The Ailsa Craig Hotel came to 360innovate looking to refresh their web presence. As a fashionable, city-centre hotel, they wanted a site that would reflect not only their heritage, but their modern outlook too.

Built using a content management system, the administrators have full control over their site’s content.

You can see the result at ailsacraighotel.co.uk.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for site launches in the 360innovate office!

Multi Table Tournament Poker are a company that hold poker tournaments across Scotland. They hold regular (nightly) events, as well as regional and national tournaments. They came to 360innovate looking for a complex bespoke website development, involving many different league tables, a content management system, and a forum.

The main aims for this site were to ease the administrative burden on MTTP’s staff (allowing them to expand their business more easily in future), and to provide a focus for their already-strong community of players.

MTTPoker have big plans for the site, and planning for phase 2 of the development is well under way!

You can check out the site at mttpoker.com.

Following the successful launch of the Cathcart and District Housing Association we are pleased to announce that 360innovate have been working with Knowes Housing Association to build a new website for the public sector organisation.

Built on a content management system, the Knowes Housing Association website focuses upon providing as much information and support as possible to current and future tenants.

You can visit the site at knowes.org.

Drum Central is Scotland’s leading provider of drum kits, accessories and hardware in Scotland.

Selling their wide range of drumming products both offline and online Drum Central appointed 360innovate to redevelop their existing website with the intentions of making the brand image more current and the website easier to administer.

360innovate proposed an ecommerce shopping cart that allows shoppers to find their desired product with ease, purchase gift vouchers to spend instore, sign up for newsletters and connect with the brand via social media. The final result is a vibrant website that is sympathetic to the rock genre and information rich providing visitors to the website with a wide array of content to aid and enhance their shopping experience.

Visit the Drum Central website.

Like what you see then get in touch with 360innovate today.

Rubberseal are flat roofing specialists,  providing roofing products and installation services to commercial companies, contractors and home owners.

The Rubberseal website was built on a content management system, making it easy for the client to update the web pages. The main areas of the website are separated into Installers, Commercial and Home Owner pages with clear navigation buttons on the main homepage making it very easy for visitors to the website source the information they are looking immediately.

Like what you see?

For further information about 360innovate’s web design services please contact us on 0141 241 6190.

We are delighted to announce the launch of an exciting new web project:

OSS – On-Site Scanning

OSS is a document management company specialising in document scanning and Digital Mailroom solutions. Currently without any online presence  OSS required the development of a website.

Particular attention was paid to the company’s target market and nature of work, requiring a very professional looking website that portrays a high level of trust and competence. The website demonstrates the various services the company provides. Visitors can sign up to the monthly newsletter and source specific information using the search functionality.

Like what you see?

For further information about 360innovate’s web design services please contact us on 0141 241 6190.

Colour is a major factor in all aspects of design. It can create moods, styles and can evoke feelings and actions within people. Colour is a truly fascinating area, one which is constantly evolving and inspiring us to create new and refreshing designs.

Gone are the days where there were certain rules  with colour such as never mix red with pink, now we can put any colours together and still achieve a well balanced and stimulating design. But what if we start to limit colour in design? Instead of splashing colour about without much thought, what if we refine colour back to the very basics and only use what is really necessary.

Limiting colour in designs can create a more coherent and consistent look, making them more defined and altogether stronger. Using a limited colour palette doesn’t mean restricting the design, rather it can create emphasis on content, branding and messaging. It can also make a design more creative and intuitive, focusing on typography, imagery and layout.

Black and white is commonly used to create this limited colour scheme, however any colours used in isolation can be manipulated for this type of style. For instance take our very own 360innovate website, where we employed the dark blue as the primary colour with only white included for text and purple and orange used very sparingly for some content headers. This gives the site an easily flowing design, pulling the information together giving it a clear sense of purpose.

Below are some examples of other websites employing the effectiveness of limiting colour:

Design Crush is back after a long break and after months of silence we are here again, this time we are talking about good examples of websites employing motion graphics.

Using full screen images with video or motion graphics as the design basis for a website used to be something that many designers shied away from due to the large loading time required for such demanding tasks. However with better, faster broadband speeds, using full screen graphics with motion technology is becoming more and more popular.

It’s really quite amazing watching web design evolve into a moving, involving and all encompassing experience. Full screen imagery and motion graphics is popular with clothing, car and technology sites but it can and has been used for a variety of  markets and for a multitude of purposes. The appeal of this style is down to it’s ability to pull users in, encouraging them to explore the site which in turn allows them to find out more about the company, product or service being advertised. It’s not enough to just supply users with information and flat imagery anymore, they want to be entertained, they want to be moved and motion graphics can cater to this need. Motion graphics can give users a richer user experience however, if not done properly it can be seen to be a time waster and can even turn users off.  Therefore this type of medium should only be used to serve an actual purpose, not just as decoration and of course should be executed to the highest standard.

To show just how far we have come with motion graphics in web design, here is a collection of sites that reflect this ever growing and developing style and technique.

If you are interested in finding out more about motion graphics in web design here are some links to help you out:

4 web design tips for motion graphics sites

motion graphics gallery - motionserved.com

If you have any outstanding examples of this type of web design please share them with us, we would love to see what everyone else likes.

