Photo by E01

Effective immediately, we now have a London representative in the form of my extremely talented and very personable brother Warwick Allchorn (his personal website to be launched shortly). Warwick brings immense experience and talent to the company and is able to liaise with UK bound clients more readily than I have been able to in the past.

More details on this to follow shortly, but in the meantime, we have set up a UK email address which you can use to contact Warwick directly.

Dionysus approached us with a brief to realign the website to better leverage the online medium. The site features a full CMS implementation, user registration, search, a blog, events calendar, discussion forum and a photo gallery.

This project for Dionysus went from initial consultation through information architecture, interface design, HTML/CSS coding, CMS implementation (Joomla!), content insertion and training.

The client was an absolute pleasure to work with, and we wish Irene, Seth, Kathy, Angie, QJ,  Jeannette and everyone else all the best with their new website.

According to Wikipedia:

“The end-of-life support for Internet Explorer 6 is July 13, 2010″

That alone tells me that it is an actively supported means of people accessing websites for at least another 10 months.

A lot of opinions seem to be around the lack of standards support by the browser and I don’t dispute this fact, but you also can’t look beyond the fact that there are still users out there that are stuck with it. Unfortunate, but true.

Just so you’re clear on my position on the matter; we will support IE6 until there is what I deem to be a sufficiently low enough percentage of visitors using it. There will be exceptions in cases where I know for a fact that the audience of the site/intranet is closed enough and mandated to use a newer or different browser, but by rule of thumb, we will support it.

My clients’ reputations are important to me!

According to w3schools, last month 13.6% of users were still on Internet Explorer 6.

For technology to cause their image to possibly be tarnished to approximately 13% odd of their visitors is simply unacceptable. Especially when those possible problems are avoidable through producing “gracefully degradable” sites where necessary and providing code hacks (a sad reality my geek friends) to have them rendered properly.

Really people… if you’re not in the web design and development industry, and you can’t update your browser, then you probably wouldn’t give a toss about anything besides the fact that you’re inconvenienced by a breaking website! In my eyes, thats not good business.

A good coder should make a site work in all required browsers

The discussion often pops up in forums I frequent, and it’s usually someone having a hard time getting something to render consistently. While I do empathise with them (I have been there too), you need to suck it up, figure it out and make it work… it is your job, do it properly!

Usually someone with a bit more experience will chime in that it’s not that hard when you know how. Those people -in my opinion- are the true professionals. Not the guys whining about it and trying to get everyone to stop supporting it.

Upgrading your browser is necessary

All the above being said, don’t get the impression that I think the www should stagnate and indefinitely be stuck with archaic systems like IE6. There is a world beyond simple browsing, and the likes of the Mozilla Foundation, Google, Opera, Apple and even Microsoft themselves have forged on and created some far more modern, more secure, more user friendly and just better browsers.

Here is a list of browsers I recommend:

• Mozilla Firefox (my choice)
• Opera
• Apple’s Safari (available for Windows machines too)
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8

Here is our checklist.

1. All links checked
   Are your internal and external links all correct? Think about hardcoded links and dynamic links. If your site is database driven, you can check all internal links with a script.
2. Page title tags consistent & optimal
   Your page title tags are those that appear in the title bar above File, Edit, View etc. It’s important for search engine indexing that the title is clear, concise and depicts what is on the page.
3. Search engine friendly URLs
   If you’re using a CMS you should ideally have some form of URL rewriting feature in place that converts dynamic URLs to search engine friendly ones (example.com?pageid=15 to example.com/product-name)
4. Search functionality
   If you have search functionality on your site, does it work correctly? Is it intuitive and are the search results accurately portraying the information the searcher is seeking?
5. Screen resolution
   Does your website display nicely on screen resolutions your visitors are likely to be using?
6. Content rendering
   Sometimes content can become a bit mangled when copying characters from MS Word or other web pages, and as such a good thorough toothcomb inspection of your content should allow you to rectify any issues.
7. 301 redirects
   If you’re redesigning your site, you want people who have possibly bookmarked your old URLs to automatically come through to the new pages. 301 redirects are the universally recognised “change of address” for web pages and to retain existing traffic and rankings this is gravely important!
8. Custom 404 error pages
   When someone hits a URL on your site that does not exist it will display a 404 error page. These can be customised, and are an effective catchment system for preventing the loss of visitors that hit a generic 404 error page. The page should ideally display with the same/similar aesthetic as your site and offer a clear explanation, navigation and search.
9. Analytics implementation
   If you have a website online, you want to measure it’s efficacy. You can track visitors, bounce rates, conversion rates and a multitude of other interesting and useful information by simply installing analytics software.
10. Favicon implementation
    A small visual feature which can give your site a more “complete” look. Not only will it be an icon used in tabs, but also in bookmarks making it easier for people to find your pages if you make them stand out.
11. Meta tag implementation
    Not as important as they used to be, but still worth doing once you’ve researched your keywords. Don’t stuff your keywords in, but rather keep them relative and to the point.
12. XML Sitemap
    A sitemap is an important feature which tells the search engines what your pages are and how frequently they can expect to be updated. This allows them to index your site at intervals which are in line with your updates.
13. Form to email/database
    If you have forms submitting to email addresses or to a database, make sure they all send correctly, and to the right people/places. Make sure those responsible for responding are aware of their duties as well as any autoresponders are setup correctly and working.
14. User administration settings
    If you have more than one user, you’ll need to make sure they have sufficient (and not too much) authority on the system managing your website.
15. Speed tests
    Is your server performing as it should? Are there scripts/flash/large images causing slow loading times?
16. www and no-www
    If visitors access your website at www.example.com, they should be able to also access it sans-www (http://example.com). It’s a setting your host should enable, and if not perhaps consider another host.
17. Browser compatability
    What browsers are your visitors using? Global statistics can tell you initially, and soon enough you’ll know what your visitors are using from your analytics. At the time of writing, we feel it important for your site to work in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.

