How is Using a Shopify Theme Different from a Bespoke Design and Build?...

If you're looking to set up shop with an e-commerce business, then Shopify is a great first port of call. For new businesses, the initial outlay of a full bespoke site can be just too much reach for that first iteration of the site.

Odds are, if you’re running (or helping to run) a business, you’ll either have a website or be in need of one. The web, and designing for it, can be a minefield if approached without proper consideration and time.

Part of being a good UX designer isn’t having the right answers, its about asking the right questions. Knowing what the questions are will lead to moulding the design from a ill defined shape, to a considered and appropriate product.

Back in January I wrote an article about called Designing the Unexpected, exploring the idea creating websites that surprise and anticipate someone's needs before they know they need it.

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company and the man who bought the automobile to the masses, once said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

As a small design studio who works with lots of startup and new business, we’re used to (and love to) talk about the specifics of design and the creative process, and how all that can be individually harnessed to help that fledgling company succeed.

In this series I’ve taken a look at the different stages from a client's point of view of creating a new website, so you know what to be looking out for and asking of your web designer or appointed studio/agency.

Having worked at both small and large agencies and studios during my time in the industry, it’s fair to say that like most industries, some companies are good and some aren’t (to put it nicely).

Following on from my last article for on writing the brief, which explored the subject of writing a design brief for a website from the customer’s perspective, I was interested in taking on the same challenge for the design phase.

A couple of weeks ago an important date in our business snuck up on us, as Alloneword reached the ripe old age of one. Not a massive duration, but a very critical time in a new company, and sadly a milestone a lot of businesses don’t ever hit.

Unless you’re skilled in web design, development and project management, chances are you’re going to need to commission others to help create your vision of a new website.

Having a website is now commonplace as part of a business. No matter how big or small a company is, the fact that customers often look on the web first to solve a problem means you need to be there for them to find you. But what happens next?