A Website Redesign Story

Make your jewelry website shine!

© by Linda Grandstaff; all rights reserved

Although I make a living as a graphic designer, I had never designed a website. But I decided to try my hand at creating a website to showcase all the jewelry that was multiplying in my house (sometimes I think that I may be beading and wrapping in my sleep).

I started out by designing a website using FrontPage, and that was a nightmare. I'm great with programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Gif Animation. But that dang FrontPage was making me sweat - nope, not glisten like my jewelry does, but plain old sweat which is pretty common here in Houston.

Luckily I stumbled upon software called WebStudio by Back to the Beach, which offered a free trial download on their website. I thought, "What the heck, I can't lose anything but time," so I gave it a shot.

Lo and behold the software was very easy to understand, and with a little tinkering around, my jewelry website was becoming a reality.

On my first design attempt I used a black background for all the pages, with photos of my jewelry on a black background. The site looked pretty sleek - but reading the text on that dark background was difficult. So back I went to tweak the site.

In my next design attempt I went for a more subdued look and used lighter colors. It didn't last long because I was getting nauseous looking at the site (felt like I fell into Candyland). Now if it made me feel that way, then other people must be running and screaming from my website. So a little more tweaking was in order.

On my third design attempt I almost achieved success. I chose a white background with the initials GG in blue subtly placed in the background (for Grand Glimmers). My pictures were still on the black background. I dreaded retaking all those photos - yeah I got lazy - so I decided to leave them on the black background.

Then I stumbled (I seem to do this often) across a very informative and interesting newsletter from a website called Home Jewelry Business Success Tips, written and maintained by jewelry artist Rena Klingenberg.

An article in the newsletter caught my eye. It was What Turns Me Away from a Jewelry Website, by Candy Loya of Kindred Kiln.

Her article was very insightful and enjoyable to read. I had to find out Candy's opinion of my new site, to see if I was committing any jewelry website design offenses.

I decided to email Candy and ask her to review my website and critique it. I really didn't think she'd take the time from her busy schedule to review a stranger's website. But to my surprise she responded within two days and gave me some very important suggestions:

• Retake my photos using a white background which would show much more detail in the designs.

• Add a hit counter to see who, what, why and where hits were being generated (such as StatCounter).

• Add a link to navigate to the top of each page easily.

• Add a link for visitors to sign up for email coupons, specials etc. (such as Constant Contact.

After quite a few hours of hard work and some cursing, I made the changes that Candy suggested. My website redesign looked fantastic compared to the original design.

Since I was feeling so pumped about the improved look of the website, I decided to re-enter my site in the monthly design contest sponsored by WebStudio.

Yes, folks, my website redesign won the August competition for the best designed Homespun category!

With a little guidance from a really great lady, Candy Loya, some time spent in front of a digital camera, and lots of patience I was able to make my website stand out from the rest. I owe these two ladies, Candy and Rena, a very big THANK YOU.

I'm sure you're familiar with the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words". Well, I'm hoping if you visit my redesigned website, Grand Glimmers, you'll see that saying holds true.

Never stop tweaking your website, and ask for honest feedback from other people. The little things really do make a huge difference!

Author Linda Grandstaff's Grand Glimmers is a designer sterling silver jewelry collection based in Houston, Texas. Grand Glimmers features abalone, tourmaline, andalucite and other semi-precious gemstones with .925 sterling silver & gold-filled findings and chain.

Linda says, "For the past eight years I've worked in the graphic design industry. I've combined my graphic design background with my creativity to design my own sterling silver jewelry collection. I have always had a passion for sterling silver jewelry that incorporates the current trends - but stands out from what everyone else is wearing. I like to design and wear jewelry you can't find in stores or see on anyone else."

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