Sunday, December 23, 2007

Top 20 CSS Design Showcases



Throughout 2007 many new web design showcases came and went and some grew from strength to strength. Since I'm more interested in css web design than flash featured design showcases, here's my top 20 for 2007...

  1. CSS Design Yorkshire
  2. CSS Artillery
  3. CSS Creme
  4. CSS Coo Site
  5. CSS Mania
  6. CSS Glance
  7. Best Design Web Gallery
  8. Design Snack
  9. CSS Juice
  10. CSS Impress
  11. CSS Reboot
  12. CSS Clip
  13. CSS Based
  14. Design Source
  15. CSS Leak
  16. Design Shack
  17. CSS Hazard
  18. W3C Sites
  19. CSS Hardcore
  20. Siti Web Design

Sunday, December 09, 2007

CSScreme features CSS Design Yorkshire


CSScreme, one of the world's top css design gallerys, now features CSS Design Yorksire as part of it's ever growing collection of well designed and well coded websites.

VSW Featured in CSSGlance


The nice people at CSSGlance have deemed the Virtual Server Warehouse website worthy of featuring in their gallery. Thanks guys keep up the good work.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Dedicated Server Warehouse

Today, 939 Design launched a new website for Dedicated Server Warehouse a brand of Intrahost and part of the Intragroup of companies.
The dedicated server packages offer complete peace of mind. They combine reliable hardware and a secure data centre environment with a first class service.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

BCS Website Award


Alan Johnson was recently the recipient of an award for his website. The award came from the British Computer Society’s first MP’s Website Awards. There were 4 awards issued and Alan's website won the award for the most accessible. This means as well as fulfilling DDA Regulations, the website is as accessible as possible to many different categories visitors. Alan is extremely grateful to 939 Design for all the work they have done to continue the websites success.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

New Website for BDArchitects

Building Design Architects are a progressive and award-winning architectural practice with state-of-the-art facilities right in the heart of the historic market town of Beverley. They employ a multi-disciplined team of talented individuals with a wide industry experience and up-to-the-minute skills, enabling them to create cutting edge designs that truly enhance where we live and where we work. 939 Design designed and developed this project with BDA.

Monday, November 12, 2007

iPhone iTouch Safari Browser

First I need to say that this post is not more hype about Apple and the iPhone and iPod touch,
although they are both incredible gadgets.

As a web designer developer who specialises is css, accessibility and cross-bowser compatibility, its important for me to test websites on as many different browsers and platforms as is possible - this being just the latest and the greatest!

With Apple’s Safari browser built in the whole website viewing experience is not like other mobile devices but much more akin to using you laptop. The rendering is fantastic and with no real difference to Safari on a normal Mac apart from the absence of the flash plug in. Which is another good reason not to use much flash on a website and certainly not for navigation!
I'm pleased to report that all websites built by 939 Design perform and display as they should and do in the Safari browser.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

iGoogle - Do you?


How good is iGoogle? Well pretty good is the answer. If you've not heard of this, it's a personal Google page that is editable to contain whatever you want in the form of feeds from other web sources. A really useful tool - a good way of keeping track of all the things you are interested in.

Cool Site Collection

The new Virtual Server Warehouse website has been featured in Cool Site Collection. Thanks for the review guys.

Redesign for CSS Yorkshire

Whilst keeping a similar design and feel the CSS Yorkshire has been restructured over the last couple of days. The design is now a fixed width instead of liquid layout and has a much stronger and improved navigation as well as many other small improvements. Any feedback appreciated.

Monday, November 05, 2007

RSS Feed for CSS Design Yorkshire


Stay informed and up to date. CSS Design Yorkshire now has a feed of all the new entries, so you can now pop them automatically into your newsreader, iGoogle page or however you like to receive your news.

Friday, November 02, 2007

VSW featured in CSS Mania

Virtual Server Warehouse, the new website for Intrahost has been featured in CSS Mania, the premier website design gallery. Please vote for it if you like it.

