To create a good company website, the web architect needs to take into account the image, aims and scope of the business. Further to this, however, is a need to plan what the website will achieve for the company: the function then to a large extent dictates the design.
Rachel Quarrell
Dr. Rachel Quarrell is a research scientist at the University of Oxford, who has been involved in web architecture and website design/maintenance since 1994. Her major interest online began in sport, and she runs the Rowing Service, the largest and most comprehensive rowing website in the world. She acts as a freelance consultant to companies and organisations of all types considering an online presence. Above all else, her credo is that a website should be effective, whether for the company, its clients, or both, and whether this is due to beauty, information, or speed of access.
Awards
In 1996 the Rowing Service won the "Best of Europe" sports award from Europe Online, and it is still featured as one of the top sports links on this site.
The news page from the Rowing Service is syndicated onto Onstream, a dedicated ISP. Hosting facilities at extremely reasonable rates are available on the same server for all websites, whatever the subject, and domain names may be purchased to reflect your company's name exactly.
The June 2000 issue of The .Net Magazine features the Rowing Service as a ".NET Five Star Site", opening the review with the comment "This is an exemplary website...."
Example Websites
Synaptica Ltd (this is a test page only, for security reasons)