More is not always better. Foothills designs sites that are simple, clean, user-friendly
- and very effective.
Simplicity.
Simple pages are easier to navigate and faster to load. They get your message across
quickly - and are less likely to lose the visitor's attention. The typical site
visitor is looking for information about your business, organization, products or
services. He or she wants to get in, find what they need, and move on. He is not
usually interested in complex, flashy web graphics. Like a fine set of clothes,
your website should draw attention to your business, not to itself.
User Friendliness.
The site visitor shouldn't have to think too much about how to find what he or she
is looking for on the website. The important stuff should be readily apparent from
the first page. Especially your phone number, business address, and email information.
Minimal Special Effects.
Many website design companies create Flash animation for their websites for the
sake of Flash animation. We do not. Any animation or special effects you see on
our websites has to contribute to the overall effectiveness of the website in promoting
your business or organization.
Accessibility.
Foothills websites are designed to work smoothly on a wide variety of screens, using
the most popular browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox. Sometimes a download
or plug-in may be required, but you'll probably already have them: Adobe Acrobat
Reader, Adobe Flash, and Microsoft Silverlight are the only plug-in's our sites
ever need.
Search Engine Friendliness.
You want your website to be found. You want it to appear near the top the list when
a visitor searches for one of your key terms. The best way to achieve this is with
quality content and copywriting. It also helps if your site is designed to be friendly
to the search engines and to incorporate the latest tweaks and 'tricks of the trade'
to cause the search engines to find your site and rank it high in search results.
User friendly and elegant.
Easy to use and easy for the visitors to find what they need. No complicated,
flashy graphics. Like a fine set of clothes, your website should draw attention
to your business, not to itself.
Stylish and attractive.
Your website should look great. It should be easy on the eyes and easy to read.
It should be professional and polished. Most importantly - the web page should get
your message across clearly and quickly.
Search engine friendly.
You want your website to be found. You want it to appear near the top the list when
a visitor searches for one of your key terms. Quality content is the key: what appeals
to your customers also appeals to the search engines.
Visually Pleasing, Professional and Polished.
Your website should look great. It should be easy on the eyes and easy to read.
Most importantly - the web page should get your message across clearly and quickly.
The graphics and page layout should be professionally designed. Nothing about it
should appear amateurish.
For a better understanding of our design philosophy, refer to Steve Krug's classic,
Don't Make Me Think and Jenifer Tidwell's
Designing Interfaces.