Monday, October 29, 2007

New Website Launched

939 Design launch a new brand and new website for Virtual Server Warehouse a brand of Intrahost and part of the Intragroup of companies.
The virtual private server packages offer complete peace of mind. They combine reliable hardware and a secure data centre environment with a first class service. Whichever virtual hosting package you choose, you can be sure of real support.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Google Pagerank Update (Official 2007)

Hooray! It's finally happened. We've been waiting so long and it's here...

..as suspected all the websites we've built over the last year or two have been ranked pretty good (between PR5 and PR6 for index pages and PR3 - Pr4 for interior pages - depending on the nature of the website and the popularity of the pages.)

This makes us happy, obviously, because it re-enforces that the way we build websites is good*

Adopting standards based design and neat CSS is the future!

(Any body who doesn't get that last statement, please email me so I can set you on the straight and narrow.)

That said, too much emphasis can be placed on Google Page Rank. Your sites will still be indexed, appear in searches, get found for Pete's sake (who ever Pete is!) It's not the end of he world, just the beginning.



*Google Page Rank does not discriminate between good CSS websites and and table-based layouts - sacrilegious I know. Please no emails on this subject or I will have to kill you.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Finding yourself - on Google!

Finding yourself on Google is easy!

Well it is if you build a good website, link to the right places, update your content regularly and about a million other little things. As web designers we are always trying to improve the organic search results from Google (and other search engines), here's the latest standings:

web designer hessle #1
web designer hull #2
web designer east yorkshire #1
web designer yorkshire #17
web designer uk #63

web design hessle #1
web design hull #2
web design east yorkshire #3
web design yorkshire #20
web design uk #77

web hosting hessle #5
web hosting hull #3
web hosting east yorkshire #1
web hosting yorkshire #12
web hosting uk #-

search engine optimization hessle #4
search engine optimization hull #2
search engine optimization east yorkshire #5
search engine optimization yorkshire #9
search engine optimization uk #9

seo hessle #5
seo hull #9
seo east yorkshire #3
seo yorkshire #37
seo uk #-

Try searching for your services related to location and see how well you do.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The Rissington Podcast


At last a 'funny' podcast about web design and development from 2 guys who know what they are talking about and amazingly enough have a sense of humour!
Messrs Oxton and Hicks, broadcasting from the ex-RAF base in Upper Rissington, UK.Think of this as a geek version of Gardeners Question Time. with questions, be they concerning semantic HTML, CSS, cheese, cookery or whatever is on your minds.
Worth a listen - these guys have faces for radio.
http://therissingtonpodcast.co.uk/

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Website Awards


The Alan Johnson (built by 939 Design Limited) website has been nominated as a finalist in the British Computer Society MP Website Awards 2007

Because IT is now integral to successful parliamentary communication and public engagement, the British Computer Society (BCS), as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, is awarding the best MP websites in three categories:

- Design
- Engagement
- Accessibility

There will also be an award for the website selected as overall winner and which is considered to integrate the very best of all three categories.

Judging of all MP Websites was undertaken by the BCS and key political journalists including Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail, Patrick Wintour of the Guardian, Michael Kallenbach of UK Press Gazette and - to ensure broad appeal to all ages - Matthew Darroch Thompson (aka Webster) of The Oldie. And because accessibility is vital in engaging people with disabilities, all sites were also appraised by AbilityNet, the national charity that helps disabled adults and children use computers and the internet by adapting and adjusting their technology.

Judges looked for MP's websites that successfully engage and excite, yet usefully inform with honourable purpose. In addition, judging criteria took into account ease of navigation, accessibility and effective use of modern media techniques such as blogs, pod or video casts and instant messaging.

Fingers crossed!

Monday, October 08, 2007

SEO for CSS Design Yorkshire

The CSS Design Yorkshire website has never had any specific SEO work carried out since inception. It was built to the usual web standards using proper title and alt tags and all the rest of those good practice web development tricks but never received the special SEO treatment, mainly due to time constrains. That said, the results are quite encouraging! Perhaps it's time to weave some SEO 'black magic'?

