The site that we designed and built most recently was for Fox Mountain Guides & Climbing School. After months of working closely with the client to create a website that fit the brand and the technology needs, it is now live at foxmountainguides.com.
What we love most about working with new clients is the opportunity to learn a lot about their practice to gauge what they want their viewers to know and learn once they land on their site. The steps we followed while working with the client to redesign her site are described in this article.
Mapping out content by developing wireframes is a key step in designing a site. It’s the step that allows you to go over the client’s content to make sure all the important details are included. The time to rewrite copy is a major step in redesigning a site. Websites are not purely colors and images, but content as well, because without the right words, websites can become bare or overwhelming and not eye-catching. We focus on decluttering content from previous sites and organizing the new content strategically to ensure that the audience’s needs are being met and that the site is user-friendly.
We had to come up with a design that was not overwhelming to FMG’s visitors, especially if they were new to rock climbing. We wanted visuals to showcase the beauty of the routes they take on their trips, and luckily, FMG took a lot of their own photos. Because Fox Mountain Guides is a climbing school, a lot of their content was informative (what to wear when rock climbing, what equipment is used, what each course entails, etc), we didn’t want their site to seem like one never-ending brochure of what they did. We carefully designed it so it was like an adventure, a journey, into learning more about FMG and what they have to offer. With the use of properly placed call-to-action buttons, different categories neatly organized, and the handy sidebar navigation to always guide the visitor on where they are at on the site, the visitor never gets lost on their route!
Since FMG relies heavily on their scheduled courses to generate visitors, we created their own custom course schedule page with the functionality of searching for the type of courses, location and category. This way visitors wouldn’t need to browse through the pages of scheduled courses if they’re fixated on a specific course such as Rock Climbing 101 for beginners or even AMGA Climbing Wall Instructor Courses. Each course gets a very detailed list of what it course entails and a “book now” button for immediate booking.
Nowadays, everyone is always on the go…So, at HLJ Creative, we make sure all our sites are all responsive. This allows those of you who are reading the site on your lunch break, at your desk during downtime, in a waiting room, etc. to get all the information right on your phone or tablet without having to magnify it with your fingers. Everything is legible and easy to read!
From our previously blogged-about site, Casino Promotions, to our latest site, Fox Mountain Guides, we demonstrate that we can work with a wide variety of clients. We dedicate our time, creativity, and ideas to each of our clients and help them every step of the way to build their dream site. In addition to working with clients to understand the goals of their business or organization, we create high quality designs and build them out using skilled custom programming. This combination of efforts helps ensure that clients get a strong return on their website investment.
Interested in a new design for your site that’s user-friendly on your end and your visitors? Let us know, and we can personalize and customize it just for you.