About us & other things.

• About 8D design.

  8D design is a new company, whose employees have an extensive history in software development. Coming from a computer games background with clients that include Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sega. Also working in online media for clients as Mattel, Hasbro, Lego and BBC.
  
  

  Do you offer administration services?

  Yes, if we have developed your website for you we can help keep your content up to date, we offer monthly, quarterly and yearly contracts, please contact us for a quote.
  

  You don't offer hosting?

  No, we only specialize in software design and development, we use Lunarpages and can recommend them, there is no such thing as free hosting as some developers offer, the price is just included within the quote.
  

  You don't have a portfolio?

  Yes correct, as a very new company this is where our portfolio starts, you can see some of our example work in the Web packages area these are example sites and not hosted independently, why not be one of our first clients.
  

• Project Schedule.

  All delivered websites are fully tested for compatibility on the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome and Opera.
  
  

  Payment Schedule

  50% payment on commissioning of the project. 50% on delivery. Payments can be made through Bank transfer, Paypal and we still accept cash.
  

  Communication with us.

  You receive a username & password so you can review your project at any time, your developer will update this review version daily. You can contact us using Skype with your comments at anytime (if we are online, creativity does not work 9-5) If we are not online, you can leave your comments on your project pages for the developer who will receive them as soon as they sign in. If you require your project to be completed as priority, a direct contact number and working schedule for your developer will be supplied to you, we will do everything possible to complete to your schedule, including working to your time zone if outside of ours. Please note there are additional charges for this level of service.
  

  The Design Process.

  To help speed up the design process you can.
  Compile a brief overview of your business and client base you are aiming for.
  
  Example Sun Home Communities owns and manages seven mobile home and Recreational Vehicle parks, they know their clients are
  1. The majority are older people over retirement age
  2. They can spend up to six months of the year at the resort
  3. They’re looking for somewhere that's guaranteed to be warm, knowing there will be people around them and activities to do, but without too much hustle and bustle.
  
  with this we can assume that any new clients visiting their website may have an initial checklist that they are looking for
  
  ° I want a place to spend the winter months in the warm. Is this the right site?
  ° Is this for me? Can I see myself enjoying spending 6 months here?
  ° Does it fit my expectations and budget?
  
  With this simple understanding of the client base we know exactly what to emphasize on the home page, encouraging the visitor to look in more detail at the site. Make a list of sites, colour schemes and features that you have already seen while surfing the net. copyright we don't copy sites. make a collection of brand, product and promotional images or digital photos that you would like used on you site. Create or collect copy script that you wish to use, including title and keywords that describe your business. Check to see if your required URL is free, or create a list of possible URL's and we can check them for you.
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• Website Design

  Design isn't Art. It's not about creating beautiful or thought-provoking things for the sake of it. Design is a discipline – creating communication with a purpose.
  
  

  Design a site for it's visitors.

  Obvious? too many websites start development without understanding it's customer base, and go down hill from there. " If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. " Proverb Identify who’s really going to visit your web site. Understand what’s necessary to get your message to those people and help them to take the next step.
  

  Design the content, not the box it comes in

  Not everything can be high-noticeability, they can only stand out relative to other elements that do not share the same properties. Some areas should take a back seat. It's unusual for everything on a page to have equal value. If you try to make everything stand out, nothing will stand out. Managing attention is about, 1. Deciding what the relative importance of various elements should be, in the context of the visitor's and site's goals, then 2. Applying a combination of various visual techniques to make the most relevant elements more noticeable than lesser elements.
  

  Navigation, It is the designer's goal to make the process of moving through a web site unambiguous & clear.

  Navigation is easy to use when it's 100% obvious what selecting it will do. It should be distinct from non-navigation, and clearly clickable. You should never have to wave your mouse at something to find out if it's nav or not. Its label should state clearly and unambiguously what you'll get for clicking it. The clickable area should occupy the whole extent of the visual element. The entire visual element should respond positively to receiving focus (via mouse or keyboard).
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• SEO the basics

  
  

  Onpage optimization (completed by us)

  Basic points for Onpage optimization.
  Include your keywords in your page title Use the '|' symbol to separate words Use only your main keywords. Don't use filler words. The '|' character will act as a filler Use <h1> and <h3> header tags Bold, italicize, and underline some keywords Place your main keyword at the beginning and end of your webpage Include your keyword in the copyright footer of your webpage Use <alt> image tags and include your keyword, plus the word "image" or “graphic" etc. Create robot txt files and site maps to help crawl all relevent pages and information.
  

  Offpage optimization

  Offpage optimization is THE most important aspect of ranking well in ANY search engine, period.
  It's critical you know this for offpage optimization...
  You must have links pointing to your website. These links must include your main keywords in the "anchor text". It's best to get links from the exact same websites that the top ranked websites have their links on. Try to get links from as many different IP Addresses as possible. It's best to have close to the same % of links containing the specific keyword you're trying to rank well for, as the top ranked websites. In order to get links to your website, you can trade links with other people buy sending link requests. You can also buy text links from the places, Google is a good resource to find this. You can write articles and submit them to websites. Include a link to your website in the footer of your article. Join all social networks, Twitter, Facebook etc in you website name, this will also help to keep your customers informed Post promotional videos on site such as YouTube, using you site name as your profile.
  That's the basics of SEO that you MUST do to rank well, If you require help with your offpage optimization, please contact us for a quote.
  For offpage optimization the key phrase is :

  'Get your website out there'

  
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