the footer image (at the bottom of the page) and one of the rotating slide show images (the apple). These were initially used as reference images and will be replaced in the future to avoid copyright issues.
Initial comments on the design
“that looks great, greg!” Mon July 20, 2009
Rebecca Diamond (Senior Moderator – StudioPress)
“That looks great. Well laid out, clean Nice job!” Mon July 20, 2009
Debra, Fat Cat Designs (Senior Moderator – StudioPress)
Further comments or suggestions are always welcome, be they negative or positive.
Very good tips on the subject. Thank you
.-= Melina´s last blog ..What You Can Do To Reduce Your Risk Of Blood Clots =-.