marsbrook design cracking web sites!

Here at marsbrook we love building great web sites. Sites have a variety of 'cogs' which make up the whole - here's a list of must have's and some nice to have's:

• domain name registration
• hosting
• content management system
• photo gallery
• SEO
• eCommerce
• downloadable PDF's
• standards compliant
• fully fledged statistics package
• a blog
• video

We truly enjoy what we do, and take immense pleasure in seeing a web site we've built deliver real value to the owner. We're all in business to earn a crust and hence that's probably what your web site needs to do too. We work to make that happen.

Design:

You know you need a web site, but you may not be sure where to start. It sounds a cliché, but we’d say ‘start at the beginning’. That’s exactly where we start. Good websites are built when the client and the design agency work closely together. To find more out about how we work, read through the marsbrook web site design process.

Content Management System:

Broadly speaking your site will either be a ‘static site’ where things change infrequently or a dynamic site which takes advantage of a content management system (CMS). Rather than being tied to one CMS, we simply choose the best one for the job.

Content management systems have changed the internet in recent years. In times gone past people had no choice but to pay their web designer to make the simplest of changes to their web sites. Boring for the web designer (& hence changes didn’t tend to happen overnight) and costly for the client.... but things have improved. A CMS lets you, the client, control your entire web site - think of it as your ‘on-board management system’. We're always here to help out, and provide user training from the outset.

E-commerce:

An all encompassing term for handling transactions over the internet. More and more purchase decisions are made using the internet these days. Whether you sell physical goods or run a holiday rentals business, you should be considering offering customers the opportunity to pay you online. In many instances it means you receive payment earlier as well.

Accessibility & Usability:

We work hard to ensure that sites we develop are accessible by anyone and on any device. This is important stuff. For example in the UK c. 20% of the population is classified as disabled having either physical or sensory disabilities. It's important to offer a solution which is as inclusive as possible, after all, cutting out a significant portion of potential customers just because a corner is cut just doesn't make sense.

Additionally web sites have to cater for every possible resolution setting, they need to run on PDA's and SmartPhones and they need to print without using up the potential clients complete ink cartridge set!

There's a lot to take account of here, but it does make a difference.

Web Standards:

You find a lot of people talking about web standards these days. In a nut shell, it's all about doing things right first time. In principle it's the same as many of those DIY tasks people do around the house where the right tool for the job makes all the difference. You can 'hang' a picture with sticky tape, but it's not advisable. Get it right first time and your project / web site will be built to last. In web terms, taking this approach means you're also in the best position to easily, and cost effectively make design changes later.