Author: PoLR

I’m a workaholic and I freely admit it so when I was on holiday destined for New York and discovered it was Social Media Week I thought ‘oooh, now, I am so going to that‘. I logged on (still in the airport and pre-flight at this point) I found a talk that I liked the look of and signed up. The fact it was hosted in the Google Science and Technology Centre was a bonus too.

The Event:

The Internet & Uprisings in the Arab World: Are We Already In A Post-Social Media World? Hosted by Wired

And the panel consisted of:

Moderator: John C Abell
New York Bureau Chief, Wired.com

Susannah Vila
Director of Content and Outreach for Movements.org

Adam Penenberg
AD of the Business and Economic Program at NYU

Micah Sifry
Co-founder and executive editor of the Personal Democracy Forum

The Content

The talk dealt mainly with the situation in Egypt just now along with discussing issues of privacy, access and how social media is enabling people to organise these types of events/demonstrations in a faster, further reaching way than before. It threw up some important questions such as:

• Should Social Media platforms do more to protect their users?
• What’s different this time (with Egypt) compared to say the Chinese revolution?
• What part can Social Media can play in enabling demonstrations?

And the most important question that I was interested in:

What are we risking using social media?

Not the ‘I may lose my job if I call my boss a d*ckhead’ kind of worry but the worry over how secure data could be and how, in certain countries this risk could potentially be life threatening. For example, how easily could a users data be turned over to the governmental authorities if they requested it further down the line?

Think of Wikileaks and Twitter…Twitter recently contacted several account holders to let them know that they (Twitter) had been requested to give up account information (read more), Twitter claim it’s their “policy is to notify its users, where possible, of government requests for information” but it has to make you wonder how many other social media platforms may also have been asked and not felt it necessary to inform their users?

The content and questions raised certainly gave me food for thought (along with some ideas for future blogs) and I shall be blogging more once I have had time to mull it all over properly.

Social Media make us happy. Fact.

On a lighter note there was one particular fact that sprung out at me and that came from Adam Penenberg…He, through researching his new book, carried out a test on oxytocin levels (the cuddle hormone) and using Social Media. A blood test was taken before and then after using Social Media He found that oxytocin levels spiked by 13.2% after using Social Media which is on a par with a Groom at a wedding.

Average wedding = £12,000 v’s Twitter = £0…..no contest 😉

In those 10 minutes between blood batches one and two, my oxytocin levels spiked 13.2%. Meanwhile, stress hormones cortisol and ACTH went down 10.8% and 14.9%, respectively.

Read More

To see the chat from the day go to Twitter and use the #smwwired

Another article of interest on this topic is form the BBC

Recently I have been wanting to visit several restaurants or tourist attractions and have looked them up on my smartphone. Maybe I have been unlucky but approximately 50% of these searches have resulted in being unable to progress with either a visit, a booking or me getting my dinner! Why? Because these website have all been built in Flash and this isn’t currently served by my Android phone nor (ever likely to be) on my other half’s iPhone.

Take for instance the following website for a local restaurant that I was looking to book on my way home from work. What resulted was that I was unable to access the site and therefore unable to get their phone number to call and make a reservation which resulted in me having to go elsewhere (athough this did help me discover my new favourite restautant so it wasn’t all bad!) I wonder how many other people have had to do this and how much business they have lost? Are they even be aware it’s an issue? Well, Yes, I know they are because I put it on a comment card but still it’s all Flash so perhaps they just don’t care about the missing custom?

Why you shouldn’t ignore mobile.

According to comScore’s 2010 Feburary report The 2009 U.S. Digital Year in Review;

In December 2009, smartphones were owned by 17 percent of the mobile phone subscribers, up nearly 6 percentage points versus year ago…With so many new smartphone models reaching the market in 2009, the next year promises a rapid increase in market penetration of these devices, which likely means a corresponding uptick in mobile web usage.

and also, a report from Quantcast found that:

Worldwide, the share of Internet pageviews originating from mobile devices increased 148% in the year to December ’09

Not figures to be sneezed at and surely figures that would make the most diehard Flash fan have a wee bit of a rethink?

How Flash renders on the Android and iPhone and why I had to go elsewhere.