As an online business, operating your online presence within the regulations and law is of utmost importance; for multiple reasons beyond avoiding the wrath of the law… are you taking the necessary steps to protect your company website? Beyond your website looking good there are several considerations which must be addressed for your website to ‘stand up in court’.

The Disability Discrimination Act

First and foremost, how accessible is your website? The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public; online, this means that businesses must ensure that they make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to their website to ensure that users of all abilities can access it. The Sydney Olympic committee was successfully sued for $1 million in 2000 by a blind man for its failing to provide an adequately accessible website. Although an Australian case it, along with similar cases in the American courts, demonstrates that web accessibility is not an issue to be ignored.

The Web Accessibility Initiative outlines the essential components of web accessibility; providing guidance and best practice standards for creating an accessible website.

Copyright

Along with the website architecture your content and text requires careful consideration. Copyright theft is a common occurrence that can easy happen by mistake, and is a crime which can result in costly legal proceedings. When populating your website always be certain to never copy or incorporate any text, images, videos or music from another website without obtaining the permission of the owner. To do so would amount to a breach of copyright and make your business liable for damages.

Further issues can arise when commissioning third parties to produce copyright work on behalf of your company, for example photography or video; unless specifically requested you will not own the copyrights in that work therefore limiting what you can do with it.

If material on the website is copyright then to inform visitors and to prevent such material being copied notice should be clearly posted on the company website informing users of their rights.

Companies Trading Disclosures Regulations 2008

The Companies Trading Disclosures Regulation 2008 defines that every registered company must display on their website the following;

• the part of the United Kingdom in which the company is registered;
• the company’s registered number;
• the address of the company’s registered office;

The E-Commerce Directive

The E-Commerce Directive was implemented in the UK in 2002 with the aim of harmonising the rules relating to online trading and advertising throughout Europe. It applies to companies providing online services for remuneration, and extends to services, which are not remunerated by those who receive them, such as those offering on-line information or commercial communications, or those providing search, access and retrieval of data (BIS).

The Directive follows a ‘Country of Origin’ rule which broadly means that a company need only comply with the laws of the country within which they are established. So, in the occurrence of a legal action jurisdiction will lie with the country the company is established not the customers country. However, if a business advertises or transacts with consumers out with the EEA the Country of Origin rule no longer applies and jurisdiction could potentially lie with the customer’s country.

Company’s looking to only transact within specific countries should display warnings that your website is only directed at users within said countries, and companies transacting and advertising to countries out with Europe should be aware of the potential risks they face.
The E-Commerce Directive further defines that any company or person providing a society service must “in a form and manner that is easily, directly and permanently accessible” provide customers with the following information;

• The name of the service provider
• Geographic address of the service provider
• Email address and contact details of the service provider
• Details of any registration in a public trade register or of any authorisation scheme
• Details of membership of any professional body for certain regulated professions; and
• The VAT registration number

Terms and Conditions

If contracting online then the E-Commerce Directive states that  the company terms and conditions must be made available in a way which allows a user “to store and reproduce” them. Within the terms and conditions should be the aforementioned copyright notice, disclaimers, a privacy statement and a disclaimer of liability for any information contained in another party’s website accessed via a link on your site.

Moderation of user generated content

If your website has any area where users can post information or content then moderation will be required. It is the responsibility of the webmaster to ensure that your website does not contain any libellous or damaging material; therefore it is important to consider the impact the content you and your users post has on others. Several cases have arisen from websites displaying malicious content or where owners have not correctly moderated the content, the most recent being the Google bosses being convicted of privacy violations. And in another instance a blogger in America a defamation lawsuit brought against blog Skanks of New York for the defamatory and libellous statements made about model Liskula Cohen.

So…

The points listed here, really are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the legalities, regulations and codes of practice a company should consider and adhere to when operating online. Digital law is a constantly evolving arena and one which every e-business should monitor but the basic business principles and ethics remain the same as offline so if you can establish and maintain them, then your half way there!

With the build up to the festive season already under way and many Christmas lights  being switched on in cities and towns all over the world, it is no wonder that lighting effects have crossed over to design and are playing a big part in current web design trends.

Lighting effects within web design come in a variety of different forms, from creating subtle shadows and dim glows that produce a peaceful tranquil mood to multi coloured and faceted light rays that give across an energetic mood. More and more websites are utilising these lighting effects to give websites a dimensional interest, coming away from flat designs that can often look bland and seem uninteresting.

Visually, employing light and shadow effects enables us to better understand and relate to what we see on screen by creating texture, aspect and perspective. Therefore we are able to make web pages appear more natural, existent and intuitive by utilising these effects which in turn makes the design  stand out on screen creating a true sense of depth, layers and realism.

These lighting effects can create interest to areas on a page that are seen to be more important. By highlighting specific aspects within a web page with lighting, you can subtly draw the viewers eye around the page, guiding them to the parts of information that you desire. Creating these prominent areas not only gives interest to the page but give the page a defined purpose.

With all these reasons and plenty more, it’s no wonder that lighting effects are playing a large role within web design at the moment. And we are sure that with the festive cheer set to continue it will only amplify this trend bringing light not just to streets and trees, but to web pages as well.

Below are some exquisite examples of lighting and shadow effects being employed within web design:

If you fancy trying your hand at creating lighting effects here are some resources:

16 Photoshop Light Effect Tutorials >

Creating Lighting Effects with Brushes >

30 Lighting Effect Photoshop Tutorials >