Anthony McGowan has a new site.
Anthony McGowan’s new mobile-friendly site is now live. I have worked closely with Tony over the past few weeks to achieve a user-friendly design that works on all devices. Our aim was to have a site that firstly looked good on a handheld mobile phone and also scaled up to look fine on a large screen. The result we hope is a clean, simple easy-to-navigate design.
Too many author websites (and this was the case with Tony’s previous site) do not have responsive design. This means that the site just condenses down to fit the viewport making text too small to be readable and links too tiny to select. Or the design does not condense at all and overspills the viewing screen making awkward horizontal scrolling a necessity and spoiling the user experience.
In redesigning his old site we wanted to make the new site:
- responsive/mobile friendly – looking good on all devices/screens
- simple, with only a small number of landing pages that will be easy to manage and keep up-to-date
- easily and instantly up-date-able on the fly, on the move, from wherever Tony may be
- image/illustration light, but neveretheless visual, with photos and graphics looking good on both a smartphone and a big display screen
- standalone and easily maintained by the author (using WordPress)
- social media-friendly with blog content that visitors can easily share on Twitter etc.
- an online buying portal for readers, with both Amazon and LoveReading links
The process consisted of a face-to-face meeting and photo session to talk about requirements, select a WordPress theme to base the design on, and to take some author portraits. I then worked on adapting the theme, and adding the content to the site. Tony looked at the work in progress and gave feedback, till we arrived at the finished design.
Those who follow Anthony McGowan on Facebook know how hilariously self-ridiculing his accounts of everyday life can be and by sharing these accounts on the blog more people will be able to appreciate this aspect of his writing.
I am grateful to a friend who works for Google who has tested the site on various Google devices including Google glass. Here are some more screenshots:
But visit the site and see for yourself. Hopefully you’ll find it a user-friendly experience whether you’re viewing it on phone, tablet, laptop or large screen. If not, let me know!
If you have a site that needs updating or want to launch a new site and are looking for someone to work with, I’m now available for a new commission.
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