One Night Website: Part 1, the Plan

Create an entire working website mockup in one evening? Stress much?

7:00pm MST: I’d rather be watching “2012″ with my son, but I have a meeting with my client tomorrow afternoon and must deliver a working mockup.

So I thought I’d help myself focus and give you some play-by-play tips as the night unfolds. The goal? Not to be up until 4am! (Since I have 2 other meetings prior to this client’s.)

The client: Ami Diallo is a wonderful gourd and leather artist. I was hired to create more traffic for her through marketing SEO and a new design so she can sell both one-of-a-kind pieces and craft items. Why the time crunch? The contract for services ends March 31, in 7 days.

What’s been done: Ami and I have met several times so I know her and her work. We hired Clare Zurawski from WESST to do a keyword analysis. I created an initial design idea before the analysis in Photoshop which I may or may not use. I also have the beginnings of the site map in Excel based on the keyword data.

Review of initial site: The site has wonderful photos, a distinctive logo and is “clean.” But it is not structured as well as it could be: photos are different sizes on different pages, expensive art pieces share the same page with craft items and the navigation is on the bottom of long tables of pics and text.

Action Plan: Can I just add the keyword-rich copy to the tags, content and page titles? Spruce up the design by adding color/texture? Move the nav to the top? After looking at the code, I decide, no. It will have to be a full redesign of the structure. CSS for text-styling and main divs; tables for storing the photos and copy. Plus adding Buy Now PayPal buttons to each piece.

But for tonight, I just need the navigation plan and the main template pages to show. I’ll report back when I have the full navigation done. Wish me luck!