It always a treat to find some spare time to check out the latest product releases. This week I have been checking out the preview release of Adobe Edge, a new animation tool that outputs animations using HTML5/CSS3  and JQuery.

We have completed the launch of a new website for Jext, an emergency treatment for severe anaphylactic reaction (also known as anaphylactic shock).

We have just completed a web design refresh for alpshack.com, a great place for skiers and snowboarders to stay in Paradiski, at the heart of the French Alps.

When you are working in a design agency it is often a good idea to put yourself in your client’s shoes for a while and try and view things from the other side of the fence. If a client does become frustrated then they may not tell their agency but simply take their business elsewhere.

The government has announced that although the new cookie law still comes into effect today, enforcement has been postponed for a year to give companies breathing space to comply.

The law which applies to how you use cookies and similar technologies for storing information on a user’s equipment such as their computer or mobile device is changing on 26 May 2011.

If you run a website then you are probably wondering if this affects you and how you can comply with this change in the law.

Traditional print layout has always been out of reach of the web designer. Want to wrap text around an irregular shaped image? No can do. Want to flow text across multiple columns? No chance.

Adobe have taken the first steps towards making this a reality with their CSS Regions technology. And though you shouldn’t expect to see this technology in mainstream browsers anytime soon, it’s certainly one to keep an eye on.

The latest versions of the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers have recently been released, so here is a brief review of what you can expect from them.

Before the web was invented, when personal computers were in their infancy, I pestered my parents for a BBC ‘B’ computer. Now this was no small investment for a family like ours, after all, what use were they other than playing really basic games? So it was no small wonder that they said yes. This computer was the seed from which my later profession grew (though of course I didn’t know it back then).

You are probably already familiar with app stores on iPhones and Android phones but have you considered how something similar for your desktop computer, or laptop, might look?

Two competing technologies have emerged as the way ahead for delivering 3D on the web. Adobe’s 3D Flash and WebGL.

As ever with emerging technology on the Internet, the humble web browser will play a big part in deciding the winner. Flash is well-established but may lose out to WebGL in the long term if all the browser manufacturers decide to support it as standard. Once again the focus here is on Microsoft to see whether WebGL is in their plans or not.

For full details read the full article on CNet

From a developer’s perspective a single technology that works across all browsers and devices is going to be the winner. With the rise of iphone and ipad devices it would seem that WebGL will have the advantage here.

www.iimprove.co.uk is a free to use, online builders merchant that sources materials, provides quotations and offers a directory of tradespeople.

This unique online service sources the best prices for materials from a range of trade suppliers, meaning their customers across the UK benefit from highly competitive prices.

So, if you have a building or home DIY project, iimprove simplifies the process by offering three services that meet the needs of any home improvement project.

iquote is a complete quotation service which allows customers to obtain a competitive price for materials by entering the type and quantity required from individual iplumb, ibuild, ikitchen, and idoor departments.

The complementary iproducts catalogue allows customers to purchase top brand products direct from a range of hand picked plumbing supplies including radiators, boilers, taps, complete bathroom suites and showers at similar trade prices.

And iquantify is a specialised service designed to assist anyone requiring an early indication of build costs or with a desire to project manage their own build. For a nominal fee, iimprove’s experienced team of quantity surveyors will use your planning or building regulation drawings to provide a comprehensive breakdown of materials required together with an indication of labour costs.

Finally, the free itrades directory allows users to search for reputable tradespeople within their local area, allowing users to rate and review their work to help other iimprove visitors make an informed decision on who to use.

So saving money has never been easier – visit www.iimprove.co.uk and check it out for yourself.

There are many reasons why a fast website is a better website and many reasons why your website may be running slowly.

A website that displays quickly:

- Gets your website users to the information they need quicker
- Means that a visitor is less likely to get frustrated and go somewhere else
- Provides a positive impression of you through a positive online experience
- Gets better rankings in website search engines
- Scores higher when competing against other websites for Pay-Per-Click position on search engines

Reasons your website may be running slowly include:

- The quality of the server and network infrastructure of your Hosting company
- Poorly optimised pictures, images and other media files on your website
- Poorly optimised web code
- Too much data or too many images on a single web page
- Inefficient database query’s
- External data feeds or scripts, for example Third Party Advertising services

In the days before broadband web designers had to be both prudent and clever with their designs to deliver a fast Internet experience for website visitors. As broadband became the standard way to connect to the Internet, and more bandwidth became available, inevitably designers relaxed a little and websites with more media heavy elements took over. The good practices from a decade ago though are still as relevant today as they were back then, paying attention to the things that can impact your website speed will always reap benefits.

