Over recent months, I have been building a website for Tim Norton's technology business and strategy consulting company, Omniton, on and off. Well, last Monday, the site went live at www.omniton.com.au
There are still a few items to be completed, such as client testimonials and updated pictures of Tim, but overall, the site is mainly complete. It will take some time for the website to be indexed by the major search engines, and the site search won't work correctly until Google has completed this process. However, this is a standard procedure, and it's unavoidable.
Site Implementation Description
The site uses very few graphic files, which makes it quick to load on low-bandwidth connections. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) styles have been used more extensively than on any site I've built previously.
With the Omniton website, I have tried a new navigation design principle. Like many sites today, I've used a menu tree at the top of the page, which lets users navigate to almost every page on the site. And, of course, there is the plain HTML menu at the bottom of the page, which can be used to navigate to the beginning of each main section of the site. Nothing new about that.
However, I've also placed the context-based navigation menus on the right-hand side of the page, rather than on the left, as is commonly done today. The scroll bar is on the right, so that is where users typically have their mouse to move up and down a page. By placing key navigation options nearby, it's easier and quicker to use them. Another benefit is that it places important content on the left side of the page. Thus, when users print pages out, nothing is lost. I get frustrated when I print out a page and the navigation details appear, but the content I want is cut off.
I understand the main reasons why most sites use the left column for navigation. However, if the page design is relatively clean, simple, and uncluttered, users will still see the menus on the right clearly and be able to use them more easily.
Well, anyway, it seems to be working and feedback to date has been encouraging.
One thing I am considering implementing is a mailing list system for the newsletter subscription and distribution. Right now, it's a manual process for the admin team. Implementing something like Dada Mail or MailMan would make it a lot better. Plus, having an automated subscription confirmation and unsubscribe process would make life easier for everyone. Any suggestions from those who have done this before would be most welcome.