My commitment is solely to delivering the best possible outcomes for my clients.
The websites I build are designed to be valid, semantic, standards-compliant, well structured, optimised for search engines, accessible, content-rich, user friendly, cross-browser compatible, good looking and successful. Flyman Partners websites are designed to grow.
I usually hand code XHTML (bring on HTML 5) and CSS (I use CSS3 at will), and otherwise work mostly with PHP, MySQL, Javascript, Photoshop, a dash of Flash and a shake of AJAX. But I use anything that works. I’ve become both adept with and fond of WordPress for its facility as a website content management and design management system rather than as blogging software.
In response to the needs of a significant proportion of my web design clients over the years, I provide domain name registration and web hosting services (to my design and development clients only), as well as all the structural design, page layout, visual design, coding, programming, images management, graphic design, copy writing and search engine optimisation work that goes into building a website that works.
I tend to develop ongoing working relationships with many of my web design clients, using my highly developed marketing skills to help meet their current and future needs.
In practical terms, I can personally handle all the details to make yours a successful website:
- domain name selection and registration,
- arranging or providing web hosting,
- creating original visual designs,
- deciding structural layout,
- undertaking copy writing,
- manipulating images and graphics,
- coding and programming in various languages,
- optimising websites so that search engine users find them,
- managing content and deploying content management systems,
- conducting user testing,
- developing and implementing applications
- all in a way that puts my clients in charge, and at a reasonable price.
Because my focus is on functionality and business outcomes as much as good web design, I always aim to create accessible, standards-compliant websites written with valid code and good semantic markup.
In this way I create very user-friendly websites that are optimised to achieve appropriate search engine rankings for relevant search terms.
Generally, I encourage my clients to first consider who their website is for and what they want it to achieve. Then we can look at what the content should be and how it can be created or imported.
After that comes establishing a site structure that will deliver the content most effectively to the site visitor. The final step is deciding on a look and feel.
I emphasise to my clients that a website is a process not a product. It’s never completely finished, although my role in its development may well reach a conclusion.
I embrace the opportunity to learn new skills with each website I work on, and I adopt and use the best of available technology.
My approach is usually to engage with our clients in some way to find out what they want from a website, who it’s for and what they expect to get out of it.
From that I can generally draft a proposal outlining the project, with defined outcomes, a timeframe and a costing.
That proposal may be amended by negotiation and, once agreed on, becomes a firm commitment.
Each project I’ve undertaken has been so different as to make generalisations about time and money difficult to sustain. I’ve built very good websites for less than $2,500 in a couple of weeks and I’ve worked on projects with budgets 20 times that amount that took over half a year.
My hourly rate is a flat AU$100 per hour (plus GST for Australian customers), although I will charge more for work with any combination of short timeframes, high monetary outcomes, requiring the use of third party applications or other exceptional circumstances. On the other hand, I also undertake a certain amount of cut-rate and pro bono web work for worthy causes.
I am equally happy undertaking projects that involve any or all of the steps just outlined, and I am just as willing to improve existing websites as to create new ones from scratch. I will work with other designers and/or project team members, and I’m a dab hand at turning graphic designs into web designs.
Need further information or a quote for a job? Contact me now
