About Us

A. The purpose of this website is to inform, gather marketing information, and to expand the business. I started with the home page and logo to get the overall feel and design for the site theme. I then placed myself in the user's shoes to obtain an understanding of what I would want from the site as a user. This helped me to decide which pages to create, the forms to contact us and sign up for the mailing list, as well as the tables showing hours and sizing.

B. Again, I designed this sight with the end user in mind. This is including those with screen readers or those that use other assistive technologies. As I use a screen reader myself I understand the importance of the alternative formatting such as a description of an image, a sleek and easy to navigate website, and that the pages are uniform across the entire site. For this reason I've also chosen to use the Georgia typography that is not only widely accepted with browsers, but assitive technology as well. It is always a good idea to use a back up so I've chosen to use the Sans-serif typography should Georgia not be recognized. I chose "earthy" and "homey" colors to represent the southern United States and to give the user a relaxed demeanor to focus on the content. To help with the ease of navigation I used highly contrasting colors in the navigation bar when the user hovers. I also placed plenty of room between the navigation links to boost the ease of selection for those using assitive technologies.

C. What I would like to do is add the ability to shop from the site. If I had more time and resources I would make that one of the first things to add, as well as allowing the user to create an account. I would love to make an intricate database for inventory, orders, customer information, user information from the mailing list, desingers, etc. I would also like to add the inclusion of Google maps to the location page to where you can allow Google maps to locate you or you can put in your address/zip code, then Google maps gives you directions to the location. I really wanted to incorporate that functionality but didn't have enough time to learn how to do so. There's nothing more frustrating to me than to try to get directions from a site only to find out you have to copy that address, put it into Google maps, then add your address/zip code just to get directions. I'd simply like to streamline the process.