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The iPad and what it means for web designers

Posted: February 3rd, 2010

It’s been a week now since Apple first unveiled their new iPad device. I discussed last week the subject of who it was intended for and why it would be a successful product. This week I’m going to examine what it will mean for web designers and developers and the potential impact it will have on our industry.

iPad changes everything?

This is the message that Apple were voicing at their conference last week. While they seemed committed to it, very few people expressed the same views. However, in a way it does change everything, in terms of mobile web, available anywhere. It’s already been reported that within a few years the most common way people will access on-line content and services will be through mobile devices. (read more about that here) There are a number of devices available right now that provide a better experience for certain on-line services than on the actual website (Twitter I’m looking at you). However, as good as these devices are for browsing the web anywhere, any time they all have one common limitation; the small screen size.

In my opinion the best mobile device for browsing the web right now is the iPhone. However, you still have to scroll around quite a bit on content-heavy sites and filling in forms is a nightmare. Not only do you have to scroll around the screen in order to see the fields, you also have to keep hiding and showing the keyboard and some forms just don’t work well because of this.

So size does matter?

Yes, for browsing the web size matters. The iPad has a 9.7″ screen, much larger than mobile phones. It is capable of displaying far more content on it’s screen and therefore provides a much better experience for web users. Take a look at the screens on Apple’s own website where the iPad is displaying the home page of the New York Times. It looks great.

It also has a much higher screen resolution of 1024 x 768. On a traditional PC this would be considered very low, on a portable device it’s amazing. Higher resolutions equal shaper images and text and better looking web pages. This level of detail on a single screen simply isn’t possible, at least not in a readable form anyway, on any phone.

Ok – I’m a web designer, how can iPad benefit me?

Well ok, this will take a bit of explaining. Firstly I believe that the iPad is going to be hugely successful for Apple. If it’s successful then a lot of people will buy it. This means there will be a lot of people browsing websites with it. When discussing projects with clients it’s another plus point for their on-line business because it’s another way for them to reach potential customers and make sales.

I’ve been mentioning the iPhone in sales pitches to clients for the last 12 months. I always take my iPhone into a meeting so that I can show them that sites we’ve written display correctly on the device. This usually impresses them as quite often they either have an iPhone themselves and have never thought about it’s impact on their online business, or they know someone who has an iPhone and suddenly they see the importance of having their site work well on a mobile device. The iPad will offer an even better experience on-line for the reasons I’ve already detailed above.

The real beauty of it is that because iPad uses the Safari browser we don’t need to make special CSS code for our sites to display correctly on it. It’s easy to show clients how good websites will look and how easy it is to use the device.

Ah, but the iPad doesn’t display Flash content

Completely true, it doesn’t. However, as a developer I always try to stay away from Flash as much as possible anyway. It’s buggy, it requires different plug-ins for different browsers and it’s not good for SEO. Usually if a client wants to achieve something in Flash I can get the same result for them using JQuery coding. Also, HTML5 is on the way, and embedding video content directly into a web page (something that Flash is currently used for a lot) will be a breeze and will not require any plug-ins at all. After that I don’t see much of a future for Flash in the majority of business websites, apart from dedicated applications and games.

In conclusion then – iPad offers a lot for web designers

So, after all that let’s summarise what the iPad will offer for us as web designers and developers:-

  • A great way to display websites on a mobile device without any CSS special coding
  • An extra way we can sell our design services to clients
  • A richer browsing experience
  • A sales tool – “yes, we can make your site look great on the iPad so you can reach more people
  • It may also be a really nice way of presenting a sales pitch to your clients – no more bulky laptop in the meeting room, just plug-in to a projector and go
  • It shows clients that you’re aware of the latest technologies and are keeping up with changes in the industry to provide them with the best possible service

Written by Ian Hazeldine, Managing Director of Yellow Circle Web Solutions Limited

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How to plan out your website

Posted: January 20th, 2010

Like anything in business a website requires careful planning. This article will provide guidelines and tips for planning your web strategy. Not only will this help your web designer/developer when it comes to building your site, but it may even save you money too, as the site will be able to built quicker. Read on for more information.

