theDesCom @thedescom - Tumblr Blog

This Is How We Do It...

Thanks, Montell...we've been busy recently designing and creating some new websites and we thought it would be interesting for you to know exactly how we do it.

So we've decided to give you a sneak peek behind the curtain, allowing you to see how we go about putting together a brand new website. So if you're interested in how we do things, sprinkled with random movie quotes and numerous business related cliches, then read on.

1. Here's looking at you kid your briefing document

A recent addition to our arsenal, the Briefing Document is proving to be a real game changer (that's one) here at DesCom. We decided we needed something moving forward that would not only simplify the design process but speed it up. One of the main benefits, is that it allows you the chance to tell us exactly what you want from your spankin' new website. Also, we can't tell you the time it saves us having important details such as the desired goals for the site, or who the intended target audience is likely to be set out at the get go. It really does allow us to get down to business much quicker, all in all it's a win-win situation!

2. Show me the money planning!

Once the Briefing Document has been signed, sealed and delivered (or emailed) back to us, we're then able to get the metaphorical wheels in motion. We'll generally hold a strategic meeting, in which our first port of call is to look at how the user is going to interact with the site. Generally this involves grabbing some paper and scribbling all over it, with some (extremely) basic ideas.

We then also like to plan out how the sites navigation is going to be structured and work. Taking the time to plan out the navigation structure and the 'flow' of the website allows us to be sure that the whole site will be simple to use whilst also being effective in getting the user where you want them to be.

3. You had me at hello wireframe design

Before we jump into bed with those fun (loving) to make visual designs, we (again) like to plan and construct some tried and trusted wireframes. Wireframes are basically the older sibling of those original scribbles we had. They allow us to plot and plan the site visually based on the information we've already gathered.

The good thing about using a wireframe is that they can be as simple or as pedantically detailed as you want them to be. At the end of the day if a few boxes and a couple notes gets the job done, then there's no need to take them any further. However, if needs be a more detailed drawing can be produced with not much extra effort. How deep the detail goes generally depends on the size and complexity of the project, we're generally happy to be sat in between the two.

4. Houston, we have a problem visual design

For us here at DesCom we're not ashamed to say this is our favourite part of the process, as it allows us to what we do best and be creative! Once we're happy with the overall positioning of elements and how the website is going to work, it's time to take these visuals to the next level.

Here is when our designers put down their pencils and start to explore their hidden realms of creativity to bring those pencil thin layouts to life. Because the layout and functionality have already been carefully considered, they're able to now focus purely on the aesthetics. They ensure that the website has the balance of impressive visual design, but one that also compliments and achieves the original website goals, whilst appealing to the intended target audience.

5. Go ahead, make my day website

We've identified the websites goals and targets, we've defined an effective structure and layout, we've designed some bloody lovely visuals and now we're ready to build. The designs are passed over to our web developers and they bring it home. They spend the next few days tirelessly tapping away at their keyboards, building the website, overcoming the same old inevitable problems, until it is done. The site is then tested to within an inch of its life, cross browser checked, mobile phone rendered and god knows what else, to ensure that the site is as robust as possible.

And that's that, you've seen how we take your initial idea, play around with it and produce that final website, if you want to know anything else then just let us know!

Officially a Tough Mudder Hubbard!

So last week we twittered a rather random photo of me in an orange jumpsuit thingy. You may have been wondering what the hell that was all about.

Well I think I may be having a bit of a very early mid life crisis and seeing as I’m not able to get my Harley yet, this weekend on a sun baked stately home grounds somewhere near Edinburgh, I joined some fellow lunatics in taking on Tough Mudder.

The name goes some way to describing what it is. It’s a ridiculously muddy, mucky, dirty, filthy assault course with electricity and freezing water as well as other such delights such as carrying heavy things and heavy people oh and some questionable smelling mud (did I mention that already?)

So what about the jumpsuit? Well not wishing to do things by halves, we decided that fancy dress was a good idea. (I should learn, so many of my ideas are not good ideas and shouldn’t be pursued!!).

