I received a call from the client, of our client, to let us know how impressed and satisfied she was with their website.  Again, it wasn’t our client … it was the end-user of the website, a general consumer.

Wow. Of course this is one person’s opinion, but the fact they took the time to locate that we had designed the site and then picked up the phone to let us know their happiness is just plain cool.

Her name was Pam and she sure made our day start off great in the Five office.

Pam let me know that the combination of visual elegance and how easy the website was to use and navigate made her want to call and thank us.  The website she’s referring to is Simonson’s Salon & Spa, which we redesigned earlier this year.

With the end goal of our web designs always being user satisfaction, it was great to get a first hand account of this.

Sure analytics, conversions and all that user data goodness can let you know it’s a job well done, but having Pam take the time to call you is rock solid.

A Focus On E-commerce Fundamentals
Mauer’s Quickswing has been selling their baseball training products online for years, but their former e-commerce site had holes in it.  We took the Joe Mauer approach and focused on the fundamentals:

• An engaging, unique and clean custom web design
• Clear navigation, content and links to view and buy products
• Well structured and simplified product detail pages
• Search engine friendly build-out leveraging SEO best practices
• Easy e-commerce check out steps
• Flexible and easy back-end management for the client (SMC)
• Secure shopping with SSL & Merchant account services

We’re pleased with the overall outcome of the website and look forward to driving an increase in sales online for the Quickswing.  We’re not mad about having the Mauer team in our dugout of great clients either.

Check out the website: http://www.mauersquickswing.com

Making A Good Website Great
4 Quarters was already ahead of other deck builders when owner Brian Jacobson came to Five Technology. He had a custom web design, decent content and had educated himself on search engine optimization best practices.  But Brian also knew he could and should do more.

Five worked with Brian and enhanced the following aspects of his website:

• Custom web redesign – The old site was good, but a new design was sought to punch up the visuals and also give proper attention to further upgrades outlined below.
• Content management – Brian had long sought to be in control. Five built the new website on our CMS and now he can manage text, photos, add new pages and more.
• Enhanced content – Five worked with 4 Quarters to increase the amount of valuable content on the site.  The website went from 9 pages to over 25 by getting more specific on construction services like cedar wood decks, composite decks and remodeling.
• Custom blog design – 4 Quarters was already blogging, but used a WordPress site and not their own.  We moved the blog within the website to give users easier access to the posts and 4 Quarters the SEO benefits.
• Photos, photos, photos- Five added more photo elements to all pages as well as created photo galleries that will show clients what 4 Quarters can do.  It also allows 4 Quarters to add to and create more galleries.

A Complete Design & Build
Just as the 4 Quarters name says, Five executed a great web design and solid build of new features in this web project. We were also impressed with the level of decks that 4 Quarters builds, they truly are exceptional.  We really enjoyed this web design project.

View website: http://www.4qdb.com

Johnson Mattson Peterson + Co. provides accounting and tax services to businesses, non-profits and individuals. Their old website was just a handful of pages in a stale accounting industry template.  The new website is clearly organized with multiple routes of navigation to find what you’re looking for.

The firm also offers a robust range of business consulting services.  JMP + Co. has offices in two cities to the west of the Twin Cities, located in Buffalo and Waconia.  We made sure to offer clear information and integrated Google maps on both office locations within the header, footer and office pages to make working with them easy.

A Web Design To Avoid The Norm

When working with firm partner and CPA Casey Mattson, it was clear that JMP + Co. was not the standard CPA firm. Our first goal was to drive home the people, personality and engagement level you’ll find with them.  Getting the staff front and center with the “We are people people” statement felt like a great fit.  We had fun taking the photo and also creating this clean and well organized web design.

Recap Of This Web Design Project

• Custom web design
• Photography
• Content management with the SMC
• Search engine optimization
• Local search and customer reviews
• Enhanced location pages
• Custom tax blog
• Internet marketing consulting

The Johnson Mattson Peterson + Co. web design project is a great web design and website if we say so ourselves.  Five didn’t deliver the “normal accounting” website and that was the point.  Who wants to look the same as everyone else when you’re not?

Visit the website: http://www.jmpcpas.com

April’s TCTHH event was sponsored by Five Technology and I presented on Mobile Web Design basics.  Lisa Foote, founder of MixMobi also presented on mobile marketing and their great service.

Here is my slide deck from my presentation:

The night was full of great Twin Cities professionals connecting with new people, sharing ideas, laughs, winning some gift cards and eating some awesome food from the Shorewood.

I want to say thanks everyone who came out last night, thanks to TCTHH founder Jeff Nolan, the Shorewood (client), Aaron Darling and numerous others for their support.  There are too many to name, but you know who you are.

Here are a few photos from the night, starting off with a few people enjoying their Twitter-tini’s!

