This is an extensive website for the West Coast Swing and Hustle community in Connecticut. This website is both an information source and revenue generator. It features many aspects of what a website can do for a small business and exemplifies clear design, purpose, information, and payment options.
Features of this website:
Frontpage slide show
Many times a picture says a thousand words. This frontpage slide show shows the actual studio where people would take their weekly West Coast Swing and Hustle dance classes in Connecticut, a picture of the teachers (Erik Novoa and Anna Novoa) in one of their performance poses, the Connecticut West Coast Swing and Hustle students in their final pose of their showcase, and an exposé of various pictures from their dance parties.
Fully Responsive Site
In the past 2 years, responsive design has taken over the internet. Smart phones and tablets have redefined what is considered to be a normal viewport and layout. Until 2012, SwingShoes.net was based on a static layout but immediately changed to a fluid (changes with the size of the browser window) and responsive (changes with the size of the device's viewport) design. This makes SwingShoes.Net one of the few responsive websites in the dance world.
Responsive Calendar
One of the first items that new dance students request of a website is a clear calendar of classes and events. What seems to be an easy task for most website managers is generally the worst part of the website. Many times, the information is hard to find, not continuously updated, or in row-column format which is frustrating to view on a cell phone.
The SwingShoes.Net site features a responsive calendar (changes size for screens, tablets, and phones) which displays a tabular based calendar for a desktop/laptop screen. The items of the calendar are clickable so that a user can easily select a dance class or workshop to attend. If a user looks at this same calendar on a smartphone, the items are listed in a list format so that the user does not have to have zoom-and-scroll. Best yet, this calendar is also able to be listed automatically on the front page of the website to illustrate the current week's classes. This makes for very easy user experience.
E-Commerce with PayPal
This site allows for registration for dance workshops, parties, and class cards. Instead of utilizing a e-commerce component, we elected to use a simple PayPal plug-in. This enables SwingShoes.Net to generate revenue through its website with the security of PayPal, one of the most well known payment gateways in the online world.
More Coolness
SwingShoes.Net also features a multi-category blog, a sitemap, a beginner video review page for both West Coast Swing and Hustle, and an external link to 10 years of dance pictures.
Visit SwingShoes.Net
If you want to see a great website that is constantly being updated, improved, and tailored, check out www.SwingShoes.net. You may even decide to take a West Coast Swing lesson from one of top level teachers in the country or Hustle from a two-time national champion...both Erik Novoa.