After nearly four years without a website, I’m back online! Frantically trying to get a site up and running from scratch in whatever time I can squeeze in around projects.

Being a designer, I want it to look fantastic, leading edge and possibly even award winning (hah!).

Being a developer, I want it to be all web 2.0, accessible, usable and fully validated with clean CSS and xhtml. Not only that, it has to be a solution that ticks all the boxes:

  • Client login with unique secure review and file download and upload areas, all easy to use.
  • Allow animations and example projects to be viewed.
  • Implement a dropbox style emailing facility, where I can send large emails via the website and clients can send them to me. Easily.
  • There’s got to be a leading edge gallery and image viewing implemented site wide
  • Ideally linked or combined with project management and issue tracking websites or tools

And being the customer and project manager…

  • It’s got to be delivered on time (yesterday)
  • Fully SEO (Search Engine Optimised)
  • Include good content and material
  • Inspire or help other developers/designers
  • Impress clients into hiring me

Phew.

That’s a fair amount to achieve, especially as the old adage is true that “you’re always more critical of your own work, so it’ll never be completely happy with it”. So the only way forward is to get it online straight away and improve the site as required over time.

So stage 1 - get WordPress up and running, use a nice looking template and focus on the site structure and content. Most importantly get the portfolio up and running so potential and existing clients can see my work.

Better get on then…