To illustrate my point, below is a screenshot of the website on my Android, one on the iPhone and one as it should look. Logo has been blurred to protect the inaccessible!

This website could solve part of it’s problem by just having a simple ‘skip intro’ link as the internal part of the site is only partly in Flash and potential customers could at least get to contact details, opening times etc. Such a simple solution that would have allowed us (and potentially others) to make a booking.

We went along to a presentation by Nation1 a few weeks ago and something that was mentioned has made me think about writing this post since then.

The speaker was discussing the pros and cons of a bespoke Content Management System (CMS). Now, in the past using an off the shelf, open source CMS was something that might have tried to be hidden from clients for fear or being asked how we justify costs on ‘free’ software (we never hid it at PoLR I might add!).

Open Source can be seen as cheating by some as the software itself is free but the benefits of using this are what makes it worthwhile and the cheaper option for the client in the long run.

I have even seen a company try to hide their use of Open Source by sticking their name infront of the software name and trying to sell ‘Company Name Joomla’ and ‘Company Name WordPress’ as product.

I don’t see the point of hiding that we use Open Source software. Trying to pass it off as our own as in the case above is a whole other matter of course!

Anyway, the speaker at this event made a great case for both sides so I thought it would be nice  to do a short post on why I see Open Source as the preferred option over bespoke and what we use here at PoLR.

Bespoke CMS

When I started out my career in web design I started by creating a bespoke ASP (Yes, ASP – it was a while ago…) driven CMS that I edited for each client.

Bespoke was thought to equal ‘better’ and a lot of the time there was no question of using anything else (at least with the jobs I was tasked with anyway!) It was a simple system that did the job but looking back there are plenty reasons why it might not have been the best solution at the time. Obviously there are points when ONLY a bespoke system will do but for the purpose of this post I’m referring to Joe Bloggs who just wants to update the odd bit of text and images.

• I wrote it, I owned it and once I left that job to go to another I didn’t maintain it. I was happy for the webdesign company to alter it as they wanted (I had no use for it in my new job) but I personally didn’t want to be doing that on top of starting at a new place.
• There were no fancy plugins that could be integrated and every new request had to be handcoded resulting in high costs for the client.
• You need a new feature? You could wait a long time for quotes and for the developer to look into the CMS and see if it can do what you’re asking.

Open Source CMS

When I started experimenting with an Open Source CMS I opted for Mambo (later Joomla, WordPress etc) and immediately saw the benefits.

• Installs are faster (letting clients see an actual working site quicker usually equals content faster!)
• Plugins are available to remove some of the labour which in turn reduces costs for the client
• The systems are constantly being worked on and therefore updates are released on a frequent basis.
• Anyone can work on it so if you fall out with your developer then your next developer should be able to quickly and easily get to grips with it (even if they don’t currently use your particular CMS there will be enough resources online to help them learn it).

What CMS PoLR Use

Here at PoLR we have looked at many a CMS and finally settled on two versions that we are happy with, one suitable for smaller businesses and one that we prefer for our larger clients: WordPress and CMS Made Simple.

We gave up on Joomla because we found that clients hated the admin area of it and were point blank, refusing to update their site because it was ‘too complicated’.

These two systems are fantastic for our clients and not one of them is worried about using the software. Training is simple, straightforward and because the system handholds the user it sometimes feels unnecessary!

So there you go, we’re proud to say that PoLR will happily give you a product that you can take with you to another web designer, a product that’s easy to use and last but by no means least, a product that can save you money.

I have just completed two websites for two of the most organised customers I have ever had. I don’t quite know what’s happened to make them both come along at once – maybe I’m being more effective or maybe I was just lucky but whatever it is I thought I would compose a wee post with why they were such successful (and by that I mean fast) builds.

1) Feedback, Feedback and Feedback some more

Feedback is by far the most important gift you can give to your web designer. It lets us move forward confident that we are doing what you want. In these two cases, the sheer amount of feedback I received was fantastic, it was regular, timely and always very detailed. It let me react and make changes quickly that I knew were exactly what  they wanted and were not half-guesses.

Tips:

• Live with the design for a few days and ask around for second opinion just don’t ask for too many opinions as it can do more harm than good!
• From the inital design to the finalising of content, I much prefer feedback in an e-mail so I can work through it step-by-step and make sure I have everything covered before going back to you.

