Website Make-over

We communicate with each other more today than ever before. We don't have to wait for a ship to sail from Europe with a letter which would be left under a designated rock at the Cape of Good Hope.
We can connect to others anywhere in the world via email; instant messages, blogs, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. You can share photos on Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest. If I were to give you a complete list I would have to go on for ever, but you know what I mean.

The result of this plethora of communication systems, though, is that you have to keep up. You have to learn the new way of doing something almost every day.
So too it is with a website. This needs to be updated and periodically a make-over is needed. My website, Carol Lee Beckx has just had one and the new theme is now live.

New Website screenshot - Home Page on iPad

One of the changes that make navigation more streamlined is that the menu bar, with a splash of colour, has moved to the top of the page. Previously it was buried at the bottom of the page - lost and, I think, mostly ignored.

A large percentage of website browsing today is done on mobile phones and tablets. The challenge when re-designing a website is that it needs to work effectively across all devices. Something that looks good on a PC monitor is often hopeless on an iPhone. Consequently there was a lot of backwards and forwards with my ever patient website techie – he needs a medal. (I confess to being a bit of a perfectionist) Love the three little white bars to  indicate the menu on a mobile site.

Screenshot iPhone - Still Life Gallery

All the text has been revised, updated and edited. New photographs have been added, others removed. The format of the Commissions Page is now in the form of separate posts. Most people love to learn the story behind a painting. If you click on a painting you’ll be able to read the backstory.

Commissions Page - screenshot iPad

Similarly the News Page is displayed as a series of posts, easily accessed when you click on an image. 

News Page - screenshot iPad

There are also some direct links on the top Menu bar – Blog links to Art Matters; Shop has links to Etsy and Red Bubble. Then icons to my social media sites are also there – Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest and Instagram. I know one shouldn’t have favourites but I do love Instagram best – I do enjoy my daily fix of inspiring images. It’s a good place to see WIP images.

So the hours of work have paid off and I have a finished product. I'd love to know what you think.

My Website - change is in the air

When I set up my website a few years ago, I thought I knew what I wanted - but do we ever? Moreover, do we always want the same thing? I don't think so, because human nature being what it is, we are restless creatures, always wanting something more, wanting new things.

Carol Lee Beckx website screenshot

Bigger,better, brighter, faster are the driving words of our society. Technology helps us do many things at top speed.

My original website, designed to showcase my paintings, was set up in the months before I left South Africa. I was a complete novice and didn't really know what questions to ask. The website looked good but from the word go was not the most user friendly beast. Consequently, I would be loath to try to change images or text as it was time consuming and frustrating.
The young guys who helped with the development were a little out of their depth. That was confirmed when suddenly last year my website did a disappearing trick and someone else had my domain! They had forgotten to renew the domain account.
Another big problem was that the landing page required Flash which is a complete no no for IOS. So unless someone had the URL to one of the other pages my website was effectively a closed door to all mobile devices.
Fortunately a swift move on the part of my website host, restored the domain and no harm was done. Recently when links to the various pages started breaking - I realised it was time for an overhaul.
My chief requirement was that it should be easy to use and elegant. I need to be able to make changes and additions myself. Much as I enjoy the drama of the black with white text, it's hard to read.
Anyway I feel like a change...

Sold Portfolio page

Soon there'll be a whole new look. For the moment and most likely permanently, this blog will remain where it is. I like the idea of not having all my eggs in one basket. working with two separate platforms seems to make sense to me, as the experience with the website has shown.
I'll be interested to hear what you think of the new design when it's unveiled.

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