The pen is mightier than the mouse

The first stage of planning your new website will involved sketching out a basic outline of the information you want to display on it. You should start with your top-level links (the main categories or pages for your site). You may find that certain categories/pages require sub-pages and categories. This will almost always be true if you’re planning on selling products online. For example, if your site is to sell pet food you will need to have separate categories of food for each animal that you sell the food for. Work your way through each of the sections for your site deciding whether you need additional pages for each. If you do list the sub-pages below the appropriate heading in your sketch.

Why is sketching out the page names important?
This first step is probably the most important step in the whole process of building your site. The number of pages you have can have an effect on the design of your site. If you have several sub-pages in each category for example, your designer may choose to build your site’s navigation system using a drop-down menu, something that wouldn’t work if you only had top-level pages (there wouldn’t be any sub-categories). The number of pages your site has can also affect the price of your project, or may influence the designer’s software solution for your project (it may be cheaper and quicker to use open-source software rather than building the site from scratch). The designer isn’t able to make these decisions without first know the approximate number of pages/sub-pages/categories you need in your website.

Branding your site

Quite often you’ll want to use the same logo and corporate colours on your website that you use on all of your other promotional material. This is a good idea. It maintains a consistent look across your range of offline and online material and also helps clients identify that the new website they’ve come across does indeed belong to the same company they’ve dealt with before in offline business. However, there are times when it may be necessary to creat entirely new branding. One example of this could be for a new product you’ve developed and are wanting to promote on it’s own self-contained website. Even if this is the case you should include your main company logo on the page somewhere, maybe in the bottom right-corner of the footer, so that people know your company has produced the product. Sites like this are often used for the promotion of iPhone Apps.

Whilst you’ll no doubt have your own vision of how your site should look you should always listen to the web designer. They’re the professionals in this aspect of creating your site and if they tell you something won’t work you should take note, especially where colours and page layout are concerned.

The web: it’s a social thing

As well as planning out the site itself you should also be making plans for how you will drive traffic to the site once it’s completed and thus grow your user base. You may have heard the term ’social networking’ a lot recently. Social networkings sites are websites that allow users to communicate and share ideas and information. They’re also excellent tools for marketing your company’s products and services to a large number of people for free. Twitter is currently one of the most popular social networking tools and you should certainly be investigating ways you can use their service to help spread the word about your site/service/products. This blog is set to automatically post new entries directly to Twitter as soon as they’re published. This is a great way for me to tell everyone that there’s something new for them to read.

You should be prepared to spend some time cultivating your social networking sites. It’s often a good idea to appoint someone within your organisation to regularly maintain and update content for you in this area. A lot of people think that once a website is live you can forget about it and it will start working for you. This couldn’t be further from the truth. You need to constantly keep your site up-to-date with products and information, you need to tell people about your site, you need to advertise your site. If you don’t then you’ve wasted the money and time you spent having it developed.

One final tip in this section, and it’s one I’ve seen people ignore time and time again. Make sure your website address is on all of your company’s printed literature. It’s a no brainer, but is absolutely essential.

Final thoughts

In summary then, you need to start your planning way before a single line of code is written for your new site. You need to reflect your company’s corporate branding on your site in most cases and you need to continue to develop and promote your site once it’s live on the Internet. Follow these rules and you should end up with a professional looking site that helps generate extra income for your business.

Written by Ian Hazeldine, Managing Director of Yellow Circle Web Solutions Limited, a web design and hosting company based in Staffordshire, UK

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Posted in Communication, Marketing, Web Design | 3 Comments »

Think of your home page as your shop front window

Posted: October 14th, 2009

home-page-is-your-shop-window
This week we’re going to be concentrating on argueably the most important page in any website; the home page. Quite often when carrying out work for clients, especially site re-designs we’ll encounter a home page on their site that looks more like a word document than a web site. You should think of your home page as the virtual window to your store that can be used to entice customers (users) further in.

