Website Design Proposal from Divine Designs.ca Prepared for: Elliott and Elliott Barristers and Solicitors Prepared by: Michael Crow of divinedesigns.ca Proposal ID: 159-MC Date: March 9, 2011 Divine Designs.ca Phone: 705.259.1889 www.divinedesigns.ca jesse@divinedesigns.ca
Introduction Elliott and Elliott are a husband and wife Law Firm based in the City of Barrie. With ten years of experience in their specialized field of environmental law, they intend to provide a unique, yet expertly driven law service for the Barrie and Muskoka region. In addition to assisting municipalities with communications, resolutions and development agreements, the firm also provides advice to corporate clients pertaining to environmental aspects of mergers and acquisitions, commercial real estate transactions and brownfield site remediation. They will also be focused upon assisting the public with real estate transactions and physical environmental issues. Anticipated Target Audiences We will be focusing our attention on several key target audiences: The Public o Those who are either buying or selling a house privately or otherwise o Members of the public who wish to take up an environmental issue against either another member of the public, a corporation or municipality. o Members of the public who require defending against environmental litigation. Municipalities and Local Governments o Those working for municipal governments and who are searching for candidates for a legal-specialized tender. o Municipal members who are looking further into the firm after receiving a proposal for tender. o Advice and representation related to environmental issues. o Municipalities looking for assistance regarding legal jargon. o Municipalities in need of general representation or help with financial and taxation issues. o Municipalities in need of defense against environmentally orientated litigation. Corporate Business o Companies prosecuting or being prosecuted by other companies regarding an environmentally orientated situation. o Corporations in need of assistance with legal jargon related to the Firm s area of expertise. o Advice and representation related to environmental or planning issues. To obtain the attention of these audience representatives, we will appeal to them not only through relevant content but also by the creation of an appearance through good design practices and one that matches the perception of the identified target audiences. To this affect, the appearance and feel of the site will be: Friendly The site will aim to put the general public at ease by portraying a distinct image that will promote a perception that Elliott and Elliott are an approachable and open law firm who know how to deal with the everyday person. To this end, user-friendliness is of paramount importance. CONFIDENTIAL Page 2 of 8
Professional Although it s important to make the site appear accessible and friendly, there will be a certain amount of gravity placed on the theme of a law firm who can be trusted. We need to convey a sense of expertise and confidence. Integral The site must appear to be central to the law firm; as if the essence of Elliott and Elliott has been defined by the look of the site and the content held within it. Formal Although this seems to contradict the requirement for the website to support the perception of a friendly and approachable law firm, a more formal approach will be required in the areas of the site which are aimed at municipalities and corporations. Website Detail Site Navigation The main navigation area will contain the following primary categories: Practice Areas o Municipal Law o Environmental Law o Real Estate Law Our Experience Our Commitment Our Team Testimonials Contact Us Page Design and Layout The pages throughout the site will be uniform in appearance and sympathetic to your established company colours and branding. Each page will be expertly laid out to comprise all information conveyed to your visitors through skilled design work and the tasteful use of imagery and other content. Each page will consist of the following elements: Header The header will appear at the top of every page and will serve as confirmation to your visitors that they are in the right place. The Elliott and Elliott logo will be placed in the top left corner. Integrated into the header and located to the right of the logo will be the main navigation menu. Prompt Column This area will be situated directly beneath your logo and will consist of two sections, one on top of the other. The top section will portray some text brightly and concisely summarizing your mission statement. This will allow your visitors to instantly understand who you are and how you wish to be perceived. The area below this will ask the visitor; What Do You Need Help With? This question will be purposely directed at those who are unsure about how to find the information relevant to their predicament. The section will then proceed to list some services in layman form. These services will be linked to the related pages of the site. The inclusion of this area is quite practical in that it will contribute towards visitor to client conversions. Main Content Table CONFIDENTIAL Page 3 of 8
