Posts Tagged ‘xhtml’

Udakka redesign

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

HR consultancy Udakka Ltd was looking to redesign their web presence in order to modernise the look and feel.  The site is to be an online entry point to the services the firm can offer.  To that end, it needed to be compact, bite-sized and easily accessible.  In effect, it is an expansion of the firm’s business cards.

Solution

The focus for this site was to make its design striking, yet easy to access.  A fixed width design was chosen, to ensure that the site appeared as close to identical on as many machines as possible.   The design was loosely based around the firm’s business card design, with a striking Udakka logo.

Simple navigation through the content was added, to complement the content panels.  The font was selected to be easy on the eye and large enough to be comfortable to read.

Selecting an image for the background of the site proved challenging without the image dominating.  Many images were tried, and the selected image had a number of filters applied to ensure it enhanced the content rather than detract from it.

At the same time as the redesign, it was decided to upgrade the content management system the web site was running on.  A new installation of Wordpress was used which gave the flexibility to add more functionality to the site, and makes updating the site simple for staff.

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Scottish Lawyers’ European Group

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

The Scottish Lawyers’ European Group is a group that enables practising lawyers in Scotland – solicitors, advocates, trainees, law students and academic lawyers – to develop and maintain their interests in European law and in other European legal systems.  They hold regular meetings and seminars that can contribute to CPD hours.  The group was looking to use its web site to improve efficiency and reducing administrative burden for organising events.

The Group had an existing web site but it had not been used to its full potential.  The site was beginning to show its age and was in need of an overhaul.

Solution

The first priority was to give members of the group control over their web site.  To that end, a content management system was installed to provide access to add and edit content, and to maintain event information.

A simple site design was created with an emphasis on striking photographic images to highlight the goals of the group.  The yellow and blue of the EU logo were used to brand the site using text effects to create the title bar.

A members area was created in order to share information and documents to members only.  It is planned that this will reduce the amount of hard copy information that needs to be distributed.

Events are now set up online, giving members the ability to register their intent to attend meetings or seminars.  This reduces the administrative need to distribute invitations and monitor replies.  The event planner can simply, log in and print off a delegate list.

Given that the site has been extensively overhaulled it was necessary to pay attention to the site’s search engine presence.   As well as building the site to comply with best practice guidelines for accessibility, the site has been built to be easily readable by search engines.  Additionally, the site provides a sitemap directly to search engines to inform them of the presence of new or altered pages.

Knowing who is using the site is valuable information for any site owner.  Google Analytics has been implemented to understand the site’s users and how they are using the site.

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Flag Football in Edinburgh

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

American football is often seen as a violent game, and it can be.  However, the flag version of the game is non-contact and involves the same level of strategy and skill but without the need for expensive equipment and training.  It combines athleticism with cunning, speed with simplicity.  In short, it’s a fun game you can play in the park with your friends.

This group of flag football players in Edinburgh have played flag football for years and want to encourage new people to start playing the game.  There was a need for a simple, yet effective site in order to promote the game and the ease at which it can be picked up.

Solution

It was decided to use a content management system to allow for simple maintenance of content.  Wordpress does this in a simple way that is easy to pick up and has the advantage of being free to use.

The only area of the site that needs regularly updated is the date of the next game.  To make this easy to do, a Twitter feed was intergrated into the site.  This means that by updating the Twitter site – which the group uses already – the site can also be updated.

As the target demographic is primarily male, aged 18-40, there was licence to use some modern techniques without risk of confusion.  This allows the use of YouTube videos, integration with Wikipedia content and the addition of sharing content with social networking sites such as Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon etc.

The primary goal of the site is to entice people to get in touch so an AJAX based (no page reload on submission) contact form was used to receive and process submissions.

The group need only attract a small number of players to be considered a success so the site has been created as landing point for a campaign on social networking sites through pages and groups on Facebook.

The web site is to be combined with a small-scale print campaign by graphic designer Steve Russam targetted directly to american football fans through a local amateur team directing them towards the web site to engage with the group.

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Cadenza site relaunched

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Leading Edinburgh amateur choir, Cadenza, has recently relaunched its web site.  Cadenza performs around east-central Scotland and occasionally tours further afield.  Its web site is primarily used for disseminating information to followers of the choir, but also to share information between choir members.

The choirs previous site had been only for five years and was in need of a refresh.  The purpose of the relaunch was to bring the site up to modern standards both technically and aesthetically.  This was done by implementing a modern content management system to allow specified individuals to login to a secure admin area to maintain the content themselves and make it easy to do so.  The Wordpress software makes it easy to present content in a way that suits the choir.

Aesthetically, the design was to be clear, modern and usable.   The site has been designed to highlight Cadenza’s musical abilities while promoting upcoming events that the choir is taking part in.  It is a simple structure that is intended to remove distractions and render the site simple to use.  The site has been built with accessibility in mind, and the design is also usable without images and styles.

Tracking was of interest too, and an analytics solution has been installed in order to track visitors and visitor activity on the site.  This will be used to inform future design and content decisions.

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Textile Artists Freewheeling site launches

Friday, January 25th, 2008

Freewheeling is a group of textile artists who have recently teamed up to hold quilting exhibitions around Scotland. They were looking for a site that would allow them to highlight their talents and raise awareness of their abilities.

esspeedee decided to use the open source content management system Wordpress due to its simplicity for end users to maintain. Additionally, Wordpress provides the flexibility to implement all the functionality that Freewheeling were looking for.

The Coppermine photo gallery solution was implemented to host photos of Freewheeling’s work. This was closely integrated into Wordpress and with the addition of Lightbox technologies gives a modern and professional look.

esspeedee produced a clean design that highlights the profiles of the group members and their work. It excels at re-use of content which is essential in creating a “sticky” web site that encourages visitors to remain on the site and click to more pages.

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