web site development
If It Ain’t Broke, Fix It Anyway
Saturday, September 19th, 2009 | graphic design, search engine optimization (SEO), web design, web site consulting, web site development | No Comments
Noodle Design was born out of a time of unemployment, following 9/11. One of the first web sites that was done under the Noodle name was Artistic Photography by Sara Adamski. Sara photographed my wedding and in 2004 when our baby was a couple of months old we contacted Sara about photos of our new family. We had made a web site about our pregnancy that then turned in to a web site about our baby, which I shared with Sara. When she learned that I designed web sites a wonderful trading relationship began. A web site for her, photos for us.
The web site we developed was true to coding and usability standards of 2004 and fortunately it was classic enough in design that it did not quickly become outdated.
Still, five years later technology had changed so dramatically that this classic web site needed an overhaul. Most notably today’s computer monitors are much larger and the resolutions higher, internet connections speedier. Wonderful news for a photographer who needs their photos to be large and beautiful.
Sara also likes to edit her site so the new site was built with simplicity in mind. All of the menus are straight html and embedded using PHP includes. Editing just one file will add a new page to the entire site.
The code is cleaner (validates as XHTML Strict) and search engine optimized. Will the site last her forever? Nope, because in a few years technology will have changed our web site standards again, but Sara’s site has what she needs to grow her business: big, beautiful photos.
Has it been several years since you had your site designed? If so then it’s time to invest some time in having a new site done. Noodle Design would love to help you. Contact us to find out how we can help you!
Also, check out Sara’s photos if you’re in the market and in the Greater Seattle area.
New Construction Management Site Launched by Design Firm Noodle Design
Thursday, February 26th, 2009 | business cabinet design, business card design, graphic design, identity systems, search engine optimization (SEO), web design, web site consulting, web site development | No Comments
Bockes Consulting Group (BCG), a multi-disciplined construction management and consulting firm, provides innovative solutions that deliver projects on time and within budget. From project conceptualization through closeout, BCG will assist you in achieving project success, from the ground up.
The construction management and consulting firm out of the Seattle and Greater Puget Sound areas of Washington (WA). Contact us for restaurant, industrial, hospitality and commercial projects throughout the country.
Validation: the Key to Longevity
Monday, December 8th, 2008 | web site development | No Comments
There is a lot to a web site that the usual visitor doesn’t see. This doesn’t mean however that what’s going on behind the curtain isn’t important. We’ll talk more later about designing for multiple browsers later (all browsers are NOT created equal), but there are some things you can do to make sure you’re at least writing code appropriate for multiple browsers. This is called validation. There are a fair number of rules, so in the end run your web site through a tool like Total Validator to learn what doesn’t validate with your code.
Some does or don’ts:
- target=”_blank” is out, rel=”external” is in. Here’s the javascript that makes it work:
<script type="text/javascript"> // External Links function externalLinks() { if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return; var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a"); for (var i=0; i<anchors.length; i++) { var anchor = anchors[i]; if (anchor.getAttribute("href") && anchor.getAttribute("rel") == "external") anchor.target = "_blank"; } } window.onload = externalLinks; </script> - do not use in-inline styles, use a CSS file. For instance: <img src=”mypic.jpg” border=”0″ /> is out. Instead, either create a img tag CSS style that says border:none or create a class that does the same and change the above to <img src=”mypic.jpg” class=”noborder” /> — “noborder” could be changed to whatever you want.
- <img src=”mypic.jpg”> is out, <img src=”mypic.jpg” /> is in. Properly close those tags! Same with <br> tags. Should be <br />
Want to learn more about validation? Learn what the W3C has to say about it. Or you can entrust your web site and it’s valid code to Seattle web design firm Noodle Design >
Tools to Build a Web Site
Thursday, November 20th, 2008 | web site development | No Comments
On more than one occasion I’ve had a client want to either edit their own web site or learn how to do web sites. I’m not the greatest teacher, but actually editing a web site is fairly simple, if the most you’re looking to do is edit some text here or there or maybe swap out a photo. Here are some tools you can use.
- FTP client. “FTP” stands for File Transfer Protocol. An FTP client allows you to download and upload files to a web server. The Internet Explorer browser can be used as an FTP client (check out this blog for details: http://www.sean.co.uk/a/webdesign/ftp_in_ie_free_client.shtm) and Windows Explorer can also be used (the procedure is exactly the same as with IE, go figure). You’ll need your FTP host, username, and password to access your web server.
- Notepad. Ok, so not just Notepad, but any plain text editor will do. Don’t use Word, as Word will insert unnecessary and messy code. Open up a web file (extensions are typically .html, .htm, .php, .shtml) in a text editor like Notepad, find and edit the text you need changed and save the file. You’ll upload it next, more on that to follow.
- WYSIWYG editor. Not necessary, but certainly makes some things easier. “WYSIWYG” stands for “What You See Is What You Get” so instead of looking at code in Notepad you could actually look at the layout and graphics of a site as you edit, for the most part seeing what you see when looking at the live page online. WYSIWYG editors often also provide FTP access. Dreamweaver by Adobe (formerly by Macromedia), which is the web design industry’s preferred tool (and mine) can be cost prohibitive to some one who just wants to edit their own web site every few months. Some hosting companies offer online WYSIWYG editors (GoDaddy is one such company). It would be wise to investigate web hosts and what they offer before buying a hosting account.
