Schoharie Valley Hand Knits

Have you seen those popular, chunky knit throws that everyone is going crazy about? My friend, Lisa, creates these and wanted a website to reflect her work ethic, the quality of the throws and the luxury feeling of them. To begin this website project I provided a client questionnaire, which revealed Lisa uses locally-sourced wool to create these beautiful afghans! She also wanted me to use Pottery Barn inspired colors for the look and feel, because she felt that best reflected her work ethic and quality that her customers would resonate with. I provided prompts for the content of each page, since she had not created a website before and needed a little guidance. Along with the prompts, I provided a list of possible images ideas for her to consider.

After our initial discussion I worked on some layout ideas that would showcase the beautiful wool afghans and throws that Lisa creates. I sent her rough wireframes for each page, because I know she wanted to be involved in the project, not just hand it off to me to create and give her the end result. I explained what each section represented (a square with an x through it was where her image would go, gibberish represented her copy, etc.) This gave her a better idea of what type of images and a rough idea of the sizes that would be needed once she approved the basic layout. This way she knew to give me a larger image of her products, that I could size down if needed, and a smaller image of herself, rather than the other way around.

After she approved the wireframe ideas, she worked on getting the images taken and sent to me according to the specs I provided, and I worked on translating the wireframes into a website. I knew she was working with no money and so I made a brief search to find a theme that was similar to what I had laid out. Then I began work on altering and adjusting the code to fit the suggested layout.

After the layout reflected what Lisa approved, I customized the fonts and colors to apply the look and feel that she was going for with her site, which was a Pottery Barn feel.

Once I received images and copy, I formatted everything and applied it to the website.

Her Home Page shows a gorgeous closeup of a wool throw welcoming the visitor to learn more about her, head directly to her shop, or scroll down to view more samples of her work. The visitor is then invited to learn more about her process or get in touch with her for special order inquiries. It was important to provide the visitor with a path to follow rather than simply viewing her products on this page and then leave her site. This layout was thought through to encourage visitors to either contact her or view her products in an effort to increase her mailing list and eventually sales.