Paul Jahn also posted a great photo set to his Flickr account.

A Web Design With Style & Simplicity
During the early project discussions it was clear that we wanted to bring a stronger style to the Simonson’s website.  Finding the balance between elegance and approachable was important.

Simplicity was a driving factor to make the website easier to use all around.  Clear navigation, focused services, content areas and new features combined to make the website easy to interact with for the user.

Simonson’s also is engaging with customers on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook.  You’ll notice the emphasis we put into letting website visitors know they can further connect with Simonson’s via social media.

Location, Location, Location
It’s no secret that the goal is getting customers in the door.  We put a strong focus on the Simonson’s four locations by making it the first item left in the main navigation, prominent footer information (see below) and the detailed page of each location.

Below is the website footer that displays a photo, phone and address of each location on every page.  These are also clickable to the location detail page.

The location detail page, like this one below for Plymouth, features the address, contact information, photo gallery, online appointments, store hours,  interactive Google map and other helpful links.

Finding the Right Stylist or Technician
Simonson’s has an experienced and talented staff and knows that their people make the biggest difference.  We created an easy to use search and filter tool for users to find the right stylist or technician for their needs.  If you’re looking for a stylist, specializing in red hair in Maple Grove, you’ll find it!

Recap of This Web Design Project
As you can see from the details above on a few features, a lot went into this web redesign in both form and function.  Here are a few more areas to hit upon in closing that we engaged in:

• Custom web design
• Content management with the SMC
• Custom blog design
• Search engine optimization & local search
• Salon & Spa Team search filter
• Enhanced location pages
• First time guest feature to market to new customers
• Online gift card purchase
• Online store integration
• Online appointment integration
• Prominent social media channel placement

We enjoyed the web design project, the great team collaborating together and the final outcome.

Check it out: http://www.simonsons.com

Showcasing The Work Of A Commercial Real Estate Firm
In just about any line of business, Five works to find the best ways to provide case studies and real world examples to feature on a company’s website.  West’s website has specific pages to view both their industrial properties and retail properties.

The West Real Estate sections feature a photo gallery per project, location map, details about the property and the ability to print, share via email, share via social media and bookmark.

Recap Of This Web Design Project
Here is what Five Technology provided for this website project:

• Custom web design
• Photography of all commercial properties
• SEO friendly web design
• Web content creation
• Property feature, photo gallery & details

The West Real Estate web design project turned out just like their commercial real estate projects, valuable and professional.

Visit the website: http://www.westreinc.com

A Complete Web Application
Rear Window Media runs their business right from their website.  The back-end is a web application that allows advertisers to manage their ad(s) showing, their ad budget and other campaign details.  This application (screenshot below) is the hub of their client interaction and gives complete control to their advertising clients.

Incredible Tracking
RWM advertisers also get to view detailed maps on just exactly where there ads are showing.  How’s that for tracking?  By integrating Google maps with their web application, an advertiser can see what block in downtown Minneapolis thier ad appeared or what mile market on Interstate 35W.  Real time advertising, real time tracking.

Here is a screenshot of the map tracking report.

Web Design Project Overall
Five completed the front end of the web design and as well for their marketing interface.  This project really shows our ability to handle both the marketing front of a project and the complex web application backend, far past our great CMS features.

This project included:

• Web design
• Search Engine Friendly build
• Custom WordPress blog for RWM news
• Advertiser account & log-in
• Web application management for advertising
• Custom Google maps reporting
• Content management platform (SMC)

If you haven’t yet, visit the site:  http://www.rearwindowmedia.com

The project is fully recapped on the Taste Trend blog.

Five also photographed the restaurant and many menu items for the Shorewood to use on the new website.  Below is a photo of their Pepper Seared Ahi Tuna.

• Visit the website:  http://www.shorewoodgrill.com

For those of you new to the term Usability, it covers how easy user interfaces are to use. The word “usability” also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process. So in short: making it easy to use your website.

First up we’ll take a look at an easy adjustment for any website to make, making your web content easier to read.

Rid your website of long blocks of content and use sub-headings and one or two sentence paragraphs.  This simple rule easily makes your content easier to digest and a more scanable read.

Here is the wrong way to display content:

Here is the right way to make content easy to read:

So take a look at your website’s content and keep these usability tips in mind.  It’s simple to make these adjustments and improve your site quickly:

• Avoid large blocks of content (blocks=boring)
• Use 1 to 2 sentence paragraphs when possible
• Use sub-headers (size or color variance used correctly)
• Use bullet points or other call-outs

Give your page the scan test.  Can you look at it for 10 seconds and grasp what it’s about?  If not, apply the tips above and see your improvement take shape.

In making your content easier to digest for your user, you will likely make it easier for search engines as well to understand what your page is about … but the SEO benefits of usability, that’s a whole other blog post.