With the holiday period quickly approaching we would like to wish all of our past and present customers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

2011 has been a prosperous year for xDesign365, having increased our team from 4 to 7, relocated to larger premises, investment in new equipment and gaining many long term business relationships with new and old clients. We hope that 2011 was as great for you as it was for us!

We look forward to working with everyone again in 2012.

Holiday opening times:

We close on Thursday the 22nd of December until the 3rd of January 2012, during this period we will have emergency support available only.

Management staff will be on hand throughout the holiday period responding to emails and voicemails.

Development team will be on standby only for emergency support should it be required

Please use your usual contact methods to get in touch with us either directly to Euan or Martin or info@xdesign365.com voicemails will be picked up daily on 0131 339 3838.

We are a busy Edinburgh based creative agency looking to add to its growing team. We have recently relocated to our own offices in the West End of Edinburgh to accommodate our growth. We are a young team of passionate developers and graphic artists.

We specialise in mobile applications with custom web based backend management systems and web design. We do not just focus on our customers work, we also love to give our staff time to work on their own projects, as well as our many side projects.

Specific days are set aside to work on personal and company projects, allowing you to showcase your creative flair. We credit the entire team who works on the projects; if the project is developed into a product each member of the team is issued with a stake in the ensuing company.

We are looking for a passionate and creative web designer to add to our growing team. You must be eager to learn and develop your skills as new technology becomes available. You would have creative control over our numerous projects and liaising with customers regarding their project.

All of our web design work is developed with a content management system – WordPress is our CMS of choice as it is versatile, frequent updates and has many thousands of people behind it.

This job may be ideal for a recent university graduate or someone looking to work outside the restraints of a heavily corporate environment; commercial experience not required.

Requirements:

HTML 5 / CSS3

jQuery

Fireworks (or Photoshop)

Advantageous:

Experience in developing websites based around WordPress

Oscommerce (or other e-commerce software)

AJAX

Version control

Bonus:

PHP / MySQL 5

Salary dependant on skill set and relevant experience. Please send portfolio and/or CV to recruitment@xdesign365.com

xDesign365 Featured on STV Edinburgh

Today, STV News Edinburgh posted an article regarding a one-of-a-kind Application currently in development here at xDesign365.

The application analyses data from the Met Office to accurately predict which areas of the country need to be cleared and gritted before and after bad weather.

Due for launch on the 1st of November, the Android based application will be used by Litterboss, a national winter maintenance service contracted to numerous businesses, retail parks and industrial estates.

Euan Andrews, managing director here at xDesign365 said: “Such an advanced system has rarely been seen within the winter maintenance field. Because of this technology, major commercial operations can be sure that their central business activities are less likely to be hampered by disruptive weather. Heavy snow is a part of life in most parts of the UK and this new system will ensure that mail depots, car parks and major driveways will be clear for commercial industries to conduct their business at any time of year.”

The system uses GPS, SMS and email to give businesses real-time updates about whether essential work has been carried out and alerts maintenance crews to anticipated bad weather.

Richard Johnson, Litterboss winter maintenance director, added: “The system developed by xDesign365, with input from our clients, we believe now places us at the forefront of technology in our market place.”

To view the full article over on the STV Website, click here.

We got a favourable writeup from BusinessComment magazine, take a look below:

Edinburgh-based developers set to revolutionise Glasgow bar scene

Innovative Edinburgh-based web development company xDesign365 has launched a mobile application that could change the way Glaswegians plan their night out.

The WhereToNow app will feature information on Glasgow’s bars and restaurants, allowing users to search an extensive range of establishments from their Smartphone. Designed with the consumer in mind, the app makes choosing where to eat or drink incredibly easy, with category searches, descriptions, maps and directions. Accessing the latest deals and events at participating bars and restaurants throughout the city, the app will act as a point of information for locals and tourists alike.

” The inspiration from this came from our client’s own user experience.” says Martin Alderson of xDesign365 ” We were all surprised to find that existing apps for finding bars and restaurants still stand to be focused on the US, or at very best London-centric. He wanted us to develop and app for the Scottish market that really reflected the diverse bar and restaurant scene north of the border. Other apps for this market have suffered from incomplete databases of Scottish businesses, so we thought it was about time to address that.”

The app has been developed in conjunction with Glasgow-based businessman, Kenny McQuarrie, who was impressed with xDesign365′s vision for the application. “xDesign365 have been a pleasure to work with and have helped create this excellent app with its related website and mobile site.” says Kenny. “I highly recommend them for anyone looking into creating an app and will definitely work them again in the future.”