This section will take up the vast majority of each page area. It will be placed under the header, to the right of the prompt column and above the footer. The content table will consist of all main body text and imagery and will always be directly related to the title of the page. Footer The footer will sit at the base of each page and will contain copyright information as well as a list of your qualifications and if desired, affiliations. Page Detail and Functionality Home> The home page will generally be the first page that visitors to your site will see. Therefore, the first impression here is everything. The Home Page will say as much as possible to your target audience about your business without crowding the page and presenting them with too much reading material and imagery. The layout of the content table will contain some text and imagery that will serve to introduce your company to your site visitors. The main text area will be accompanied by some tasteful static imagery and will speak about what makes your firm stand out from the rest and how you will focus upon breaking the stigma associated with lawyers who are only interested in their pound of flesh. In the interests of visitor to client conversion, it s important to note here that we will endeavor to promote your services in a literal sense within the home page. We feel this to be necessary in order to maintain the attention of potential clients who are inexperienced with legal issues. We will set about doing this by creating a series of CTA (call to action) buttons just above the footer on the home page only. Each CTA will encourage the visitor to look further in to the site in relation to their requirements. The design of each CTA button will be bright with bold text and a nice, relevant image, in order to complete the literal and visual cohesion. We will also direct some attention towards visitors who arrive at the site looking to specifically approach the firm in relation to a tender. Practice Areas> This will serve as the first category tab in the navigation menu and will serve only as a tab. Hovering or clicking upon this tab will generate a drop down menu consisting of a list of related subcategories. Each sub-category will act as a link to a related page. The sub-categories pages will be: Real Estate Law This page will briefly inform the visitor of services offered within this field. Provision will also be made to include a quote form within the page, enabling the visitor to inquire about fees pertaining to a specific situation. The form itself will consist of up to ten (mostly closed) input fields, requiring the applicant to provide you with a range of information based upon their needs. Once completed, the form will be sent directly to your designated administrator s email account. The inquiry will be dealt with and a response will then be sent to the applicant s email account. The visitor may read articles written about this particular field by simply selecting the related link at the bottom of the content table. Municipal Law There are many services associated with this particular field of expertise of which this page will concisely and directly refer to along with brief explanations. A prompt will exist within this page to encourage page visitors to contact your firm in order to inquire further or to book an appointment. The visitor may also read articles written about this particular field by simply selecting the related link at the bottom of the content table. The prose on this page will be formal. Environmental Law This page will endeavor to outline all services available within the umbrella of environmental law, giving some examples of areas where disputes might occur. It s important to ensure that the services offered here are not perceived by the visitor to be exclusive. Environmental law applies to everybody. A prompt will exist within this page to encourage page visitors to contact your firm in order to inquire further or to book an appointment. CONFIDENTIAL Page 4 of 8
Like all other Practice Area pages, there will be the option for the visitor to read articles written about this particular field by simply selecting the related link at the bottom of the content table. Articles will appear in javascript popup lightboxes. This proposal includes 3 articles. Our Experience> This page will eloquently talk about what you do and projects that you have been involved in. We will take care to list one project per target audience, in order to cover all angles. We will also incorporate some tasteful and relevant imagery to give the page a greater sense of presentation. The title of this page purposefully creates cohesion between the site and RFP. Our Commitment> We feel that is important to really communicate with your various audience representatives at grass roots level. Therefore, this page will re-assure your visitors of your people-first commitment. This is a great opportunity to promote Elliott and Elliott as the law firm that pushes for value added service, professional excellence and a focus on the individual. The title of this page purposefully creates cohesion between the site and RFP. Our Team> This page will bring into focus the members of the firm and will include a brief section of text that explains their areas of expertise as well as some personal information. Testimonials> This page will be nicely designed to showcase the most positive feedback from some of your top clients. We will also include a horizontal list of client logos to quickly show potential clients the caliber of your clientele. Contact Us> This page will contain all contact information which you are willing to include; direct phone numbers and a contact form for