Website design

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) has taken a battering over the years from web developers due to it not supporting key web standards. The added work to get a website displaying correctly in IE6 can prove a real headache and one of the main reasons why we want it banished.

In recent weeks Google has criticised its' lack of security and blamed the loophole that allowed China based hackers to attack them squarely at the foot of IE6. Subsequent to this even the German and French governments have requested their citizens should switch from using the browser.

As of the first of this month Google started phasing out support for IE6 as stated in their modern browsers for modern applications blog post.

The picture to the left is of our latest recruit, Toffee, a deaf Jack Russell, from the Last Chance rescue centre in Edenbridge, Kent. She's a funny thing, preferring company and someone's lap to chasing a ball in the park!

Having had her 3 weeks now and getting used to her needs we've adapted our style of communication to compensate for her lack of hearing, although sometimes I get the feeling she's only playing deaf so she can ignore us!

This got me thinking about how your website should not just be designed to help the visually impaired, by for instance making sure your images have alternative or ALT text to describe the image to be read by screen readers. But also for those people who think in a different way. What do I mean by this?

Bia Brazil and Margarita fitness wear are two of the top designer ladies gym wear specialists from Brazil. We have been lucky enough to work with one of an exclusive number of retailers in the UK, Daisy Fitness, to produce a website to show their range of stylish workout wear.

The fitness wear from both Bia Brazil and Margarita are made form Supplex® by DuPont, the latest technical fabric to be used in workout wear. Daisy Fitness were eager to have an ecommerce website that displayed the quality and style of these designers, we hope you enjoy the result.

When building a Drupal website it's important to get the basic site configuration right to help in everything from SEO to Usability.

Putting these basics in place will make your site load faster and avoid a potential increase in your bounce rate. A well oiled machine will make for a smooth running site and a good experience for visitors.

Drupal is a very powerful CMS with many core and contributed modules, these are just some of the things your should do, if you think there are others do add a comment ;o)

The advent of spring got me in the mood for some spring inspired web designs. The sun is out... was out and now gone back in again but at least the temperature has improved, just!

The blue skies and blossom led me to putting together this little list of stunning web designs that caught my eye.

The list contains Boompa and Getting Crazy, my favourites for their use of water colour paintings which really make them stand out form the crowd.

Hopefully it will give you some inspiration for future designs.

When building your website you need to take into consideration at some point in the future someone will mistype a url or find an old link that doesn't have a redirect assigned to it.

At this point the user will be directed to your 404 Page not found. This is a standard page that is set up by your internet service provider (ISP) or comes with your CMS eg Drupal.

This is where most sites let down their visitors as the standard 404 page is a bit of a let down. No real content for you find out where you should have been directed and sometimes not even any navigation!

We're happy to announce another new website design is now live, VP Communications, a PR agency specialising in technology and consumer technology.

VP's old site was looking a little tired and the navigation was poor to say the least. This new design breathes life into their website and brand, with clear navigation and an easy to follow layout.

We really enjoyed working closely with VP, their site is a classic example of our aesthetic principles of clean, easy to navigate, website design.

After having a great end to last year we felt now was the time to give the Makak Media website a complete makeover.

Results from our Blog Survey also backed up our thoughts and resulted in a brand new logo, strapline and web design.

We liked our old site design, which was extremely distinctive, but that was the main bug bear with some of you that answered our survey. The white on black was a little hard to read so this new look should please those people the most.

Speed & Layout

The speed of our old design was a major factor in its' design but the new one shouldn't cause problems in that department either. The layout for the new look was a major factor even though people liked our old design. A minimalist, clean layout was a must.

Having a two column theme makes for extra room to display more content above the fold to save on scrolling time, I know how impatient you can be!

sIFR Font Replacement

Today sees the launch of another client's website, Black & White Radio, one we're very excited about. It's the first music based site we've put together and one we're very fond of.

If you're a fan of 20's to 60's music then Black & White Radio is for you! We're huge fans of that era of music, as you will have noticed by my last post 50 Years of Motown, and can honestly say we've been listening since the early test transmissions.

B&W's motto:

'Welcome to Black & White Radio, the little antique shop on the radio high street.'

Packed full of classic tunes all day long, we find it hard to turn off. Sadly we're not in sunny Spain (home to B&W Radio (Javea)) to listen over the air waves so instead we listen over the rather new fangled method of the interweb.

When it comes to your website take a leaf out of the London Underground's book of branding and design communication.

Your website design should send clear signals about what your brand stands for and in what direction you want people to take. Usability is a big issue for Transport for London as much as it is for your web design.

If you're searching for some clarity on the subject of web design/usability then I hope this post gives you some answers. Let people of the train first and then take a seat, mind that can of pop, put that free paper to one side and enjoy the ride.

Things The Tube Can Teach You About Web Design