Web Design

Web design promises fascinating possibilities and I love the opportunities and challenges it presents. The multimedia nature of the Internet utilizes several of my skills at the same time, so becoming a website designer, or more precisely a web developer, was an obvious choice.

Writing and Web Architecture

Writing for the Internet is different from common copy writing. The information must be delivered in "bite size" units in a format allowing users to "scan" rather than read it. I do copy writing in Czech and English as well as web architecture consulting for larger projects as a team member. Text content largely defines overall site structure and creating both requires organizing skills equal to writing.

Photography

By no means a photographer, I can take a snapshot a make it look good. The Internet is forgiving in this way, so I'm a Photoshop wizard. I really enjoy photo editing and have a photographic course on my "must do one day" list.

But the approach of Photoshop wizards is what's needed for the web - whatever photos you supply, I can make you look like a movie star. All photos intended for use on the web need to be properly formatted and sized, so I go the few extra click further to make sure the lighting is correct, crop out unnecessary objects, adjust overall color. It's all hand work, but it's well worth the effort.

Web Design

Graphic design is just one of the requirements for web projects and I balance it against other aspects. The emperor of the web is the search engine. The king is the user, content is queen and design is the floor sweeper.

It's important to build knockout sites, but if nobody can find them and users can't get oriented once they arrive, pretty pictures will lose you clients. Still, design is the most creative part of the process and I like to have fun with it.

Translations

I specialize in marketing-text translations. When copy writing I prefer to create texts in English and translate to Czech, which is useful when working with an international client.

English is a much more concise and upbeat launguage, especially in marketing and web texts. The best results are achieved when creating a “straight to the point” English text and then “softening it” for Czech audiences. When translating from Czech to English, it's all about editing and a check from a native speaker is a must. In these cases, being married to an American writer is really handy. More about Translations.

Usability and Marketing Consulting

My own Internet business forced me to learn more about marketing on the web than an average designer might be expected to know. With competition being a click away and search engines as vicious as they are, a properly designed website must meet a lot of expectations.

No promise of miracles, but on most sites, there's lots of room for improvement. Sometimes, small changes go a long way toward making a site more visible or navigable.

With smaller projects or family businesses, I'm happy to help create a business identity and/or marketing plan. Sometimes just having someone from the “outside” ask the right questions moves a project forward and it's not unusual for websites to shape company policy.

Search Engine Optimization

My husband has taken on the tedious job of search engine optimization. While I'm always available to look over his shoulder and help, search engine optimization requires the editing skills of a native speaker.

Search engines see each web page very differently than users and judge it based on ever changing sets of criteria. We work toward creating websites that place well in search engine results when users type a targeted keyword.

Once created, we monitor site performance and re-optimize as competition increases and rules within the engines change.

What I like about it?

Web development requires a lot beside design. Each project is very different and requires a fresh look and design flexibility.

"Mini sites” with minimal budgets may perfectly support a traditional marketing campaign. Then there are the cyber monsters with lives of their own and entire teams of developers trying to keep them running.

For me, the web is all about the people behind it; about communication; about bridges across continents.

I was once a member of a group of artists from around the world who work with nature themes. Each month we'd agree upon a subject and each of us would create an art work with that theme. Once, we wanted to choose “spring flowers,” but our Australian member said: “Sorry guys, the season down here is fall.” In moments like these, as a user, I realize just what the word global can mean. I still think that the world wide web is a miracle of sorts.

Also see my web projects for a client list and portfolio of my web work!