After graduating from SIAST ( Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science & Technology) with a Certificate in New Media Communications, I was hired by Omnilogic. I began my design career there as a graphic and web designer. Early on this meant building web design elements and making edits to existing websites. Eventually it grew into building WordPress-based websites from scratch with HTML and CSS (before the days of page builders like Elementor).
Eventually our agency began using WordPress in conjunction with prebuilt themes and frameworks to speed up the design/build process and get more consistent results from project to project. During this time I developed my design skills, but more importantly I also developed an array of critical skills that surround web design, such as communication skills, time management skills, self-discipline, self-confidence and project management abilities.
Eventually in 2017, when I purchased half of the business, my partner and I decided to transition to using third party contracted designers so that we could focus more on the core aspects of the business. At this time my role morphed again, this time away from direct design and coding into the operations and project manager.
These were busy, challenging, yet extremely fun years. From little jobs to huge strategic management decisions, I learned how to embrace a steady flow of task-based daily requirements, while also learning to point the business in the direction we needed it to go, communicate clearly with clients, staff, contractors ( as well as my business partner) and ensure throughout it all that bills were paid, invoices were collected on, projects were wrapped up on time and our team remained motivated.
In addition, my project management skills revolved around keeping stakeholders accountable, communicating and managing expectations to clients, dealing with conflict and tension, teasing out business needs from small business owners who were not always able to put them into words. After clearly understanding what their business needs were, I wrote design briefs and ensured our designers caught the excitement and the spirit of each project. I often managed the designers when their ideas were not on track or their work was not up to our standards. I also presented our designs concepts to clients with careful design rationale and then led the iterations with our team when needed. On average I managed 10-15 projects simultaneously.
While my primary experience is not specifically with Elementor (or any of the other page builder applications on the market today), I have fourteen years of on-the-job training working on over 250+ website projects that were built on the WordPress backbone. I am confident that I can pick up the skills specific to Elementor quickly, given the context and experience that I already possess.
Some of the most important lessons I've learned about building websites:
When I first began as a young designer I was full of ideals. I thought of websites less as a business tool and more as a piece of artwork. I believed that the perfect website existed and that it was some amazing piece of art that I had to come up with. So when clients wanted something different than what I envisioned for their website, I was disappointed and when they didn’t like my ideas, I felt threatened.
I’ve learned so many things over the years. One of them was letting go of my ego and not tying critique of my designs to my self-worth. I’ve also learned a lot about listening carefully to understand their needs and values and then including those needs and values in a design rationale when I present to them the reason for my design choices. Along the way I’ve come to realize that the perfect website doesn’t exist. But great websites do! Thankfully they have little to do with my artistic talent. Instead they have a lot more to do with purpose, goals, tastes and preferences and of course with achieving the purpose for which they were built.
In my experience, successful web design projects don’t rely primarily on design. It is an important part of the process but its just one part of a larger overall process. Some of the other things I’ve gained skills and experience with and that I have learned to value highly are:
- Clear, timely and empathetic communication
- Clarifying goals and expectations at the outset of the project
- Getting consensus on website goals and requirements and writing those down at the outset of a project
- Consistent, steady follow-up throughout the project
- Flexibility and understanding, when a client changes their mind
And there are also lots of really important things that come AFTER the website launches. Things like:
- Fast, reliable hosting with great service
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that helps those new websites actually get found
- Reliable, accountable and friendly service to help with updates, edits and improvements
- Assistance with analytic tools to measure what is working and what is not working on the website
- Accessibility for users who might not have all the privileges that you or I have
You will see in one rendition of OmniOnline’s website below that these were the values and services we promoted over things like “technical design skills”. That’s because we found over and over that without them, each project was bound to fail. Yet with them, even projects that didn’t have the most beautiful or unique design elements, were highly valued by clients and repeatedly held up as successful projects. It’s also why at OmniOnline our slogan became, “Websites That Mean Business”. We didn’t just focus on websites that were informative or beautiful, but in the end our focus always came back to the purpose, which for our clients generally meant new or increased business revenues.
Browse through a small sampling of websites that I project-managed and had an active hand in building, launching, promoting and following up with in the past few years.
You can grab them with your mouse (or your finger on an ipad) and manually drag them right to left to inspect them at your own pace.
