Releve´
Overview of services provided to Releve´:
- Complete website development
- Domain name management
- Creation and submission of Google sitemap
- Tableless XHTML & CSS, highly accessible design
- Created custom error pages
- Created separate print version cascading style sheet
- Keyword research
- Cross browser / cross platform checked
- Creation of banners for online advertising
- Creation of Favicon
- Submission to search engines
- Provide web hosting
Releve´ is an exciting new startup company that has developed instructional and informative dance posters for dance instructors and teachers. Development of a client's web presence is always an exciting time, but the development of a new site for a new business brings new challenges and extra special rewards. That was certainly the case with Releve´, where Identity Developments became more than just a web development firm, but became part of the team in helping to lay the foundation for the new company.
Identity Developments provided a full range of services for Releve´, including some that weren't even expected. Unlike a lot of new companies, Releve´ already had a domain name, in fact, they had a couple. During the process of planning the site development, we discovered a couple other candidates that we felt might be even better, given the direction Releve´ was going with their business model. One of those was already taken, which we could help try to secure, and then there was “instructdance.com,” which we felt not only met their needs today, but provided excellent growth opportunity for the future. Releve´ agreed and we secured this domain in case they wanted to use it, which ended up being the domain used for their site.
Every client brings new and interesting challenges to the table. Releve´ is a French term which means “to raise up,” which is what happens in ballet when dancers do what seems physically impossible to us mere mortals when they “raise up” on their toes. Brilliant company name, especially given the market they are in, however it presents some very interesting challenges on the web. One of the great challenges to your web presence is getting found. Contrary to popular belief, just having a website doesn't bring in loads of traffic… build it and they may or may not come. This ties in directly with SEO, which helps improve the likelihood that a particular web page will be returned high in search results. Being a French word, there is a letter that is not standard in the U.S., an e with the acute accent, or é, which we can actually render with special HTML character coding. You may notice the difference now that we pointed it out between the true letter, é and e´. This was done because, as the company grows and becomes well known, their target audience will be searching for them as Releve rather than Relevé. This is one of the differences between building a website and developing a web presence.
As a startup company and new website, keyword research was also done to help Releve´ get off to a running start. Unlike most traditional web firms though, since Identity Developments has a background and foundation in sales, marketing, and new product development, keyword research has a much greater use. Extensive research was done for Releve´ to identify important and beneficial keywords to try to target to help drive additional traffic and achieve better search result rankings. This research also yielded additional nuggets that identified additional areas for content development and potential new products. Even though Releve´ is focused on developing products for dance instructors, content development is important as a means to provide useful information that can attract the target audience, develop rapport, and keep visitors coming back for more. Developing new products is obviously important and keyword research as an identifier for new products is a hugely unexplored area since most web development firms have zero background in that area.
| Keyword Phrase | Google Position | Yahoo! Position | MSN Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ballet instructional posters | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| dance instructor posters | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| dance posters | - | 6 | 5 |
| dance posters instructional | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| dance studio posters | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| posters dance instuctors | 10 | 1 | 4 |
| posters dance studio | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| posters dance teachers | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| releve dance posters | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| teaching ballet posters | 7 | 4 | 6 |
* Results from 2/13/07. Links lead to page ranked in Google.
{click on images for a larger view}
 "Releve´ home page.")
The home page for a new website and startup company has to work considerably harder than the normal home page. It has to instantly captivate and grab attention, begin to build brand identity, and quickly communicate what the site and the company is about. It was important to capture some of the look and feel of the Releve´ products, bring across the images associated with art and dance, while also presenting a professional image.
The background graphics from some of the posters as well as the look and feel of the logo were the basis for the entire look. After several concepts were reviewed, the chosen design rose to the top. One key area of any design is the navigation. It is one of the requirements for any site, and while there are so many variations, navigation tends to be roughly the same on all sites. The “big” navigation chosen helped the site stand out even further from the crowd, while fitting nicely into the design. The navigation was also used as a locator for the current section and also presented another opportunity to reinforce the brand identity as you can see below.
 "Releve´ home page, print version.")
A printer style sheet was also created for the site. Print and screen are two completely different mediums, each with their own rules. Creating a printer style sheet provides the ability to deliver the best output if a user wants to print a page. The end result is to deliver content, not to match the visual presentation. This version looks very different than the screen version of the home page, but delivers a better result. The navigation, useless on a printed page, has been completely removed. The font has been changed for better readability in a printed version than a screen version. The layout has been changed, but it helps ensure that the content is delivered without edges of words being cut off. The styling of the layout has also been changed for the medium and this output is more similar to a printed letterhead than a web page. All of this is done sitewide using one cascading style sheet without the creation of separate pages for the printer friendly output, but still preserves the brand identity.
 "Releve´ product page for “Position It Perfect” dance posters.")
The product pages were developed to provide a strong visual towards the top of the page, and then reinforce the product details below. The drop shadows for the logo and the main product photos are all separate from the actual images. Using png alpha transparency drop shadows provides a very realistic look as any underlying graphics show through.
Unfortunately, Internet Explorer, the leading web browser, does not render alpha transparencies correctly. However, we are able to use additional scripting technology to allow them to work, while also providing a gradual degradation to a gif drop shadow for browsers that aren't able to handle the image even with the scripting as well as browsers without javascript enabled. It is considerably more work and more challenging, but the end result is very powerful.
Additional information about the posters, tips for use, listing and links for retailers, as well as testimonial quotes were used along the side to help segment the page. Each poster of the set is listed with all of the instructional text used on the poster.
 "Releve´ product page for “Position It Perfect” showing hover-image swap effect.")
Visitors can hover their mouse over the individual thumbnails and the larger version is replaced in the main image.
 "Releve´ popup window with large product image for “Position It Perfect”.")
The visitors can also click on any thumbnail for a larger popup, watermark protected image. The popup window sizes itself based on the image, reinforces the brand identity, and features a close window link as well as an auto-closing function if a user navigates away from the page.
 "Releve´ “Studio Essentials” product page.")
The product page for the “Studio Essentials” posters carries the same theme and shows the flexibility of the design to accommodate additional thumbnails.
 "Releve´ contact information and form page.")
The contact page provides contact information, a clickable email link, as well as a contact form which can help to gather information from visitors and route the email to the appropriate department. The page also illustrates the subtle sub-navigation list along the left side, which also features a locator function. The contact form utilizes a script that helps to prevent spambots from capturing the email addresses, and the regular email address link on the page is encoded and then written out phonetically to further deter against spambots.
Three small banners and three large banners where created, each in a static and an animated version to be used on other sites to help market the new company and website. Four of the six are shown above {refresh the page to view the animation}.
Selected Projects
Identity Developments has been instrumental in our success at Relevé. As a starting business, Identity Developments provided us with a web site that is even better than many of the established distributors I'm selling too! An amazing impact to our brand development.
DeAnne Boegli Owner
