The Technology Studio

The award winning GoLearnTo website has had a design update recently and we think it looks great – even if we do say so ourselves!

After some market research GoLearnTo decided that their website needed to be more focused on their target demographic. In addition they wanted to widen the site from 800 pixels wide to 1024 pixels wide, considering that now less than 1% of people use 800×600 displays. Yes, that’s less than 1%!

See more information about browser display statistics.

There are now a  lot more jQuery effects, such as slider panels and more aesthetic and functional photo galleries. These kind of things are great as they give more information to the user as well as being relevant for search engines. They can also add a bit of flashiness to a site which a lot of people generally like!

Check it out and see what you think!

We were recently approached by Bizspace to completely redesign (in their words!) their old, tired and basic website!

Their previous site was falling well below par on all three of the most important things that a website needs to get right…

SEO (Search engine optimisation)

Unfortunately the site was built with minimal search engine optimisation consideration in mind. There were very few pages with a serious lack of detailed, relevant content, as well as some other more serious issues such as using images for text headers. Without spending the required time and effort on SEO you are negating much else of what you do on a website – because nobody will ever find it!

Website Usabillity

Clarity is the name of the game here – not making people have to think! Unfortunately the navigation through the site was not clear and neither were the most important calls to action on each page. Always remember to keep things simple and clear and ensure the things you want people to do on each page are easy to see and understand.

Website design

Aesthetically the design was below average. I say it all the time but people will make up their mind within seconds of visiting your site on who you are, what you stand for and whether they trust you. A clear professional design is extremely important to instantly reassure their subconscious that you are worthy of their trust.

But, it’s all of them working together that’s the key!

Getting one or even a couple of these things right is a good start, but it’s the combination of all three together that we here at The Technology Studio believe is the real goal. It’s not good enough to have a fantastic looking site if nobody knows how to use it. There’s no point having  a site with search engine optimisation tuned perfectly if it looks unprofessional and shabby as people will go elsewhere. You see where I’m going here!

With our help the new Bizspace website has released to much praise in each of the areas above. The proof as always is in the pudding however! Their previous site achieved half of the visitors that the new site achieves, but it’s the site goals that are really interesting. Previously the old Bizspace site achieved an average of just 4 contact forms per week. It is now achieving an average of 40. That’s a ten fold increase!

Our solution to a common problem for Web Developers

At The Technology Studio we have lost count of the number of times we’ve been approached by potential clients with a brief that consists of nothing more than “we need a website – how much will it cost”! Even the better briefs we receive are often no more than a Word document listing the content the client could put on the site.

In our view this is like asking a builder to quote on an extension without telling them how may floors, rooms, bathrooms, windows or doors you need. Of course in the building trade this is used by some of the less scrupulous builders to their advantage as each additional feature that the client asks for is met with a rub of the chin, a sharp intake of breath and the response  “that’s going to cost you – you didn’t mention that when I quoted”. Whilst this might work for cowboy builders we prefer our clients to want to work with us again! For this reason we only ever provide  a quote once we have built (or been given) a full website schematic.

Of course often the client simply doesn’t know exactly what they want and extracting this information from a busy person with many other priorities can be a tricky process.

I read a good article in Smashing Magazine late last year that reviewed a number of approaches taken by web developers to extract the right info from clients  – well worth a read if you are compiling your own questionnaire. This gave me the inspiration to review the questions we ask our clients – the results of which are below:

1. What business objectives do you have for your new website? 2. How will you measure the success of your website? 3. Who are the target audience for your website? 4. What actions would you like your target audience to take on your site?

5. What other marketing activities will be supporting your website?

6. What information do you want to provide your target audience and in what format?

7. Have you got any plans for attracting your target audience to your site?

8. Who are your main competitors and what are their website addresses?

9. Are there any websites in your field that you like and specifically what do you like about them?

10. Are there any websites in your field that you dislike and specifically what do you dislike about them?

11. What content do you have that can be used on your website?

12. Have you done any keyword research?

13. Do you have any other digital presence?

In future we will add this to The Technology Studio website for any enquirers to fill in. If you would like a copy of our questionnaire contact us at info@thetechnologystudio.co.uk.