The day that you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived.

After months of hard work, consultation and development your brand new website is now live. The design is superb, the beautifully-crafted content reads like a dream and the navigation is flawless. It’s abundantly clear that your website is going to prove irresistible to every new visitor and blow your competition out of the water.

At this point it would seem perfectly reasonable to resume investing your energies elsewhere in the business. Wouldn’t it? 

It’s easy to assume that your website is now a finished product. However, much like gardening – or indeed growing a successful business – running an effective website is a long-term commitment requiring regular improvements.

This misunderstanding can actually be heightened by search engine marketing. Whilst this can be an effective way to increase the volume of site traffic, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your conversion rate will increase. Working hard to improve user experience will help to ensure that more visitors respond positively to your website, multiplying the impact that a subsequent increase in traffic will have. This is exactly why regularly testing and improving your website is so important.

Testing can be a very simple process. You might regularly read through your content to ensure that it has been updated. Your website statistics – particularly landing/exit pages, bounce rates and average visit duration – will give an accurate indication of how effectively it is performing.

You can also test the technical performance of your website. This might involve looking at your site’s cross-browser and cross-device compatibility, particularly if it’s a responsive site. A speed test will indicate how long the website takes to load, which is particularly crucial for e-commerce sites. Finally, watching people visit your site – user testing – will clarify how functional it is.

It really is essential that you take the opportunity to regularly test and improve your website. The results will speak for themselves.

It’s that time again when we give the Legion website another seasonal refresh – this time in a romantic fashion!  To celebrate Valentine’s day, we used an eclectic mix of amorous vintage twists, going for a more quirky feel rather than being overly romantic.
Take a look at the live site here.

We are looking for a Graduate/Junior Web Developer to join our small team of talented and friendly people. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone with good knowledge and a passion for digital development and web technologies, to work on a variety of small and medium-sized projects.

The role

You will be responsible for building responsive websites for a broad range of clients, and integrating them into content management systems. Compatibility across multiple devices is paramount, and you will often be required to utilise mobile-first development philosophies and rapid prototyping techniques.

Being part of a team, you will need to be a team player that is able to support the project managers, whilst also being expected to liaise with clients directly. You will be involved throughout the entire project process, and will be expected to assist in producing sitemaps, proposals, wireframes and other supporting project assets as appropriate, as well as populating and editing content.

This role therefore comes with a great opportunity to develop your skillset and progress your career within a busy creative environment.

Key responsibilities

• Working on new project development such as websites and web applications
• Supporting and maintaining pre-existing web projects
• Liaising with clients to resolve problems and incorporate feedback
• Undertaking ad-hoc duties as required

The candidate

You will be a forward thinking, dedicated, and highly focused front-end coder, that strives to deliver a high standard of code and keep up with emerging web technologies. Attention to detail and a keen eye for good design are essential qualities, as is the ability to work without constant direction and change tasks quickly as the business demands.

You must be able to

• Develop engaging user interfaces
• Produce clean, semantic mark-up in (X)HTML(5), CSS(2 & 3), PHP and JavaScript (including jQuery) to agreed website specifications and design guidelines
• Integrate front-end code with back-end content management systems
• Test for, and maintain, cross-browser compatibility, incorporating both desktop and mobile browsers

It would be advantageous if you have

• An understanding of the complete web design process
• Experience with Photoshop and the Adobe Creative Suite
• Experience using CSS frameworks such as Twitter Bootstrap and Zurb Foundation
• Knowledge of SASS and CSS media queries
• Experience using WordPress as a CMS

Benefits include

• A career-progressing opportunity and exposure to a variety of projects and on-the-job training
• A relaxed, open-plan office environment
• Flexible working hours

About us

We are a small, youthful, hard-working and dynamic creative agency.

Our clients range from small start-ups to international brands, covering a broad range of industries. This translates into a wide variety of projects for you to get your teeth into, where no two jobs are the same.  We pride ourselves on the combination of excellent work and great customer relationships that ensure our clients continue recommending us.

