Websites of distinction designed by David Stockman

Richman Turned Products.

Solid wood furniture manufacturer and wood turning specialist. Online product showcase.

Following the success of their furniture products site Richman commissioned me to build a site devoted to their custom turned products.

Richman UK Ltd.

Solid wood furniture manufacturer and wood turning specialist. Online product showcase.

Commissioned to replace an ageing and outdated site, to coincide with the launch of several new product lines.

Active-One

Manufacturer and wholesaler of detergents and household cleaning products. Online product showcase.

This site was online and earning its keep within a week of being commissioned.

The Woodstore

Solid pine and oak furniture retailer. Online catalogue.

With over 300 individual pages this site was completed and had paid for itself in under six weeks.

Icarus Motorcycle Development

Manufacturer and supplier of stainless steel parts and accessories for British motorcycles. Online catalogue.

Since instigation the owners of this site have abandoned all their off-line sales activity and are now doing more business than at any previous time in their twenty years of trading.

Principles of good web design

• Cross-browser compatibility.
  Fact: Only about 61% of users use Internet Explorer¹ and 7% don't even use a Windows PC. A good design should be capable of rendering properly on all the major browsers.

• Pages should be usable on any screen resolution.
  Fact: There is no standard screen resolution for computer monitors. Common resolutions range in size from 800x600 (pixels) to 1600x1200. A good design will display as intended at any scale without 'falling apart' or becoming unusable. This site is designed to be viewed at 1024x768 or above but is usable, without horizontal scrolling, at any resolution above 800x600.

• Text must be readable.
  Fact: Not everyone has perfect vision. The whole purpose of a web page is to convey information, therefore if the content is difficult to read due to small text size or lack of contrast, people will have difficulty reading it and will probably just give up and and click away to a more legible site.

• Pages should load quickly.
  Fact: Studies have shown that users are impatient and are unlikely to wait more than 13 seconds for a page to load and will simply leave a site before it is loaded. In these days of near ubiquitous broadband it's easy to forget that many people are still using 56k dial-up modems.

• Keep it simple .
  We've all seen them, pages with so much going on - animations, ads, flashing text, multi-coloured boxes scattered all over the page - that you can't find what you're looking for. Web design definitely benefits from the less is more approach.

• Clear navigation.
  Navigation should be clear and obvious. Any page on a site should be accessible, within two clicks, of any other. It shouldn't be necessary to use your browser's previous and next buttons.

¹ Statistic from W3Schools.