Think about when you search for some kind of information on Google, or even when you are looking to hire a professional to do some kind of work for you, business related or not.  When you are looking through the websites to find someone or something to help you out, which sites stand out and which don’t?

Do you find yourself feeling as though the better designed sites are more reputable?  If so, you are just like the majority of Internet users when they search for products or services online.  While some people believe all you need to gain recognition on the Internet is a website, this is simply not true.  Sure, you need a website, but you also need to ensure that it looks professional and is easy to navigate.  A website that looks like it has been built by an amateur makes you look like an amateur.  Your website is in many cases the first contact that customers will have with your business. It’s important that first contact is positive otherwise potential customers will look for the back button and continue searching for something that breeds a bit more confidence.

Whether you want to sell a product or service or to increase opt-ins to your newsletter customers need to feel they can trust the company behind the website. To get potential customers to give you their email address means that they have to give away their anonymity and trust that their email address will be safe. You can understand why visitors to a site that resembles something from the 90s would have reservations about disclosing their email address or their credit card details.

A competitor’s website is just one quick click away, so it is important that your website engages visitors immediately and keeps them engaged.  That means your pages have to download quickly, not just over fast connections but also to mobile devices and customers who are still using dial-up connections. It has to render perfectly in all the major browsers and be compatible with assistive technology such as Jaws which is used by vision impaired surfers. Not only is it law to make your website accessible, accessible websites rank better in search engines like Google and Bing.

If you had a choice between two websites offering comparable services and one was much more user friendly than the other, which one would you choose?  You know for a fact that you would choose the website that offered the better user experience. Web Design isn’t just about pretty pages, deigning navigation that is intuitive and information that is easily found is essential. All the resources that a customer needs to make an informed buying decision has to be provided in such a way that it can be accessed with the fewest possible clicks.

If you do a Google search for topics related to your industry, you should check out what the competition looks like when it comes to web design.  For those of you who find out that other sites are using features that you’ve never even seen before, you may want to consider getting a professional to upgrade your web presence.  Don’t get left behind, and make sure you can keep up with competition when it comes to web design.

xDesign365

xDesign365 is an Edinburgh Web Design Agency who design websites that will raise your companies online visibility amongst local, national and international customers. We build websites that look professional but above all we build websites that work. xDesign365 have experience in developing both business to customer and business to business websites in every imaginable niche. So if you’re looking for a highly effective business asset rather than just a website give us a call on UK  0131 339 3838.

Why Do You Need A Website

In today’s high speed digital world of information and commerce, effective online marketing is a crucial factor in the success of any business regardless of business model or niche.  Small businesses generally have less funds available for marketing and advertising, but this doesn’t mean you can’t have a highly visible website that regularly attracts fresh business.  The web is often referred to as ‘the great leveler’ because it enables small businesses to compete with, and regularly outperform, deep pocketed household names.

In 2010, online consumers spent an impressive £58.6 billion in the UK alone.  Furthermore, the internet has all but replaced Yellow Pages as a means to locate local services. It makes sense, then, to reach out to this market with a professionally designed website that provides the information that they seek and products or services they can buy.

Shopping online is now an accepted norm, from our weekly groceries to our annual holiday, we can now buy almost anything we want online. The convenience of researching products and services online prior to purchasing has become so commonplace that some refer to it as Googling after the world’s favorite search engine. However in order to be Googled you need a website.

Developing A Website That Generates Sales

The first challenge in web design has nothing to do with HTML or any other technology currently used in web development. First you need to develop an understanding of your target customers. What problems your products solve, what resources do visitors need to achieve their goals, and what keyphrases do they type into search engines when searching for the products you provide. Keep in mind at all times that you are building a website that meets your customer’s goals, not yours.

Search engines measure how popular a page is by measuring how long visitors stay on a page. By paying close attention to the needs and wants of your customers at this early stage helps you provide engaging content and an intuitive site structure that extends the time visitors spend on your site. Once this research is complete you can start to create content and group pages together in a logical manner. Each page should target a unique keyphrase or two or three closely related keyphrases.

This initial research is one of the most important phases in web development. If you fail to get it right here any future success will be seriously affected.

Choosing The Right Web Designer To Develop Your Site

Once you have your content prepared it’s now time to get it online. If you have the finances to employ your own in-house development team you can develop the site yourself. But if you’re like most businesses, you’ll probably need to outsource the work to a professional web design company.

It pays to be very selective in who you choose as your web developer. A poorly designed website can cost you money, drive potential customers to competitor sites, and damage the reputation of your business. It is important that you evaluate the services of your chosen developer to ensure they have the creative abilities, marketing skills and the technical savvy to meet your needs.

