Let's start again...

I haven't been posting to this blog for a long time, so it's starting from scratch again.

Recently moved to a new house in Rhynie, still near Huntly. It's only taken two years since we bought it to renovate using local tradesmen. It's not finished by any means but we've moved in and are still working to complete. As a result, I was updating my website (www.integrawebdesign.co.uk) with new contact details and I took the opportunity to restyle the whole thing and add some new sites to the profile.

Latest completed site is Huntly Pipe Band, which has just gone live (www.huntlypipeband.co.uk). Also recent is a site for a local music venue, the Gartly Tin Hut, which hosts a monthly drop-in session and regular concerts of invited artists (www.tinhutsessions.co.uk).

I've moved over to coding sites exclusively to produce standards compliant code. Css positioning and styling and no tables for layout. It's taken me about 2 years to get fully confident with css but I still have problems with Internet Explorer 6, who doesn't. I'm also now offering a Content Management System for clients who want to update themselves. I use Website Baker (www.websitebaker.org), which I've found to be fairly intuitive to use and offers most of the functionality required for simple sites. I experimented with Droopal for one site but was defeated by the complexity of the code and couldn't get to grips with it.

Enough for now, I shall be trying to post more regularly in future.

Project update

I have just taken over the management of the website for Deveron Arts, the local arts organisation for Huntly, Aberdeenshire. The site, www.deveron-arts.com, is presently fairly small and static but the plan is to make it more interactive with a database back-end.

Three websites for objections to windfarm developments have taken up some time recently but the campaigns are now drawing to their close - www.pylonpressure.com, www.a-wind-farm-too-far.com and www.stopauchencorth.com.

Huntly-Online has not been developing as hoped. To date, no paid listings have been taken up and there is some question whether the site will continue to be actively maintained.

FrontPage again

I have recently attended a meeting with local organisations about the development of a community website for the town. The site has been moribund for about 2 years and they are trying to resurrect it.

As I have just launched a new site for the town under my own impetus (www.huntly-online.com) there is a significant overlap in content.

Their new site has been redesigned by a young chap who is interested in web design but not professionally. And, guess what, when I looked at the source code - FrontPage, frames and tables galore.

I shall persevere with my own site, trying to interest local businesses in listing and monitor developments.

Lochluichart windfarm objections

Our latest project is a site for raising objections to the proposed windfarm development at Lochluichart in the Highlands of Scotland.

The site, www.a-wind-farm-too-far.com, invites objections to be submitted to the Highland Council and the Scottish Executive by email. Closing date for objections is this Friday, 27 January 2006, so not much time.

This is only one of several hundred such applications all over Scotland. Developers have latched on to the very significant income to be gained from Government subsidies for constructing these monstrous 'generating stations' in beautiful, wild areas.

Objections are valid from anywhere in the world, so if you care about the Scottish landscape and wildlife, visit the site and register an objection.

Happy New Year

The start of a new year and a resolve, not a resolution, to improve my marketing and get more work.

Thinking about this makes me wonder about what clients actually want from their sites. Recently I have had one of my older sites replaced by the client and the new site appears to have been designed by 'a chap down the road' using MS FrontPage.

Having concentrated over the last 6-9 months on standards compliant design using XHTML and CSS I wonder whether this is worthwhile. I can produce a design which works in standards compliant browsers (Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.) in a day or so but then spend the next 3 days trying to make it work in IE because that's what 95% of of visitors are using. When I can only charge £200-250 for a small site this is not economic. If clients are happy with a FrontPage design with multi-nested tables and tag soup why not just deliver that using a free FrontPage template?

I'll probably return to this theme later as I develop my thoughts on the subject.

Welcome - First Post

Welcome to any readers. I have just set this blog up and hope to post my thoughts on various aspects of web design.