- Image editing software. On occasion you’ll want to replace a photo. Most photos require some type of editing prior to being uploaded to a web site. Resizing needs to be done in an image editing software, not by simply changing the dimensions in the html code. Ever see a photo online that looked distorted and pixely? It’s probably a huge photo that’s simply been manually resized in a WYSIWYG editor. Most computers come with some simple image editing software. You can also use something like Google’s Picasa.
The moral to this story is you can edit a web site without buying a single stitch of software. It can take time to learn though, so if you’re short on time contact Seattle design firm Noodle Design for web site editing or development >
Tips to a Successful Web Site
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 | web design, web site development | No Comments
If you’re going to do a web site you’ll want to do it right. After all, what’s the point of having a web site if you turn people away once they get there? There are so many things you can do with a web site (and some less than cool), so let’s talk about what you should and should not do.
- Don’t theme-out your web site. Sure your favorite thing in life is golf, but does that mean you should have a golf-themed web site? Not unless your business is a golf-supply store or you’re a golf course. What would a golf-themed web site say to some one who visits your law practice’s web site? It says “I’d much rather be spending your money playing golf than helping your cause”.
- Less is more. Your visitors will need to be able to find their destination quickly. Too many elements on a home page can overwhelm and they may hit that back button far quicker than you’d like. Make sure your navigation (menu) is easy to spot and detailed enough. While users aren’t likely to read the text on your home page don’t make the mistake of skipping text on your home page all together, but don’t over do it. A basic description of your business that is keyword rich will serve you best.
- Skip the mystery meat. Some web sites try to be clever and will use simple icons for menu items that when you hover over them reveals the content hidden behind. Don’t make your users work! It will only frustrate them. Be clear. Don’t use clever terms instead of straight forward page or section names. “Holla” is not as effective as “Contact Us”.
- Flash intros are so 1996. They had their time and place. Don’t do it. This falls in to the category of not making your users work. If they have to click simply to get to the actual content of your web site you may lose them. Don’t discount the number of people using DSL and dial-up. Your cool flash intro might load slowly and users will not wait around.
- Skip the music. Ethical or not, people surf the web at work. Sure, maybe they do it on their own time, but does that mean they don’t mind when they happen upon a web site with techno beats blaring at them? Unless you’re a band your web site doesn’t need music and nothing turns a visitor off more than music (ok, maybe it’s second to the Flash intro).
- Offer them something right up front. Do you sell products on your web site? Put your most popular product right on the home page with a shopping cart buttons right there so they don’t have to click anywhere to buy. Photographer? Put a gallery or a handful of photos right on your home page so people can start looking without clicking. Instant gratification should be the name of the game.
Get a web site with all the right moves from Seattle Design Firm Noodle Design >
The Ills of Frames
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | web site development | No Comments
At first glance, frames seem harmless. They can look downright impressive — high-tech, even. What your average Web designer might not know, however, is how much trouble frames can cause, preventing visitors from using your site fully and even from finding your site in the first place.
Frames Prevent Bookmarking
Without getting too technical, let me explain how frames work. All Web sites have what we call an index page. This is usually the first page your visitors see. On a site with frames, this index page is set up to display multiple pages of your site. For example, your index page would have a window that pulls in the navigation and a window that pulls in the pages of your content. Now your visitors can’t easily bookmark different pages – every time they try, all they’ll end up bookmarking is your index page. This is a problem when you have many products, or a site with many levels. If visitors can’t get where they want to go in one or two clicks, they should be able to bookmark specific destinations.
You Can’t Easily Print Pages
You never know when someone will want to print part of your site. But with frames, what they’ll get is a blank page. There is a way around it – you can right-click in the window of content and select the print option – but it’s my opinion that you should never ask a visitor to go through that much effort, or expect them to be Web savvy.
Frames Can Be Turned Off
Visitors have the option of telling their browsers not to interpret framed sites at all, so some people see a whole lot of nothing! There are things you can do to make sure people see something, but it won’t be the site you intended.
Search Engines Don’t Do Frames
Search engines need links in order to crawl and index pages. A framed site is like hitting a brick wall: There are no links for the engines to follow. The number and quality of links to your page are part of what garner your site a page rank. If search engines can’t crawl your site, you get no page rank and people can’t find you.
How To Make Your Site More Attractive to Search Engines
Does your site already use frames? Within the tags , make sure you can use are using the
tags to tell help search engines and visitors who may have frames turned off and the search engines what your site is about. Write a couple of brief, but descriptive , paragraphs about your website/ site or business. These brief paragraphs would also serve well in META tags, which you should also make sure you use on the index page of a framed site. These META tags are really what tell Search Engines what you’re about and go a long way in determing how your site will be ranked. For more information on META tags , please head on over to the
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) page for a very an enlightening article.
If you are in the midst of deciding how to structure your site, I hope this article has convinced you to stay away from frames.
If you have a framed site and need help restructuring your site or making it more attractive to search engines, please visit the Contact page and select the Search Engine Optimization box.
Visit Seattle Design Firm Noodle Design’s web site to learn more about web site development >