With this in mind we’ll explore some of the most common mistakes that we’ve found on client sites (before we’ve worked on them) and how you can change these for the better.

Too much text will kill you

Probably the most common mistake we encounter on client sites is that they simply have way too much text on their home page. Think about the content that you’re writing for your website, do you really need to put it all on the first page? Probably not. This is certainly not a good way to entice users to explore your site further. If you present a page that’s full of paragraphs and paragraphs of text your user will quickly navigate away from your site as they can’t immediately see anything to interest them. When a user first visits a website you only have their attention for a few seconds. If your site doesn’t grab their attention they will certainly be able to find one that does and this means you’ve lost them and hence lost any chance of them doing business with you.

Don’t waffle

Remember, a user wants to see what you can offer them. They are not interested in how proud you are about your business or how you feel about a product or service you provide. They’re interested in what’s in it for them. Keep your text relevant, concise and enticing. A simple introductory paragraph of 3 or 4 lines will usually suffice for your home page. If you lose track of this think of what you see in the high street when you’re out shopping. Shops put posters and offers in their shop windows, they don’t put paragraph after paragraph of text telling you how happy they are with their business and your website home page shouldn’t either.

Make your text relevant

Not only is relevant text important for keeping your user interested and wanting to read more, but it’s also good for gaining a high rank within popular search engines such as Google. The text on your home page should provide the user with a clear idea of what services or products you provide. Concentrate on your main area of business on the home page. If you diversify and offer other services or products to a lesser degree then by all means promote them on the site too, but ensure they don’t encroch too much on the home page. The main factor in gaining a high rank in google is good relevant content.

If you’re not too good at writing copy yourself it would be wise to seek assistance from someone to do it for you. If you know someone personally (a friend or family member) that can write content well ask them to help you out. If not then there are professional copy writers who can provide this service for you. Of course this will cost you money, but remember, this is your business we’re talking about. If you had a high street shop you wouldn’t let just anybody put things in your shop window. Your website should be no different.

State your unique selling points

Every business has a unique selling point of some sort. A short time ago we had a meeting with a client that wanted us to re-design their existing website. We took a look at their site and and were met with a home page that contained way too much text and absolutely no points of interest. We asked them what their unique selling points were and they replied “we don’t really have any.” This was not the case and with a little probing we found that they were a family run business that had been successfully trading for over 20 years, they had full approval from the industry bodies for the product they provided, they were the exclusive provider of  a range of products and they operated on a national basis. None of these points were on their website and all of them should have been.

Always ensure you think about what your business has to offer and how that can benefit your customers. If you have to be approved to operate in your line of work make sure you get the logo stating you’re approved onto your site home page. If you’re able to exclusively provide a product or service shout about it on your home page. But remember, don’t achieve that through paragraph after paragraph of text. Use graphics, or highlighted text to catch the user’s attention.

Use good quality images

Images can make or break a home page. It’s vitally important that you use good quality images that clearly illustrate what you’re trying to show to your customers. Taking your own pictures is fine as long as they look good. Again, if you’re not able to do it yourself ask friends and family to help you out. If you don’t know anyone personally that can do this then there are several good image library websites that have hundreds of thousands of royalty free stock images for all types of  businesses. A few images from these sites won’t cost you much money and can give a professional, high quality look to your site.

Here are links to a couple of good image library sites that we use when building websites.

Also, don’t be put off from looking at free image resource sites too such as Flickr. If you see an image on a site that a user has submitted that you want to use on your own website, make sure you ask them for permission first. Quite often you’ll find that they’ll be only too pleased that you chose their picture.

You wouldn’t put small, blurred posters up in your high street shop window so don’t do it on your website home page either.

Some examples of good site home pages that we’ve created for clients

We’ve put a few links to client sites that we’ve created to demonstrate all of the above points and how they can be used to achieve good home page design. Feel free to comment on them or any other aspect of this post.

