The journey with Store It Away began with establishing a new brand identity. For the logo and overall branding, I selected a bright, friendly, yet professional colour palette. The aim was to differentiate Store It Away from local competitors and create an approachable, welcoming feel for potential customers.

This foundational branding was then meticulously carried through to the new website. Key considerations for the web design included:

• Intuitive User Experience: The website layout was strategically designed to ensure visitors could find the information they needed – such as unit sizes, features, and contact details – quickly and with as few clicks as possible. A sensible, intuitive, and efficient approach to the overall design and information architecture was paramount.
• Mobile-First Optimisation: Recognising that many local searches occur on mobile devices, particular attention was paid to mobile performance, including fast load times and an equally intuitive navigation experience on smaller screens. The website is fully mobile-friendly, ensuring accessibility for all users, a critical factor for success as highlighted by Google’s own mobile-first indexing best practices (external link).
• Visually Informative Content: New, professional photography of the storage facility was integrated throughout the site. This was crucial for giving potential customers a clear and accurate impression of the unit sizes, internal layout, cleanliness, and overall professionalism of Store It Away’s offerings.
• Consistent Brand Application: The newly devised brand colours from the logo were featured prominently throughout the website, ensuring a cohesive visual experience. This consistency was also maintained across other new assets created, such as business cards and stationery, with the new logo taking centre stage to reinforce brand recognition.
• Local SEO Best Practices: From the outset, the website was built with on-site SEO best practices specifically geared towards local optimisation. This strategic approach was designed to help Store It Away achieve its goal of improved visibility within the Stourbridge and Lye search landscape.

My Thoughts:

The biggest difference here to other similar projects is that the client also required new photographs taking of the property and facilities.

Now, I am not a professional photographer, however, I do enjoy photography so they asked me if I would try taking some images for the new website, which I did, and they turned out great.

My Thoughts:

This was a very colourful website to work on, making use of the bright sweet colours and with eclectic font choices.

https://charitysweets.co.uk/

My Thoughts:

I designed a new logo and website which reflected the changes in the business over the last few years, adding new features, new services and a new up to date gallery.

We made use of plenty of new technology, including interactive before and after pictures, video and simple animations.

http://www.dsmlawncare.co.uk/

The redesign of the Arena Salon website focused on creating a clean, modern, and engaging platform that truly represented their professional and vibrant brand.

• Elevating Visuals with Professional Photography: High-quality imagery was key. I undertook new photography of the salon and also incorporated additional professional images sourced by Annette from her suppliers. This ensured the website visually communicated the quality and style of Arena Salon.
• Clean Design and Intuitive Layout: A ‘less is more’ approach was adopted for the layout, resulting in a really clean design. The primary goal was to ensure that visitors could easily find the information they were looking for, with a clear and intuitive user journey.
• Bringing the Site to Life with Technology: To enhance user engagement and showcase the salon’s transformations, modern web technologies were employed. This included interactive elements like ‘before and after’ picture sliders and subtle, eye-catching animations that added a dynamic feel to the site without overwhelming the user. The goal was to ensure these additions were not merely decorative but, as usability experts at Nielsen Norman Group emphasize, that any animation in UX serves a clear purpose and enhances understanding (external link).
• Strategic Use of Colour: Colour was used minimally throughout the website design. This deliberate choice allowed the professional photography to take centre stage, with colour used strategically to highlight important calls-to-action and key information, ensuring a sophisticated and uncluttered aesthetic.

The client was really happy with the final result, and it was a genuinely fun and rewarding project to bring Arena Salon’s digital presence up to the high standards of their in-person experience.