Pinxit Design has a lot of experience of web design. Nick Kaijaks, the proprietor of Pinxit Design, was first connected to the Internet in 1991, and designed his first 'home' page in 1993, when Mosaic was the hottest browser! Today, we design for the web using the same principles of function, elegance and details as we use for all our work. However, we recognise that the web is a unique medium, and this is why...
In those days, when transatlantic data links took hours per megabyte, the importance of keeping web pages fast and legible was obvious. Today, although the technology has improved, for many end-users the experience of browsing the web can be the same. Too many graphic designers now do web, but view the web no differently to print media. They design their websites to look cool on their high-powered desktop machines, serving pages from their own hard disk. The fancy graphics look impressive to clients too. However, it's all too easy to forget that the web is a medium for presenting information. The majority of people who visit websites want to get at useful content, not wait for 'cool' graphics.
Often, designers forget that some 90% of end-users worldwide run old machines, with old browsers and slow modems. These pages may look great to the designer, but the experience of the user is one of frustration and inaccessibility. For a web surfer, that means they just leave your site before they even start reading. At Pinxit Design, we design for users, not for designers.
All websites can be considered to lie on a line somewhere between a library and an art-gallery. Fundamentally it is the difference between a large database of information and a dynamic exhibition of graphics, typographics and sometimes multimedia. Where a particular site is pitched on this line is critical. For most marketing scenarios, the pitch is somewhere in the middle. Typically, you will want to offer information on your products and services, perhaps enabling wider access to appropriate internal database information, saving you time and money on customer support and queries. At the same time, you want the user's experience to be immersive and enjoyable, just as for any other campaign. The great advantages of the Internet over print media are that it is global, responsive and massively more economical. The designer needs to be aware of more than just aesthetics. They must also understand the strategic issues of marketing your organisation as a whole, and how to reconcile these with the limitations of the medium and where best to place the website on the library-gallery line.
Pinxit Design has a philosophy of producing both well-designed and well-written web pages, sensitive to the needs of both the business and the user. For example, this includes the general use of semantic tags for emphasis rather than font effects, so that a blind user with a talking web browser can hear when something is important. We don't design with specific browser software in mind, as we don't want to alienate a subset of our potential audience. Images are used selectively, to promote content not swamp it, and to keep loading times down, particularly for international users. We produce dynamic content to enhance the user's access to information and ease of use, not for the sake of it. Finally, we consider the structure of information, to make it accessible with natural navigation and clarity.
We produce marketable, elegant designs at a sensible cost. We recognise that the web is a different medium from the printed page. We focus on structured, content-rich, browser-degradable and navigable designs with clear and aesthetic presentation. Historically, we have produced sites which facilitate information in an accessible medium (closer to the library ethos, if you like). We design both on a one-off basis and on a continuing maintenance contract as appropriate. Some currently maintained sites are linked below.
Pages are designed and checked to HTML 4.0 standards, using dHTML (including Java and Javascript) where appropriate. All designs are cross-platform tested to ensure a quality user experience. We use hand-coded HTML and site management software as best meets the needs of the project.
Return to Pinxit Design, or see our print portfolio.
We consider that detail and consistency are the most important features of our designs. If these are important to you, then mail us to discuss how we can work with you.