What I do

When it comes to Web development, I do a little bit of everything. My background is first as a graphic designer, illustrator and graphics technology consultant/trainer, then as an interactive designer and copywriter, and finally as a creative director, information architect, and account planner.

The biggest thing I can bring to the table when we start planning your Web project is a business sensibility. Before we ever start talking about interactive features, let's have a discussion about what you want your Web site to, well, do. What's the messaging role, i.e., what do you want people to think after they visit your site; and what's the business role, i.e., what action(s) do you want your visitors to take? We'll approach the project very differently if you want your site to play a direct transactional role vs. a sales support role. Or a channel partner support role, or an awareness-generation role, or a customer support role....

I'm a capable designer and copywriter, but I generally prefer to bring in outside contractors to fill those roles. I think the importance of visual design is currently much overstated, but it's usually pretty important at least to my clients, and I want to match them up with a designer that will give them a good experience. On the other hand, the importance of good copy is much understated right now -- it's often an afterthought, and it's quite simply the most important part of most Web sites. So, again, I like to bring in someone who can do justice to the job, if the client is amenable.

I develop in Drupal -- there's more about that throughout this site -- which I think is a good fit for about 95% of the projects that come across my desk. If it's not a good fit, or it needs to be extended in ways I'm not up for, I bring in outside developers, too. But there is so much functionality in Drupal, and it's so straightforward to deploy, that "from scratch" development is anything but the norm. Usually it's more a matter of getting the various pieces of the site to play nicely with one another, and I do all that stuff quite well.

I do ask for your help in testing and shaking out any problems with a Web site before it goes live. I think the more eyes and browsers on a Web site, the better.

One thing I don't do is host your Web site. I'm happy to recommend a few companies that can do a great job for an amazingly low price, but I'm not really interested in reselling hosting service to you -- it doesn't give you any advantages over just dealing with a hosting company directly. I will do ongoing maintenance and updates to your site, but that's at a per hour rate -- I don't like developers who set up "maintenance contracts," as though a Web site had to be fed, walked, and watered daily.