Organic search results on Google...

css design yorkshire - #1

css web design - #17
web design yorkshire - #7
css web design yorkshire - #1
css web design gallery - #8
web design gallery - #37
css web design showcase - #15

Sunday, September 23, 2007

SEO that works!

A few months ago we launched the new version of the 939 Design website. This site was specifically built to perform well on search engines by ticking all the accessibility and SEO boxes. Google has indexed the website but not assigned a page ranks yet, when this happens the results will probably get even better! - if that's possible? See for yourself how the new 939 Design website performs on Google.

Google Organic Search Results for 939design.com

939 Design - #1

css web design hull - #1
css web design yorkshire - #3
css web design uk - #3

web design hull - #2
web design yorkshire - #20
web design uk - #68

website design hull - #1
website design yorkshire - #13
website design uk - #55

graphic design hull - #7
graphic design yorkshire - #8
graphic design uk - #36

All websites built by 939 Design for our clients are built following these proven SEO techniques. If you want to know more about good website search engine optimization contact 939 Design for free impartial advice.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Led Zeppelin confirm reunion

Anyone else having trouble registering for the ballot for Led Zepplin reunion concert tickets?
Multiple sources are reporting that tickets can be purchased for a one time reunion concert (with Jason Bohnam taking his father's place on the drums) in London for the 26th of November, and that ticket purchases will be limited to lotto winners (due to high demand) who register at
www.ahmettribute.com

Can't help feeling dissappointed that there's about as much chance of me performing on stage with Led Zepp as actually getting a ticket for the gig! This will be the most over-subscribed lottery ever.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

CSS2.0 feature CSS Yorkshire

The team at CSS2.0 have kindly featured th CSS Design Yorkshire web design showcase. If you love it click the bottom heart for a five star vote.

Friday, September 07, 2007

CSS Glance for CSS Yorkshire


CSS Glance have also featured CSS Design Yorkshire as a showcase to new css design talent, you can vote for it by clicking the green stars.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

CSS Glance


CSS Glance have also featured the new Intrasource website, although it is no longer on the front page, you can vote for it by clicking the green stars.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Intrasource featured in CSSclip


The new Intrasource website has been added to the CSS Clip Gallery. If you like the site and would like to rate the design or others you can vote for it by clicking the blue stars.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Intrasource - CSS Mania featured


The new Intrasource website for Yorkshire's leading IT has been featured on CSSmania. CSSmania is one of the best showcases for web design talent and a great source of inspiration to many web developers. If you like the site you can vote for it!

Editor's PIck on W3C


The new Intrasource website has made Editor's Pick and is featured on the front page of W3Csites. A big thanks go to Sean Ho and the team.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Intrasource - New Website

Intrasource are a leading IT company with a proven track record and a rapidly expanding client list - from new business start-ups to blue chip companies. 939 Design have just launched their new website the lastest in a series of four websites produced for the Intragroup of companies.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

CSS by Nature

CSS Design Yorkshire is featured in www.cssnature.org, a new and really beautiful CSS design gallery from the same people who brought you Design Snack.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

CSS Yorkshire in Designer Source


CSS Design Yorkshire has also been included in Designer Source. If you like the site or use it regularly for design inspiration you can vote for it by clicking the yellow stars.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

CSS Yorkshire in CSS Clip

CSS Design Yorkshire has been added to the CSS Clip Gallery. If you like the site or use it regularly for design inspiration you can vote for it by clicking the blue stars.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Dmixit featured


Dmixit, the Italian web design showcase has also featured the new 939 Design website.

Friday, July 20, 2007

CSS Based featured


The 939 Design website has also been added to the CSSBased website.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

The Best Web Designs?

The Think Galapagos website has been selected for thebestwebdesigns.com gallery. This is truly lovely design gallery website that only admits the best of the best.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Hungry for Design? Try Design Snack

Every wanted to be a part of an online design community? Well take a bite out of this!
Design Snack is a cross between a web design gallery and a web design community. Submitted sites are commented and voted upon to come up with an awarded 'school' grade for each site. The site is well designed, and although not focused on accessibility there is a lot of nice css web design to be found. Recent additions to the Awarded Section contain Think Galapagos and CSS Design Yorkshire.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

CSS Impress featured

One of my favorite design galleries CSS Impress has also featured the new 939 Design website. Thanks guys! Be sure to vote if you like the website.

