June 22, 2011 Newly elected Web Director for the Victoria Male Voice Choir.

June 14, 2011 Working on finishing Toron project and starting new little build for Eco Chic Aveda for their upcoming Oakridge location!

January 2, 2011 Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from PaperTea! The new year is a great time to start thinking about your web strategy.

Why Renovate?

Symptom:	Your website has stale and static content. A visitor to your website is left feeling like it's not current.
Problem:	Lack of a content management system combined with no longer having the website developer around can mean your website is never updated.
Solution:	A content management system will allow you to easily update the homepage, add new products, add news item, pictures, whatever is required.
Symptom:	Your website looks dated. A visitor is again left with the feeling like the website is not up-to-date and may be left with a negative impression of you or your company.
Problem:	Sometimes it's simply a website put up in haste and by someone who did not have much of a sense of website design. Maybe it's the huge buttons or grainy clipart but it does not leave the visitor with a good impression.
Solution:	A simple and solid design. We can work with you to get some colours, images, textures, and whatever else that suit you and your business and we can steer you clear of anything that is going to look dated anytime soon!
Symptom:	Your website doesn't really work that well. A visitor might click on a broken link, maybe there are missing images, or maybe your website doesn't size properly in the browser window.
Problem:	Often in the hurry to get a website up and running there is not enough time or effort spend to make sure it works as expected in different situations. Or it could be a website that was put up by someone not really experienced in web development.
Solution:	A proper development cycle with emphasis on testing. Also, as part of our development cycle we guarantee the work agreed upon and will make sure it all works out of the gate or if there are any issues we will fix them as part of the development fee.
Symptom:	Your website is confusing and unorganized. A visitor struggles to find information and leaves your website without getting what they were after.
Problem:	Lack of proper consideration for the user experience. It could be that the website structure was not planned out properly and has become overgrown with subpages and leaving the visitor to click through your site almost randomly hoping to find something.
Solution:	This is an area where having an experienced web developer is crucial as they can steer you clear of creating a confusing and/or unnecessarily complicated user experience. Creativity is as essential part of our process but there are some areas where you want to keep it simple and straightforward. A visitor should not find navigating your website a challenge.

Things to think about...

Realistic expectations. Fixing up a website will not necessarily drive more traffic to your website. It’s important to recognize what your goals are for your website. If you are looking to create a community around your website and it’s reasonable to think it might happen, then you will want to build the tools to allow that community to develop. But if you are simply trying to provide information or sell a product you may not need anything complicated. Figure out what function your current website serves for you or your business and then decide what, if anything, you’d like to change.

Content management. This is probably one of the most compelling reasons to get a new or renovated site. Content management allows you to control the content on your website without having to deal with a developer or having to learn how to code yourself. Any new site should have content management as it is an easy way to empower a user to keep a site up-to-date. This allows for easy updating of content like: text, images, and catalogue prices.

Ease of use. How easy is it for a user to find what they are looking for on your website? Too many clicks and too many options can sometimes drive users away from your website. It should be fairly obvious to the user where they have to go right from the homepage. If you have store hours, why not list them on the homepage rather than making a user go several levels down before finding them?