Establishing a presence online when businesses are in their infancy is imperative as the days of a website being considered a luxury for businesses are long gone. Websites are now considered a necessity as people increasingly turn to the web as their main source of information. For many businesses, a website is the first interaction they have with their target audience(s) so communicating the businesses objectives, tone and corporate message online is fundamental.

At white interactive we understand the importance of having a professional website so have created a solution that will enable start-up and small businesses or those on a tight budget to develop and build their brand online.  Our templated approach offers cost conscious businesses a straightforward yet highly professional solution, which can be tailored with the organisation’s branding and style.

Start-up business Lorus Consulting, a financial recruitment consultancy, have recently benefited from our templated approach. Working closely with the client, we designed a logo and identity which was than incorporated into the design of the website. The website www.lorusconsulting.com, which was also integrated with TriSys recruitment software, delivers an effective and professional web presence.

Dylan Pearson, Director of Lorus Consulting is: ‘incredibly pleased with the outcome. white interactive’s approach was professional and the website was delivered on time and most importantly within budget.’

The ability for web designers to use rich typography in their designs has taken a small step towards becoming a reality.

In something of a surprise move the software company is backing a newer effort at the World Wide Web Consortium to standardize Web-based fonts with technology called the Web Open Font Format (WOFF).

Let’s hope we see this new standard supported by all of the major browser manufacturers in the very near future.

Two new websites launched recently. The first is ALK Lifeline, a website for EpiPen, a treatment for anaphylaxis and the second is for Bog in a bag a light weight portable  toilet.

2010 has started off incredibly busy for us here at whiteinteractive and we have just recruited two new staff to help support our growing digital business, offering website design for business’ in Hampshire and the South.

Here is a typical scenario we run into from time to time….

The client requests changes to their website, we carry out the changes and notify the client, the client reports back that the changes have not been done. Of course the changes have been done. the client just cannot see them. So what is going on here?

Welcome to the world of caching. When you view a web page your web browser software downloads that page, and the media on it, and stores it on your computer. This storage is known as the browser cache. This helps to speed up the viewing of the website as the browser doesn’t have to keep downloading the same files again and again. If you leave the site and come back later then, depending on how your browser is configured, you may get your local cached copy loaded instead of having the page freshly downloaded from the website. This is what can lead to the impression that page updates have not been done.

It is useful to be able to forcibly refresh a web page and clear the local cache. For information on how to do this there is a useful wiki page on clearing your cache. A quick way to force the refresh of a single page is simply to go the page and press Ctrl-F5 (PCs only).

Sometimes, even this isn’t enough though to see the page changes. The problem here can be that caching is occuring at your network level or even your Internet Service Provider. If this is the case then you will have to wait until their cache is updated.

So there you have it, an awareness of caching is always useful in understanding what you are looking at and how to ensure you are viewing the most up-to-date information.

Sunday, February 7th was a perfect  day for once again staging the 19th Chichester Priory 10km Road race. This is  one of the major road races in the English road running calendar and is recognised  nationwide as a top quality road race. The high standard and depth of the field was matched by perfect weather conditions and resulted in the largest race turnout  ever as more than1500 enjoyed one of the most popular and prestigious events  in the South of England.

A three strong team from White Total Design took part in this years race aiming for personal best times. Despite what the organisers described as a slight incline after 6k – it was more of a mountain! – Lisa, 52.31, Sam, 55.47, Nick 54.49 all managed to finish in their fastest times.

This year the race was once again  organised splendidly by the Rotary Club of Chichester Priory and was fortunate  to have the same two sponsors, Peter Cooper, the local Volkswagen Group and  Brooks Sports the international suppliers of sports clothing. Organisers and  sponsors were pleased with a race where many personal best times were achieved  by elite athletes, club runners and recreational runners alike.

We used to use Google’s Blogger software to publish our blog but due to changes in Google’s Terms of service, and their dropping of their support for FTP, we decided to jump ship to WordPress. And we are glad we have, WordPress is great and was a breeze to set up.

We have transferred the best of our archives over (dates not withstanding !) so we are back up and running again.

Came across this very useful tip the other day for creating a link on a web page or email to a specific page or article within a pdf file.

The format for linking to a page is very similar to the standard anchor mechanism used for web page links.

Example

http://www.mydomain.com/document.pdf#page=1

To link to a specific article on a pdf page requires a two step approach.
Firstly you need to set up a destination tag within the pdf file:-

1. Manually navigate through the PDF for the desired location, and magnification
2. Go to View > Navigation Panels > Destinations
3. Add a New Destination and give it a name
4. Save the document

The second step is create your link, the format for which is:-

http://www.mydomain.com/document.pdf#nameddest=MYARTICLE

Beware of your pdf ‘initial view’ properties though which may interfere with how the article opens. It is best to set the layout and magnification to ‘default’ (File -> Properties -> Initial View).