Website Design & Development

From our initial contact and understanding your requirements, to infrastructure setup, to building an on-line website proto-type that you can review and provide feedback on, right through to testing, go-live, and future enhancements, maintenance and support....

I will guide and advise you as we progress through each stage of the the project life cycle. You can learn more about my work and the end to end website development process here.

While I (Simon) focus on creating awesome websites - I can also project manage and provide a more holistic solution for you.

I can provide basic and sound digital / online strategy and social media advice - covering things such as integration of your social media accounts with your website, how and where to host videos, integration with other 3rd party platforms and so on.

I also work with trusted partner organisations that can provide affordable and high quality services such as graphic design (for logos) and physical signage (for work sites, vehicles, etc).

I (Simon) create appealing, engaging, robust, optimized websites using a proven process and powerful, flexible tools (Wordpress + X/Pro theme).  Using X/Pro I can build almost anything that you can conceive, or have seen and like (on other websites) .

All my web designs are responsive and built to look great and work well on all devices and screen sizes (desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphones).

Two Lucky Ducks Websites are built with "SEO (search engine optimisation) best practice" and include consideration of your target audience, relevant keywords and search terms, images and video compression, fast load speeds, encryption (SSL) and more.

From the small and simple (informational websites) to those with more substantial content and more complex effects, functions and integrations - I'd love to talk to you about your specific goals, ideas and needs.

After listening to you and understanding your situation, budget and  requirements - I can give you a time/cost estimate (based on an hourly rate). This will usually be a time/cost estimate range - the size of which depends on the accuracy of scope and the level of detail of your known requirements prior to build commencement.

During the project I will keep you up to date with progress and tracking vs cost/time estimates. If needed, you can decide to cut back or expand on the website contents, functions and so on.

I usually work at a rate of $70/hr AUD.

No add on costs for 3rd party products and subscriptions!
Any products or subscriptions purchased from 3rd parties (for example domain registration, hosting, pro versions of plugins, stock image services, video hosting etc) are done so directly (with my help) between you and the 3rd party. You pay only for my time in helping in account setup and product/service installation or integration.

Fixed Price Projects
If you need a fixed cost quote, please contact me to discuss.

I (Simon) own and run Two Lucky Ducks (with my partner Aurelie)-  and I personally build every Website for clients myself. I care about my clients and their satisfaction, and I take pride in the work I do.
All your contact will be directly with me. 

My Background
I have a Bachelor of Information Technology (Swinburne University) and worked for 15+ years as a professional Software Development consultant and programmer for major multi national companies in Australia, the USA and the UK (eg. Orica, Shell, McKesson, Pacific Gas and Electric, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency).
For the last 8+ years, having left the big corporate scene, I have been designing and creating websites. I'm also continually building on my experience and evolving my skills.

The flexibility of the tools I use allows me to take your ideas and inspirations and craft website designs that provide an exceptional user experience and appeal to both you and your target audience.

Often, a great place to start is by looking at another website you like (or parts of several different sites), especially in similar industries to your own.

I can also propose designs, layouts, site structures, colours, fonts, images and graphics - keeping in mind your aesthetic preferences, your website goals and intended audience.

An early part of the process for all website builds is defining your brand identity and characteristics. This includes having a logo, a colour pallet and fonts for website use. It can also involve thinking about what your brand values are, what your mission statement is, what are your points of difference and who your target markets and audience are.

If you do not already have these things defined I can help. For example; with logo development this might mean running a "competition" for freelance graphic designers to create a logo for you. With fonts, I can help you choose appropriate (fancy, formal, or modern) fonts from the Google font library. With colours, we can take an existing colour you like or use and explore colour scheme options on-line. All of this is done keeping in mind what impression and feel you want to convey (eg. from casual and playful to formal and reassuring) and who your target audience is.

I use these proven, powerful & flexible tools:
- Wordpress (the world's most popular website Content Management System)
- X Theme/Pro + Cornerstone Editor, and I will provide a free Pro license for you!
- Plugins (Free or paid for - plugins are used to add capabilities and functionality that we need specifically for your website)

This underlying software infrastructure allows for efficient, flexible development, and for any future enhancements that you may want or need.

X/Pro (more than a theme)
Think of X/Pro/Cornerstone Editor as a professional development framework and environment, with which I can create almost any design you want, see, or like. 
It allows for attractive, highly-customised, robust, responsive designs (proven and tested on all devices), that can include motion, effects and animations, and that don't "break". X/Pro also comes bundled with some great free plugins (such as Envira Gallery, The Grid, Layer Slider, just to name a few) that allow for super-cool and professional looking elements and outcomes.
It's also very easy for me to create small, simple, minimalistic designs (if that is what you want).

The support team behind X/Pro (Theme.co) is great, as is the active user forum and community. X/Pro will not be going away and just continues to get better and better over time!

Design Cloud (Assets, Templates)
X/Pro includes the "design cloud" - a library of pre-designed assets, sites, elements and so on. We can start from scratch, use them as a starting point or leave them as is. The choice is yours.
I also have access to
- additional X/Pro pre-configured elements
- templates for sliders and slide shows
- templates for galleries
... and more.

You may be surprised to see the slick, professional looking products I can deliver for very reasonable prices.

This website (Twoluckyducks.com.au) is built using Wordpress and X/Pro!

X/Pro theme Review
A good review of X theme is here. (When reading the "Cons", keep in mind that is why you have me, taking care of that stuff for you!)

Going forward.... if you want, I can teach you how to make simple content changes, and to update Wordpress, X Pro theme and any plugins we have used.
I can also teach you (and create supporting training documents) to make relatively simple content updates to you website (from changing some text on your home page, to updating your services, fees and prices, to adding new images to a gallery, creating new blog articles, or publishing new job vacancies, and so on).

Of course, I can (for a fee - starting at $360 AUD per year for 6 hours of my time) also take care of all required software updates (Wordpress, theme, plugins) to keep your site secure and functional.  This can also often cover some phone/online support, and/or me performing small and quick content updates for you (such as updating a phone number or your rates).

Any more significant / future site content or functionality enhancements are designed, proposed and quoted for at $70/hr - and you can decide if you want to go ahead.