2) Content isn’t just king it’s a necessary evil

Content is the most difficult thing to get and often holds up the completion of a build. I have worked on all manner of website and no matter how big or small the site, content always seems to be the most dreaded job for clients. With these two sites the customers were given control of the site from the basic build and happily worked away on the content until it was perfect. It probably helped that the type of organisations they were meant that they  had the majority written down anyway but still, they were amazingly fast and getting the content to me or on the website.

Tips:

• Meet your web designer with a clear idea of what you want on the website and what you want it to say.
• If you are really stuck for words or just hate writing then ask the company if they can provide copywriting services for you.
• If you are having difficulty then let your web company know, they should be able to help or at the very least they will be happy to have been told they can put your project on hold for a little while (and stop calling you for content 😉 )

3) Decisive decision making

Decisive decision making is a God send……

Email confirmations of every meeting and phonecall may be tiresome but they help keep everyone informed and gives everyone something to refer back to at a later date.

Tips:

• While fast decisions are always welcome don’t feel pushed into a decision and end up regretting it later. If you aren’t sure of the design then take time to think it over – it’s the changing of things at a later stage that can cause delays, at the start your designer will just want to make sure it’s perfect for you and shouldn’t mind short delays if it is more effective in the long run.

It never ceases to amaze me sometimes at the sheer lack of thinking outside the box from some people. A lot of the time it isn’t even outside the box, it’s in the box… common sense. I have actually spoken to other business owners, who when I asked whether they had a website, the reply comes: “I’m not really into all this computer stuff” or “I can’t be bothered with all that web stuff, I’m old school”.

I don’t want one…

Every time I reply with “Well it’s not really about you is it? It’s about your customers, perhaps they may use these computer thingy’s and the interthingymijig… and you could be missing out” DING.

The way to a business owners heart is through making them realise that they’re missing an opportunity.

If you ever sign up one of these guys, you’ll find that they gradually become one of the most knowledgable customers you have. I’ve seen it happen, made it happen even. Ignite that touch paper and watch them school themselves silly with jargon and research. And inevitably pick your brain at every opportunity… but this is fine if they’re a paying customer 🙂

It is a good feeling actually, to turn around someones misconception of websitesand their usefullness to businesses. We’re not out to make “I told you so” statements, we simply have a genuine thirst for generating online success for our customers and sometimes it’s just part of the process to educate (trying not to sound like Hitler here) when necessary.

If any of you out there are still on the fence as to whether or not you may need a website, give us a call at the office and we’ll talk you through what’s involved and give you an honest opinion of whether or not it may be the right avenue for your business, which it probably will be!

Every website we build at PoLR follows a certain ‘critical path’ to completion. A Critical Path is terminology that sets out the key milestones and points of a project that must be adhered to, in terms of time and build, in order for all other facets of the project to be able to work and be competed successfully.Now every project can differ, of course. That’s why there is more than one option after starting. However, in every case, a full consultation must be carried out in the first instance. For us to get a feel for the project and run through our tried and tested ‘website questionnaire’ which will tell us about the customers preferences and gives us technical answers to lay questions. For instance we may find that the customer “doesn’t like websites that look really different on other monitors and have separate sections within the same page”, then we know to keep it a fixed width, with no scrolling. This step will always form the ‘Start’ element.

When we’re building a website, we could also be creating the client’s branding from scratch including logo and colour scheme (which would usually form one of the first stages post-start) or they may already have this in place and we skip a step, or go in a different direction on the path. A point worth mentioning here, is that this may indeed not be a ‘critical’ element if the layout and such can be agreed prior to the branding being established, but in general, it doesn’t progress until this is done.

Next up is usually agreeing the layout of the website, which at PoLR we do by using a ‘Gray Box’ model consisting of choices of layout without aesthetics attached to get an idea of where to put pages, sales paths and calls-to-action throughout the website. 2 points here: Firstly, for larger projects the client may already have a detailed specification. We still treat this situation the same if this is this case, but there’s simply less back-and-forth between the client and PoLR to get this stage agreed and signed-off. Secondly, sometimes a client will confuse the ‘Gray Box’ model as our first stab at the design, until we remind them of the reason for sending it!

