Build a Website - What Me?

When we were set the task of creating a web site I must admit to thinking this was going to be impossible given my skills level and the time constraints I was under (making my Christmas stock). So after an initial panic attack I set out a plan of action. My solution - small bite size pieces of a task are far less scary (and more manageable) than trying to envisage the whole project.

Step 1.
The decision on what web site to build was an easy one as I was in the process of setting up a Social Enterprise to promote the development of quality crafts in Wales. The timings of the tasks for this course have been amazingly and so very useful for me! So beginning with the design cycles investigative stage I did online, desk and real time (visiting craft events and talking to crafts people) research into similar organisations, promoting crafts and running craft fairs flagged up a number of interesting points:

1. The name Wales Artisans is unique.
2. There is no other organisation, in Wales, working for the benefit of its members by keeping stand costs to a minimum and helping fledgling crafts businesses develop.
3. There is a gap in the market for an organisation that does not allow imported goods to be sold at events.
4. There is a gap in the market for professional craftspeople who want to exhibit at quality events but are excluded from many as their craft is not contemporary enough.
5. There is a gap in the market for an organisation that assists in the business development of crafts people.
6. Other craft event organisers are not utilising the power of social media.

Step 2
Checking out the availability of the domain name was essential to start off with as there's no good creating a logo if you don't have the name! Thank goodness for the logical thinking of the Design Cycle as the first name choice 'Welsh Artisans' was taken, so I bought the domain name Wales Artisans. I chose this name following Amanda Hill's advice to have a name ad URL that says where and who you are and what you do. Also because we would be more able to attract funding and assistance for a social enterprise with 'Wales' in the title. As a strap line I chose Special Pieces, Special People, Special Prices.

On the module about branding I learnt that a brand is how we are perceived from what people see and the logo therefore needed to show our identity, personality and image. Considering our session on visual language (semiotics) I thought very carefully about the colours, fonts and symbols that would underpin a positive brand, what we do and what we stand for. Using the colours red and green to reflect the welsh aspect of the organisation I chose a strong, yet more artistic font to give a professional and 'arty' brand image. Without having learnt about branding and semiotics I would not have considered all the elements in such depth when designing this logo.

As this is a new organisation the brand image needs to give the viewer a quick, clear understanding of who we are and what we do. So I decided to also use the wording "Promoting the Growth of Handcrafted Products in Wales," on all web, social media and marketing material. This continuity of wording and image across all online and traditional marketing material is important in establishing a strong brand image and engagement with people who are interested in quality crafts (both crafts people and potential buyers). Instantaneous recognition of what we do and who we are is very important if we are to grow our membership and public following for our events. Building a recognisable brand is therefore dependent on a clear and strong brand image which I am confident this logo achieves.

Step 3
Developing a design brief was the next stage. Using the design cycle I investigated other designs of organisations in the craft promotion and events arena. This identified that a number had strong brand images such as the Wales Craft Council and Rural Crafts but were no longer developing the organisations in line with their original remit or ethics e.g. the Wales Arts Council now take members who are not crafts and are into mass production such as Usbourne Books! Without an understanding of your values, what your want a web site to do and communicate, the outcome will never be strong and effective as a brand image.

At the Tuesday evening FDSM session, where we were discussing our web site ideas, I wrote down and articulated the following objectives that the Wales Artisans web site should achieve:

1. Professionally promote the new organisation
2. Communicate it's aims and objectives and encourage new members to join
3. Create a directory of members with links to their web or social media presence
4. A professionalism that encourages collaboration with other organisations
5. The promotion of Wales Artisans Events
6. An integrative approach with social media to drive traffic to the web site

In terms of its overall design I determined that it should:

• Look professional
• Reflect its ethos of handcrafted and not boght in products
• Reflect its Welsh origins in its colours
• Visually demonstrate the 3 areas of handcrafted produce that members make
• Craft
• Food and Drink
• Art and Photography 
• Look artistic to reflect the nature of the organisation

Whilst it was pointed out that this may be a little over ambitious for our task, I knew that all these elements would be required for the new organisation or it would not work well as a new web site. In my opinion it is not good for any brand image to start off with only part of what is required. Always up for a good challenge I decided to find a way to achieve all of this effectively. 

Step 4

This was definitely a huge step outside my comfort zone - finding the right platform on which to build the web site and then building it. Following some research into Dream Weaver and HTML, Wordpress and Web Development Templated platforms I felt like Goldielocks in the house of the Three Bears. 

The first bed (platform) was far to hard for me to handle! I had some experience of watching a web developer use HTML and Dreamweaver when I commissioned my first web site to be developed. I looked at it again. It had the highest level of functionality and flexibility to completely design my own web site but for a complete novice it was very complicated and far too scary! In my opinion I would have needed significant training and time to be able to master this platform. So, after careful consideration I decided that my personal time constraints, plus the fact that I do not see myself as needing this skill in the future, meant that learning a whole new language and platform like this was not justified for me. 

WordPress was the second bed (platform) I came to. This was was much better but still too lumpy! Having tried to use this platform when developing my first FDSM blog I remembered how much time I spent on it, the frustration I felt at how complicated it was and the reason I moved to another platform (Blogger)- I did not have enough time to learn the use of this platform and I wanted something I felt comfortable and confident with. In many ways WordPress gives you lots more functionality, though not as much as Dreamweaver. HTML can be used to give even more design and flexibility but I was looking for a bed (platform) that was far more comfortable and suited to my needs. The research continued.

So my solution was to look at the templated platforms. Firstly I went for Yola as I had seen this demonstrated at a presentation by Google and it looked really user friendly. To begin with, this was right and so I began to develop my Wales Artisans web site on the platform. I had progressed to the stage of having 3 pages done when I hit a snag or two! The first was that I was not happy with the fact that it really did look like a templated design. Secondly, I wanted to change a colour but found, with Steve's help, that I needed to use HTML for this and many other adaptations I would want in the future. This was a no go area for me as I needed complete functionality for the future where I could manage the ongoing development of the web site myself. With no money in the organisation and limited funds in the future, it was not feasible to develop a site that required someone else to be paid to work on it.

Thanks goodness for my merry band of FDSM mates! A few of them mentioned wix.com as an alternative template platform. Oh my goodness! Now I had found the perfect bed (platform) for me. This one was super comfortable. The thousands of free templates to choose from were well designed and definitely did not look like templates. The functionality for future web site development included online shop, videos, apps, social media plug ins, to name just a few. If you pay for the 2nd level of annual subscription it gives you the ability to do far more including making the web site mobile friendly, a definite must for the future. It also has a function to work in HTML if required and it is FREE!

In just one day I put together the full eight page web site that ticked all my original objectives. I was thrilled! All the functionality and design requirements were there at my fingertips.  With help from my fellow FDSM students I made some refinements to the wording and design such as the continuity of the photos from one page to the next. There is still work to be done on inputting the meta data so that the search engines can more easily find the website when it goes live. Also the present Facebook page which is a closed members only page needs to go live and a twitter account started. I am aware that this is all too much work for one person and so shortly I will be handing it over to a new Wales Artisans member who makes beautiful wooden boxes and also has a background in IT and social media. Together we plan to develop a social media strategy which he will manage and implement. (Phew, thank goodness for volunteers!) 

I also shared the web site with some of my networking contacts. This led to the Welsh Assembly Governments department in charge of developing businesses in Wales getting in touch with me. The outcome of which is that we are looking into a joint collaboration of developing Artisans Events and also start-up craft business training to get people off social benefits and into business.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. Developing this web site has already achieved 5 of the 6 objectives I set out at the start of this project and the website has not even gone live as yet!