February 23rd, 2010
Figures suggest that over half the world’s internet users have IE, which started a legal battle between Microsoft and the European commission back in January 2009.
The European rules that Microsoft’s grip on the browser market was unfair, and more choice should be provided to the end user. This in turn has forced Microsoft to an update which is currently being tested at the moment in Belgium, France and the UK. The software update choice will arrive automatically for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 customers, according to a blog post by Dave Heiner, Microsoft’s vice president and deputy general counsel.
Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera are the alternative browsers that people will be offered, or the user can select to stick with the browser they currently use. Once the update is released it will be interesting whether we see a major shift in the follow browser usage stats.
|
2009
|
IE8
|
IE7
|
IE6
|
Firefox
|
Chrome
|
Safari
|
Opera
|
| December |
13.5% |
12.8% |
10.9% |
46.4% |
9.8% |
3.6% |
2.3% |
I’m not sure if the majority of people will stick or change, I personally hope it manages to reduce the 10.9% still using IE6 making it very difficult for web designers all over the world to do their work and push the web forward.
Tags: browser, Web Design
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
January 29th, 2010
As visitors to websites we begin to expect certain elements on a web page to be in a particular place, which is why web designers will tend to stick to general website conventions. Some form of consistency is paramount in keeping the visitor on a website making sure they’re not given a reason to leave. A few examples include:
- Positioning of the website logo or name; typically this can be found in the top left hand corner.
- A business phone number; typically found in the top right hand corner.
- Navigation near the top of the page
- The underlining of links, making sure not to underline text which is not a link
Of course website conventions will depend of the style of website being produced, if you’re trying to push boundaries then look at your target audience. Different styles of sites will work better for different age ranges, or the level of computer and Internet literacy. These are aspects that your web designer will need to know before starting a project in order to provide you with the best possible solution.
At WebCatch for example, we ask our clients to fill out a creative brief which gives our designers the information they need to design a website that meets our clients requirements. We’ll then apply the website conventions that count.
Tags: web conventions, Web Design
Posted in Web Design | 1 Comment »
January 15th, 2010
One of the features we missed most when adopting Joomla! as our CMS was the possibility to change the admin url from the standard http://yoursite.com/administrator to something more secret. Yes, we now that secuirty by obscutiy is not really effective, but we believe that it can’t hurt and will at least keep some of your nosy visitors from trying to guess your passwords.
As this functionality is not inbuilt, we had to look for a plugin that takes care of hiding the backend’s url. After a moment of googling we found the jSecure Authentication plugin (download link). As you can see on the plugin’s site in Joomla! Extensions Directory, it has excellent user ratings and is quite popular among the Joomla! community. That’s a really important aspect, because it means that it is highly compatible with different Joomla! installations and is thoroughly tested. Once you have downloaded the plugin’s zip package, here’s what you need to do to apply it to your Joomla! site:
- Login to your Joomla! backend and go to Extensions->Install/Uninstall. Upload the downloaded package and install it.
- Go to Extensions->Plugin Manager and filter your results by ‘jsecure’ to find your newly installed plugin.
- Before enabling the plugin remember to set it up. You can do this by clicking on the plugin in the Plugin Manager.
- In the plugin configuration you will notice a Parameters box on the right side of the page. There you can set the Key, which will be your secret phrase that needs to be added to your admin url in order to access the backend. For the purpose of this post, let’s assume that we set it to ’secretword’.
- You can also configure what will happen when someone tries to access the standard yoursite.com/administrator url. It is controlled by the ‘Redirect Options’ parameter. You can either redirect the user to your homepage, or display a custom page. You could, for example, prepare a website saying something like: “My site is not that easily hackable” and teach the wrongdoer a lesson
After all the configuration is done and the plugin is enabled you will no longer be able to access your backend by going to yoursite.com/administrator. You will need to use yoursite.com/administrator/?secretword, substituting the secretword with whatever you have set in the plugin’s configuration.
