Archive for General Web Advice

What's that in millimetres?

06 August 2010 at 10:12

It is commonly thought that pixels on a computer screen are a measurement such as inches or centimetres.

As much as this would be useful, it is not the case. You can change your screen settings so that it shows a different number of pixels across the width and height of the screen. This is also known as changing the resolution.

It is important when designing for the screen that you take into account that pixels can appear different sizes on different screens, so cannot be measured with physical measurements.

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The joys of previous versions of Internet Explorer

02 February 2010 at 12:54

When we look at sites which we haven't developed it's quite common for us to delve deeper into the source code and check out how the website we're looking at is designed and built.

Looking at the CSS, Design and Build Quality of other people's websites helps us hone our development techniques. Sometimes we spot other coder's quirks and it makes us chuckle a little.

I was taking a quick look at the Home-Start South Hams website developed by a company called Fear of Mice and on inspecting their code we got a good idea on their thought of Internet Explorer 7 and even IE6...

Basically they're saying, "Load some extra styles if you're using IE6 or IE7." Older versions of Internet Explorer definitely have their quirks, that's for sure. Even Google have made the grand step  of no longer supporting IE6, and how much longer do we carry on supporting the out of date browser which has been around for over 10 years now.

Even if you try and build a website to the highest web standards compliance, it is likely there will still be layout issues in IE6, so why on earth is anyone still using it or even supporting it?

Tags: Internet Explorer | Source Code | CSS | Design | Layout

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The Twits | How not to use Social Media on your Website

23 October 2009 at 09:19

Now this is funny, take a look at the following screenshot that we found whilst browsing the web this week.  It shows a  problem you might encounter if you include a live feed on your website without proper scrutiny.

Seeing this caused us to laugh out loud but we soon realised that this is a classic example of the potential problem with incorrectly managed social media in business.

While Twitter is a great system for informing, keeping up to date and keeping touch. Is the business communities keenness to adopt it as a marketing tool misplaced?  Actually, I don't think so.  Similar to everything else, it has its place and, if used correctly, its a handy tool to keep in your marketing toolbox; a great way of keeping in touch with your customer ('fan'?) base.  It is widely known that if you fail to keep near the front of you potential customer's minds you are likely to lose out to those Companies that do.

This type of mishap probably disappeared as quickly as it appeared but for a busy site, some damage may already have been done. Our advice.  Use the social networking tools - they can be beneficial - but make sure you keep a close eye on things and don't expect them to run themsleves.  Like any aspect of a business it only works if properly managed.

Tags: Twitter | Marketing | Social Media

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The Web Design Process - Handling Your Budget

23 February 2009 at 12:17

When approached by clients who are looking to have a website designed for their business, one of the first questions they ask is, "So, how does this work then?" If you prepare a good website brief for your web designer, then we can give you a very good indication of the costs and timescales involved in building your new website:

1. Do you have a logo and branding in place? If you have then it makes the design process much easier because we can see the type of aesthetic feel you are aiming for. We also encourage clients to keep their website branding the same as their existing branding so that visitors become familiar with our client's corporate image.
2. Have a very good idea of the kind of website you are looking to have built. This can include a list of websites that you like the look of and any features of existing website that you like or don't like.
3. Develop a sitemap on a piece of paper including all of the pages and functionality you would like to see on the website.
4. What is your budget? It's possible that your budget may not afford all of the features that you would like on your website. A good web design agency will tell you whether your budget is feasible or not, and also work out a good strategy for getting the most out of your budget.
5. Have you considered an ongoing budget to cover things such as your annual hosting fee, search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising?
6. What are you aims and objectives for building a website?
7. Who is your target audience?
8. Do you need a content management system? Quite often we are asked to quote for CMSs which are not always necessary. If you are updating content on a daily or weekly basis then I would recommend a CMS, however if you are not likely to update your web content that often then it may be an unnecessary expense.
9. Ask your web design company about their Maintenance Packages. If you are expecting to develop the website regularly over several months, your designer may be able to offer a block of hours monthly at a reduced rate to their standard hourly rate.

Phased approach to Web Design

Having a strong online presence as quickly as possible may actually be more critical to your business. In the long term you may want to develop an online shop for example, but that will take some time to develop and may hold up your launch date. Whereas, taking a phased approach to your web marketing may be more beneficial. Start with a 5 to 10 page brochure style website, which can be online in less than a week, and then as a second phase introduce your online product listing.

Once you have developed a website, that is not it, you can carry on adding features and applications to your website to make it grow. And don't forget, content is key. The more well written copy you have on your website the better. A good web design agency will always take your copy and make suggestions about how best to use it throughout the website to make the most of search engine optimisation and also for the usability of the site.

So, how does this work then?"