  1. Mellor and Mottram
  2. Curtain Magic
  3. Showerwall UK

We hope this will help you when thinking about the design for your own home page. Thank you for reading.

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Communication is key in web design

Posted: October 7th, 2009

communication-is-key

In today’s modern world there are more ways to communicate with people than ever before. Communication has become a key part in our daily lives, both personal and professional. It’s important to remember that when working with a web designer communication is key to getting your site right both now and in the future.

Client to web designer

Quite often a client who doesn’t have a great deal of technical knowledge may feel intimidated into asking questions or seeking advice from the web designer as they don’t want to ask something that might make them feel stupid. This should NEVER be a factor. Your web designer should encourage you to ask for help and explain things in a way you understand. You’re the customer, the designer is here to meet your needs, not their own. You’re paying for the service so feel confident in asking anything you like about the project. If you’re not happy with the answer or need further clarification ask again until you are satisfied.

I’ve been working in the web industry as a professional designer/developer  since 1997 and I don’t know everything – far from it in fact. Truth is neither does anyone else. We’re constantly learning new things as new technologies are born and development tools evolve in our line of work. If I need the answer to a question from someone I will ask. It’s always better to ask, than to try and guess at something. My point is that if you come to me as a web expert you shouldn’t be afraid to ask me anything. I’m learning all the time just like you.

Bottom line: If you don’t like something, or you dont’ understand something you’re being told – please, speak up about it.

Web designer to client

To ensure you end up with happy clients at the end of a project communication is key from the designer to the client. You should always ask your client for feedback on the project at key stages. If something isn’t quite right for the client you can amend it to suit their requirements during development rather than having to go back once everything is done and alter things then (which can be a headache for more complicated sites).

I’ve already mentioned the fact that as web experts we should explain things clearly to our clients in lay terms. I cannot stress this point enough. Over the past decade I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve talked to clients who had dealt with another ‘web expert’ before me and during my initial meeting with them they’ve told me that ‘we didn’t really know what the other guy was talking about so we just paid him’. This is NOT how you build a relationship with your clients. You need to remember that just because you know what you’re talking about doesn’t mean they will and it’s wrong to expect them to know. Don’t be patronising to them, but after you’ve explained your proposal for their project ask them if they are happy and state that if there’s anything they need clarifying they should feel free to ask – even after the meeting has ended.

Finally you should always try to make yourself available for a client when it’s convenient for them, not you. If you provide a telephone number always try to answer calls. If a client leaves a message make sure you call them back and even if they’re not available leave a message yourself so that they know you’ve responded.

Similarly, it’s important to respond to emails and, if you’re going to be away from the office for a while, set up auto-responders to let clients know that you’ve received their email and will deal with it once you’re back in the office (including the dates you’re away from and to is also a good idea in this case).

Again, countless times I’ve met with clients who have dealt with other web companies who before us and told me they could never get hold of a person to help them. They received no response to either telephone calls or emails. That, in my view, is totally unacceptable. I always explain to clients that if I don’t answer the phone it will only ever be for 2 reasons; I’m driving and don’t have handsfree or I’m in a meeting with another client. If either of these circumstances arises I always ensure I call the client back the same day. It’s reassuring for a client to know that you will be there when they need you and it will help build a great relationship with them.

Final thoughts

Hopefully this article has helped you out and hopefully, if you’re a designer, you’ve been doing all of the things I’ve mentioned already. If not, then now is the time to change that. Clients, you should have the confidence to ask for help from your designer and if they’re not serving your needs it may be time to look elsewhere.

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Posted in Communication, Customer Service, Web Design | 2 Comments »

Help in choosing a good web designer, what to look for, ask and expect

Posted: September 23rd, 2009

Getting your business on the web is very important. If you’re not doing it your competitors will be. However, not everyone is an IT expert and some people may feel intimidated or afraid to dip their toes into the online world. Choosing a good web designer is imperative, but what should you look for in a design company? Are you getting the right advice or are they simply preying on your lack of knowledge and bumping up the price?

