About

Chili Pepper Design makes great websites.

What is a "great" website? There are five layers to a truly "great" website, each of which builds upon the last. It is these five design principles that drive our development process here at Chili Pepper Design. Feel free to read through the points below to get a glimpse into our design mindset, and see if we are building the kind of websites you need:

1. Content

The foundation of the Internet is information, also referred to just as "content". The reason millions of people surf the Internet every day is to find content that either informs or entertains them. The purpose of all websites is to deliver this content (whatever it may be) and so the core of all successful websites is great content.

2. Maintainable Content

A great website doesn't just have great content. It is also fresh and up-to-date. Old, stale, and downright irrelevant content is the downfall of many sites. This is why the second layer of a great website is it's maintainability. Our websites use state-of-the-art Content Management Systems (CMS) to ensure it's easy to keep your site updated.

3. Accessible Content

This layer, accessibility, is also referred to as "usability". If a website's visitors can't find or read it's content then it doesn't matter how fresh or high quality it is. Most people have good eyes and modern computers, but what if an important client or potential customer has poor eyesight, or an old computer on slow dial-up Internet? The third layer of a great website is accessibility. Our websites are designed with special attention to web accessibility standards so no one is left out.

4. Targeted Content

A great website also has targeted content. What "targeted" means depends on the purpose of the site, and can vary widely. The gist, though, is that a great website facilitates a connection between the site owner and the target audience. For an e-commerce site, for example, this means good search engine result placement, a layout designed to convert visitors into customers, an easy way to search for products, intuitive site navigation, and product cross-promotion, just to name a few. Every website has a goals or needs, and we tailor our designs to target these.

5. Beautiful Content

Lastly a website should be beautiful. The visual style of a website should resonate with the intended audience, and facilitate the goals of the website through aesthetic appeal and ease of use. It is important to remember, though, that this is just the frosting on the cake. Because truly great websites are beautiful, and it's easy to forget for a moment that the original purpose of a website is to deliver your content to your target audience. Our websites are stylish and modern, but function always takes priority over form.

If you like what we have to say here, you will like our websites. Browse through our portfolio to get a first-hand look at our work, and then contact us to discuss your project and our reasonable rates.

Technology

Chili Pepper Design leverages many modern web technologies to effectively meet the design principles listed above in a fast and efficient manner. By utilizing Open Source software we can deliver high quality websites faster, saving you time and money. Here is a quick summary of the web tech employed by Chili Pepper Design:

About The Designer

My name is Evan Johnson. I started writing code professionally while in high school as a programmer for Tyler Technologies (then called Eagle Computer Systems) after school and summers. I began building my first websites for local businesses and non-profits in 1999. I spent the summer of 2007 as in intern for Micron, working on their retail outlet website crucial.com; my first experience working as a team on a large production site with thousands of visitors a day.

In the Spring of 2008 I completed an Honors Degree Program with a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Philosophy at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. If the university gave out a diploma for skiing, I would have that too. While in college I worked 10-20 hours a week in the university's IT Department, and my in senior year I helped re-design the Computer Science Department's website. I've enjoyed an active and entertaining decade working and designing on the Internet and look forward to more.

I now split my time between Bozeman, MT and Driggs, ID when I'm not traveling. Both are beautiful places which give me plenty of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors and to play around with computers; my two passions for as long as I can remember.