Our thoughts, rants and inside knowlege of web design & development!
Website Design
Reformspring How the Q&A site just got cooler
Apr 6th
Formspring.me, a popular social website which works with a unique question-and-answer format, unveiled a new look for its site yesterday, which has sparked comments about its similarity to the new Twitter interface.
Designed seemingly with egotists in mind, the site’s primary system is a function which allows anyone – member or not – to ask a specific user a question about themselves, their opinions, or their lives, with the prompt “ask me anything”, which can (and often is) cross-posted to Twitter or Facebook, to gain more questions. A ‘follow’ function, not unlike the aforementioned rival social networking sites, allows you to ask, contact, or smile at the people you know. You can also answer their questions, too.
“One of the most significant design evolutions in Formspring’s history,” according to the company, adds a top-screen navigation bar, allowing for instant navigation back to your profile or questions – saving those precious two seconds one previously used up scrolling back to the top of the page – and shifts the site’s layout to 760 by 490 pixels by default. Formspring claims that the new layout is suitable for all sizes of computers – desktops, laptops, netbooks and even tablets, like the new iPad 2, More >
Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9 to the masses
Mar 15th
Microsoft have released the final build of their Internet Explorer 9 web browser in an attempt to stem its steady loss of users to alternative browsers like Firefox and Chrome. IE9 features an enhanced user interface with the removal of unnecessary toolbars and the amalgamation of the address and search boxes into one field and the alignment of the address/search bar and tabs into one row. The new browser also offers impressive speed improvements and also great leaps in support for web standards like HTML5. Web standards are a common set of guidelines offered by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) that browser vendors and web developers are expected to adhere to to ensure a consistent experience across all software. Internet Explorer has been notoriously poor at this in the past, and Microsoft has sought to rectify their previous errors.
The improvement in web standards support will be welcomed with open arms by web designers such as us at Areatrade as it means less extra code is needed to ensure compatibility in all software. Microsoft has recently been calling for the small minority of users still stuck on version 6 of the software to upgrade to a newer version. Many IT departments have More >
Microsoft to launch final Internet Explorer 9 on March 14th
Feb 18th
Technology giant Microsoft is to release the latest update to their well-used web browser Internet Explorer on the 14th of March at the SXSW (‘South by South-West’) conference in Austin, Texas. The Release Candidate version of the browser has impressed many in the tech community with its superb speed and standards-compliance. This means that web developers will have an easier time creating websites that function as expected in all browsers.
You can try the Release Candidate preview yourself by downloading it at http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/, but be warned that as a non-final version it may be susceptible to a few remaining bugs and security issues.
WordPress wins 2010 CMS Hall of Fame Award
Dec 21st
If you need help with your CMS or would like to comment on your favourite CMS just let us know.
Builders Website Design Example
Dec 1st
We are proud to launch this website design project for the North London Builders DCL – Direct Construction Ltd. The initial brief was to design the company logo / branding.
Once branding was complete we moved our focus onto the website design. We took the time to understand the clients services and planned the website content around this information, we provided 5 bespoke home page designs and this was the outcome. The website design is built inside the WordPress platform which means the blog was seemlessly integrated and future social media interaction will be simple and cost effective to implement.
LinkedIn Share Button
Dec 1st
Business oriented social network giant LinkedIn has recently launched a share button which gives users a way to spread thier content throughout their professional network.
There are 3 options of the share button available which can be easily added to your website or blog – as follows:
1. vertical:
2. horizontal with counter:
3. horizontal without counter.
LinkedIns latest updates combined with the additional sharing options released back in April, link attaching, status updates, ability to re-share links as well as edit and delete posts brings it inline with social media giant Facebook.
The share button competition is strong with Facebook, Digg, Twitter, StumbleUpon and countless others, do you think LinkedIn has a place in this market and which is your preference?
Flock – The Social Web Browser
Dec 1st
Flock was first released in 2005 and is known for its social networking elements, for years the browser was based on the GECKO rendering engine, same as Firefox. In June it has swopped over to use Googles Chromium Engine in an attempt re-invent itself.
With the financial backing of Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape they have created the future of browsing and have been quick to react to the launch of RockMelt a start up looking for a piece of the social browsing market. Albiet a little cumbersome and not nearly as polished as Flock, it has ruffled a few feathers, competition is good.
See the into for Flock – better still download it – its free and take it for a spin.
Let us know what you think.
Happy Website Design Client
Dec 1st
Sound & vision would like to advise all who will listen about the benefits of a well organised Google Pay Per click advertising campaign. Just 2 years ago (We) savavs used to spend £150-£170 pounds per month on newspaper ads. The ad was the size of a stamp and it would bring leads worth less than £100.
We have since re-directed this budget into Google’s PPC ad’s system and we have been really impressed with the results.
I personally like the way all feedback data is presented through the Analytics reports. Areatrade gave a structured breakdown of all keyword and campaign traffic and show us specifically where our leads are coming form.
Since starting our ppc campaign with Areatrade, Savavs have been really impressed with the amount of qualified enquiries that have lead to real money changing hands coming directly from our ppc campaign.
Brad bishop @ Areatrade has been a huge source of information and given great guidance regarding our online presence. PPC ads have brought us the customers we were looking for, and with the guidance of Brad we have managed to convert more leads into sales than any other form of advertising we‘ve tried.
We also love coming to the Areatrade offices More >
Creative Print Studio Website Design Launch
Nov 30th
We are pround to launch this website design for a creative print and design studio in Cuffley. The website design brief was very specific and required something a little different. The developed a bespoke platform and integrated some really nice JQuery elements to provide the slide effects. Simple yet effective. See it here.
If you need any help with your ecommerce web design or website design set up and online promotion please contact us today.
WordPress for iOS Mobile App Updated 3
Nov 26th
The WordPress mobile app has been updated which has seen huge bug fixes and the following new features:
- Video: record video inside the app and post direct. - Local Drafts: saves all post locally before being puclished or saved online. - Autosaves: Allows you to revert back to older verions of a post. - Set Up Process: Allows WordPress.com users a quick way to add their blogs, and WordPress.org users a more streamlined experience when adding their sites - Media Library: New media library.
Let us know if these updates help improve your website design or Ecommerce Web Design wordpress platform.