With the internet evolving and the web design industry evolving with it,  techniques, technologies and design trends are always changing. Goinnovate is proud to be apart of this evolution keeping skills sharp by adopting these new techniques and technologies in all of our client projects – its now time to implement them into my own website.

Not only will the site have a fresh new look, but  I will be updating the portfolio with some of the fantastic websites – designed and built over 2011. I will also be uploading more testimonials i have acquired  from super happy clients.

Technology-wise, the site will be built with HTML5 and CSS3 techniques with a responsive structure to accommodate mobile users.

Watch this space for updates. Have a great Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Take a look at the list we’ve put together, we think these are important consideration to make before you choose your web design company.

1. Does the web design company in question have an awesome website?

Quite simply is the company’s website any good? If they can’t build themselves a decent looking site, are they really going to build you one? Look at the design; does it look modern and up-to-date? Does the site boast any interesting features such as latest news, blogs, RSS feeds, JavaScript etc?

2. Does the portfolio hold some quality pieces of web craftsmanship?

A strong portfolio has to be a major factor in your quest for a web designer. Similar to the above question, if the work reflected in the portfolio isn’t to a standard you regard as high then you can’t expect your site to be any better. You should examine pieces of work provided in the portfolio, if you like what you see and the standard seems to be consistent throughout the work, you will be onto a winner. Look out for templates, sites that all use the same structure but have different colours or a slight change in design. You don’t want to be spending your hard earned money on something that is generic. (Note: don’t confuse this with “style”, some web designers keep a certain trademark style running throughout their designs)

3. Do they build sites with valid code?

Web designer today should be conforming to web standards outlined by W3C. This will eliminate the chances of people with disabilities not-been able to access your site; pages will load faster and perform better search engine results. You can check any web page to see if it passes validation by going to validator.w3.org and simply typing the address of the page you want to check. Some sites even display links to prove their site conforms to these standards (keep your eyes peeled). Our website is no exception; take a look in the footer navigation “Valid XHTML” and “Valid CSS”.

4. Are the people working for the web design studio friendly and willing to help?

Look for contact details, free quotation forms etc. Get in touch with the web design team, ask them some questions, and find out what they can offer. Why not delve deeper and find out how they support you in the early stages of your web life cycle. From their reply you should be able to gauge how helpful they are, if their willing to bend over backwards to help you, then you can be sure they will use the same amount of passion building your site, I know we do!!!

Conclusion

In conclusion you should spend more time researching the quality of work web design companies produce and how they articulate as a business. Follow your instincts and not your wallet! We agree that a hosted website with 6 pages of content and a nice flash button for £200.00 may sound nice, but in reality the final product will most likely not be a cutting edge piece of design, and you may find yourself needing a redesign within a year.

Do you really want to represent your business with a budget built website? After all first impressions do count for the web too.

If you have any thoughts on the matter, we would love to hear from you, use the comments form below.

Researchers found that the brain makes decisions in just a 20th of a second of viewing a webpage. They were surprised as they believed it would take at least 10 times longer to form an opinion. The study, published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology, also suggests that first impressions have a lasting impact.

Read the full article on the BBC website here.

Looking forward; 2010, i am sure will be another successful year for Goinnovate, as the business grows so do our abilities, knowledge and desire to improve our (already) impressive portfolio.

Kicking off this year, we are offering a 10% discount from the final cost of your website. Get in touch with us to discuss your requirements and realise a sound business investment.

Offer ends February 14th 2010.

For those of you who make websites you will understand that IE6 is the cause of major headaches in the development life cycle of a website. For those of you who are internet users and have had the privilege to use a quality browser, such as Fire Fox will understand how dated, lifeless un-secure and unpleasant IE6 is compared. That leaves the internet users who are still using ie, you need to understand how the worn out bit of software your using is effecting your internet experience. A whole world of technologies awaits you – RSS feeds, Social Bookmarking, Increased performance, drag & drop multiple browser tabs. The list goes on.

Why have we stopped supporting IE6?

This is our little bit towards the finish of IE6. If our actions have inspired one more person to do so then it’s been worthwhile. Personal desires aside, we do have good reason to drop support. Not to bore you with the finer details i have listed the more important reasons.

• Over 7 years old and way past its sell by date
• Un-secure with hundreds of compatibility issues
• Last month’s Google analytics’s showed 8 visitors came from ie6 to 843 from Firefox
• All Internet Explorer browser versions together only makes up 10% of our monthly traffic
• The lack of support for modern technologies our site uses
• With the release of IE8 we cannot justify the time and effort for all three versions

In conclusion

As web designers we have a responsibility. If the sites that users are on work fine in browsers like ie6, the user has no need to upgrade. Our long hours, coding hacks and workarounds so that sites look and work in ie6 are actually the cause of ie6`s prolonged life. Need some convincing, do a little research – find out if your majority share of users is from modern browsers, research the percentage of business you will gain from ie6 support against the hours of work you will need to invest making it possible.

Check out what other people have to say on the matter, if we haven’t, then these may convince you.

• I dropped ie6
• Drop IE6 Support — Give People a Reason to Upgrade « Usability Post
• Should I / Could I drop IE6?
• Phasing out support for IE 6 across all 37signals products
• Overly Judgemental IE6 Splash Pages

Please take the time to check-out some of the listed galleries, there is some fantastic examples here of how websites should be built.

• CSS Design Yorkshire
• CSS Mania
• CSS Cookie
• Woo Themes Showcased
• Screenfluent
• CSS Brigit
• 101 Best Websites
• Most Inspired
• Web Creme
• We Love WordPress
• CSS Creme

(If you have showcased our design and we haven