RFP - pet grooming and boarding website

[Spider]

I have a website - two pages - built long, long ago - one of my first attempts at website creation. It served its purpose.

I have been wanting to create a new site for the longest while but have never gotten around to doing so. Thus, this invitation for anyone to offer to create a new site for me.

Give me a brief description of what you think it needs and an indication of price. We will discuss it some more, determine specifications and agree a fixed price. Then I will leave you alone to get on and do it.

PUPPY LOVE PET GROOMING AND BOARDING, FM1960 AREA, HOUSTON, TEXAS (http://www.puppylovepets.com)

[greenoak]

good luck spider.....your proposal sounds perfect and textbook...and clear....
.are you trying to get out of your honey do list?

[Spider]

Any outstanding proposals?

[Steve B]

How many have you gotten so far Spider? I figured with all the web developers on this site you would be flooded with responses.

[Spider]

None. I guess everyone has too much work.

[treelifedesigns]

Hey Spider,

I am looking over your site right now and I will send you a PM regarding price and what I think we can do with it. I definitely have some great ideas :)

[NineDesign]

I think I'd definitely be able to overhaul that site, quickly, easily and for a great price.

In short, I believe it needs quite a bit.

The following are the main problems I encounter when arriving at the page:

The layout is too busy - there is no clear line for a visitor's eye to follow, I had trouble figuring out where the name of the company was.
Typography - The type is really confusing, there are a lot of drop caps causing the text to not left align. Also, characters that have not been inserted with proper code so they appear as boxes, or diamonds with question marks inside.
Colors - It's fine if the client would like to use pink as the dominant color, but there's definitely a way to utilize it properly. Right now everything is too loud and there is not enough contrast.
Tables - The site uses tables, in today's web, it's better to use DIV tags as opposed to table layouts. Tables can sometimes be easier, but they should only be use for tabular data.


Keep in mind, I'm not trying to be overly critical! I'm just stating my opinion, we've all done our share of websites we wished we could do another time around. ;)

I think in order to make the site more user friendly, there should be four pages.

Home
Services
The Pet Page (Includes photos of pets, all the external links)
Contact (Contact form, map and relevant contact info)


I've included a simple wire-frame outlining how I would lay the main page out. The nice thing about a layout like my wire frame is that it displays all the relevant information on the first page, but lets the customer browse further to gain more detail. Also, there is a call to action front and center that tells the user where they should go, and what they should do. It could also be used as a photo slider, depending on the client desires.

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Please keep in mind this is not a full size wire frame, nor does it utilize a color scheme.

I'm not sure if the project is still available, please let me know if it is. If it is still available, I can get you an estimate right away. Please let me know!

-T