In a quest to help organise meeting notes, web design projects and software development projects, I have looked at some note taking applications to aid with this. It is also largely influenced by Ed Dale too. It became apparent whilst working at client’s office on their new staff rota software that my notes from our meetings took up several different pages of my trusty pad, and that I had to then read through the different pages, which were intermingled with other clients notes, to find the correct ones. I then had to translate my writing into real English – a task that is easier said than done! After Ed had introduced many new users to Evernote and Simplenote (which is a Mac only application) I decided it was time to look into the Microsoft OneNote product that comes with several versions of Office. So far I haven’t looked back! Indeed I am translating all my notes from the pad into English and typing them up on OneNote as it allows me to have different notebooks on different subjects, so I have a Clients one for example. In the Notebook you have Sections which enable me to sectionise my info about that client, e.g. Meeting notes, Specification notes etc. and within each section you can have multiple pages, so a page per meeting or module of the software. Not only that but you can add photos, video & audio recording into your notebooks, and text within photos becomes searchable! Amazing! I can even sync up with my Windows Mobile! However, there is another note taking app, which is my 2nd choice desktop app, but 1st choice mobile app, which is Evernote. It is completely cross platform with web & mobile versions for all platforms, and desktop versions for Windows & Mac. The mobile application on Windows Mobile is simply awesome, very easy to use, and looks great. The beauty of Evernote is that it is a cloud based product so you can send a photo straight from your mobile device and it will appear on your desktop when you sync up or make notes in the office and take them wherever you go. Again, Evernote supports several different media. Look out for a post on each of these great note taking applications as developers we all look for other people’s great work.

In my last post about our complete move to .NET I mentioned that we would trial BlogEngine.NET. After a fairly short trial we are going to attempt a Wordpress to BlogEngine.NET migration! This, in essence, seems a fairly straight forward transition to make but we will have to see how the URLs turn out. Obviously they will be different to the Wordpress ones, and should still retain the keyword richness, but only time will tell. I will post part 2 when the migration is complete and we can edit Wordpress posts in BlogEngine.NET as well as reference any code we have borrowed. As well as being written in C# (our favourite language), BlogEngine.NET is also remarkably easy to theme, in contrast to Wordpress where you need to change several files and know PHP. With BlogEngine.NET there are 3 code files plus the CSS and you don't even need to know any ASP.NET, though HTML would be advantageous.

Testimonial

I would like to thank Mediasmith Web Design for the great work and support that's been achieved over the last 6 month. Since moving to our office in the Burnley Business centre we have built a great relationship with Mediasmith Web Design . We have now been working with Mediasmith Web Design on a number of important web design projects. Monkeyfish Marketing are very pleased with the results and design work done with the Mediasmith Web Design team. Monkeyfish Marketing decided on moving back to Burnley in the Dylan Harvey centre, a luxury office complex in the Rosegrove area of Burnley. When we invited Mediasmith Web Design to the Dylan Harvey office in December we had a couple of meetings about web design and thanked then for all their hard work. Monkeyfish Marketing are looking forward to the year 2010 and expanding our operations to other Dylan Harvey offices around the north-west. We hope Mediasmith Web Design are happy working with Monkeyfish Marketing and enjoy a very busy year.

If you're looking for web design in Burnley then why not give Mediasmith Web Design a call.

If you're interested in Luxury offices in the north-west then contact Toby Whittaker at the Dylan Harvey B1.co.uk centre in Burnley. View other office locations to rent. The Dylan Harvey Blackburn office to rent, Dylan Harvey Preston office to rent, Dylan Harvey Blackpool office to rent.

We have just received an email from a company offering Page 1 Google listings without on-going SEO as part of a new website build. Why am I blogging about this you may ask. Well quite simply you may be disappointed with results of a page 1 Google listing without on-going SEO.

The Reasons
There are ways to get Page 1 without on-going SEO but they usually come with one or more of the following pitfalls:

1. You won't stay on Page 1 for very long. Google regularly updates its algorithms for finding relevant sites. As such, on-going work is required to keep up with these changes.


