JB Building are independent building consultants.
Having worked for over 40 years in the construction industry all over the world, Mr Forrest works with the most exciting technologies in the construction sector. He was responsable for introducing River-Therm® and Geometrica® to the UK, he has worked on many prestigious projects.
Brief: Take content of old site and incorporate in to a completely new design.
Aims:
- Make information more accessible for visitors.
- Make the site easier to update.
- Help with passive search engine optimisation.
Challenges: The pre-existing site had been made entirely in Flash. This meant that the text was completely rasterised in image form and could not be easily copied and pasted in to the new site. The client was also looking for a completely new look and feel from the original site’s white and red ascetic.
Process: After the initial meeting with the client, I proceeded to my sketch book to work out layout ideas to best display the information. When there was a developed theme, I transferred to Photoshop to develop the first stage visuals.
I produced four options for the client and sent them for his review.
In the mean time I utilised the resources of a trusted copywriter to extract the text from the existing website and update where appropriate. This way I would be ready to start coding without delay to the client.
After discussions with the client, it became clear that there were parts of each design that had been placed in the mock-ups, that when brought together would form the basis for the final design. This was then prepped in Photoshop and subsequently approved.
Upon approval, the first page template was built for testing. Using HTML4 with some CSS3 properties for styling and pages built in the PHP format enabled the use of includes for the pages menus and galleries.
This prototype was then tested in a verity of browsers and was subsequently approved for full build.
Given that the site had been built on a PHP format, the subsequent pages could be populated easily with that format and swiftly given that the copy had been prepared. When the site had been built, it was placed in a secure testing server for the client to then use and approve for launch. When the client had checked over the site, it was swiftly launched and Google Analytics tracking was activated.
What If ?: If I were approaching the project again, I would like to build the site again with a full HTML5 structure and use media queries to make the site more responsive for mobile devices. The traffic on the site would not justify a Mobile First redesign though.
The site was recently updated and can be viewed here: http://www.jbbuilding.co.uk/