We had two upstanding members of the constabulary in our team and two not so upstanding members of the general riff raff (me included) so the Team name ‘Plods ‘n’ Sods’ was adopted and off we went to fancy dress shops – the idea being that for the spectators – a Benny Hill style chase sequence of two escaped convicts followed by two police types would pass them in a comedy stylee. What actually happened was 4 very cold, wet, exhausted and miserable village people rejects went running past trying to gee each other up for the next in a sequence of horrible obstacles. (these for instance included being electrocuted – a lot! Set on fire and almost being drowned – fun eh!)

But hey ho, We did it, had a great laugh and we even managed to fit in watching England be pipped to the post by Italy in a Scottish pub. I live to fight another day and and find my next challenge – or maybe I’ll just buy that Harley. Meanwhile, if you need me, I’ll be sleeping at my desk.

#toughmudder #descom #bloodyhard

The Humber Business Week, Highlights and Lowlights

Humber Business Week – an opportunity to escape the office, mingle with fellow fun-seeking business people and partake in the acquisition of knowledge, inspiration and of course, that elusive hope of picking up some work..!

The plus side of business week is that there are some truly GREAT events laid on – all packed into a 5 day schedule. Here’s our thoughts on the ones we managed to get to:

Lunch with Theo Paphitis

OK, let’s be honest here – while we can say we had lunch with Theo, so did a few hundred other people. A good bit of chit-chat beforehand meant we met some interesting people and the lunch itself was pretty good (although the brick sized sticky toffee pudding may have lead to our mid afternoon sugar crash). Following lunch, the main man appeared to speak – and then promptly sat down on stage. This meant we had a view of the top of Theo’s bald patch, and only then when the person in front bent down to sip their coffee. Theo then proceeded to answer questions in an interview style format that ultimately felt a little lacking. Maybe we just wanted to hear more about how he’d wasted his kids inheritance on some shocking Dragons Den disaster or possibly what on earth possessed him to think a chrome wrapped Range Rover was a good idea. Not a bad event, however it just missed having that wow factor.

Score 5/10

OMG Marketing with Geoff Ramm

It’s not what you think – honestly. The OMG here stands for Observational Marketing Greats that in essence give you the proper OMG feeling when you see them. The Mackem Marketing Maestro that is Geoff Ramm then proceeded to showcase a series of examples that outlined how ANY business with just a little imagination could reap the rewards of huge media coverage. Wise words Geoff, wise words!

Score 7.8/10

The Business Week Breakfast

A journey to the dark side of the Humber region was required here, and a jaunt across the bridge brought us to Forest Pines for the Business Week Breakfast. The main draw here was the rather stellar line-up of Dan Germain – Head of Creative at Innocent, Jo Fairly – Founder of Green & Black’s Chocolate and Martin McCourt – former CEO of Dyson. After some good network mingling and a fine introduction, each of the presenters explained the background behind the meteoric rise of each of their prospective businesses. The stories were down to earth, inspiring and gave everyone (I think) the impression that if we really have the desire, the will and the persistence we can all succeed in our chosen fields. Stirring stuff – highlight of the week.

Score 10/10

City of Culture Opportunities

Another day, another breakfast (take note, we’re not just here for the free food – honest). This one is hosted by The Hull Business Women’s Breakfast Club and we’re here by invitation. Now, I’m sure you’re all aware that Hull will become City of Culture in 2017 and of course every business in the region is eager to find out how they can benefit. Luckily for us, we got the lowdown on what’s been happening since we won the bid from Luc Perquin. This was followed by Paula Gouldthorpes’s presentation on discovering City of Culture opportunities for your business – now and beyond 2017. All in all a very entertaining event with great food and a great bunch of people!