We’ve compiled a list of points below that will help you in choosing a good web designer/design company.

Blindfolded businessman, not knowing what he's choosing

Look at testimonials on the designer’s own website

Customer testimonials will give you a good inidication of the level of service received by other clients from the designer or company you’re thinking of approaching to build your website for you. A good web design company will have several testimonials from a range of clients and will keep them up-to-date. If the testimonials are all from 5 years ago you may want to dig a little further.

Have a look at examples of the work done by the designer and actually vist their client sites.

Any decent design company or designer will have a portfolio of their work displayed on their website. You should take a look at these and, rather than just viewing them on the design company’s site, actually visit the websites themselves. We’ve seen instances where client sites look great on the designer’s own site because they’re simply displaying an image, however, upon visitng the actual website it looked nothing like the screen shot shown off by the designer.

The site may even have missing images or text that overlaps itself if it’s not been coded in the correct way. Don’t take the designer’s word for it, have a look for yourself.

Call the designer/design company – see how easy they are to get hold of

Customer service is very important. Sure, it’s great when your website is up and running with no problems, but what happens if something goes wrong? You need to be able to get in touch with support from the design company who built your site. That’s why it’s a good idea to attempt to contact them randomly a few times to see how responsive they are. Do you have to wade through several telephone menus before speaking to someone? Were they helpful when you did speak to them? Have they replied to your emails and if so did you understand what they were saying or was it simply techno jargon that left you feeling like you needed more help?

All of these things should be considered along with the other points mentioned above.

Arrange a face-to-face meeting with the designer

Face to face meetings allow you to get a ‘feel’ for the type of service you’ll be receiving. A good design company will always be willing to visit you at your own premises at a time that’s convenient to you. They should also be willing to allow you to visit them if you want to see their base of operations.

During this meeting a good designer will assess your level of techinical expertise and then converse with you in a way that you can understand, clearly explaining things to you in layman terms if necessary. You should never leave a meeting feeling like you were intimidated or you don’t really know what you’re getting yourself in to. The designer is there to meet your needs, not their own.

Find out about other services that may be useful to you

Besides building a nice new website for you most design companies and designers can also provide other services ranging from printed work to email and web hosting. Take a look at the designer’s website and see what other services they provide. A good design company/designer will be only too pleased to assist you in other areas besides building your site for you.

What happens once your website is finished?

This is a very important point to consider. You don’t want to get involved with someone or an organisation that don’t want to know you once they’ve finished the initial project unless you’re prepared to spend more money with them. You want a relationship with your designer, not a quick flirt. You need to feel confident that should you have any questions or things you need clarifying, your designer will be there for you to answer them.

As recently as a few days ago we were speaking with a client who had purchased a domain name for his company several months ago but wasn’t able to get hold of anyone who could help him out with transferring it to a new host. They simply never returned his calls or answered his emails. I’m pleased to say that we’ve managed to help him out with this situation now and he’s happy again and has now moved his design projects over to us as well.

Final thoughts

If you follow the guidelines above you should feel more confident in choosing who you give your hard earned money to when you’re having your website built. If you would like any further information or advice about this or any other aspect of web design, web hosting, domain name registration or transfer please feel free to contact us

We are Yellow Circle Web Solutions Limited  based in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire and we provide web design, development and hosting services.

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Posted in Web Design | 3 Comments »

Ten ways to keep fit and healthy when you’re a web designer

Posted: August 31st, 2009

Designing websites for a living is great for making money and getting yourself a rewarding career. However, hours sat at a desk building your websites for clients means it’s not so good for keeping fit. A couple of years ago I absolutely ballooned in weight through lack of excercise and proper diet and so I decided enough was enough and took up weight training. I didn’t join a gym or anything expensive like that, instead I bought myself a set of dumbbells and a bench and began working out at home after work.

2 years later and I’m still at it and feel a lot better for it.

With that in mind I thought it might be useful for other web designers to highlight some simple, fun and (quite) inexpensive ways that you too can keep fit and still do what you love to do for a living.