Once you’ve found a few developers you like, evaluate their online portfolios and fees. Call past clients and ask them if the design firm:

• Delivered on time
• Stuck to the original budget
• Resolved issues promptly
• Understood and met their requests

Also ask if they would use their services again and would the recommend them to others.

Analytics And Testing

You might think that once your site is delivered and uploaded to the web the job is finished. Well nothing could be further from the truth. Now the testing starts. You will become familiar with terms like Bounce Rate and split testing and with the help of analytics hone your site to improve visitor counts and conversions. This is better known as Search Engine Optimisation and is a service that many web design companies offer.

Analytics can provide actionable insights into how users are interacting with your content, which pages they like and those that are abandoned. Analytics can also identify problems such as a high percentage of customers bailing out your shopping cart before their transaction is complete.  These insights and many more give you the opportunity to fix issues with the site and maximise your return on investment.

Split testing is another way to improve the profitability of your site. Split testing allows you to test various page elements to find which work best. Basically this involves showing 50% of your site visitors a control page and the other 50% a variant of that page. For example you might want to test the effectiveness of a new page heading or a new call to action button. Split testing lets you compare the new page to the control page to see which one performs best. If the new page performs better, it becomes the control page and you can test again with a new variant to try and improve performance even further.

xDesign365

As you can see the skill set required to research, develop as well as continually improve the performance of a website is quite considerable. Finding one company that can do all of this for you is quite an undertaking. However, these companies do exist if you take the time and do the due diligence. xDesign365 for example is an Edinburgh based web design and development agency that are experienced in every aspect of web design and development. We can help you from the early stages of defining your market and keyword research through to reporting on analytics and suggesting improvements firmly grounded on visitor usage trends. You can call us on UK 0131 339 3838 don’t forget to check out our impressive portfolio of past and existing customers.

There’s something great about Web sites that makes them stand out above all other forms of media. It’s the reason why they’re overtaking newspapers as a form of media. It’s the reason why they’re overtaking all methods of advertising. It’s the reason they’re so useful. It’s the reason they’re so important to most of us. And it’s the reason why the Internet took off in the first place, all those years ago.

Dynamic Media

Unlike newspapers, Web sites are dynamic. They’re a moving, on-going form of media and advertising. From a businesses perspective, they’re a shop window right out of a Harry Potter movie, for this shop window can be changed at any time, promote whatever you want, be decorated however you want, and be transformed in to a living, breathing business asset. Sounds just like an ordinary shop window, doesn’t it? The difference is, all this can be done, for the most part, at the touch of a hat. Or a wand. (We’re really that good here at xDesign365) And best of all, your shop window is positioned right in the middle of the biggest and busiest city in the world… the Internet.

Investment or Expense?

Many businesses come to us thinking the money put forward to pay for a Web site is nothing more than an expense. A somewhat mandatory expense, for most businesses need a Web site these days, but an expense none the less.

Personally, we see our Web sites as being investments for our customers. The reason for this is simple: A good, well thought-out, well developed, well promoted Web site (exactly what we provide here at xDesign365) shouldn’t just sit still and look pretty. Like any other form of marketing, you should have aims and goals for your Web site. Maybe your goal is to make money from your site, either directly by selling goods, or indirectly by providing a means for prospective customers to contact you. Or maybe your goal is to raise awareness of a subject of interest to you, your business or charity. Whatever it is, your Web site needs a purpose, and that’s something we can help you with.

Having a purpose for your Web site means the money you pay to have your site developed is simply an investment, of which you plan to receive back as a healthy return. Our job isn’t to simply take money from you. Our job is to create a product for you that will make you a profit. We’ve done this, and continue to do this day after day for our customers. Selling a product directly will allow you to easily calculate how many products you need to sell to receive a healthy return on investment. Web sites which sell indirectly, raise awareness of an issue, or make money via advertising on their site may be a little more difficult to forecast a return on investment, but rest assured, if you involve us in this process, we’ll develop you a Web site that not only looks pretty, but performs well and helps you achieve your goals, provides you with a healthy return on your investment, and ensures your site isn’t just another static expense in your annual accounts.

Top Tip: Involve Your Development Company

When choosing your Web development company, engage them in the process of mapping your goals for your Web site. While you’ll have the final say on what you want to achieve, they’ll be able to give you a good idea of what is achievable. We do this as standard for all our customers, and believe all Web development companies should (but take it from us, many don’t!)

We’ll understand your needs, and we’ll demonstrate our business skills are as good as our design skills. That way, not only will you receive a Web site that looks appealing to your prospects and customers, you’ll also get one that converts well and produces a healthy return on investment.

Why not contact us today?

