Website Design

A beautiful purpose or a purposeless beauty?

Simon has done a wide range of web sites, many while working as Internet Business Manager for PC Paramedics Ltd and its subsidiary Web HQ Ltd.

These sites demonstrate the use of:

  • Cold Fusion and ASP which are server side scripting technologies, allowing among other things, dynamic database driven web sites.
  • Javascript, a client side scripting language.
  • DHTML, dynamic HTML, a combination of Cascading Styles Sheets, Javascript, HTML and the Document object Model that allows the web page to be displayed in an attractive way, include animation and client side interaction with the user.
  • HTML
  • VRML

Objective

Simon's objectives are

  • To create sites that can develop over time, without throwing away hard work.
  • To facilitate several people working on the same web site
  • To develop reusable web components for server and client side uses (more)

Four core design elements

achieving the objective.

The objective of creating a web site that can develop with time, rather than be replaced time and time again, is realised by separating four core design elements of the web site.

The four core design elements

  1. Design - The look and feel
  2. Data - The content of the site, static or in a database.
  3. User Interface - The navigation and web applications' interfaces.
  4. Application code - The server side code for any web applications

Most web sites confuse these four elements which results in expensive and difficult web site updates and upgrades. 

With this separation it is a trivial matter to change the

  1. look and feel (design),
  2. update the information on a page (data)
  3. or change the navigation structure (User Interface),
  4. Improve the web application code (Application code)

without having to interact with the other elements of the web site. 

Advantages

  • This means quicker and cheaper web site updates. 
  • The web site can grow to accommodate changing requirements, no complete site rewrites.
  • Multiple designers can work on different aspects of design without fear of integration problems later.
  • Components are reusable, for instance a login module server side code (Application code), the login form (User Interface), the login layout (Design - Look and feel) and the database backend with the user information (data) are all separate and so can be reused on another site without rewriting any code/html.

Examples of sites by Simon

Clients

Simon has designed web sites professionally working for himself (independent sites) and for a small IT consultancy, he has also developed sites for friends and himself (personal sites).

Web Site portfolio - examples of sites by Simon

QuickJump (this page)

Other pages

Your Web site

 

If you would like to discuss a web site project with Simon, please email using the address below.

You will find the rates are very reasonable and significantly cheaper both initially and in the long term than the competition due to the different and more efficient design techniques employed by Simon.

Initial consultations are free.

simon.moore@ndirect.co.uk

Web Site portfolio - examples of sites by Simon

Modular Design

Modular reusable web components

Over the years of designing web sites individually and as part of a team, Simon found it a necessity to design in a modular, reusable way.

Simon will shortly publish an article about how to work in a modular way both for server side components and equally importantly for client side components and web site design itself.

Here are some examples of modules Simon has designed, which he uses and reuses on many of the web sites he designs.

Client Side modules

  • Web site design module (HTML and CSS)
  • Form field validation (JavaScript)
  • DHTML element movement (HTML, JavaScript and CSS)
  • Button rollovers (HTML and JavaScript)
  • Image Preloading (HTML and JavaScript)

Server side modules

  • Form field validation (ASP or ColdFusion)
  • Discussion Forums / Guestbook (ASP or ColdFusion)
  • Member login, with multiple security levels and user management (ASP or ColdFusion)
  • Email address verification system (ASP or ColdFusion)
  • Email sending, SMTP (ASP, ColdFusion)
  • Web based email client, POP3 (ColdFusion)
  • Create new email accounts (ColdFusion)
  • Easy Content Management System, supporting multiple editors (ColdFusion)
  • Free ISP signup
  • Domain Name signup and web space configuration.
  • Easy Web based editing/Updating of pages (or parts of pages) stored on any server with FTP access (ColdFusion)
  • Easy Web based file management for web space. (ColdFusion)
  • Database access - general (ASP or ColdFusion)
  • Voting system (ASP or ColdFusion)
  • Image upload, with autothumbnail and image resize facilities (ColdFusion)
  • Counters, Form to Email, Imagemaps etc.

Other Modules

  • Statistics and graphing system for IIS log files (In progress, server and / or client software system)
  • Shopping cart, store management and checkout system - both server and client modules (ColdFusion)
  • Mailing lists
  • Email server control (ColdFusion)
  • Web server/ Email system and security diagnostics with web based reporting and administration controls (ColdFusion).

more

Introduction ¦ Curriculum Vitae ¦ Web Design ¦ Portfolio ¦ Research Interests