2. You will get placed based on highly uncompetitive search terms that no-one searches for. There's a fairly obvious downfall to this as far as your website performance goes!


3. Google Local Business Centre / Maps. Google Local Business Centre is a fantastic and free product for geographical optimisation. Why is it a pitfall? Because for a truly successful local listing, your advert will still need optimising and the competition checking. Your listing will also get a massive boost if your site is optimised correctly too. Don't listen if anyone says the 2 aren't linked!

If you require a new website, refresh of your existing website design or any internet marketing, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Good Web Design - An Introduction
Web design has developed dramatically in the 10 plus years of the popularity of the internet. Luckily we have been involved with web design for 10 of these years and understand the changes and the route to website design success. I will be posting a fuller guide to good web design on our website shortly, however this will show you some of the implications of your website and it's design.

Your website as a shop window
Websites have always provided this basic functionality and simple web design has often been implemented to show the world your business. The common term for these web designs is "brochure sites." It simply shows what your business does.
As these are the most basic of websites in terms of functionality, the web design that is implemented is now key, with the billions of other websites out there, and probably millions from businesses in the same line as yours. It is imperative that your website is developed in an attractive manner to both visitors and search engines. This is no mean feat and many do fail to find this holy grail of web design.
The technical side of this area of website design involves ensuring that your HTML and CSS code are written to standards. I will post shortly on this topic as it is more imperative than ever that your website meets these standards. All tags in your website should be properly formed, the CSS you write should ensure cross browser compatibility. Your pages need to meet structural requirements to achieve good search engine positions and possibly the biggest "no-no" of all. Do NOT, under any circumstances, build a website purely in Flash! Unbelievably there are still companies who will sell you an all Flash website design solution. You will very rarely be found!

E-Commerce / The Web Shop
Another popular area of web design is the online shop, or e-commerce website. As we all know, this allows you to trade directly with your customers, receiving payments online, via your website. Having an e-commerce website has implications as to the handling and security of card payments. This is too large a topic for this quick guide. Please contact me for more information on payment security. Designed properly an e-commerce web design will be easily updatable by the website owner, certainly as far as the product offering goes, and can even provide some level of self optimisation. Again, web standards need to be met to ensure the visitor's experience is a consistent one. The web design of an e-commerce solution can be slightly simpler. It doesn't rely the same on fancy graphics, the aim of the website is to sell products, and therefore the website design focus is to highlight those products in an easily navigable format. An e-commerce web design has to be very easy to navigate round, and should offer the customer all the options around a product, and ideally alternatives to a product that may mathc their requirement.

E-Business Web Design
What are we classing as the difference between e-business and e-commerce websites? An e-business web design can take the process one step further with tight integration with your back office. In laymans terms, your website can communicate with your other business systems, or offline business systems. A common example of this is that someone comes to your website to order a product, the order gets passed to your internal system, which automatically generates an order with your supplier. Obviously this level of website functionality isn't necessary for every business, however huge cost savings can be made with this level of automation. The key to this kind of website design is generally functionality. If you look at the big electrical retailers, their sites are rarely the prettiest of web designs, but they provide a purpose. An e-business website is really a blank canvas for your ideas, or the platform from which to launch very specific processes online.

Web Design Summary
Hopefully this very brief introduction to good web design may have enlightened you a little, or provoked some thought. Your website should always be designed around it's purpose. The website should never dictate the purpose. Your website is a key business tool, and should be treated in the same way as such. Few good websites do everything, but you need to decide does your website need to show the World what you do? Does your website need to sell to your clients? Or maybe your website needs to run your business or integrate with a system that does? Whether it be a marketing tool, a customer interaction tool, or your main outlet for products, your website needs to be designed in a way to reflect its purpose. One last thing I will let you ponder in this web design topic, is possibly the most profound theory in good website design - Content is King!