Following on from our recent rebrand we are pleased to launch the new and improved dna website. It took a little longer to complete than we had hoped but we’ve been very busy getting some exciting client projects finished first. As always, we wanted to take the time to get it just right, so we hope you like it.

Check out the ‘see our work’ section for an assortment of projects from our ever-growing client list, providing a good representation of the quality and variety of our work. On the ‘meet the team’ page you can find out more about the people behind the agency and see for yourself what a good looking bunch we are.

We’ll be updating the site often, so make sure you check back soon, or even better sign up to receive updates using the link at the top of the page. We hope you enjoy looking through the new site and would love to hear what you think of it, so get in touch!

www.dnaadvertising.co.uk

The free-to-use employment solicitors website uses a bespoke employment dispute ‘claim evaluator’, which we hard coded in PHP and MySQL, sitting within a search-engine friendly HTML design. Individual information pages were created to provide consumers with information that would cut through the usual legal jargon, while also enabling the Employment Solicitors team to optimise the site for a broad range of relevant search terms.

The website steers visitors through a number of clear, simple, multiple-choice questions to ascertain the details surrounding the case. Those who receive a ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ get the opportunity to explain their circumstances in more detail and, should they choose to, can opt for those details to be sent to a qualified, pre-vetted employment lawyer in their area, who will contact them within a matter of hours.

Losing your job has got to be one of the most stressful things that can happen to someone, so we hope you never need to look at this site again!

Take a look at the Employment Solicitors site at: www.employmentsolicitors.org

DNA have successfully completed a project for one of the UK’s leading book publishers, Hodder & Stoughton. Based in London, the publishers awarded the prestigious contract to DNA, briefing them to design and build an updatable website, with features, blogs and news about authors and their forthcoming books for their new imprint ‘Two Roads’, which publishes themed titles focused on animals, emotion and life-stage decisions.

Still a relative newbie to DNA, Digital Project Manager Mathew Riley found winning the major contract when in competition with some of the best London agencies is very satisfying – “The most rewarding part of the project was delivering a site that matches the tone and functionality requested by the client”.

The Two Roads imprint is run by Lisa Highton, who edited the mega successful Marley and Me film tie in, among other titles. Lisa commented: “DNA was incredibly helpful and patient setting up the Two Roads site. We really appreciated the problem solving and after sales service but first and foremost a great site.”

See www.tworoadsbooks.com

There are many ‘Web Design Myths’, usability and design constraints that clients request having once heard that this is best practice. Most of these have come from the good old days of web design or even from constraints imposed on printed media. It is very often the job of a web designer to gently dispel these myths and dissuade clients from forcing them upon their site designs.

One such myth is the myth of the page fold, the point at which a user needs to scroll down to access content on your site. It was said that users would not scroll the page down meaning all content on your homepage should sit above this virtual line. The term originates from newspapers where the attention grabbing headlines would appear ‘above the fold’ so as to be seen on the newsstands.

Although Jakob Nielson, the self confessed usability guru and friend to all web designers was a big advocate of ‘above the fold’ content layout recent studies utilizing eye tracking software have shown that users almost always spend some time looking at the scrollbar to assess the size of a page.

The study carried out by U.K.-based design agency, CXPartners of 800 users recorded only 3 occasions where users struggled to scroll beyond the virtual fold line. The study also found having less above the fold actually encouraged exploration below the fold, completely dispelling the page fold myth.

As web designer’s we know that usability is as important as compelling content, leading users to the stickiest content first is common sense but trying to cram everything above the fold is just not good practice.

Next week: Debunking the Myth of the Tavistock Badger.

(Opinion: Simon Farow – Head of Digital)

Anyone thinking of going into web design or development should watch this video of Jeffrey Zeldman, one of the people credited with founding web standards. Click here.

(Si – NOW I understand why you keep banging on about AA this and AA that! Jim)

OK, well this might be a bit of a techie rant against the Microsoft machine and its shoddy, market dominating browser, Internet Explorer, but firstly its a valid one and secondly its more about recognising the huge achievements of a lesser known browser, Opera. There are a myriad of different browsers and different browser versions being used all with different capabilities and different ways of displaying the same website content, this makes our jobs as web content creators very tricky. One thing that is fairly unanimously agreed upon throughout the industry is that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser is by far one of the worst and has gained its share of the market through dirty tricks and lack of user knowledge. Less known though is that a little browser called Opera has been at the forefront of browser innovation for many years, creating new tools to make your life easier that most of us only discover when we auto-download the latest version of Internet Explorer three years later.

Today, we reinvent the Web.

Opera’s latest innovation is called ‘Opera Unite‘. This claims to allow non-technical users to serve and share content and services directly from their own computers via the browser instead of traditionally just viewing content. Time will tell on this latest innovation, but if it’s as good as it claims to be you can expect to see it integrated into Internet Explorer in a couple of years time! The following article highlights some of the browser innovations that are now common place in nearly every browser but started many years previous in the perfectly crafted underdog that is Opera.

www.geektechnica.com/2009/06/8-browser-innovations-started-by-opera

Want to join the 2% of Opera users -  www.opera.com

(Opinion by: Simon Farrow – Web Development Manager)

Supporting this statistic is that over one third (40 per cent) of all adults surveyed said that they would feel more comfortable purchasing from a retailer who offers a wide range of payment methods than a retailer who only offers one payment option. 

To read the full article click here

Search engines exist to provide relevant, useful search results for their users. They are not there to benefit companies who are proficient at optimizing websites. If you think you have thought of a clever way to fool them – forget it. They are not easily tricked and, if they catch you, they will probably ban you. For businesses that depend on leads and enquiries from their websites, this can literally prove fatal.

If you want to drive people to your latest, beautifully designed website, concentrate on the following tips for generating web traffic, and don’t cheat! Click here.

Go to www.ascari.net to see the new website.