These items are in no particular order and bare in mind that depending on the project, there could be more or less items to consider (eg: spell checking, proof reading, legal requirements etc.)

Where have all the agents gone? got me thinking about occasions in the past where I have dealt with “transparent middle men”. People who -aside from introducing the other two parties- have absolutely no input in, nor provide any value to a project.

If someone refers work on to us, and it’s a project we embark on, we will certainly be grateful, and in most instances discuss a referral commission or finder’s fee of sorts. But when that translates into a situation where this middleman is white labelling our services (also a workable solution in the right situation), but not providing any value to the tasks at hand, and possibly even stifling communication, then you have to stand back and wonder if their intervention is of any value to our business or the end client’s.

It’s not only about who you know

I fully understand and agree that in business; who you know plays a big part, but if you keep those connections too closely guarded and stop the natural flow of conversation, you’re doing a disservice to yourself in the long run; and to your client and service provider, in the long and short term… a damaging experience all round.

How we provide value

What we provide in our role as website design consultants is far more than tying a client to a designer and developer and cashing in on the profit. We administer each project from a top level standpoint and provide a single point of contact from whom every aspect of your project is managed. There are clearly planned and strategised phases to every project, and each task is discussed, documented, scheduled, carried out, tested and followed up on.

After reading Seth’s post, I feel confident that our role in providing solid, value based services to our clients both past, present and future is a good investment of our time in improving Allchorn Design, and the offerings we provide to our clients.

One thing I’ve been looking into quite a bit lately is the lifecycle of a website project. That being the initial discussion with the client, all the way through to publishing the site live for the consumer. I’ve written a lifecycle based on the waterfall method of development, which while not always ideal, it has it’s pros. One of them being an easier way of keeping things on budget and time.

The main sections I came up with were:

• Initial Discussions
  From the first phone call/email to signing a contract and cost/time estimate.
• Pre-production
  Researching and spec document creation through to information architecture.
• Production
  Design, development & testing.
• Post Production
  Content insertion, focus group testing, snaglists, final tests & fixes through to launch.

You can view the full document here.

Recently, I did a (very) small WordPress driven website for a friend of mine for his up and coming laptop and notebook repair service. Things went anything but smoothly in some aspects like moving from his hosts at the time (no names mentioned) and then some controversy three quarters of the way through when someone criticised me to him sparking some doubt in his mind over my costs. This is what caused me to write about lowballers in the web design industry.

I won’t paste the entire email as there are some bits that are not related to this post (and personal stuff), but since he said:

“Feel free to post any of this on your blog, with my email address as a ref. Will be happy to advise others to use your methods.”

I decided to use this one paragraph which sums up the tone of the email and what he was saying:

“Most importantly: Your sites work – you can quote me on that. I think the value of the site far exceeds what you have charged, and I really want to thank you for going out of your way to sort me out on mates rates there. That CMS is absolutely necessary, there’s just no contesting that.”

Well, to me, that makes me feel a whole lot better in an industry where there is a lot to get frustrated about and it’s nice to know there is more to it than just the pleasure of working with technology in these exciting times on the web.

This may come across as a rather opinionated post, but it’s my view, and my blog. Any thoughts (logical, non trolling comments) would be most appreciated.

I’ve broken the different types of systems into

• Home Grown CMS
  A system built in-house rather than buying one or customising another system.
• Open Source CMS
  A system built by a community of developers under a sharing community based methodology. Usually free. Examples – Joomla, WordPress, Typo3.
• Proprietary CMS
  Built by one company, maintained, supported and available as either a one off cost, or licencing payment structure. Examples – Realm Platform, Expression Engine, Vignette.

