Designing for the Web

There is so much more to designing for the web than making an attractive layout. The Web is maturing to a lean, flexible aesthetic that prizes self-evident functionality, immediate gratification, and granularity of specialization towards an informed target audience. Users don't wait for graphic-heavy sites to load, nor do they generally take the time to decode interfaces that are not obvious and familiar to them. Users should, rather, feel delighted at the ease with which they can locate, discover, or simply stumble upon something that captivates their attention and keeps them coming back for more. Aesthetic decision-making and the choosing of available technology should be made to this end.

I am one of the few designers who can also program full-featured web software. My design and creative problem solving skills go beyond the surface of what people see on the front-end.

Clarity of Intent

If you are an artist, your art as it is presented on your site should speak clearly for itself, and should not be in competition with design elements. If you have an intranet, it should be lightning-fast for your organization or clients to comprehend and use. If your web presence is information-rich, the data should be searchable and accessible in many ways, and you should have RSS feeds, mailing lists, or other ways for users to easily access your information.

The best web sites are not only constructed in such a way that major future design updates can be performed quickly and economically, but they download quickly, provide many ways to get to content, and gratify the shortest attention spans while acknowledging the tastes and hardware configurations of an identifiable audience. I believe that the design of a website should not be restricted by the lowest common denominator of monitor size and bandwidth support, but for the most common hardware configurations of the client's target audience.

Partnerships with Designers

I often work with graphic/web designers who need help with PHP coding, Flash production, etc., or with artists who wish to design their own sites. In these situations all that is required is a layered Photoshop document with all of the necessary graphics. I then take the PSD and integrate it into a front-end that is powered by PHP/MySQL, XML, Flash, Dynamic HTML, CSS, or some combination thereof. I am available to work with the graphic artist in developing a solid, functioning layout and then integrating it into a CMS.

Whether you need a private intranet, community portal, or an artist's portfolio site, Zagar.biz successfully merges technical expertise with your special requirements. What you get is forward-thinking design that can quickly be made to accommodate your needs as they change.