Website design
Website design.
Whether you need a straightforward 5-page website, or a complex multi-capability site, we have the experience and toolsets to deliver your requirements.
A selection of site archetypes are outlined below – we build these types of site, and more!
Find out more below about the SparkStorm magic ingredients for site design, our capabilities, how we work, and our pricing.
Site archetypes.
Professional business site
- usually up to 5 pages
- easy to navigate & find information
- options for add-on functionality such as a booking calendar or portfolio gallery
- hooks to encourage visitors to get in touch
eCommerce site
- usually 5-10 core pages
- eCommerce web store functionality
- online payment capability
- often with integrated marketing & analytics
Community forum
- built for user contribution
- includes forum or message board functionality
- often medium to high traffic levels
- needs to accommodate high user base
Bespoke multi-capability site
- addressing multiple user personas
e.g. parent/pupil, suppliers/staff/customers - user access control
- multiple add-on capabilites
- frequent new content
The SparkStorm difference.
What’s so good about a SparkStorm website then?
Outstanding websites must excel across a range of design components which include visual creativity, structure & flow, technical excellence and functional excellence.
You can read more about these below. We are meticulous in making sure that all of these fundamental design components are taken care of for your website. This gives your site THE best chance of getting in front of your audience and giving them an outstanding experience.
Visual creativity
Imagery
Use of photos and icons to bring richness and visual beauty to the website is a core fundamental for stunningly beautiful websites
Colour palette
Using carefully selected colour choices and combinations, allows the website to have a consistent visual appearance which helps build and reinforce brand identity
Typefaces & fonts
Not all typefaces and fonts are suitable for every website. The nature of the business and its brand identity must be considered when selecting fonts
Video
In certain cases, video content can enhance the impact of the website. This is not always a given however – we can help guide you if video content is appropriate
Structure & flow
Device responsiveness
Another core fundamental is the adoption of responsive design for the website. This ensures the site appears at its best, regardless of which device is used to view the site
Flow
Sequencing content appropriately gives the reader the right messages and information at the right time
Navigation
Using menus, links and buttons to manage how the user browses the site with ease
Layout
Headers, sidebars, footers, full-width, grid. There are many layout format choices available. We make the right choices for you
Functional excellence
UX
Building an overall User-eXperience design which delivers on the core purpose of your website. UX requirements for a sports website will differ to that of an interior design website
Commercial optimisation
Commercial optimisation means converting viewers into customers, maximising basket size and much more. We have many techniques to achieve this
Site functionality
Many sites need more than words and pictures. Add-on functionality can include bookings capability, message boards, membership areas, site search, event calendars, file upload/download, user access control, collaboration tools. We can do it all
Technical excellence
Speed
Fast-loading sites are a non-negotiable. Slower sites will fare poorly in search engine rankings. We apply a number of techniques to boost speed including minification, lazy loading and content delivery networks
Security
Protecting your website from hackers, and ensuring your audience is protected, is more than just an SSL certificate. We take more than 50 configuration actions to make your site robust and safe
Search performance
Being placed high in Google search results brings more traffic and potential customers to your site. We have a range of SEO tools & techniques to help boost your search performance
How we work.
We’re a friendly bunch, who are easy to talk with. And while we have a structured process which we use to drive the development of the websites we build, we can be flexible when needed too.
Our structured approach for website development is outlined below.
1. Discovery
The process usually starts with a video call, where we find out everything we need to know about your requirements.
Read more
We’ll cover lots of topics, including:
- Business overview
- Site purpose
- Branding, colours, logo
- Competition
- Keywords
- Content sources
- Business data (contact etc)
- Domain names
- Design preferences
Depending on your requirements, we may have follow-up calls or some in-person meetings.
2. Research & content sourcing
Next we undertake research to help determine the keywords which are used when people search for your kind of business. We also assemble a content outline covering copy (the words) and media (icons, images, video, graphics).
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Having created the content outline, we now need to get our hands on the content for the website. This will be text, images, icons, graphics, video.
Sometimes this content will be provided by our client. In other cases, we’ll find the required content, for example using stock image libraries. During the Discovery stage, we’ll discuss what needs to happen.
Also, if you don’t yet have a domain name, we’ll put together a shortlist of domain name options.
3. Design
Now, the design work begins, where we specify colour palette, fonts, site structure, layout, navigation and user interactions.
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Depending on the nature of your site, we may share some of our design mock-ups with you to check that you are happy with them.
4. Site build & test
With the design complete, we can get going with build. Once we have completed site build, we run a suite of tests to make sure everything works as planned, and that the site displays and functions as intended in all the top web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox).
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We build the homepage first. This allows us to show you the core elements of the site UX and design, and if there is something you want tweaked, we can do this before completing the remaining site build.
5. Acceptance sign-off
Before we launch your site, we’ll take you on a site tour and make sure that you are happy with what we’ve designed and built.
6. Pre-launch config
Before your site is launched, we have a bunch of configurations to complete.
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These configurations include:
- Site security config
- SSL certificate config
- Sitemap build and publish
- DNS config
- SEO config
- Cache/CDN setup and config
- Mail config
- Analytics setup (when required)
- Monitoring config
- Backup setup
All of these configuration actions mean your website has strong security, optimal speed performance and is search engine-ready.
7. Site launch
And now the time has come to lift the curtain on your fabulouse new website!
8. Post-launch support
You now have SparkStorm looking after your site and providing any support you need. We also have a few tasks to complete to ensure that your site has the best chance of performing well in search engine rankings and results pages.
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Now that your site is live, you should be thinking about what new and fresh content can be added at regular intervals, keeping your audience engaged.
Capabilities.
We work with and have expertise in a huge range of technologies, tools, applications and service providers.
A selection of these are shown below.
Web & CMS technologies
Payment providers
Core code technologies
3rd party applications
eCommerce tools
Service partners
Pricing.
We have a modular pricing model for our services, which allows you to choose the components you need.
Choose from the options listed to view pricing details.
Website packages
Select from three package options depending on your requirements
Website packages
See pricing
Website add-ons
You can add options and functionality to your chosen website package
Website add-ons
You can add options and functionality to your chosen website package
eCommerce packs
Add eCommerce capability to your site
eCommerce packs
Add eCommerce capability to your site
Hosting & maintenance
Browse our hosting & maintenance care packages.
Hosting & maintenance
Browse our hosting & maintenance care packages.
Website recovery
Get support to recover a crashed or malfunctioning website.
Website recovery
Get support to recover a crashed or malfunctioning website.
Website packages
Select from three package options depending on your requirements
See pricing
Website add-ons
See pricing
eCommerce packs
Hosting & maintenance
See pricing
Website recovery
See pricing