Background
Hi! I’m Dharmashanti Kelleher, but you can just call me Dharma. Everybody does.
I’ve been working with HTML and designing Web sites for companies for more than ten years. As the daughter of a graphic designer (my mom) and a civil engineer (my dad), I grew up in an environment that was both creative and analytical.
In high school, I was a member of the math team, the concert band and the school newspaper. Yeah, I was a real nerd! Still am. Of course, I also love punk and indy rock, black T-shirts with crazy sayings and sport no less than four tattoos. I’m a bit of an enigma, but it works for me.
While working for a financial corporation in the late 1990s, I learned HTML and developed a web-based company newsletter. I’ve been designing Web sites for myself and others ever since.
Design Philosophy
Basically, I follow the user-oriented design philosophy. In other words, Web sites should be designed with a focus on the visitor’s experience. And so I have some rules about what a site should and shouldn’t do.
Rule# 1: Don’t annoy the visitor (unless it’s someone who you don’t want as a customer/supporter). That means, don’t have a page that takes ten seconds to load (an eternity in internet time) or starts blaring music or a video when it does load.
Rule# 2: Don’t confuse the visitor. If you’re trying to sell a product and the visitor can’t find it on your site, you’ve lost a sale. If you have free downloads and the visitor has to search for the download button (this happens a lot!), you’ve failed. If you have a forum with no search form, how are visitors supposed to find the information they’re looking for?
Rule# 3: Attract qualified visitors (i.e. people who are looking for what your organization has to offer). There are a number of ways to do this that don’t involve interrupting people.
Rule# 4: Provide intuitive, logical navigation to help visitors find the information, products or services they are looking for. That should be a no-brainer, but there are a lot of sites that fail in this aspect.
Rule# 5: Connect with visitors on an emotional level with design elements (graphics, colors, fonts, etc.) that complement rather than overwhelm the informational and navigational aspects of the sight.
Rule# 6: Offer fresh relevant content on a regular basis to give visitors a reason to return. In a word, blog.
It is with these rules in mind that I design Web sites that convert visitors into clients, customers and supporters. Contact me so that I can do the same for you.
