SITE DESIGN

I started to design this site in February 2005, at this point I was a complete novice to web design. Although I am a professionally qualified graphic designer and art editor, I had never had the opportunity of using html. My first design was very basic with no background and only a very simple layout, at the time I was very happy with my results, I now realise that there were many errors!
When I began to apply for awards for my site, I was lucky to meet some excellent webmasters who have given me their time and help along the way. My first error was horizontal scrolling. I didn't even realise that I had it but it was pointed out to me and this was easily fixed. I then began to experiment with background colors and gradients. This gave a warmer and more consistent feel to my site. One of my best finds has been Mozilla Firefox, it has an excellent web developer add-on which you can use to check images sizes, html and much more. I recommend all reading this to check it out as it is an invaluable resource. Well, after a while I started to receive some recognised awards and always researched and implemented the advice that was given to me.

Development

Next was css - wow! When you discover this tool you will never look back. It is an excellent way of ordering your fonts and layout. I firstly used it to tidy up my coding, so that I could add my type styles into one file. I could then tidy up my html which once had exhaustive font coding! It also makes for quicker alterations rather than to have to go through every page to change your fonts.
Next on the list was html validation. I never thought that I would be able to do this but with the use of W3c's validator I did! I was very pleased with my self, and gave myself a big pat on the back after this achievement. My site is fully labelled with Icra and Safe Surf. I am also affiliated with various ethical and family safe organizations.
The Firestarter Awards are currenly rated 5.0 with Award Sites and 6.0 with Uwsag. I love to give help and advice to fellow webmasters wishing to better their site, as I remember how useful it was to me. I am also proud to be an evaluator for F.R.I, Nem5 and Vsda. In March 2006 I was honoured to become an Uwsag official. This has given me the opportunity to work with a skilled team and to review fellow award programs.
August 2006 saw the launch of my new site Spiral Pixel Web Development and Design. Here I develop websites and graphics for others along with my colleague, Erin Whalen.

Improvements

My site has been coded by hand, which has taken many many hours. All of the graphics have been optimized and designed using Adobe Photoshop. I use Firefox to view and design my site, although it has been fully checked with Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari to be viewed in both 1024 x 728 and 800 x 600 resolutions. The design has gone through many transformations, and I am always striving to better my site, so if you notice any inconsistencies or errors, please feel free to email me and I will do my best to fix them.