Tags: Joomla!, plugin, security
Posted in Joomla!, Web Development | No Comments »
January 5th, 2010
Choosing a domain name is not something that should be rushed in to, it will be your web address and therefore the address you’ll be shouting about to get visitors and potential customers. You need to think clearly about what people should ascertain from your domain name, whether you’re an established business or just starting out.
Here are our top 5 tips:
1. .co.uk and .com
For a business website it is advised to get a domain where you can order both the .co.uk and .com. This is to make sure that others don’t come in at a later stage and capitalise on all your hard work.
2. Easy to remember and read
Consider the length of your domain name as it needs to be memorable. Avoid really long domain names and too many hyphens, after all if your domain name is mis-read or mis-heard you may be sending your visitors to your competitors.
3. Use Keywords
If you have a brand name use this for your domain name, but if you’re just starting out and haven’t decided on a business name yet think about using a few keywords that best describe your business.
4. Keep your contact details up to date
That way, when your domain name is up for renewal you’ll be sent a reminder so you don’t miss out. Of course if WebCatch is purchasing a domain name on your behalf we’ll be sure to renew it on time.
5. Avoid Copyright Infringement
This includes brand names and trademarks. Google is king for filing complaints against companies about domain names, and to this date has only had 2 out of 65 rejected.
Tags: business website, domain name
Posted in Marketing, Web Design | No Comments »
December 17th, 2009
When it comes to browser sizes it’s important to remember that not everyone has the same, whether you’ve got a widescreen monitor, a small monitor or view a browser through a screen projector. To this end when laying out a website it’s vital to bear in mind where key elements are positioned, such as a ‘Buy now’ button or any other call to action.
Google have created a tool to help website owners see how much of their website their visitors can see depending on their browser size: http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/. The main aim of this tool is to allow website owners to improve conversion rates and engagement. Have a go with your website and see if it’s optimised for the average browser size.
Of course at WebCatch we design all of our websites with this in mind, if you have an existing site but are worried that you’re missing out on potential customers due to the layout then get in touch and we’ll see what we can do.
Tags: browser size, google, web layout
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »
December 7th, 2009
Following on from our last post about keeping your website up to date, we’d just like to remind people that VAT will be returning to 17.5% from the 1st of January after being cut to 15%.
Tags: update, vat
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »
December 3rd, 2009
Having a website, as I am sure you are aware is important for any business. As they say, if you’re not online you could be missing out on many potential customers. However, one thing a lot of people forget is that just being online does not mean ‘job done’. In order to get the most out of your website it will need maintaining.
Keeping your site up to date is key to providing your vistors confidence in your business and also helps to obtain repeat visitors. Some things to look out for include;
- Product / Service Prices
Make sure you have the latest prices on your website, if you’ve increased/lowered your prices avoid unhappy customers by making sure your website reflects this.
- Contact Details
Keeping your contact details current could be one of the most important tasks. After all if potential customers are unable to reach you they’ll go somewhere else.
- News
If you’ve got news on your site make sure it’s not from way back. If your vistors see that your news is out of date they may think that it’s a dormant website.
- 2007 – 2009
It may seem like a small change, but as we’re coming up to 2010 make sure you update the year you sometimes find at the bottom of web pages. An old year is a tell tale sign that the website is no longer in use.
If of course you feel your site ‘looks’ out dated then it may time for a redesign, but be sure to have clear objectives outlining what you want to acheive from your site to get the most out of it. After all, the new year could be time for a new site.
Tags: update, website redesign
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »
November 14th, 2009
WebCatch have gone that extra step to help small businesses make their move to the world wide web. By introducing cheap web design packages we hope to offer a range of services to suit all budgets without compromising on professional quality.
To read more about these packages check out our cheap web design page. From small brochure style websites for start-ups, to larger flashy websites, we can put our skills to good use.
All of our web design packages come with a .co.uk/.com domain name of your choice, hosting for one year, at least one e-mail address and basic search engine optimisation for free. Just because we care.
Tags: Web Design
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »
