The variety of work offered to me through Nörtti Paikalle continues to surprise me. It is hard to encapsulate everything into one simple phrase. Sometimes when folks ask what I do, I simply reply, “I’m trying to save the world one laptop at a time.”. Hardware work gives me the ability to work with my hands. This is something I value immensely. It feels like I am able to connect directly to the customer, and make a tangible difference in their lives. However, as the conversation deepens, my answer expands. “I do websites too!”.
Last week I was collecting a laptop from an old work colleague. We got to talking about how things had been since we last saw each other. I mentioned a little of the past work I’ve done, and I mentioned some recent website development work. His eyes lit up, “I never knew that!”. Well, that one’s on me. Nörtti kotiin is still in it’s infancy, and creating a comprehensive services list takes time.
Because I do websites too, it means I am able to create something. I have a creative and artistic side to me, and to create something unique for a customer brings me genuine joy. Let me share a little about two recent projects.
Paljasjalkavuoteni.fi
One was created for a close friend who wanted a blog site to journal her journey using only “barefoot shoes” from Lakeuden Paljasjalkakenkä Kauppa. Liina, a qualified sexual therapist, writes passionately about not only barefoot shoes and what they mean for her, but also her own journey as woman. Her blog is written with an honest vulnerability which draws you in.
Read more about her journey here, paljasjalkavuoteni.fi
For this project, we took great care to find a font which was informal and readable at the same time. I wrote a fair amount of custom css which is held in child wordpress theme. The feel of the blog also needed to represent Liina as person too. The cover picture we took together, and it felt great to make use of my visual skills along side my technical skills.
Since Liina was new to blogging in a WordPress environment, we set aside time to “train” her how to use the platform. I wanted her to feel comfortable enough that she could write a blog entry as easily as sending as text message. We looked at work flows for uploading pictures, and inserting them into the text itself. It’s joy to see her flourishing as a creative writer.
Rebornspalahti.com
The brief for this project was to provide a fully functional website with an integrated booking system within a business working day. The business was already open, with an active Facebook page which already mentioned this website address.
Rungtiwa, who owns the Praan Spa in Helsinki contacted me regarding a new venture in Lahti. The Reborn Wellness Spa.
The spa’s core values are expertise, individual service and target-oriented Thai treatment. Whether you need help with muscle-ache, injury or just want to relax, they’ll provide you with the right service. They really are proud of what they do.
Rungtiwa provided me with the logo, and an excellent set of photos. These would give the website the authentic feel they were looking for. Since time was of the essence, I looked for a pre-made WordPress theme which was simple and elegant, but would also match the colours of the logo. The twist was the the owner’s favourite colour was the pink colour you can see in the image above.
To meet this goal, I colour-picked the colour of a petal leaf from the main banner image, and used it a highlight colour. This was applied to the booking button, and the headings. The website feels simple and elegant, but also has the colourful nature which represents the spa well.
The required booking system is Setmore. A very easy service to set up and integrate with WordPress, and Facebook. This means the both online presences have a booking functionality which is a definite bonus for the business.
Even with the custom CSS coding and integrations with external systems, the website was online and functioning within the deadline. Over the next day or so, there were some small cosmetic tweaks which needed to be done, but this was to be expected given the fast pace of the project.
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More information about our website services is here.
Nörtti Paikalle is ideally positioned as one stop shop for small business IT Support. Indeed, IT Support is too narrow a term. I offer a comprehensive range IT Services to small businesses, entrepreneurs, and private individuals.