1 .Buy a Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit

Ok so I know I said that we would be looking at inexpensive ways to keep fit, and the £179.99 for a Wii isn’t cheap money, and then you’ve got to pay for Wii Fit on top of that (another £70)  but it can be inexpensive if you use it regularly over a long period of time when compared to a monthly gym fee or health club membership.

In addition to weight training I use my Wii and Wii Fit for cardio workouts and let me tell you, if you do about 30 minutes of exercise you will work up quite a sweat (and burn off calories). In addition to the cardio activities Wii Fit also has an excellent selection of Yoga exercises, as well as some games, all designed to get your whole body moving. Nintendo are set to launch a sequel to Wii Fit this winter called Wii Fit plus, which will offer new exercises and activities. You can find out more about Wii Fit here

2 . Go for a run

Right, that’s enough with the expense now, back to simple and effective techniques and nothing can be simpler than going for a run around your local neighbourhood. Running has many benefits for your body including losing weight, giving you healthier lungs, lowering your blood pressure and even better sex (according to scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health). Read more about running here

3 . Get on your bike

Biking is fun and is great for cardio work, so why not cycle to work one day? It will be healthier for you and you won’t be sitting in rush hour traffic. I used to be into cycling in a big way and we’re currently developing a cycle sportive website for a client who is promoting local events in the Staffordshire and Cheshire areas. Read more about cycling and the health benefits

4 . Buy an exercise dvd

So we love to look at screens all day because we’re web developers, that much we know already. Well how about looking at a screen and doing exercises at the same time? Although keep fit DVDs are mostly aimed at women, men can benefit from performing the exercises too. There are many different exercise DVDs available and most of the time you can get them for very little money. Play.com has a large selection take a look; play.com fitness dvd top sellers

5 . Eat sensible food and smaller portions

This is probably the simplest thing to do to help you keep in shape. Just eat less. I used to have 4 slices of bread when making a sandwich. After seeing how large I’d become a couple of years ago I decided to eat my food more slowly and have less of it. I now have just 2 slices of bread and still feel as full. So the next time you make a meal think ‘do I really need to have this much food on my plate?’ Chances are the answer will be no. More information about eating smaller portions can be found here

6 . Take the stairs not the elevator

If you work in a large office building with several floors it’s so easy to just hop in the elevator and push the button. However, that’s not going to help you stay in shape. Taking the stairs regularly can help build up stamina, raise your heart rate and increase blood flow, all good things for burning calories. Check out this article about taking the stairs

7 . Go for a walk with your significant other

My wife and I enjoy going for walks together. This is not a routine or something set in stone, this is just something we do from time to time that we both enjoy. We get fresh air, a chance to talk and be with each other and some exercise all at the same time. Plus, it costs us absolutely nothing.

8 . Weight training (light weights)

As I stated at the beginning of the article I myself weight train 3 times a week. I’m not huge, I’m not looking to bulk up (I started for quite the opposite reasons). Weight training using light weights is a great way to build strength, tone your body and increase your stamina. A set of dumbbells is all you need, which you can pick up for less than £30 at Argos. There are many different exercises you can perform with just a set of dumbbells so your workouts will be varied and interesting.

9 . Swimming

A visit to the local swimming pool after work won’t cost you much at all and will provide you with a great cardio workout. Swimming tones the body strengthens your heart muscles and improves the delivery of oxygen to the different parts of the body. Read more about the benefits swimming provides

10 . Eat more fruit and vegetables

We’ve all heard how we should ‘eat your 5 a day’ when it comes to fruit and vegetables, but more often than not when you’re working on a web design project with a tight deadline you haven’t got the time to prepare fruit and veg, it’s much easier to shove something into the microwave. However, by not eating these foods you’re missing out on essential vitamins your body requires. Next time you’re shopping at the supermarket buy some apples, or bananas or any other fruit you like and take some with you to work. Fruit can be a delicious and healthy alternative to a chocolate bar from the vending machine. Some top tips about eating 5 a day can be found here

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