We promote a working environment that’s both stimulating and fun, with plenty of social opportunities.

If you are a graduate developer or have little commercial experience, this is a great opportunity to join an established team and learn the essential skills required for a successful career in the digital industry.

To apply please send your CV and a covering letter via email to info@deucecreative.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you.

Strictly no agencies please.

The Legion is one of Guildford’s premier nitespots, spread over three floors of individually-themed bars and lounges.

We first had the pleasure of redesigning their website back in 2009, and since then have kept it fresh by regularly tweaking the theme to suit various holidays and seasonal events.  Following on from our previous Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and St George’s Day versions, we are pleased to present our latest variation for Halloween!  Take a look at the live site here.

If your website is starting to look a little predicatable, why not get in touch and find out how we could give it a refresh and make your visitors take notice?

When it comes to internet marketing where should you spend your budget? One of the longest standing debates when it comes to online marketing is if SEO or Adwords deserves the bulk of the budget.

SEO

SEO or search engine optimisation is the process of ranking a site. In any case, the goal of SEO is to be at the top because statistically this is the link that most people click.

Before trying to rank any site using SEO, the owner must come to a decision about their keywords. For instance, a site from London trying to rank for website development may choose; website developers in London, website developers and web design.

Then, the company would explore various methods of both on-site and off-site optimisation. On site optimisation would include; adding Meta titles and descriptions, equal keyword distribution and unique content. Then, off-site techniques like; directory submissions, article spinning and building back-links.

The benefits of SEO

• Ranking highly for a tough keyword can bring any site thousands of hits a day.
• A well-run SEO campaign will bring in a higher return on investment than any Adwords campaign.
• With SEO, once you obtain a position then you can expect to sit there for a while, even with limited on-going work.

The negatives of SEO

• Ranking for a good keyword can take months of work.
• When up against bigger companies with larger budgets and more man power it is hard to outrank a site.
• The algorithm for how Google decides where a website appears is confusing. Unless you are a professional, it can be hard to know exactly how to rank a site even with hours of research.

Adwords

Adwords campaigns have gone from strength to strength over the last decade. Now, there are millions of companies all around the world taking advantage of this type of advertising. In general, Adwords campaigns are easy to start up. Furthermore, due to several tools that Google has developed, on-going management, even for somebody with limited experience is simple.

The benefits of Adwords

• Google provides those who use Adwords with a good level of customer service.
• If the budget is high enough a new site can rank among the big names in the industry instantly.
• The tools available from Google make managing any campaign simple. Plus with tools like First Page Bid Estimate, it is easy to work out exactly how much money it will cost to get to the first page.
• The algorithm for Adwords is simple – Position = quality score x max CPC (cost per click).
• With Adwords you only pay when somebody clicks on your link.

The negatives of Adwords

• Campaigns can be expensive, and competing with the largest companies for the big keywords is almost impossible unless you have a huge budget.
• Adwords results are not permanent and as soon as payment is stopped for a campaign the site will disappear.
• While Adwords may be simple to set up, a correctly managed campaign will take up a lot of time and will require micromanagement.
• Some searches instinctively skip Adwords results.

As you can see from the above, there are plenty of benefits and negatives to both campaigns. To surmise, it is impossible to say if SEO or Adwords is better because the simple answer is that it depends on the goals of the site. This is why it is imperative that the site owner spends a good amount of time researching the method first.

If you would like to talk to us about your company’s online marketing strategy, please get in touch.

Although everyone’s unique, we all have similarities that group us together in some way or another. As a business, you probably have different groups of customers that you wish to target, so when it comes to your website, how do you define the main audiences that you want to reach?

One way is to evaluate all of your potential customers, and create user personas. Then, by understanding their expectations, you can more accurately define the most desirable user types. These groups should be the customers that will bring the most valuable enquiries.