I mentioned the term ‘Sign-off’. A key point is to have clients agree in writing to each of the stages. This allows for a clear understanding throughout the project regarding what has been understood by both parties as being involved in the build and design. Miscommunication can let a project down badly, even detrimentally. So having the client ‘sign-off’ on the completion of each stage keeps everyone in the loop.

When the ‘Gray Box’ element (i.e. the site layout) has been agreed, then the design of the website commences. The agreed layout is then dressed and redressed (having had a full consultation beforehand regarding preferences and ‘do’s and don’t’s’) until the customer is completely happy with the way it looks throughout, then this stage is also signed off. We can either ‘hit the nail on the head’ first time with the design or there can be numerous back-and-forths between ourselves and the clients. The best laid plans being in place (like the consulatation) can reduce this, but clients are humans (mostly) and humans change their minds! So this stage can vary in timescale from project-to-project, however, we take this into account when providing the initial project timescale.

Now we have a fully agreed layout and design, which at this point is essentially still simply an image of a website. Time to build it now. This stage is quite time consuming and can be tricky if we have some ‘left field’ requests with the functionality, albeit with smaller websites we’re pretty efficient in terms of time. his isn’t to say they get a less professinal product in the end, the usually just have less functionality and tricky bits. More complicated websites can be really complex in the build stage, but this is all forecast from the outset.

This brings us onto the next stage, testing (arguably building and testing are the same stage). We have to test all of the websites we produce to make sure that they actually work the way they are supposed to. So we will actually try to ‘break’ the website once we think we have it working perfectly to iron out any ‘bugs’ that may arise. With larger and more complex websites, ‘bugs’ (glitches in the functionality) can and do occur, even after full testing and the website has gone live. This is because the website will be set up to change dynamically and increases the likelihood of a small glitch happening. All large projects should have a maintenance contract in place for the developers to come back in and fix these bugs after launch. Small to medium websites that have been tested fully should go on to enjoy a happy life.

When the testing has been completed and demonstrated to the customer, the stage is signed off. This seems like we’re right at the end and ready to go live now, doesn’t it? Well on the face of it we are. We have a fully built and designed website with itchy feet ready to take it’s place on the internet, but wait… it doesn’t have the content yet!

The content of the website is basically all of the text throughout the website, for each and every page. And it’s the customer who needs to provide this. Why? Because our customers know their businesses better than we do and in most cases provide full text for every part of the website. We can provide copywriting services as an extra (again we would know this, ideally, from the first stage) which means we just plug it all in and it’s good to go.

Lack of content from a customer is without compare, the main factor in the delay of a website project. Other elements can come close, but you would be surprised how often a fully ready website can sit dormant (and offline) waiting on the client to produce the content.

*ADVICE ALERT* Cusomers: even though the content isn’t due until near the end of the project, get it organised way in advance and save unnecessary delays to your project. Failing that, tell us at the start that you want us to do it.

This stage isn’t technically a critical one as it doesn’t affect the other facets of the build taking place, but it can prevent the last stage in our critical path of web design from happening – Final Signoff of Website and Launch.

This last stage consists of the final signoff of the entire website. That it is built completely to specification and that the customer is happy with it and wants it to go live for everyone to use. They sign it off and then we launch it. Simples.

A friend was looking at the Learn Direct site the other day and found a web design course for £50.00, on the same note I was flicking through a well known web design magazine a few weeks ago when I spied an advert for a ‘Professionally designed website for £35 a year’. I read it, then read it again and thought WHAT? £35.00 a YEAR for a “professionally designed website?”

After my initial reaction it made me think – our sales team often have to explain why the cheapest is not necessarily the best when it comes to website design (and most things really) and why it can be a false economy. With this advert though it made me realise that if a magazine for web designers touts a £35 a year site then can non-teccy’s really be blamed for thinking this is the norm and that anything else is extortionate?

It did put me in another pair of shoes for a minute before I came back to thinking from my own point of view which is, if I was looking for a years worth of drycleaning or morning coffees or really, professional anything I would never believe £35 a year would get me a quality products and serve me well in the end. In fact, the chances are it would make me look elsewhere.

