Geek Build 2012 Update – Moving forward to design…
A lot has happened with Geek Build 2012 in the past month, and we thought it would help to summarize what we have accomplished and explain where we are in the process.
About one month ago we got the steering committee decision recommending www.wpengine.com for hosting, at $29/month.
After that Drew put up a great content checklist for a real estate website.
Next up was the IDX choice. IDX being arguably the most important decision we saw a lot of posts on the subject, and some great reviews of the best products out there. In the end the steering committee made the decision to use Real Geeks for the sites.
While IDX choices were debated we talked about options for a development framework, including Genesis (Studio Press), Thesis and Headway. A quick five days later we got the steering committee decision to base the sites on the Genesis framework.
After that we moved on to wireframing the site, and Drew put up a couple of initial ideas for discussion. There was a lot of discussion on whether to go with a very simple, minimalist design, or to go all out and included everything a home page could want. In the end we decided that since the minimalist design is basically a stripped down version of the full design we would develop our custom theme so that everything below the fold is optional. You can see the final design in the comments here.
Now that the wireframe is complete we are looking for a designer to design the home page for www.theclearwaterbeachlife.com, from which we will have our custom theme developed. We have posted a job on elance.com, are currently accepting proposals from designers, and will make a decision on who to hire later this week.
Please comment with any questions you have on the project so far.
Note from the Editor: Not sure what Geek Build 2012 is? It’s building a few real estate websites from scratch publicly with the help of the Geek Estate Community and overseen by an experienced steering committee. Read more about Geek Build 2012 here, or view all posts related to Geek Build 2012 here.
**Geek Build logo designed by Dominic Morrocco at M Squared Real Estate.
Jimmy Williams
Posted at 07:45h, 18 AprilCan you comment on choosing
wpengine for web hosting, are their servers, faster, offer more storage space, etc./? What is the reason on not using a Host Gator or other equivalent company, who are much cheaper per month.? I
Thanks in advance for you reply.
Jimmy Williams
Ben Fisher
Posted at 12:44h, 18 AprilIt was discussed a while back here:
https://geekestateblog.com/geek-build-steering-committee-decision-%E2%80%94-web-hosting-recommendation/
Alin Zdroba
Posted at 07:36h, 19 AprilWill we get some visibility into the process of choosing a designer? Outsourcing can be a blessing that quickly may turn into a curse. So i personally am curious how you worded your post on elance, what criteria you use to pick a designer, etc.
Daniel Bacon
Posted at 18:09h, 19 AprilThe text from the project description is too lengthy to post here, but some of the criteria used were: the designer or company had to have at least 20 completed projects on elance; they must show an average review of 4.7 stars or above; and their portfolio must contain a significant number of website designs that appealed to us.
We explained the site design thoroughly, asked for live sites they designed where we could obtain references, and explained that since we are developing as a group we would need consistent updates for discussion.
We received 20 proposals, and hid 13 for various reasons. We picked a designer from the remaining seven based on the quality of designs, number of developed sites, responsiveness, and interest in working with us.
If you would like more info on the elance project description email me.
ShefaliDinkar
Posted at 02:52h, 23 AprilThanks for giving wonderful post..