To create a user persona, some in-depth information needs to be gathered. This can be done through surveys, market research studies, or just talking to your customers and asking specific questions. If it’s an established business, it can be useful to look at where your existing customers are coming from.

Don’t be put off by the thought of this task – this is time well spent. For example, ten well-targeted visitors to your website are way more useful than a hundred non-targeted ones.

Some questions that we use to help compile user profiles

• What is their gender?
• What are their goals?
• What do they want from you and your business?
• What do they want from your website, and how will they use it?
• Do they already have a relationship with you or your company?
• What are their perceptions of you and your company?
• What is their geographic location?
• What are their computer skills?
• Any additional demographics that may be relevant (e.g. lifestyle)

Some examples of user personas

Three individuals are looking for a new mobile phone.

Person 1 is ‘techy’, so it’s likely that they’ll be more interested in seeking out the highest specification, or taking into consideration the camera and video capabilities. They may well compare the iPhone to the Android.

Person 2 is more into style and socialising. The look of the phone may be more important than the comparison of specification. They may wish to be able to use the phone to access Facebook, or use Instagram for their photos.

Person 3 is a ‘professional’, so may need the phone for business purposes. They may be most interested in the cheapest contract, how many inclusive minutes and texts they get, and what business apps they can use.

When planning your company’s website, user personas help us know who your target audience should be. This ensures that the correct look and functionality is incorporated into the site, generating the best results for your company and maximising your investment.

If you’d like to speak with us about evaluating your target audience, why not get in touch?

The old days of pen and paper are slowly fading behind the shoulders of the new digital world. Filing cabinets are almost extinct, and searching for a document no longer means traipsing through the past six years by hand. This is great in so many ways, and we’re sure the trees appreciate it too. But it does mean we have to keep up, and when it comes to the new school legislation deadline, there’s no exception.

A recent amendment to the School Information Regulations, which comes into effect in September 2012, has removed the requirement upon governing bodies of maintained schools to publish an annual prospectus, and instead introduces a new obligation requiring schools to publish specified information on a website. It sounds straightforward, as most schools do have a website – but that doesn’t necessarily make the transition easy. Some websites might be out-of-date and require a complete rebuild, or there may not be any technical support or training available on how to update and manage the existing online information.

In order to meet the new legislation for schools, the following content must be made available online:

• Pupil Premium allocation, use and impact on attainment
• Curriculum provision, content and approach, by academic year and by subject
• Admission arrangements
• The school’s policy in relation to behaviour, charging, and SEN and disability provision
• Links to Ofsted reports and to the Department’s achievement and attainment performance data; and details of thee school’s latest Key Stage 2 and 4 attainment and progress measures.

Whether it’s a simple update of your existing site, or deciding that this is the ideal time for that new all-singing, all-dancing site that you can be rightly proud of, we are ideally placed to help you.  We’ve built many school websites, from infants to comprehensives, so know exactly what features are needed.  Training staff in our easy-to-use CMS comes as standard, and ongoing technical support means that we’re there for you whenever you need us.

If you would like to see a selection of our work, please visit our dedicated ‘Designed for Schools‘ website, and don’t hesitate to contact us for references. We look forward to helping take your school’s website into the future…

Images and emotion are closely linked, hence the old saying “a picture says a thousand words.” But even a simple shape or line can provoke an emotional response, possibly without the observer being aware of it. This is an interesting fact when working with design.

A great example of what I’m talking about is the use of rounded corners.

It takes less cognitive brainpower to see rounded rectangles than it does to register sharp-cornered ones. Interestingly this means it takes the visual senses more time to register the points of a rectangle than with an ellipse of the same shape, and a circle can be processed even faster. It seems that a shape with sharp-corners literally interrupts thought by forcing the brain to pause at each point until they complete the circuit. Try it yourself – which one is easier on the eye?

