Overview
This article helps you navigate design and branding improvement through three clear stages: Establish, Evolve, and Excel. You can work through each stage to build strong foundations and progressively improve your website's visual design and branding, or jump directly to the area that matches your current goals and expertise level.
Use this guide as your index to key design and branding resources across Access Volcanic's help centre.
Working through the stages
You can approach design and branding improvement in three progressive stages, each building on the previous level:
Establish: Build a strong design foundation by learning core CMS concepts and image management techniques.
Evolve: Focus on accessibility and performance to use imagery strategically while keeping pages fast and inclusive.
Excel: Implement advanced visual customisation with decoration tags, buttons, and embedded content.
Work through the stages to build comprehensive design knowledge, or jump to the stage that matches your current needs.
Establish your design foundation
Build a strong design foundation by learning core CMS concepts and image management techniques. Focus on sourcing appropriate visuals and implementing them correctly across your website.
Use these guides to get started:
Source unique images for your content to find and use distinctive images that support your content and brand.
Change text and links using theme content to update on-page wording and hyperlinks so your messaging and navigation stay consistent.
Use content tools to customise your website. Explore the main content tools available to manage and configure your website pages.
Add and change images using the image and upload library to upload, replace, and manage images effectively across your career site.
Evolve your visual strategy
Once the basics are in place, focus on accessibility and performance. Use imagery strategically to support your content while keeping pages fast and inclusive for all users.
Use these guides to evolve your approach:
Identify images that are missing alt text in SEO tools to check for missing alt text and improve accessibility and search performance.
Optimise images to improve page speed, to adjust image size and format so your pages load quickly on all devices.
Excel with advanced customisation
When your foundation and strategy are in place, move on to advanced visual customisation. Use decoration tags, buttons, and embedded content to create a richer brand experience on your career site.
Use these guides to take your design further:
Create and manage call-to-action buttons to design engaging buttons that highlight key journeys, such as job search or applications.
Embed content with HTML to add external content, such as videos or widgets, using HTML embeds.
Embed a map on a page to display location information clearly by embedding maps into relevant pages.
Use Design Studio to customise your website to apply advanced styling and layout changes for greater design flexibility and stronger brand alignment.
Are you getting the most out of Access Volcanic?
Take the assessment to find out whether you're using Access Volcanic to its full potential.
Best practices
Work through the Establish → Evolve → Excel stages in order so your design decisions are built on a solid foundation.
Keep your brand guidelines close by when updating text, imagery, and layouts to maintain a consistent look and feel across your career site.
Review your website regularly on mobile and desktop devices to ensure images, buttons, and embedded content look correct everywhere.
After making significant design changes, ask internal stakeholders or a small group of users for feedback and adjust where needed.
FAQs
Q1: Should I work through all three stages in order?
Answer: Working through the stages in order helps you build solid foundations before moving to advanced techniques. However, you can jump to any stage that matches your current needs and experience level.
Q2: How long should I spend on each stage?
Answer: Spend enough time on Establish to set up proper image management and CMS understanding before moving forward. Evolve and Excel are ongoing processes you can revisit as your design needs develop.
Q3: Can I skip the Establish stage if I already have images on my site?
Answer: Review the Establish guides even if you have existing images, as they help identify gaps in your current setup and ensure your foundations are solid before progressing to advanced customisation.
Q4: Which stage should I focus on if I am new to website design and branding?
Answer: Start with Establish to set up your design foundations properly. This stage covers the essential setup that supports all future design and branding work.
Q5: How often should I revisit these guides?
Answer: Revisit Establish guides when making significant site changes or launching new design elements. Review Evolve and Excel guides regularly as part of ongoing optimisation and when monitoring performance metrics.
Q6: Do I need to complete all guides in each stage?
Answer: Complete the guides that are most relevant to your current goals and priorities. You can return to other guides in the stage as your needs develop or your design requirements change.
Q7: Where should I start if I notice accessibility issues with my images?
Answer: Start with the Evolve stage guide on identifying images that are missing alt text in SEO tools to understand what needs attention and take corrective actions.
Q8: Can I work on advanced customisation without completing the other stages first?
Answer: Advanced customisation in Excel works best when combined with proper image management from Establish and accessibility improvements from Evolve. Complete earlier stages first to ensure your customisations are built on solid foundations.