Dynamic Webscapes has spent the last 16 years designing and developing websites for the corporate world. As corporate designers it has been our responsibility to create an online image that is second to none.
Corporations know the importance of and spare no expense maintaining that image. They employ entire armies of information technology (IT) folks who have years of experience in their chosen fields. Often the IT army of a corporation is filled with the most highly paid and skilled employees on the payroll.
The web design and graphic design departments work together using learned "best practices" to create winning user interfaces. These are then submitted to other departments: testing to ensure usability, marketing to ensure image and upper management to be sure they "like" it.
Then, once the interface is approved they begin the development of the website. During that process the copy writers provide professionally written content to fill up the pages themselves. Once the entire website is put together it goes back thorough the approval process again. Sometimes several times to ensure that every last minor detail is attended to. When it is finally ready, the website is put online.
Large corporations have the budget to support this type of full-scale design. Dynamic Webscapes has been a part of that IT army. We bring all the advantages of a large IT department to the Small Business world.
Our mission is to make quality, corporate quality, web design an attainable reality for small businesses.
We make this possible by using our corporate design experience under a small business umbrella of our own. Our overhead is much lower than that of a full-scale IT department, yet we use the same staff.
Our corporate-experienced staff have learned that it is often the many little things that add up to a better experience. We believe in taking extra steps to ensure that the user experience on individual websites is a positive one - no matter the size of the client.
- The DW Difference is that we actually have corporate design experience.
- The DW Difference is that we leverage our experience to design websites for our clients that reflect that corporate quality.
- The DW Difference is that we do not have a large corporate overhead that drives up the end costs to our clients.
- The DW Difference is that as corporate developers we understand the code behind the website.
- The DW Difference is that we believe in taking the extra steps to ensure a positive experience for your website visitors.
The Difference By Example
Forms are a large part of corporate design and while the number of forms found on a Small Business website are fewer, they are no less important. We take extra steps during form design that many of our cubicle-based, corporate bound brethren do not - and most of our competitors are not capable of because they lack the experience or inclination to learn.
| The DW Contact Form Process |
Typical Contact Form Process |
| Visitor loads form and the cursor is automatically placed in the field designated by the developer as being the starting point for the visitor. While the visitor could certainly figure it out on their own, why make their fingers leave the keyboard, grab the mouse and click on the form when it can be programmed in very easily? This takes extra time for the visitor and having it done automatically is one of the little steps we take to make the overall experience positive.
Parts of form may be pre-filled if the visitor has filled out other forms on the client website.
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Visitor loads form and looks for where to place their cursor to start filling the form out. Sometimes they forget to place the cursor and start typing, only to find out that what they've typed is not to be found on the screen because their cursor wasn't in the correct place. |
| Visitor fills out all the fields and clicks the submit button. |
Visitor fills out all the fields and clicks the submit button. |
| Form is validated by specially coded, page specific javascipt that ensures that required fields have been filled and that fields requiring a specific type of data contain that type of data. For example a field requesting an email should contain a certain set of characters. If a given field fails validation, an alert will tell the visitor what the problem is. When they click okay, the cursor is moved to the field with the error allowing the visitor to fix it and resubmit the form. The form is then re-validated and if it passes, it is then sent to the server for processing. |
Form is sent to the server for processing. |
| Web server takes previously validated data and creates two emails. The first email contains the contents of the form reformatted for maximum legibility and is sent to the website owner so that they may act upon the email if necessary. The second email is a thank you to the visitor sent back to the email address they supplied in the form. This thank you email serves as a reminder of their visit to the website. The email contains a link back to the website encouraging them to visit again. |
Web server may validate the data and if found to be faulty will redirect the browser back to the original form (often with all of the previously filled out data missing).
OR
Web server will just send the data on to the website owner unvalidated.
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| Web server automatically redirects the visitor to a "thank you" page formatted within the graphic user interface established on the site. |
Web server prints "Form Submitted" on an unformated page and provides a link to go back to the website.
OR
Web server prints out errors due to invalid information in form.
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The overall experience and end result?
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| The DW Contact Form |
Typical Contact Form |
| Visitor spends less time filling out the form leaving them additional time to browse the website. When they check their email they have a message from the website reminding them of their visit. |
Visitor spends all of their time filling out a form that may or may not have reached it's destination. They leave frustrated over the experience and it's probably a good thing there isn't a reminder in their email box. |
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