There are hundreds of articles out there that point out the benefits of a professionally designed website (we’ve written a few ourselves) but still it seems to be a point that isn’t always ‘believed’ with the first (and sometimes second) iteration of a website presence.

A False economy?

Often we have clients come in who are at the second stage of developing their online presence. The general theme is that they have started with a DIY site and after one or two versions of it, have decided that it’s not working for them and start to look around for a company who can tailor a site to reflect their companys quality and branding.

Here’s an example for you of a false economy (in money and time). Recently, a client who’s site I used to work on years ago, decided that he would have a shot at revamping his website himself (with no previous IT knowledge). After two self-made iterations (one of which was a free online dating site that had been slightly adapted with the addition of his logo but still retained the default dating data) the original website has been restored to its original state! That was time, effort and reputation that would have been lost.

Why reputation? Because anyone who had been signed up to the site and returned while the dating site was up would probably not have bothered returning again – I wouldn’t have, would you?

Economic?

I do understand that when first stepping out on the web software such as Mr Site can be a cheap and easy way to test the water. It lets you get online quicky, cheaply and without having to deal with technical jargon (apparantly I talk too much of this..!) It can be really economic for a new start business and will at least get a business started with on online presence. However, it can also be a false economy if an upgrade is needed in a short period of time.

Many web design companies advertise offers to start up companies so it’s worth checking around to see who caters for small businesses – it could be that a little extra to a budget in the early days will save time and effort a little later down the line.

Want to know our website design offers for new start businesses? Contact us for more information Freephone 0800 622 6952.

In the SEO world a link is what makes the world go round. A web site is a collection of sites all hyper linked together and the internet is made possible due to sites linking to each other. With Googles search engine becoming the dominant one it’s approach to links as votes has made the hyper link a sought after commodity. With the increasing use of CMS software, blogging services and social media it’s not only webmasters who have the power to link out. If you are using the html option on a CMS system here is how to create an html link.

Polr Internet marketing company

The link above is made up of the following html.

When we break it down there are four main components to a link.

The A href tag
This A tag is what tells the browser that the following text or image is to link to a certain web address. It has an opening and closing section.

The web site address
This is where you put the address that you want your link to go to.

The title of the link
This gives the user more information about the link and will display when the mouse is hovered over the anchor text.

The anchor text of the link
This is the clickable part of the link which is displayed in the link above. The anchor text of a link helps search engines to determine what the link is about.

I saw a comment on Twitter the other day and it made me think ‘Wow, that’s a great blog idea and it’d be easy to do too’. After I started writing it I was still thinking ‘Wow, that’s a great blog idea’ but I was also thinking ‘this is actually a bit of a bugger to do’.

(un)Fortunately(for me) I had already messaged the Twitter’er and well, committed to writing it. So here’s my effort and his Tweet that made me do it!

“Trying to find a good blog article for a mate which explains how a graphic designer and web designer work together on a site project.” @ThirdSectorForum

First of all, I’m making an assumption with the original request and assuming that it’s more  a web developer than a web designer and that it’s a graphic designer for web we’re discussing (ie the developing and passing over of a design into a functioning website).

This article is based on my experience of working in design teams and although this will vary from one company to the next, very briefly, the steps in developing a website can be summarised as below (I have omitted the to-ing and fro-ing for feedback and assuming it’s all running smoothly!):

The ebb and flow of a website design

Design Meeting

The client will have a meeting with the design team (usually the graphic and web designer) to discuss ideas, likes, dislikes and aims of the website to give the design team a good grasp of what’s required. This also lets the designers get a feeling for the client in order to design a look and feel that is hopefully, more than just a stab in the dark!

Sitemapagreed

Generally after a meeting with the client, we will go off and develop a sitemap based on their requirements. While the designer is included in these discussions the flow of the site is generally down to the developer. Particularly with a highly functional website where navigation and communication between sections is of paramount importance.

Layout agreed

Grey box diagrams will be given to the customer for feedback to show where the navigation, logo etc could be placed (but with no actual graphics involved at this stage). Keeping the layout as simple as grey boxes allows us to all concentrate on the element that will make up the site rather than worrying about whether the correct colours have been used etc.

Design mock up

This is the stage where the graphic designer has the most input, they will draft a sample design based on the discussion with the client and consideration of the company branding.

