The winner for March was Rich better known as rewake for Rainierjewelers.com! Congratulations on a fantastic design. We think you will enjoy this interview with Rich about what went into the designing of this site.
I just wanted to take a minute to thank all of the members at The Web Squeeze for their support and input… you guys are the finest bunch of web-geeks I’ve come across! Now, on to the questions…
What specifications or direction did the client give you for this project?
There were really no specific directions for the site other than “I want all of my products online” and “I want people to buy things off the site”. My personal goal was to make the site really stand out within the online jewelry industry and compete with the “big boys” that were already out there. I actually work on the site full time so I’m able to focus my efforts towards this goal.
Where did you find your inspiration for this design?
I spent a lot of time comparing and contrasting pretty much all of the major shopping sites both in the jewelry industry and on the web in general. Quite frankly, there are not many web sites within the jewelry industry that I felt were up to par, so I had to really look outward for inspiration. As it turns out I ended up with a lot of great ideas for the site that made perfect sense but had not yet been implemented on many jewelry sites, if any.
How long did you work on this project from start to finish?
The site is being constructed in phases, so there’s no real “start to finish” per se. There were actually a bunch of things that took precedence to working on the site, including developing an internal inventory management system and setting up a new network. The initial phase of the site, which included graphic design, slicing, CSS, HTML, developing the custom shopping cart, etc took around 2-3 months. Immediately following the Smoothie of the Month competition I uploaded a bunch of changes, so the site you see now is quite different to the version that won… I think it’s a lot cleaner and more user friendly now.
What types of languages, technologies were involved in the development of this site?
A bunch! Off the top of my head… Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, Fireworks, PHP, MySQL, XML, CSS, SOAP, cURL, Javascript, ActionScript 2 & 3, Flex and a couple others I’m sure.
Did you find any aspects of this project to be challenging?
I think the most challenging aspect of the project was/is pushing the envelope. All of the sites within the industry are pretty much the same, and naturally most of the emulate the largest site in the industry. This is one of things I really tried to avoid while designing the site. Each phase of the site will bring us further away from a standard jewelry website and I’m hoping we will start a few trend of our own in the near future.
What part of this project is your favorite?
The design process. With a site of this scale there’s always something new to be designed and always a bunch of great ideas floating around in my head as far as new designs or ways to make existing graphical elements or layouts better.
Would you care to share with us some of the feedback you received from the client?
Seeing how the client is actually my boss there’s always something that’s not quite right! Seriously though, he’s really happy with the site so far and I know he’ll be pleased with the changes to come.
On a personal note, how long have your been designing and developing websites?
I got started about 9 or 10 years ago with GeoCities, a 486 and notepad. Since then I’ve just been sucking in as much information as I can and trying to keep up with all of the latest technologies and emerging trends. My latest venture is Flex and AIR, which is amazing.
How did this client find you?
It’s kind of a long story, but the short version is a recommendation from a friend and former co-worker. After meeting the owner and ironing out all the details I moved up to New York from Miami and got to work.