Home Grown CMS

Up until late 2007, I was heavily involved in the design and development of a content management system called SimpleCMS. It’s since been discontinued, thought it continues to effectively power a few websites. Successfully adopted as it was, suffice to say, the development team lost steam and we opted to count our losses and move on.

The concept behind developing a home grown CMS system is a very noble -if not misguided- cause on the most part. I tend not to talk in absolutes, but if you don’t have a rather large budget (£50,000+) or an exceptionally self motivated and enthusiastic development team it’s a classic example of a reinvention of the wheel.

If you have the infrastructure, and an exceptionally strong need for something custom that is not done by one of the many established systems, then this could be an option. Word of warning here… do your homework on what’s available!

Home grown CMS systems are sustainable when you have a long term team of developers with a proven track record of successful developments.

Pros

• Write your own system and have it do exactly what you want.
• If it’s a niche system, and licenced accordingly, it could be resold later to others.

Cons

• Prohibitively expensive.
• Can take a good deal of time to develop.
• Often you can get the functionality you need from free or relatively inexpensive alternatives.

Open Source CMS

A system that is free to download, install and work with. What could be better? On the surface, this seems like a no-brainer, but when you dig a bit deeper, there are some serious cons that creep into the mix.

The popular systems out there, amongst others, include Joomla, Drupal and Typo3. Some systems initially intended to power blog style sites are also evolving into quite competent content managers. WordPress and Textpattern being the two that I know the most about.

If you’re looking at cost, you’re mistaken in thinking that getting a professional result from an open source system on a smaller budget is likely. More often than not, the professional Joomla or WordPress designer and manipulator comes at a professional, market related price. The fact that the system is free means little when you want a specific design, layout and modes of publishing, moderating and syndicating.

The world of open source CMS’s does cover an extremely broad field of requirements and a large percentage of websites should be fine on one of them. More than a little research should be carried out before deciding on a system and any future possible requirements.

Open source CMS systems are sustainable when you are aware of the fact that although you’re getting it for free, you still have to put a lot of work in. Slapping up a default theme and expecting things to do themselves is counter productive, and you won’t get far.

Pros

• Most systems are supported by a large community and you will find assistance all over the globe.
• Modifications to the site, including the CMS itself is permitted by the GPL licence, so it can effectively be “white labeled”.
• A large selection of systems and features.
• The decent systems are constantly being updated, and security flaws patched up.
• The software itself is free.

Cons

• Due to the large community, there are a lot of semi-skilled and outright charlatans out there proclaiming to be gurus.
• When things go wrong, the solution could prove costly and take time, unless you have a true specialist on call and available.
• Due to their popularity, they can be targets for spam and hacking.
• Training and support is often hard to find, but not impossible.

Proprietary CMS

Getting a system that has been built up commercially by a company dedicated solely to developing their system can be a very good thing. The sustainability of a proprietary system with the possibility that you paid for it, and it is maintained by those who developed and support it can’t be under emphasized.

You’ll have an initial cost, and that price can vary. Don’t  be confused with someone charging to install and customise an open source system to a company that is selling their own product. Chances are the open source guy does not know a lot about the underlying code in the CMS and when things go wrong, fixing can be a problem.

Selecting a proprietary CMS is also a matter of truly establishing your requirements and finding one that is suitable. There are some truly amazing systems out there like Realm Platform and Expression Engine.

Proprietary CMS systems are sustainable when you work with a reputable company and understand what they do (and don’t offer) before setting up your site.

Pros

• You’re dealing with the people that made the system. Likely from the ground up.
• Features are often plentiful and can accommodate most site’s requirements.
• Custom features are often an option (at a cost of course).
• Training and support are offered.
• Constant development ensures security and bug fixes are attended to promptly.

Cons

• Initial cost can be perceived as high.
• You are putting a lot of trust in one company, so choose wisely.

Summary

Really, as usual, it highly depends on how you approach your project, who you are, what you need, how quickly and how much you have in your budget.

I am heavily swayed towards the Open Source or Proprietary options unless you have extraordinarily unique requirements, a ginormous budget and a good deal of time.

Leaving the two options of open source and proprietary, I’d have to say that given the right people, either option could be suitable to you. For some clients, I know they can make do on a WordPress site, while for others, I wouldn’t dream of using anything other than a system that is fully supported by an established company.

In conclusion, I’d say I will normally opt towards the proprietary system as the optimal solution, but should the budget or requirements be lower, the need for support and training be less, I’d look at something like Joomla or WordPress.

Defining The True Nature Of The Internet

Is it like print, where you design or typeset your way to a happy conclusion? Possibly fight a bit with colours and plate registration, but ultimately end up with something you can reproduce?

Or perhaps it’s like television where you produce a linear presentation of audio visual goodness?

Nope, it’s actually like both of those, but with more factors drawn into the mix which -in my opinion- closely resemble that of vehicle maintenance rather than some facet of any advertising aspect.