Design finalised

After several rounds of feedback and adjustments, the design will be finalised and signed off. Once signed off the designer will pass over the design to the web developer to be cut into sections (such as logo, menu background etc) which leads me nicely into…

Design incorporated into website structure

Once the design is cut up, the developer will be able to incorporate the design into the skeleton website that he will have been working on. By skeleton we are referring to a functioning website that will have been devoid of graphic design up until this stage i.e the site will work functionally but not look as it should.

Tweaks and Finish

When the design is incorporated into the site the developer will send the site back to the developer for any final design tweaks or for any additional graphics that are required. Maybe get the designer to alter the CSS or alter images etc until it’s perfect.

Working in sweet harmony

That’s the brief description of how the build could go but as per the original question, I’ll explain a little more about the way the designer and developer actually work together in the first place.

I once worked on one site that had been designed by a company who had previously only designed for print. The design had a different layout for each page, navigation was in a different positions on each page and the design itself was inconsistent. Don’t get me wrong, it looked amazing but it was verging on not being very user friendly what with the navigation flying around the monitor at a rate of knots!

For an effective build, communication between all departments is the key – from sales, to design, to admin. It is crucial that the designer has a grasp of how websites (and users) work, what the common elements of a site are and an idea of how a site is built as much as it is important that the programmer understands that design adds value to a website and isn’t a waste of time!

For example, with an e-commerce website you need among other things categories, the boring bits (terms, delivery etc) and probably a search. While a design could look pretty without cumbersome categories, it wouldn’t be a particularly friendly shopping experience. On saying that a designer who doesn’t also build can be a breath of fresh air as they are not designing while also thinking “well, if I put that there it could be a nightmare to build” (well, we’ve all thought that at some point haven’t we!?)

To play Devil’s advocate, a developer needs to ‘get’ that the design is important and refusing to style something as it was intended because it doesn’t alter the output is not the point. For example, on another project I worked on with lots out tabular results, the developer huffed and puffed when he was made to follow the design because it was irrelevant to the actual results. He was unable to see that it was affecting the feeling of the website and was making it look less professional and complete.

I’m trying to show that as with all domestics, there are two sides to every story. The most important factor in completing a website in  as smooth a process as possible is communication and an understanding of the previous and following steps that happen around your particularly phase of the development. A website doesn’t end with the design any more than it is only about the programming. Communicating, respecting and working in sweet harmony – well, that’s the idea at least 😉

On a similar thread, how about an article on how designers and SEO’s work together…I think that’s a post best written by Calum…just prepare yourselves for a rant…

We recently carried out some research for PoLR regarding the PoLR website and this blog. We noticed a theme of questioning kept coming up that reiterated to us just how important simple, straightforward wording is on a website and how clearly identifying navigation is.

The theme throughout the focus group was that the group were confused by what our blog was and what it was for. This suprised us as we’ve never had any problem explaining to customers etc what a blog is and so assumed the case would be the same online. It probably came down to the sample demographic (more on that when we publish all our findings) but even so, they are still people who could be using our site so we had to react. Comments ranged from “are they links to external articles” to “not seeing the link” between the web/marketing articles and what PoLR do. On the flip side, the blog was seen as a validation of the company’s knowledge and gave comfort and reassurance to the visitor.

Based on this aspect of the research there were several things we changed on our blog that we’ve decided to share below.

It’s a what..?

It is so easy to forget how confusing the terminology can be. We at PoLR hear and talk about blogging all the time but what the focus group threw up to us was that the very term ‘blog’ was confusing and not self-explanatory. It was believed that the blog was a resource centre linking to articles outwith PoLR and certainly not written by PoLR (which after all our hard work was a little annoying 😉 ).

Who it’s for?

Our blog is primarily aimed at potential and existing clients so it is imperative that they know what it is and that it’s for them. By adding in a simple ‘about this blog‘ page you can let readers know who the target market is and give a little background info about why you’re writing it in the first place.

Who are the authors?

Author pages are great to add some personality to the blog. It shows there are real people writing on it and shows a history of their articles which should lower the assumption that the articles have been written elsewhere! Adding images of the authors, a brief history and contact details shows that you are being open about who writes on it.