This emotional response comes about because, from a young age, we have learnt to avoid sharp objects incase they harm us. But rounded shapes send a more positive message to the brain. This is a primordial response that we have not grown out of, and one that should be considered when using shapes to generate trust and confidence in a product or service. This is exactly why they are sometimes known as ‘friendly rectangles’, and are often used within web design for call-to-action buttons such as ‘buy now’ and ‘sign up’.

Unless you’re targeting a young audience (in which case rounded corners work well throughout the design layout), the rounded corner should not be over used. Ideally you want to use the method to soften the design, but also maintain an experienced professional look. With this in mind, it’s essential to understand the identity you’re looking to portray, what your message is, and who you’re targeting.

Apple Inc. visionary Mr Steve Jobs embraced the concept to its full potential, from marketing right through to the actual design of the products. Take a look around and notice for yourself how rectangles are used in a round-about way…

Like most things in life, design is forever evolving. Take traditional letterpress printing for example, a beautiful combination of machinery and type that has long been superseded by the computer.

When referring to letterpress, the newspaper springs to mind, which is how the term ‘above the fold’ first came about. Newspapers were often folded with the top half facing upwards. This section held the most important content, and was used to entice potential readers to purchase.

When the notion of the fold first entered the world of web design, it was used to describe the portion of the website visible without having to scroll. In 2005, the typical screen resolution was 1024 pixels by 768 pixels and the fold was positioned about 600 pixels down the page. But things evolve, and while this fold might have worked in the past, it may not be as critical with modern large displays.

Now with tablets and mobile devices being commonplace, with much smaller displays that can be browsed portrait or landscape, the challenge of where the fold lays becomes blurrier than ever.

Recent surveys suggest that the majority of viewers now scroll happily and easily, and although using traditional design and marketing techniques should never be ruled out, it’s also vital to keep up with the ever-changing digital landscape.

It’s important to find effective ways to lead the viewer below the fold. Employ the use of story telling to lead viewers to relevant information, rather than cramming content into the immediately visible areas. Effective communication starts with a clear and concise message. Try not to overwhelm with lots of information, instead encourage users to dig deeper and take advantage of white space to avoid content fighting for attention.

At Deuce Creative we feel that good web design is not constrained by where the fold sits. Responsive design, which adapts to fit a multitude of displays, has become the evolution of the fold.

Why not speak to us and see how we can help unfold your website?

Today almost everything is done online, which once meant finding the nearest computer or internet cafe. Not anymore. As you probably know, all that’s needed these days is an up-to-date smart phone, and with one slide of the screen your virtual life appears.

With this in mind, it’s no surprise that the latest email analytics are showing an 80% increase in smartphone and tablet opens over the last six months. This is an increase of more than double since 2011, and by the year 2013, forecasts predict that there will be 1.7 billion mobile internet users. Another statistic shows that the month of February 2012 saw an even split between mobile, desktop and webmail opens for the first time ever.

From a business point of view, it’s vital to keep up with change. While potential clients are viewing websites through a mobile, it seems the five-second rule is becoming a two second rule –  if the user can’t find what they want quickly, it’s likely that you will lose them to the Google abyss.

Two seconds I hear you say… Well don’t panic, there’s a few things that can help streamline your website, and with mobile views increasing so rapidly, even Google is now constantly monitoring internet-access rates, ranging from hotels through to airport lounges all around the world, to seek ways of speeding things up.

In fact, Google recently updated its Analytics feature to allow web publishers overlay the speed of their site with business measurements such as revenue per day. This provides a detailed breakdown on their investment.

Website load times are typically 9.2 seconds in the U.S, and the intention is to improve mobile phone networks to be twice as fast. A few ways to ensure your website is up there with the best of them is by using good image compression techniques, clean HTML/CSS code, and fast-loading scripts.

So remember, always check your website on more than one mobile device. Does it load quickly? Does it look good? If not, consider how this could lose potential business, and seek a web guru to get it right. (By the way, we like to think of ourselves as one of those).

Why not see how these stats compare with your own using Email Analytics. Break-down your open rate and find out if your audience has gone mobile.