After an initial free consultation this is how HostPipe go about designing and building your website:

1. We write a full proposal based on the brief you have given us laying out in detail the functionality of your new website. The proposal will also include a break down of the costs involved and our standard terms & conditions.
2. When you are happy with the proposal, sign and return it and we are ready to begin the work.
3. If required we can begin by designing your logo and branding.
4. At this stage we will also register any domains names if required.
5. We will then produce a Design Visual of your homepage, based on your existing branding, in JPEG format and return that to you via email. At this stage we welcome all feedback and can amend the design visual as required.
6. When you are happy with the design visual, we can then begin building the structure of your website. This happens in a live environment so you can actually see the site being constructed in real-time on our dedicated server.
7. We then add content and copy to the new web site and layout the menus in a usable fashion.
8. If required the more advanced features of the site are then developed, including a Blog, Content Management System, e-Commerce features etc.
9. All the Search Engine Optimisation work is carried out at the end, for example setting up page titles, keywords and page descriptions ready for search engines, as well as tweaking any copy within the page.
10. When you are happy with the new website, we can then launch it live on your new domain and set up your email accounts.
11. The new website and sitemaps are then submitted to all of the major search engines, and we switch on your statistics package to monitor usage.
12. Your website is now officially live, we monitor its usage and adjust content as necessary.
13. 6-12 month down the line we then re-evaluate the website and its search engine presence and enhance the search engine optimisation campaign where necessary.

Handling Your Web Design Budget

One key thing to remember is that your budget may not always match up with the number of features you would like to see on your website, and as with everything if the deal seems to good to be true then more than likely it is. If a web design agency doesn't question your budget then the likelihood is the project will overrun in terms of time, or you will end up with a website which doesn't quite meet your expectations.

The simplest question to ask your web designer is, "Is my budget appropriate for the features I am hoping to include on my website?" Ask them how they are going to apportion the budget, whether they are VAT registered and whether the budget will incorporate some ongoing SEO and hosting fees once the site is live.

Tags: Gloucestershire | Stroud | Web Design

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Cross-Browser Compatible Web Design

18 December 2008 at 11:59

With the advent of Web 2.0 and websites being at the forefront of everyone’s mind when it comes to marketing, website design is no longer simply about getting a presence online. Designing  a website now means making it not only look good but look good on as many different types of media as possible.

Granted a website cannot be guaranteed to work on 100% of browsers 100% of the time, but you can certainly create a website that will work on high proportion. For example, one of our websites gets on average 1,200 unique visitors a week using the following web browsers (figures since Sep 2008):

And take Internet Explorer for example we can explore which versions our visitors are using:

From the stats we can clearly see that most Internet users are now using fairly up-to-date web browsers, and one of the effortless means of achieving high cross-browser compatible websites is to design a website which is compliant with the latest web standards.

How to achieve cross-browser compatibility on your website

1. Build your websites using table-less layouts and nested elements arranged using an unfussy cascading style sheet (CSS)
2. Preview your new website in any one of the latest browsers and make the website you’ve designed fits that site
3. Using the W3C validation tools, validate your code. HostPipe generally validate websites to XHTML 1.0 Strict as this virtually guarantees a cross-browser compatible website
4. Start checking the website in the most common web browsers (IE7, IE6, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome) and tweak the site so that it looks right in all of the website browsers

Additional benefits of having a cross-browser compatible website

The website can now be viewed in 95% plus web browsers currently available, but by developing a website to strict web standards compliance there are plenty of additional benefits:

• Faster download speeds
• Higher level of accessibility
• A future-proofed website - you can easily create a new layout by changing the style sheet
• A search engine friendly website
• A wider market reach - to those users who couldn’t previously view your website

The best part is it there isn’t a huge amount of additional work required to make your website comply with web standards or in making it cross-browser compatible. Knowing your web browsers and their intricacies means your initial web design concept can be built with cross-browser compatibility in mind.

Posted in General Web Advice | Website Design | No Comments

Modernising and re-designing Your Website in 3 easy steps

08 November 2008 at 15:08

Websites are just like people, if you leave them alone for too long they begin to look old fashioned, out of date and tired. But clean out the wardrobe, slap on some paint and give it some exercise and your website can be the most useful marketing tool for your business going.

The process of giving a website a new lease of life is actually a very simple one, and involves a few easy steps:

1. Clean out the wardrobe

The old content from 2003 is probably now defunct, so why have it on your website at all, unless it is pro-actively bringing business to your door, then delete it. Search engines are very clever animals, and their favourite meal comprises of rich, up-to-date and relevant content.

We can help you choose which content is working for your website and where necessary update old content so that it is fresh and inviting for both search engines and potential clients.

2. Slap on some paint

Changing the aesthetic look of your website can have a big impact on existing and new clients alike. Gone are the days when flashing text, garish colour schemes and cartoon-style animated characters were nouveaux riche. Your website has to reflect your company’s branding and, through clean and contemporary designs, give easy access to your clients.

First impressions are everything, and if you don’t grab a potential clients attention or give them what they are looking for in the first ten seconds of their visit to your website then chances are you’ve lost the business.

3. Give it some exercise

Clearly you can’t make a website jog, but sometimes their inner workings need a bit of toning up. Lose some of that redundant code around the edges that search engines don’t pay attention to. Ditch the tables for fluid layouts making your website more accessible. Ditch the bad diet of waffle in your copy and cut to the chase!

Now your website is re-invigorated don’t be afraid to get it out there to meet your friends!

If you think your website needs a makeover then please call 01453 884100 for a FREE no-obligation consultation or click here to email HostPipe.

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