Category: News

We have just set another new e-commerce online store live today ADD Filtration – HVAC Air Filter Supplier. The site implements a shopping cart with integrated payments.

ADD Filtration sell a range of filters for HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning) and fume extraction applications. The site also features various panel filters, bag filters and HEPA filters that can be purchased online in a range of sizes and options.

Why not take a look at www.addfiltration.co.uk.

We have just updated our portfolio section with two new projects, ARK Architectural Concepts and also Inter Gulf Travel, who are a Egyptian destination management company, with offices round the world. Why not have a look at the sites and see how ADD create intuitive web design.

We produce design and sites that work across all browsers and platforms and confirm to all the latest W3C standards and validation criteria.

If you have any questions about web site design or our work please get in contact with us and we are happy to help.

We often get questions from prospective clients about where to start with their site, so I thought I would take some time to address them as a resource for our visitors.

The first question we usually get asked is:

What do I need to give you to get my web site made?

We really need to have some idea of the following to give a decent accurate quote:

• An idea of the amount of pages you want.
• Some examples of sites you envisage to be similar or as close to what you like.
• If you are going to need any e-commerce solution or if it is a brochure site.
• If you have a logo or any graphics already created.

It’s beneficial for us to know what kind of pages and content you want to have, maybe draw up a list such as this for example:

Home
About Us
Services
Contact

This helps us work out a rough scale of a website and what might be involved. We also like to see other sites you like so we can work out the complexity of your design. All these factors go into the quote we give you. The more precise you can be the better the quote and it saves additional costs later or during development.

What do I need before you start designing?

You need to think of a domain name and you will need web hosting, the hosting is just server space where the actual web page files go and the domain is your www.mywebsite.com that points to that space on the internet. The cost is relatively small up to about £50 per year.

We also require your content, the sooner the better really as it allows us to start the draft design knowing what kind of content you  are including in your site. The more content we have to format at an early stage the better.

Its a good idea to supply text page by page, so why not make a word document and separate your content out allowing us to easily follow your copy and how you would like it to work.

If you have any questions about getting started with your website just give us a call on 01425 340508 and we will be happy to help you make those first steps.

ARK-Ltd.com approached us to create their brand new brochure website. They wanted a fresh modern looking site with clearly laid out information and a portfolio section to show off their impressive work.

Looking at brand colours with Anant and studying the competition we developed a draft and logo to suit the style and vision of ARK, also to give them the competitive edge in terms of validated code and modern design techniques.

The bold colours and layout of the ARK site really stand out and with PDF downloads and image lightboxes giving the site a slick feel.

We also produced business cards, letterheads and compliment slips for ARK giving them a new branding package to go with their new launch.

You can visit the ARK website here.

It’s always a bit nerve wracking having a new website designed, and it can be difficult to know what to expect. So here are 7 questions you should be asking your web designer before they start.

1) Can you show me examples?

Your new web designer doesn’t have to have worked in your industry before, but it is helpful to know that if you’re a retail company, he or she has some retail design experience, and if you’re a B2B company, then he or she has experience in designing for this area.

Retail and corporate are two different areas, and when you add in magazine style websites, brochure style websites, blogging sites and more, you need to know that your designer has designed the kind of site you want in the past, no matter what industry you’re in.

2) Can I contact some of your past clients?

Testimonials on a website are great, but they only tell half a story – you want to know whether the designer was easy to work with, was the project finished on time, were there any hiccups (there usually are) and if so what were they, among other things. Don’t just look at a pretty new website and presume you’re speaking to the designer of your dreams, ask others about their experience before you sign on the dotted line.

3) Is my deadline unrealistic?

There will always be designers out there who will say yes to the most ridiculous deadline just to get the job. It always ends in bad feeling on either side.

Ask your web designer to help you to come up with a realistic deadline, and to be honest with you if what you’re asking for just isn’t going to happen.

4) Will I be able to update my site myself?

In this day and age, most designers will give you a site that you can update easily in the future, from adding new pages to updating content on the fly through a web browser. But it doesn’t hurt to ask – are they going to provide you with a CMS (content management system) so that you can change things on the site without ruining the look and feel, or are you going to have to go back to them afterwards every time you want something changed?

5) Will my site be SEO friendly?

Or more importantly; “Will I be able to change the title and meta tags of each and every page individually?”. This is vitally important when it comes to SEO, but many CMS do not offer this option, making it difficult to optimise the site in the future. In some cases this option does not come as standard and you will find yourself having to pay extra for it to be installed; better to know up front and make an informed decision than find out months down the line when you have no Google listings.

6) What will you do to maintain the Google listings I have already?

Often forgotten in a new website design, there are many things your designer can do to maintain the listings you already have, from 302 redirects, to keeping page names the same, and importantly copying over any meta info. Don’t lose your listings because you haven’t told your designer this is important.

7) What extras will I have to pay for?

Scope creep, domain name, hosting, plugins, modules and more could all add to the cost of your new website. Ask in advance if everything is covered, or will there be more costs in future? Don’t let yourself get a nasty surprise invoice once the project is finished.

You’ll obviously have your own questions you want to ask, but these are a few important ones, and ones that Milton Keynes web designers ADD Creative are happy to answer!