inquiries and an email address. It should also include some text encouraging the visitor to inquire specifically about your services. There will also be some tips above the contact form advising the visitor as to the information they should leave with you in the case of an inquiry. Additional Functionality Real Estate Quote Form For the sake of this proposal, the form will be made up of ten input fields, each one editable by the end-user and geared to describe the type of real estate orientated case at hand. The form will consist of a mixture of open and closed fields. Open meaning that fields concerned with collecting information such as name and email address will be fully editable and closed being a list of selectable or yes/no answers. The form will only be sent once all input fields and criteria have been satisfactorily endorsed by the end-user, ensuring that you receive only fully completed forms. Once sent, the form will arrive in your email inbox. The message will be automatically and relevantly titled to always provide you with an idea of what the email is about. You may respond to the received form by whichever means you see fit. Basic SEO Upgrade Up to 90% of Internet traffic originates from major search engines and directories. Divine Designs uses extensive, specialized procedures to ensure that the new website is constructed with optimum search engine awareness through each stage of the construction process. We begin with a research phase to determine the most frequently submitted search terms used by your target market when searching for Elliott and Elliott and its competitors. We then compare and prioritize this data to identify the keywords that are to be used in the new website. When our designers and programmers are put to work, we ensure that the following steps are included for search engine optimization: CONFIDENTIAL Page 5 of 8
Simple Keyword Research Page names are named after prime keywords <h> tags are used in titles and other prominent areas Meta data is used on a per-page basis Advanced Google Places Listing Due to the local nature of your business we feel that Google Places will be a key source of traffic to your website. An optimized listing will ensure that you appear when people are doing local searches for your services. JavaScript Functionality JavaScript will be used to enable the drop down menu under the Practice Areas category and to execute expandable pop-ups housing the various news articles that will be linked from the sub-category pages. Development Process Phase 1- Project Initiation Contract Agreement Signed Initial 50% deposit received Phase 2 Research and Development Client information organized and requirements forms filled out Development of simple Sitemap Wireframe sketches for key pages and functionality if necessary Site Strategy Meeting Page and Functionality Detail Sheets that correspond with the sitemap Keyword Research completed Phase 3- Visual Design Client provides photos, graphics, and initial or final text to be used in the layout of the website* Visual design concept development Visual design is uploaded to secure location for review/revisions* Visual design sign off* Individual design comps created for each page and uploaded to secure location for review/revisions* Individual design comps sign off* Phase 4- Interactive Design (Programming) Interactive Design meeting Task flow planning Navigational programming General site build (HTML, XML, CSS, PHP, Flash) SEO upgrades completed Phase 5- Testing/Completion Quality Assurance & Testing CONFIDENTIAL Page 6 of 8
Site sign-off * Remainder of balance received* Site Launch Google Places account created denotes a task that requires involvement from the Client Development Timeline We estimate that upon receipt of deposit and website content, the website can be completed from start to finish in less than 6 weeks. The following timeline is based on the assumption that Elliott & Elliott is readily available for consultation and provides required information and feedback within reasonable time limits. Project Initiation Stage Name Research and Development Timeframe 48 hours 2 days Visual Design Programming/Interactive Design Testing/Completion Cost ITEM DESCRIPTION COST Website Build All planning, blueprinting, design, programming, project management and quality assurance work $1650 SUBTOTAL $1650 Basic Search Engine Optimization and Google Places Listing SEO upgrade to ensure that your website appears in the major search engines under a variety of Search Terms $955 TOTAL $2605 Conclusion Thank you for choosing to talk to Divine Designs about the re-development of your online representation. This site, although simple in functionality, will be a great ambassador for your company. We aim to create a CONFIDENTIAL Page 7 of 8
website for you that captures the attention of your target audience putting you a step ahead of your competition by communicating your services in an attractive and subtle manner. We look forward to hearing from you soon. -- Jesse Barton. Owner / Operator - Divine Designs.ca Web: www.divinedesigns.ca Twitter: @thedivineteam Facebook: facebook.com/divinedesigns.ca * Please note that this proposal is limited to the items and descriptions outlined above. Anything not outlined above is not included for the prices given in this proposal. Copyright 2010 Divine Designs.ca. This document is confidential and intended for the receiving company only. CONFIDENTIAL Page 8 of 8