Here at xDesign365, we like to think we’re a mighty friendly bunch. The type of people you could start a conversation with and, within a mere 5 minutes, happily call your friends for life. Because we’re so friendly, we enjoy sharing now and then, it’s good for the soul you see. So, today we share with you our first Free Download, we like to refer to it as the “Sexy Button” because, well, it’s just insanely sexy.

Below you can see a preview of the button, showing a Regular and Hover state. The file is available in an editable vector .png format, you can grab it here. Adobe Fireworks is recommended for editing the file, though any .png editor should suffice.

Feel free to offer feedback, make suggestions as to other file formats & freebies you’d like to see in the future or even ask questions regarding editing the file, in the comments section below. We’d love nothing more than the hear from you guys!
Once again, here’s the download link.

Over at ChromeExperiments.com Google has been putting together a selection of demos showcasing the power of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. We’ve picked out our favourite three below; let us know which ones you like the most in the comments section. Most require a modern web browser – Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera. Internet Explorer 9 will also support most of these features when it is released which is scheduled for later this year.



http://9elements.com/io/projects/html5/canvas/

This example using HTML5’s ‘canvas’ element shows how it is possible to integrate great graphics and live social media into an interesting and visually appealing presentation style. You can also see the smooth vector graphics that HTML5 produces – perfectly on par with Adobe Flash, without needing any additional plugins.

http://mrdoob.com/projects/chromeexperiments/ball_pool/

A less useful demo showing the animation and physics abilities that modern web browser can do. The performance is great on a fairly fast PC, and again you can see how you can achieve the exact same results as flash using HTML5. As browser adoption continues to tend towards browsers that support the standard, and JavaScript performance continues to increase due to gains in efficiencies that many browsers are achieving, you’ll see this kind of sophisticated animation on the web far more frequently.

http://mugtug.com/sketchpad/

Sketchpad is a remarkably fully featured graphics application that runs entirely in the browser. Notice the way you can click the ‘save’ icon to copy and paste creations straight into a different application – this could easily be extended to automatically post to Facebook or Twitter, for example. The application also runs on the iPad – allowing true cross platform compatibility without needing to recode it. This level of refined user interface will also become more common across the web.

As you can see; the power of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript is very impressive. Doing things like this in the browser would have seemed quite unfeasible just a few years ago. When IE9 is released supporting nearly all of these technologies, the final barrier to these applications will be removed. Hopefully people will upgrade quick enough so developers can take advantage of these features as soon as possible.

Adobe has recently seen the opinion of their Flash runtime turn significantly against with Apple joining the fray by refusing to allow the flash plugin to run on MobileSafari. This now means that the iPod, iPhone and iPad have no access to any flash content. Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, has even went as far to say that the ‘majority’ of Mac computer crashes were down to the poor functioning of the Flash plugin.

One of the major criticisms of Flash is the giant overhead that it takes performance wise to run. While recent developments with Flash 10.1 have seen hardware acceleration, the implementation leaves something to be desired – with only some versions of Windows getting access to hardware accelerated video decoding, while Mac and Linux (currently) being left to decode video in software, leading to a dramatic performance penalty.

The other major problem with Flash is the closed nature of the plugin. Attempts to make a competing runtime (such as SWFDec and Gnash) which would be open source currently lag dramatically behind Adobe’s version, offering little-to-no compatibility with most Flash items seen on the web. This means that Adobe is the only one that will provide a plugin. Adobe has recently ‘suspended’ Linux 64-bit Flash player downloads; leaving millions of users without a way to view flash or a viable alternative. Development tools are also dominated by Adobe Flash Builder, which does not run on all platforms.

Furthermore, with search engine optimisation and accessibility being such an important part of the web these days, presenting Flash content while optimising for Google and other search engines poses a difficult issue. Google simply does not pick up the majority of Flash content, which means the site is ‘invisible’ to Google – terrible for improving your ranking on search keywords. Additionally, for users who require larger text, low contrast or screenreaders Flash has generally had very poor options for integrating with these systems.

Adobe has a huge problem on its hands, however. While Flash still commands a huge installed base, with many designers and developers behind it, the tide seems to be turning with the advent of smartphones. Flash recently did release Flash Player 10.1 for Android OS, but performance is not up to scratch and many sites struggle to work correctly with it. Furthermore, the increased performance that Flash requires ends up in very poor battery life as the CPU cannot go into low power mode.

Unless Adobe can dramatically streamline the runtime code to avoid such a significant penalty on the processor, I simply cannot see how in today’s low-power focussed world Flash can turn round the increasingly negative view of its Flash product.

Next time: Why HTML5 and CSS3 present a great alternative to Adobe Flash