About Us

Focus:

The website in question is for an accounting firm that specializes in Property Management, and Enterprise Resource Planning Software Sage. This is a small business that provides a service to niche clientele involved in Construction, Property Management, and Project Management. They provide service to client’s in medium-large scale companies who are involved in these primary industries, and their sub-sets.

Purpose:

The three services that should be given special attention on the site are Project Management, Construction, and Property Management which each have specific modules through the niche ERP bundle. The primary focus of the site should be to show visitors the benefits of Sage, what it is, and how it affects the small business (what do they do with it?) to attract new clients while reinforcing the interest of those already using the Software. Another useful feature would be to show the benefits of Sage and how their experience is better than a competitor.

Desired Results:

For this specific service, a smart decision would be to use a feature, or tool to grab visitor’s information and incentive them to call for a free consultation. Those involved in this industry generally know what they are looking for, and so, if a connection is made – it will most likely lead to a sale, or business agreement.

Target Audience:

• A.) The audience of this site will be business individuals who are either a part of, or own businesses in the Project Management Consulting, Construction, or Property Management industries. The site will appeal to business mindful individuals who have financial knowledge, and, or are looking for ways to increase growth in their businesses. These individuals will most likely be older, in their forties to sixties, and be director, or higher in their business.
• B.) I believe that consultation based, or service companies should be local, or at least regional unless they have satellite offices, or are willing to travel. Staying with a local to regional approach will be most beneficial as those in the area will be easily collected as clients rather than nationally.
• C.) I believe that for this type of industry, and service that it is likely to see 100-1000 visitors per month with targeted advertising. Volume in the case of this industry, and with this niche service will be less desired than quality. I’ve personally seen implementations from one client cost as high as $75,000.

Structure & Navigation: Site Structure & Theme:

I am familiar with most site structures as I frequent the web quite a bit. Personally, I believe that hierarchical websites are excellent, and I would model the final project site after that. I feel as though hierarchical sites are more fluid than sequential numbering and go hand in hand with more dynamic content that can be categorized, but not defined for interchangeability.

Site Structure:

Site Navigation:

Home: Home is the most important piece to any website, or homepage. This is where content will begin to show, identity of the site is established, and the purpose is brought to the viewing audience. Important factors that must be hashed out in the Home page’s development are color uniformity, styles, and navigation for proper branding.

About: About sections allow customers, clients, or visitors a glimpse into the background of the site operators. It is a great tool to show the community what qualifies you, or your business to offers certain products, or services and is an important link to the target audience. Many websites have their story, or personal history with the business on their about us page along with their goals, commitments, and quality standards to allow customers to be a part of their vision.

Contact: Viewing a site for a service, or product retailer/wholesaler is one aspect of the internet but getting in touch with said service or seller is where the importance of having a “contact us” page comes into play. Generally, these pages contain a form, or boxed submission area where clients, or potential clients can reach out with questions, feedback, or concerns. It is a very important piece to modern websites and is considered common practice.

Services: We’ve covered Home, About Us, Contact Us, and now we’ll discuss Services. Services are the experience that you provide, and for a website they generally are blocks of text/descriptions of services offered, and imagery that allows the potential client/customer to see what is available and imagine themselves being the recipients of said service. The building blocks of these sections are generally quite creative, acute, engaging, visually enticing, and must (depending on the industry, or service) provide some level of financial expectation from the client.

Products: Just as with services mentioned above, products are an important component to a website that lists what is available. Some businesses offer products, and services to their clients and will usually list the services on one page, and the services on another. Products can generally be put into a Wordpress Site with a product grid tool such as WooCommerce which can be used to create a simple portfolio/grid like E-Commerce experience on Wordpress. Product’s give clients a glimpse into what they’re getting, and excellent visuals, descriptions, and load time are important for these pages.

General Page Template Design:

We’ve established that the website will be geared towards a professional, and mid-large size business clientele. The Main or Home page will have a navigation bar that consists of Home, About Us, Contact, Services, and will be in a sequential, or hierarchical structure. This will exude efficiency and streamline the flow for those visiting the site. All the pages will have a similar navigation and will utilize the same type of image placements (hero images, or full width images). Components will be premiered on the main page and then replicated and changed on the subsequent pages using a similar approach to maintain consistency and seamlessness. Some elements that will repeat in components are the companies’ name in the header, contact information in the header with a click-to-call function as well as their slogan. To appeal to the clientele and target audience – information will be succinct and brief with key points given text-shadows when appropriate or other text decorations to denote importance.

The Color Palette:

Color is important. Color is how sites appeal to potential visitors by using web-safe colors. These colors can be the difference between an attractive site and eye sore that no one wants to visit because it is an affront to the eyes, and in some cases can hurt! I would say for this type of business model (property management, commercial, and consulting…) that the use of silver, green, shades of blue, and white are the optimal choices for color. Why would these be ideal choices? These selected colors exude a utilitarian, clean-cut modern feel that in this approach, clients might appreciate and find palpable. Another great thing about this scheme is that the colors don’t distort, or interrupt one another, but rather add to each other’s presentation.

Typography & The Art of Word Presentation:

We’ve discussed the importance of the correct hierarchy, sequence, layout, and colors – readability also lends to the overall user experience and is paramount. Multimedia is one aspect, but viewers will likely be reading the content of the site and so proper typography will be the deciding factor in that all-important bounce rate. Ideally, Headers for a clean-cut site will be modern “feeling” and be sans-serif with supplemental fonts with a serif if that’s what looks the best with the rest of the multimedia and content. Headers I find appealing are Montserrat with a supplemental text in Merriweather. The Sans Serif nature of Montserrat combined with the slight Serif of Merriweather lends to a minimalist typography kit with a unique and colorful approach to text.