Kerry McGovern is based in Brisbane but specialises in advising sovereign governments on governance, and asset and financial management. Her clients are spread in a half-belt across the world from the western Pacific to the eastern Mediterranean.

While Kerry had an existing site she had changed her logo and branding. She also wanted to improve the presentation of her web presence. But this had to be achieved on a site which would cope with dial-up internet speeds – many of the countries where she works have limited infrastructure.

Kerry showed us a few sites that she liked, and we produced a layout based on what we saw. It’s a little bit disruptive with the menu on the right-hand side, but this works well with Kerry’s logo. I would never have suggested a right-side menu five or six years ago on the grounds that you shouldn’t confuse users, but users are now quite familiar with websites and I think you can play around with essential elements in a way you couldn’t once. And the design is so clean that it is pretty clear where the navigation is.

We also like to design sites that have plenty of information on the home page. While many designers concentrate on a visual look, all of the research about what users do online says that they are interested in text, especially well-designed headings, not pictures. Given Kerry’s need to deal with low bandwidth, the text approach works very well, and it should also pay dividends in terms of search engine optimisation.

Rebecca came up with a graphic design to complement the layout. The colours are light and tropical with extensive white space, reflecting the areas of the world where Kerry does most of her work. Areas are defined by textured lines.

The site is built using WordPress, and it can be extended to deal with Kerry’s future needs. At the moment it is designed to provide relevant information about her services and team of consultants, but over time it will also house a library of resource materials in her fields of expertise.

As a consultant selling expertise, the more resources and papers she puts on the site the more likely it is to generate work for her. It will rank better in Google, and it will demonstrate care and depth of knowledge to potential clients.