I want a website for myself or my company. What do I need to do first?

First decide what your website is supposed to accomplish. Are you planning to use it to sell a product? To provide information about a service? Or will it be for personal or family use? Once you've determined your site's purpose it will be much easier to decide upon the site's content and layout.

It is helpful if you have a few sites that you can point us to that you like. This can streamline the design process and give us a starting point for the creation of a design you'll like.

Can I add on to a website later?

Absolutely. It is, however, a good idea to let us know as early as possible if you may wish to expand the website in the future. It's a lot easier if we've built the site with expansion in mind; but even if we haven't, it can still be done with relative ease.

How long will it take from the start of design to the finished website?

Depending upon the complexity, development can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few months.

Why should I work with you?

We pride ourselves on creating websites that meet web and accessibility standards. We're friendly and easy to work with (even our clients say so! See the bottom of our work page for some client testimonials), and most importantly, our websites not only look appealing but load quickly even on computers with slow internet connections.

Why does it matter if my website doesn't meet web or accessibility standards?

Nearly 20% of all web users have some form of a disability. Having a website that meets accessibility standards is a courtesy, and if you're selling a product it also gives you the opportunity to market your product to a large market you'd otherwise have missed.

Meeting web standards provides many benefits. When websites are developed using web standards they often cost less. They also perform better in different browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and so on -- all of which access and handle webpages differently. Websites that meet web standards usually have higher performance (meaning they load faster) than other websites.

For more information, take a look at this well-written article by Jeffrey Veen.

I don't have a website name or hosting company yet. Can you help me with those?

We can arrange to purchase a domain name and website hosting on your behalf, though we do not host the websites ourselves.

What do you charge?

Design Station's current rate is $60 per hour plus 5% GST.

If you'd like an estimate on a project, please get in touch -- we're happy to help!

Do you ever work to a fixed amount?

Web work is so unpredictable that it's often hard enough giving a ballpark quote on a website. Working to a fixed cost just means that either we will be under-charging or over-charging. We've found that billing hourly is a lot fairer to us and the client.

What do you charge to maintain a website?

We offer several billing options for maintaining sites, including hourly billing or a monthly flat-rate (based on a maintenance contract). It all depends on the website and how much work may need to be done each month.