I excel at creating memorable websites which highlight the unique aspects of your company or project. I make user-friendly sites which engage your visitors’ attention. With a background in both business and visual arts, I bring a unique and valuable skill set to website design.

Strong inter-personal and communication skills:

• I listen carefully to gain a thorough understanding of your needs, and have a knack for anticipating the needs of your visitors;
• I explain the technical aspects of website design in plain language, in order to help you participate fully in the many decisions that go into creating a website;
• I’m sensitive to how much technical information you want, and give you as much as possible, in an easy-to-understand way, without technical over-load;
• I’m good at discerning which decisions you want to make, and which you’d like me to make;
• I offer options and make suggestions, while respecting and adapting my work to your style, preferences, and business decisions;
• I’m always mindful that the designer’s ego should never be an obstacle;
• I write clear, polite, pleasant, and understandable email and business correspondence.

Strong design skills & fine art training:

• I excel at providing image-appropriate designs and tailor them specifically to suit your image;
• I help you identify how you want to present yourself, and provide you with appropriate design options;
• I create visually (and tactilely) appealing web pages;
• I have a sharp eye for visual detail;
• Skilled at use of Photoshop for:
  • creating site-specific images and decorative elements;
  • designing page elements;
  • adapting your visual materials for website use;
  • optimizing images for use on websites;
  • minimizing file size and loading time;
  • enhancing visual appeal of images (“digital darkroom” enhancement);
  • strong typography skills for creating decorative type elements.

Outstanding information presentation skills:

• My emphasis is on creating user-friendly websites;
• Organizing information to enhance the visitor’s experience;
• Presenting information in a hierarchical, “as-much-as-you-want” manner.
• I create easy to use, intuitive, navigation schemes and tools:
  • I tailor site navigation to the character of the website.
  • I design navigation menus to guide and assist the visitor, while accounting for different levels of user sophistication and remaining mindful of the varied needs of different groups of visitors.

Excellent writing and editing skills:

• My focus is on the clear and appealing presentation of information.;
• I’m a friendly and helpful editor of text material;
• I have a strong understanding of the requirements of writing for the web, and of the unique, hierarchical ways in which a website requires that information be presented.

Big picture skills; exacting attention to detail:

• I’ll identify and take into account the needs of all groups of users — both the varied needs of my client, as well as the many sub-groups of website visitors;
• I’ll help you to make the most appropriate decisions about the website, from a cost/benefit perspective as well as an image-appropriate point of view;
• I give exacting attention to details of:
  • functionality;
  • visual appearance;
  • user experience.

Strong business background:

• I have experience in management of large companies and as an independent business owner;
• I understand how to put forward an image that will advance your organizational goals;
• I’ll help you identify and understand the many ways and levels in which a website can serve your needs.

Strong coding and site design skills:

• My emphasis is on clean, validating, standards-compliant and cross-browser coding;
• I use appropriate combinations of HTML, PHP, and java-script to create user-friendly, interactive, dynamic, and enjoyable web pages;
• Fluent and creative in the use of jQuery;
• I make extensive use of CSS style sheet coding for exacting visual presentation, as well as for manipulation of the DOM for smooth user inter-activeness;
• Strong attention to search engine optimization with an emphasis on creating well designed, content-rich, search engine-friendly websites;
• Thorough understanding and mindfulness of website security issues;
• Experienced in WordPress and Drupal theming and development, and Blackbaud NetCommunity and other content management systems.