A website home page is the first introduction to your company and will leave a lasting impression for any prospective or existing clients. Consider the following questions when putting together your project brief…

What is the message you’d like to pass on to the end user, your prospective clients?

This is a very important part of the website design and development process; try to put yourself into other shoes – what does this website say about your company? Why should the end user spend time looking through your website? Simplify things; let your potential clients know what you do and why they need you.

What kind of customer is the ‘Ideal’ type? 
Try to identify your key client types and tailor your ideas towards them.

Is one page visited more frequently than another?
Identify the most visited pages; then focus your attention on improving the content on those less visited.

How would I look for a company such as mine?
Think of words associated with your business and sector; use them in the content to help your clients find you.

Research your competitors
Researching your competitors is key to establishing how you can make your website individual and stand out to potential clients.

Once you have considered the detailed above, write down all of your ideas, sketch a page layout or two and then get in touch with Graficsofa for a chat.

Let us help you realise your goals. Anything is possible; we can help advise of the best possible solution to fit your specific business needs and wants.     

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 (Nov 2012) and 8 (Feb 2013), available in 95 languages. So what’s new? IE10 supports both, desktop browser and touch screen mobile devices. Is it something that we should be excited about or is it just another attempt by Microsoft to re-establish a foothold in the marketplace? Let’s have a quick look…  

For many users using IE as a default browser ceased a long time ago due to competition from more advanced, stable browsers such as Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome. Being a Mac user I only use Microsoft products through OSX Bootcamp which allows me to boot either to OSX or Windows should I need to or when in another ‘Mac free’ office. I have always found IE to be glitchy, however, in saying that IE has definitely gotten better albeit still lacking some necessary, modern attributes.

My research regarding IE10 started with the users reviews, which were particularly negative and discouraging. It was difficult to find any positives in a single review, I was looking for something along the lines of ‘IE10 is a must’ or ‘Stable, modern and sexy browser’! ….but, and there is a big BUT I found nothing – shocking really!

After reading those articles and not one to be swayed, I installed IE10 on Windows 7 to provide what I feel is an objective article.

Now any new piece of PC hardware you buy will come with Windows 8 installed and IE10 as the installed as default browser, this supports both desktop & touchscreen units. The preview version of IE10 for Windows 7 has limited support and neglects touch screen devices, the overall design is a little different also.

The overall security system has improved, Microsoft says – You will experience many authorisation questions regarding ‘untrusted’ websites, which may contain potential viruses. This is called the ‘Enhanced Protect Mode’, which blocks some of the major areas of the operating system, thus proving far more difficult for both viruses or hackers to gain access.

Ok, but what does it have to do with web development?

Well… IE10 now supports websites, which are developed using the modern standard CSS3 &HTML5 coding structure; also JavaScript performance is 4 times faster than before. For years developers have had to write IE specific code so their beautiful website looks as it does on all other browsers, this I hope will help lessen the additional work for IE only.

Microsoft also claims that using IE10 will optimise your website load speed to anything up to 20% faster. Further claims include saving battery life and help you become more energy efficient as it uses less power than any other browser.

So, after trying for myself I feel IE10 does offer more than previous versions, but when comparing IE10 to its competitors, it offers nothing, which other browsers don’t already offer. This version (IE10) doesn’t seem to do enough to close the gap, never mind leap ahead of the competition in a world of ever evolving and advancing technology.

Having read the article, does it make you want to use or at least try IE10? Is it as good or any better than the ‘other’ browser you already run?

Why not give it a whirl, if you like you like and, well if you don’t stick to what you have…

As a graphic designer and web developer, speed of access and stability in browsers are key to both a productive and stress free working day. I can’t afford a poor quality browser, can you?

Let’s THINK retina ready!

Have you ever experienced blurred images and fonts, so unclear you could almost count pixels whilst browsing various websites? I’m sure you have. It is nasty and unnecessary, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be fantastic to keep all images and text as perfectly clear as it is in reality? For those of you out there who love detail and perfection, just like me, here comes retina ready.
This technology will be used by every and all web designers in the near future. Retina ready is a product that was originally implemented by Apple, released in mid 2012 into their 15-inch Macbook Pro. Many doubters out there felt it was another ‘Mac gimic’ and would never be applied to non mac devices. Well it is looking increasing likely in 2013 all you PC fans will have access to this state pf te art technology. Check out this article…

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/12/intel-looking-toward-retina-display-pcs-by-2013

So what does retina really do? Without going into too many details, it helps greatly with the clarity of both images and fonts, both of which are reactive to your screen resolution. You still don’t know what that all means? Let’s have a look…!

Have a look at the image or use the link below, scroll down to the images and compare for yourself with a live preview ‘click & drag’.

http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/features-retina  

Do you think you should need glasses when looking at the images on the left for a clearer picture? Tell me how many squares and dots can you see?
Do you like what you see on the right, does it seem much clearer to you? To me it is so much better, so much clearer!

Now that the responsive design allows us to resize windows with no limits retina ready starts to make sense – double tap on the picture, make it larger or smaller and you still have the same image quality; shrink the window and fonts remain just as clear!

With a little insight to what the visual future holds, do you now think ‘I really need to bring my website up to modern standards’?

Responsive Web Design In 2013 most if not all handheld devices are Internet ready, technologies are updated on a weekly basis making it difficult for the end user to keep up. Most people these days are familiar with the following smart phones, Pads , laptops – pick one person who doesn’t have at least one of the afore mentioned, tell me how many of them have got more than one?

Knowing technology you ill know how much easier life has become with the possibility to access the Internet anywhere you are for many purposes – restaurant reviews, cinema schedules, bus trackers, maps, online bank accounts and the list goes on. It’s handy and comfortable to keep everything you need in a little box and enjoy the news from all over the world.

However, all of those gadgets differ, one of the key differences being the screen size and resolution. When you open a browser using your laptop and the same screen shows on your tablet, phone etc., you can easily notice that the website is flexible, resizes and adapts to each of your device. Or similarly, take your Pad, turn it 90° and you’ll see the same effect with resized display.

Take a look at the image i-mac, iPad and iPhone. The images perfectly show how each screen differs with each other. Have you ever wondered what makes this change happen?

Responsive design, or alternatively adaptive design (mainly used for mobiles), is a technology which thanks to the code called Media Query placed in your website’s HTML, this allows users to see the same website on different devices. It is a technology that all modern websites will use in the near future, not to do so will cut out a major % of the target market – your prospective clients. If you want your website to run the most up-to-date and newest technology, ask your web designer to design your responsive website so the end user can view your website clearly and easily no matter of the device they use.