Score 8.8/10

Relax, Laugh, Flourish

Now, this might surprise some of you but here at DesCom there can be a bit of stress from time to time (we’re looking at you here Nic)… So, armed with a straw and a packet of raisins (we’ll explain) we took at seat for Pam Medhurst’s guide to de-stressing through breathing, mindfulness, movement and laughter yoga. Over the course of an hour we removed our socks and shoes, breathed (sometimes through a straw), move and waved our arms, meditated on a raisin (seriously – it was as weird as it sounds) and laughed very loudly while making pretend phone calls. Now, while all of this may sound very hippy-esque, the techniques are all scientifically proven and most of all, they work! What made this event stand out was the full audience participation all the way through – no note taking, no advice, just practical techniques that you can apply straight away. If you’re intrigued you can find Pam over at here website www.pammedhurst.co.uk.

Score 9/10 (one point deducted for our own personal embarrassment factor)

Thanks #bizweek – while we may not have sampled all your delights, we had fun at the ones we did get to. Let’s do it all again next year!

#bizweek #humberbusinessweek #descom

On your Schema Markup, get set, go!

Some of the most common questions we get here at DesCom from people we are working with, is "why isn't my website at the top of Google?" followed quickly by "well, how do I get to the top?" It is then our job to do everything we can to defeat all others, in the race to reach the pinnacle, which is the top of the search engine mountain. Whilst it's not possible for us to completely determine where website's end up, we can have a bloody good go at trying to influence it's rank as well as its appearance in the listing.

One technique that has been gathering a lot of pace recently is the use of a structured data mark-up. Schema.org is a data mark-up put together by the big boys of the search world, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. The idea of structured data mark-up is not a new one, but because of the parties involved it has made a lot of people sit up take notice.

"On-page markup enables search engines to understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results in order to make it easier for users to find relevant information on the web. " Schema.org.

Schema itself is a relatively simple to understand concept, but one that is very powerful when used to its full potential. All it does is simply cherry pick specific information that you want search engines to see, as well as information you want users searching for your site to see. Major sites such as IMDB and eBay use schema very well to show rich snippets of information relating to search queries under the individual listings and to the side of search. For example, when you search a movie, i.e The Break Up (a personal favourite) IMDB shows a star rating and information about the actors etc. This all done using schema.org markup.

A few months ago SEO giants, Searchmetrics recently completed a study which found that pages with Schema.org included within their site, rank better within search results. On average the websites including the schema markup are ranking four positions higher in comparison to pages without. The simple reason for this is that it's easier for search engines to interpret and understand the content of the website. However, like most SEO techniques simply having schema markup doesn’t guarantee anything when it comes to the ever important ranking position of a website, but it's definitely better to buy a ticket for the raffle then not at all...

Here's a (very) basic example of how a local business would structure it's data within a website. It breaks down each individual piece of information into small bite-size chunks for search engines to read and understand.

As I said this is a very basic example, multiple different telephone numbers can be categorized, reviews and testimonials can also be added and included within search results as well as a multitude of other information. Google offers a very useful tool in which it shows how the mark-up is read and understood as well as how it is displayed within its search results.

Schema.org is powerful, and your website should use it. It's a pretty well known fact (even though they may not say it) that Google themselves like to reward websites that do things on their terms. Saying that, as well as Schema there are numerous other techniques. These techniques could and should be used in conjunction to help websites climb the golden ladder of search engine rankings. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some) the days of stuffing keywords into websites and meta tags has long gone and it requires developers to be more savvy and consistent with their SEO.

All in all, the most important thing to remember is that you simply need to produce good quality and relevant information that people like. Quality content is the base of any good website and ultimately the search engine ranking position.

DesCom World Cup - The Winner Takes It All

We're into June now and the football season is now a distant memory. Normally at this time of year we'd be feeling lost at the weekends and counting down the days until some non-descript friendly's kick off just for some football to watch. But not this year...Brazil 2014 has saved our summer (or ruined it, if you're not a football-ist).

Here at #DesCom we've decided to do a little in house pool, just to make things a little more interesting. We've (just about) managed to scrape together a prize pot. The winner will be whoever manages to pick the team which ventures the furthest. We decided to make our draw from the top 10 most likely to bring home the trophy...and England, for patriotic reasons.