Monday, July 16, 2007

CSS Clip feature


CSSclip has also been kind enough to feature the 939 Design new website. You can also vote for the website if you like.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Firefox2/Flash Player - Fix for Mac

Recently when I installed the new Firefox 2.0.04 the Flash Player 9 plug in no longer worked. After reinstalling both the problem was still there. No flash content could be viewed with Firefox, Flock, Netscape, although Shiira and Safari still worked fine. Upon the reinstall of the Flash plug in - things would be ok with Firefox until I re-started the application which resulted in a loss of the plug in and therefore no flash again. This started to get annoying until I found a fix. Basically just move the flash files out of /Library/Internet Plug-ins and into your own ~/Library/Internet Plug-ins folder then all works fine.

Fix courtesy of MacRumors.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

CSS Glance feature


And yet another chance to vote for the 939 Design website (just click the gold stars).

CSS Exchange feature

Another gallery features the new 939 design website.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

939 Design featured on CSS Genius


CSS Genius have also picked up the 939 Design website - you can vote here too if you wish.

Web Design Gallery


And another one from our friends at Web Design Gallery.

Monday, July 09, 2007

How good is your website?


As well as Sitescore, Webagogo and WebsiteGrader are useful tools for web developers and customers alike. All 3 of these tools take a look at the underlying code of your website as well as things like popularity, links, urls, accessibility, metadata etc. then provide you with a score or grade.

Although these results should to be taken with a pinch of salt sometimes because they are only one view of how things should be they still prove useful in the design and development process and are also a good development checklist. All in all, a must for any web designer.

Screenalicious features 939 Design


Thanks go to screenalicious for featuring 939 Design's new website. You can vote for the 939 Design website by clicking on the gold stars.

CSS Container


Thanks to the CSS Container team for reviewing the new 939 Design website. You can visit and vote for the 939 Design website if you like... just click the little gold ticks!

939 Design featured on CSS Yorkshire


The new 939 Design website has also been featured on CSS Design Yorkshire.

939 Design featured on CSSmania


The new 939 Design website has been featured on a design gallery heavyweight CSSmania. Thanks to the CSS Mania team and congratulations on an inspirational web design showcase.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Intradev - New Website

Intradev are flexible and friendly providers of business software systems. Covering a wide range of applications including simple database systems, financial software, CRM systems and fully bespoke business applications, Intradev offer tailored software to exactly meet the needs of the business in question.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

939 Design - Redesign


I thought it was about time I came up with a fresh look for 939 Design. The old website design has been there for a year - that's a long time in the world of websites! The redesign is not just new css, there are a lot of new pages and content, plus the redesign gave me a chance to restructure and and improve the mark-up. As with every website it's a work in progress - hope you like it - any comments appreciated.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Editors Pick on W3Csites

The Intragroup website has been awarded editors pick on W3Csites. We'd like to thank the W3Csites team for this mention. 939 Design and Intragroup put a lot of hard work into this project to make very clear and accessible websites, that hopefully look good as well.

Intragroup - New Website


Intragroup - cornerstone business services.
No.2 website in a series of 4 for the Intragroup companies.
http://www.intragroup.co.uk/

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Intrahost - New Website


Intrahost provide ९३९ Design with really reliable hosting and support, but also now have a brand new AAA compliant website built by 939 Design. Let me know if you like it.
http://www.intrahost.co.uk/

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Web Design Survey

Designers, developers, project managers, Writers, editors, Information architects and usability specialists. People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Who are we? Where do we live? What are our titles, our skills, our educational backgrounds? Where and with whom do we work? What do we earn? What do we value? You too can make a contribution!

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Sitescore 2.0


Sitescore have released a new version of their original system.

Since version 1 they have added several new features that make tracking your site’s performance even better. Among the better new features are tesst for W3C validation, accessibility, popularity, content quality, search resuults.

http://www.sitescore.org/

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