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Written Interviews

Interview with Aaron Christian of DS9 Design

Today I am presenting another written interview with Aaron Christian of DS9 Design. 1

Check out the interview:

1. What got you interested in web design? Share your story.

I was fortunate enough to have a teacher in my grade school academy in Orange County that was at the time on the development team for Sony. Our task for the year was to create a portal for our schools students and teachers. The class was very rudimentary, and at the time it was still common practice to use “tables” and other depreciated tags in our html websites.

I stuck with it after taking the class, eventually launching monetized sites and online communities through-out high school.

Coding practices have changed so much in the past decade, especially with the web. Every day I learn new things while working with clients, which is always exciting for me.

2. How do you stand out from other companies that offer web design services?

It’s not rocket science creating a website, but it is difficult to develop visually attractive ones with the functionality that drives sales. It’s easy to fall into “comfort patterns”, using the same WYSIWYG Table based designs that you learned 10 years ago. The online marketplace is highly competitive. Your main street web designer isn’t up to date with the latest frameworks like Jquery, Angular, etc. This may seem like nonsense to people that are not in field, but when it comes down to ranking higher in search engines, and increasing conversion rates, it matters!

Would you want your product to be displayed in a bargain bin at TJMaxx, or a display case at Bloomingdales?

3. How have you gone about marketing your services and what’s working for you?

Optimizing your site for your demographic is extremely important. We’ve learned that sometimes it’s necessary to pivot. Business owners invest hours of time creating business plans, with every step written out and every result calculated.

In a traditional sense, a business with a well formed business plan was likely to succeed.

Where people fail is that when their is a deviation to their plan, and their results end up not as planned. These variables give people the illusion of failure

The reality of this is, running a business is more cognate to driving a car.

Think about your drive to work. How would you describe getting there? Would it be a step-by-step list with every motion your foot makes on the pedal? Or would it be a directions list? When there’s traffic and you’re running late, do you call it quits and decide to not show for work, or do you find an alternative route?

It is essential to follow social signals and trends for an effective marketing plan.

4. What are a few of the most common requests you get from clients when it comes to web design work?

The ability to set up e-commerce shops comes from the relatively low overhead. You no longer have to invest in a storefront to operate a business. People tend to migrate over from the Big Box “E-retailers” such as Wix and Square space after realizing the limits. We develop custom online stores that are optimized for higher returns on investments and conversion rates.

5. What are your future plans for 2014 and beyond?

We believe in working with clients on a one-on-one basis. Expansion is necessary, but expansion without sacrificing quality is our #1 goal at DS9 Design.