After the draw took place it was fair to say some people where happier than others with their picks, here's a little breakdown of who got who and how we think they'll get on...

Dean - Argentina

We think Dean may have pulled out arguably the best pick he could have aside from maybe Scolaris Samba Men. Argentina have long been one of those teams that haven't quite lived up to their potential. Despite this constant disappointment, many are thinking that this could be their year. All in all they've a pretty handy team, despite a pretty suspect defence. This is however balanced out by a decent midfield and a stupidly good forward line. They are able to call on the likes of Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, Higuian, Lavezzi and obviously Franco Di Santo...once of Wigan Fame, to simply score more than they concede. We'll just have to wait and see if this mix of great players, along with the good and the not too bad others can come together accomplish that allusive World Cup win or whether there will be more tears in Argentina.

#DesComWorldCup Prediction - All being well they could go the distance - Should be finalists, maybe more?

Louise - France

The French, where do you start with the French? Sublime individual talent, with the likes of Ribery, Pogba and Benzema to name a few. However, once they step on that plane to go on their summer holiday it all seems to go spectacularly Pete Tong. However this time it's not the laid back Laurent Blanc in charge, it's the slightly more tenacious Didier Deschamps. Already double D has caused a commotion by deciding not bring along sulky Samir Nasri, despite him being in decent nick for city in the league. This may turn out to be a stroke of genius by Deschamps, or he may have already wrote the headlines on the French back pages. They've a relatively winnable group and would expect to do so, only the Swiss could prove to be potential bump in the road. However, if they where to slip up and only secure second spot, it would (more than likely) be Messi and co waiting in the next round, personally I wouldn't really fancy the French there, but you never know, I guess.

#DesComWorldCup Prediction - Should really reach the quarters at least - Quarters, probably?

Nic - Belgium

Belgium when we put this little piece together are fifth favourites to win the world cup? which is quite impressive seeing as they've not been at the World Cup party for 12 years. Saying that they're young, fresh and exciting. They've also got some strapping big lads. They've quality throughout the squad from Courtois between the sticks, to Kompany marshalling it at the back with the likes of Mirallas, Hazard and Fellaini Lukaku to do the business further up. They're due to run into either Ze Germans or Ronaldo et al in the round of 16 which may prove the end for these big tournament novices. Saying that stranger things have happened and they may just find themselves booking their hotel for an extended stay in the quarters.

#DesComWorldCup Prediction - If they make it past the Round of 16, they'll have done well - Quarters at best.

Marcus - Spain

They've been winning competitions for fun in recent years and are looking for their fourth major competition victory in a row. So Marcus has all the reason to be confident that La Roja could go all the way once again. Their team sheet reads like a list of modern legends in the game. Names such as Xavi, Villa, Iniesta, Puyol, Ramos, Casillas have all set up camp at the highest level of football. Despite their legendary status', they're all nearing pension age in the footballing world with many of their big hitters over the precious 30 years old. However, as they say 'you never lose it' and if a European team where going to bring home the bacon (or the tocino in this case), it's more than likely to be the Spanish than any others, aside from England obviously.

#DesComWorldCup Prediction - May just be beaten by the South American Big two - Semi Finals

Sarah - Uruguay

Uruguay, are generally better known for the childishly funny joke about their name, rather than their footballing ability. They won the inaugural World Cup...but really since then they haven't really done much on the world stage. However many have them as a decent outside punt at 33/1. Their biggest problem is probably getting out of the group, as they've joined ourselves, Italy and Costa Rica. Obviously England are going to win the group, so therefore there is only one spot for them or the Italians...Joking aside they've a mixed bag of talent, but they do have some match winners. Players such as Suarez, Cavani and even Forlan who was the World Cups top scorer last time out (albeit with three other players) have goals in them. Will they win it? I doubt it, will they make it of their group? maybe. Saying this it wouldn't be a surprise to see them turning out in the semis.

#DesComWorldCup Prediction - We're just not sure, Groups? RO16? Quarters? Semis? - we'll go Quarters.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

theDesCom