Am I nuts? Maybe, but hear me out.

The internet is a living breathing entity which has ins and outs. It is fed with information (text, video, files, images etc.) and it allows for this information to be extracted, viewed, manipulated, deleted and well… used.

With this interactive nature and the fact that it is constantly changing, there is always margin for error. There is always a loophole for malicious action. There is also the amazing opportunity for which the internet is used for at large and thats it’s main intent; facilitating greatly enhanced communication.

So How Is Website Design Like Motorcycle Maintenance?

Can I rephrase that to “Motorcycle Design, Production and Mantenance”? Sure I can. This is my blog!

The reason I see it this way is through my experience of designing, maintaining, developing, moving, deleting and administrating websites since 1999. All websites start somewhere. Maybe in the mind of an entrepreneur, or perhaps in the marketing department’s weekly board meeting. Regardless what the website’s inception was, it had a beginning, and from there it grew into what it is now.

Designing the website -if you’ve read anything I’ve written- doesn’t relate only to the pretty colour scheme you used and the frilly edges, but rather the the overall design. The proverbial engine behind the website (be that straight HTML, or a fully fledged Content Management System) as well as the page layouts, the structure and flow of information etc. It all needs to be “designed”. If not, you’re using someone else’s design (ready made software/solutions), but either way, it was or is designed by someone.

Production of a website can come at whatever phase the team or individual finds to be the most effective time to do so. Whether things are meticulously planned out with all the i’s dotted and all the t’s crossed, or if a single page objective document was drawn up and an evolutionary project was embarked on. It’s the same thing at the end of the day and the end result is subjective and up to those web “builders”.

Maintenance of a website. This is where things get interesting. Does the website maintain itself? Does a website fix itself when a human or non-human error causes something to go wrong. Does a website with user generated content work indefinitely without some form of moderation?

The answer to all of those questions is a resounding no. It does not. You can fake it. You can make it do some form of moderation and clean out naughty words, or go with the best hosting provider money can buy. At the end of the day, no the website will not stand the test of time, neither in looks (another subjective matter that) nor in it’s structure.

A motorcycle’s valves wear. It’s pistons grind up against the barrel and it’s constantly exposed to varying degrees of intensity of use and heat and cold.

Similarly, a website sits on a server. It’s visited by varying quantities of visitors. Information is pumped into it and drawn out of it and not only by humans. There are automated programmings scraping information from it. There are search engine spiders following links. There are spam bots posting anoying links to their Viagra sites.

Maybe your host is insufficient? You take it out of that provider’s warm comfy bedded engine mountings and plonk it into an unknown environment and things break. They need to be fixed. Folder permissions change and the engine’s fuel line is effectively clogged. The website slowly or quickly suffers and dies.

Okay, Enough Drama

You should now understand what I mean in my metaphoric comparison of Websites to Motorcycles, and if not, read it again. If you still think I’m wrong, then maybe I’m crazy, or you are.

There are other aspects to a website that aren’t mentioned above. Things like online marketing and SEO, optimising content for the web (believe it or not, you cannot copy and paste from Word without creating an invalid botch job of your site) or just keeping things fresh by tweaking colours, focal points, specials, announcements etc.

A new browser might come out and get very quickly adopted (Firefox as an example grew from nothing to almost a 30% market share). If your website doesn’t work in the new browser… are you willing to exclude 30% of your target audience?

Have a think. I reckon my point makes sense.

I’m busy writing about three articles concurrently. All of which lose my interest after sitting in front of them for longer than 10 minutes. I need to step back from them for a bit and this is why I’m writing this interim post. One is a piece on big brands with horrible websites, another is self defining article to try and put my thumb on who I am, and then there is a follow up of the first one showing outstanding websites.

While I write those, have a look at 37 Signals’ book entitled Getting Real. It truly is one for your bookmarks if you’re a programmer or designer, or even a client interested in having something developed or designed.

I came across the site after reading someone’s mention of 37signals‘ business model and subsequently followed the natural progression of link following. You know how it goes. “They have a book… cool, let’s check it out *click*. They have a PDF version, cool. $19 is fair. Ah, there is a paperback version too. Nice. They have a FREE version! *click*.” And this is where I ended up.

I found a section in chapter 2 particularly interesting. It basically states that budgets and timelines can be fixed in application development should be kept flexible. It makes sense to me that if you’re to launch a piece of software, rather make it with 5 solid, well rounded features than 10 badly thought out and issued ones. An excerpt:

If you can’t fit everything in within the time and budget allotted then don’t expand the time and budget. Instead, pull back the scope. There’s always time to add stuff later — later is eternal, now is fleeting.

A 100% free 16 chapter book on keeping things real in application design. A must have for any serious geek. I mean, Basecamp… who can argue that that was not built by designers and developers in the upper 99 percentile.