How We Work
To create a well-designed web site, one must have a plan of creation and the ability to follow that plan in a disciplined and timely manner. Over the years, we have developed a way of building and redesigning web sites that allow us to not only build well-designed web sites but custom as well.

Our plan of creation has three main components:

Customer Interaction
The key to the custom nature of the web sites we build for our clients is our interaction with our clients. Before, after, and during the process, it is our value to have our clients involved as much as they want or can (or don’t want in some cases). Some keys of that involvement are:

• Before
  Before we begin a web site for a new client, we have two meetings (these meetings can happen one after the other or at the same time).
  • The first is to learn about their business. In this first meeting, our goals are to understand what their business does, to understand where their business is currently heading and where they would like it to be heading, to find out about their current marketing and sales practices, to learn who their customers are and what they are like, and to discover other information about their business that will help us create their web site in their likeness or ideal likeness. Not only does this information help us with creating custom web sites for our clients, it is also key information in our long term consulting relationships with our clients.
  • The second meeting is to learn about their business in relation to the Internet. If they already have a web site we focus on learning about their history with their current web site, their feelings about it, how successful/unsuccessful it has been and why, and any other information we can gather about the web site. If they do not have a web site or after we learn about their existing web site, we seek to learn about what they want out of their new web site, what they want it to do and offer, and how they hope to use it in their business. We also seek some basics like color, format, and general design preferences. During this second meeting, we start consulting on what their new web site might be like, offering suggestions based on our experience and knowledge.
  • We know a lot about what the Internet can do for our clients, they know how their business works and have ideas about what they want from the Internet; it is our goal to create synergy from this.

• During
  During the creation of a web site, we believe ongoing customer contact and interaction are key to a successful web site. This comes in many forms:
  • There are many key stages in the design of a web site such as finalizing the skeleton (structure), completion of the concept (navigation, etc.), deciding page layout, and more. At each of these key stages we meet either in person or over the phone with our clients to get their approval and suggestions.
  • We provide a location for our clients to see their web site while it is being created so that they can be kept abreast of what is happening as well as enjoy the excitement of seeing the web site come alive. Having a new web site built or an old web site redesigned should be fun.
  • Working with our clients on the Search Engine & Directory Placement portion of our services. This involves coming up with the key words, description, and title that will help them rank high in the search engines and directories as well as researching opportunities and competition. We work to build top placement into our sites rather than just making some changes at the end.
  • Content consulting can be one of the largest areas of contact and interaction. Some clients know exactly what they want and have their materials ready to go. However, most of our clients need help deciding what information is important, help creating/obtaining that material, and help sorting through and modifying their existing marketing material. Needless to say, we often spend many hours working with our clients face-to-face working on content.

• After
• After a web site is completed and is “Live”, our work as consultants truly begins. Following the completion of a web site, we work with our clients on helping to integrate their web site into their business. Additionally we work to make any adjustments to the web site that become apparent as customers interact with the web site. Through Performance & Statistical Analysis work, Web Maintenance, Search Engine & Directory Placement work, Technology/Computer Assistance, and more, we constantly maintain contact and interaction with our clients. We regularly check in with our clients to throw around ideas and learn what is happening in their business.

• Our Internal Process
  We have an internal process of web site creation, generated from years of experience that allows us to consistently create well-designed web sites. This process consist of three parts:
  • Checklist
    We follow a start-to-finish checklist of the design process covering our first meetings with clients to final testing before going live. We do this to make sure that everything that needs to happen happens, that steps happen in the right order, and the little things are not forgotten among the more glamorous aspects.
  • Guides
    We have studied and created guides for ourselves in creating and integrating the various components of a web site (i.e. navigation, concept, page layout, graphics, etc.). These guides are filled with guidelines, examples, ideas, and suggestions that are all focused on good, professional web design. Following these guides, it is easy to achieve well-designed web sites while not stifling creativity and customization. These guides are constantly updated as our experience and skills grow.
  • Multiple Person Evaluation
    We have multiple people inside ThorLoki evaluating web sites from many different points of view (graphically, page layout, usability, innovativeness, quality of coding, customization, and more) all throughout the creation process. This allows us to combine our expertise and achieve better results and well-designed web sites.

• Our People
  The intelligence and creativity of our people are the keys to our success in web design. Besides giving them an excellent structure in which to work (our internal process), we seek to nurture their talents and abilities in a number of ways:
  • Tools
    We give our people sophisticated tools to work with like powerful computers, the top software programs, high end image scanners, digital cameras, and more.
  • Specific Education
    We provide our people with access and incentives to ongoing education. This education consists of learning more about how to do what they already do better, how to do what they can’t do, and learning how to use their tools better.
  • Broad Education
    Additionally, we encourage our people to learn about and understand their profession and our industry as a whole - both were it is and where it is going. We are an Internet Marketing Consulting firm; we are successful because we have the knowledge to see the big picture while also having the skills to help our clients navigate in it.
  • Team Work
    Working together is important in the initial and ongoing development of our people. Working together speeds up learning and leads to new knowledge. Additionally, it makes work enjoyable (working alone all day on a computer is not fun) which is highly essential to creating a well-designed product.

Through our internal process, interaction with our clients, and by relying on/fostering the intelligence and creativity of our people, we have a plan for creation that leads to custom, well-designed web sites that get noticed and get results.

Disciplined creativity is the overall key to creating a well-designed site.