About

At Idea15 Web Design I give third sector organisations, charities, and businesses the online tools and training they need to thrive in this economy. Since 2007 I’ve worked with focused and ambitious clients to make them more professional, more effective, and more profitable online. Whether my clients measure success in sales, memberships, conversions, or sign-ups, I help them get the results they need.

I see a lot of businesses living in fear of their own web presence. I see a lot of third sector groups trying to do things on their own under a canopy of internal jargon. And I see a lot of groups trying a little bit of everything and succeeding in nothing. These businesses and groups need an experienced guide – often the first web professional they have ever consulted – to fix the online problems, address the offline ones, develop a clear strategy for the future, and – most importantly – instil a sense of self-respect and ownership for what happens online in their name.

This is what I do.

If your business or group is at the tipping point – or if you can see it coming and know it’s time to act – let’s talk about how to turn things around.

Who I Am

I’m Heather Burns. I am a professional web site designer and consultant with over 15 years of experience in site creation and development. I created my first site on a 56k dial-up connection tethered to a telephone back when files still had eight-letter filenames, and kept at it in every job and role I had until I chose to make it my full-time career. But unlike most web designers, I bring more than technical chat and lines of code to the table. My years of commercial and third sector experience in both the UK and the US have allowed me to marry the “geek” side of web design with a strategic business mind. I’ve learned to spot the tipping point between success and failure in a client’s web presence, and working together, we tip it back in the right direction.

I have trained professionally in web standards, search engine optimisation, and web site accessibility, and I also speak up for the web design profession itself.  I work with Glasgow’s seriously impressive network of specialist subcontractors, including database specialists, graphic designers, social media specialists, photographers, copywriters, sales & marketing specialists, and code monkeys who don’t get out much.

I hold the CIW Professional accreditation in web site design methodology and technology (2007). Before web design existed as a career, I earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Politics/Russian and Eastern European Studies from George Washington University. I’m a member of the Professional Contractors Group (PCG), East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce, and Scottish Women in Business. I support the objectives of the No-Spec and Antispec campaigns.

You can find me on Twitter and on LinkedIn, and you can see what I have to say in my blog. What would you like me to write about? Tell me.