Case study for those who like a good story about creative Web Design and Development process.
Christy Mu is just like me and you – full of dreams and aspirations, always followed by doubts and fears, but Christy Mu has learned to manage them, and now she wants to show it to other women just like her. Does that sound like someone you would want to meet? She might be a fictional character, but she is based on so many wonderful women I have met through my life. She is that beacon who deserves a temple where others gather to gain her wisdom and strength. And in this day and world that temple is online.
Creative website design we are used to see
Web just like any other business sphere is still very much male dominated, so there is no wonder that the creative website designs we tend to see are also very male oriented. This was one of the reasons why I wanted LuAru Studio‘s portfolio website to be female oriented. That’s why the colours I chose for Christy Mu brand has feminine qualities, but I also chose not to dominate the brand with soft pinks because I strongly believe in balance, hence the strong and confident blues and shades in-between. It wasn’t hard to find the colour combination that works – pink and blues that give out the feminine, strong, independent vibe.
The choice of lilies was more of an accident than a rule. I wanted a flower that is easily recognisable if applied to a logo. Also, it instantly affords a wide choice of visuals for the web content.
When creating a website design, you have to ask why and for who?
This creative website is meant for a female coach who wants to help other women achieve their best life. Sure, it can be adapted and changed and yet that’s the kind of a woman I had in mind when creating the design.
How does it look when website creative ideas turn into reality?
I went through every step in this process because I used this WordPress website as much as my learning tool as a portfolio piece. At various points it went through the usual stages of the website design:
- complete and custom branding with logo and vector graphics prepared for the website,
- then the design was built in Adobe XD to have a better view of the outcome and since I was pleased with the design (and didn’t have an actual customer to satisfy),
- I went ahead and built the design in WordPress using Elementor Pro.
Unfortunately, life happened, and I had to delete the site believing that it won’t come to life ever again. But Universe wanted something else from me. So, a few months later I was back to this design, using it again.
- This time I built it completely in HTML, CSS (SASS) and pure JavaScript code. And boy was I happy with myself while doing it.
- Then I went even further and used the final version to put it on WordPress, hand coding it with PHP into Christy Mu custom theme while using Underscores as a base theme.
- Christy Mu was online again. And this time for good because a lot of time and thought went into this process.
In the end it’s a completely custom design which can be moulded into something different and yet it’s already great as it is. I won’t be using this creative website design as anything else but the portfolio piece, but I did put it up for sale in case someone wants to live in this beautiful (every parent can say that their kids are beautiful and every design I have ever made is like a baby to me) online home.
In the end this feminine design went through:
- Branding stage,
- Wireframing,
- Designing,
- Development in HTML, CSS & JS
- Development in PHP on WordPress
- Launch.
- Testing.
And that’s a perfect representation what can happen in LuAru Studio’s business process of web building if you want a completely custom web creative design.
There are so many ways to get that WordPress website from your vision
For the ease and fast delivery of the website I prefer to use Elementor, a WordPress drag and drop tool which my customers can use in the future as well. It gives me back my time but also gifts flexibility to you too.
If what you need is even more basic, a prebuilt theme is used to adapt to your branding. I like custom designs but to make it affordable for customers who need very basic functionalities, I work with Genesis themes, and they have a variety of choice for everyone’s needs.
Creative website builder
My husband is a carpenter so it’s very natural for me to compare website building, the perfect representation of our online homes, with house building. Imagine that I am your own online home builder and like any other good builder I can say to you that good concrete slab and frame are the most important foundations for a long-lasting house that won’t cause you headaches in the future. So, the web marketing, branding and design stages are very much the concrete base that any website building process requires. As well as a good plan and wire-framing to know where the doors are going to be and where we want our guests to sit when they visit us. Add to how important it is to have a specialist putting it all together to be able to live in the house and feel safe in it.
At LuAru Studio I do it all because that’s where my passions are – I don’t discriminate which part is the most important because building websites is a holistic approach – it asks for a great planning, foundation, framing and reliable building.
You can check out other things that I do at LuAru Studio and send me a message, I am sure we can build you a beautiful online home.
Female oriented web design is a thing, and I am here to prove it
I don’t discriminate men, but I believe their needs are fully taken care of already. What I believe in is that we need web creative design that speaks to our souls and sometimes we lack that. Just like Christy Mu – a fictional female coach who believes in the power of womanhood, I believe in the vision of a web that is attractive to both genders and isn’t overwhelming and uninspiring. Let’s connect and make web beautiful.
