Our recent e-marketing campaign for Patchwork Pate

E-commerce functionality is notoriously difficult to integrate into heavily themed or out of the ordinary web designs.  Our brief with this project was to translate the Rock & Roll vibe of the Dead Legacy label into a workable online store.

“DBD exceeded our expectations throughout the project and were always willing to go the extra mile. They have helped us in several areas which were outside their original remit and helped add value to our brand. We envisage a long working relationship with them going forward.” – Danny Costello, Director

You can visit deadlegacy.com here

We didn’t want it to be raining all the time though, so we are pleased to say the sun does come out.

Western Chief Kids, is just one of the brands that makes up the Washington Shoe Company, based in Seattle, they have been making shoes and boots for over 100 years.

From offices in London and Manchester and through a highly trained and professional recruitment team, IHS is perfectly positioned to deliver a range of top quality recruitment solutions. These include permanent recruitment services, contract services, assessment centre design and management, campaign management, and interim supply.

As well as allowing the recruitment consultants to upload the latest vacancies through a bespoke deathbydesign content management system, the website also acts as a data-capture point which encourages candidates to register their interest in any of the vacancies and upload their CV.

You can visit i-hs.co.uk by clicking here

We built the new Liam Frost website to coincide with the release of his second album “We Ain’t Got No Money Honey, But We Got Rain”, a fantastic collection of songs, even if we say so ourselves.

As well as the songs penned by Liam alone, the album features a few written alongside Ed Harcourt, which ultimately led to Liam duetting with the radiant Martha Wainwright on “Your Hand In Mine”.

The website is the best way for Liam to stay in touch with his fans and supporters, so it was important to ensure Liam is able to update the blog and gig listings as often and as easily as possible.  The wordpress engine not only gives great usability and flexibility for us as web designers, the content management system is intuitive and well laid-out which makes updating it simple.  Plus the site can be updated on the road with the addition of the wordpress iPhone app.

You can visit liamfrost.co.uk here

Local singer songwriter Liam Frost is an old friend of deathbydesign, and we are delighted to be involved with the release of his forthcoming second album“We Ain’t Got No Money, Honey, But We Got Rain”

We have helped with a bit of online marketing, specifically an online banner for MySpace and an HTML email to help publicise that for one week only there is a free download of one of the amazing tracks featured on the album, a duet with Martha Wainwright called “Your Hand In Mine”

So click here to download the track or visit Liam’s Myspace by clicking here.

We created a brand to reflect their reputation of being a dynamic, forward thinking agency.

Aims and Objectives
The Aims and Objectives section should explain what you hope to achieve by building a website. Is the site to act as a ’shop window’ for your business, e-commerce, or will it be more of a resource for information about your company?

Will you be collecting money, if so do you accept credit cards, etc?

Use this section to give us an insight into the type of website you need.

Audience
The intended audience for your website can make a huge difference to the way it looks, feels and works. It is essential to take the time to identify audiences clearly in the design brief. Please resist the temptation to say ‘everyone’, as this will lead to a website that satisfies nobody’s requirements.

Design Specification
The Design Specification covers how your web pages will appear on the screen – it covers everything from layout to colour. Web designers will generally interpret a Design Specification quite literally, so it is important to be as clear as possible.

Specific points to consider include:

Does your business have branding guidelines?  If so, what elements should be reflected in the website design (font-face, colours, logo and branding etc)?

How will the design appeal to your audiences? This will govern how much text you want to see on a page, how you use pictures and whether you design pages specifically for a certain audience.

Functionality Specification
The Functionality Specification covers how your website will work. This includes the way people will navigate through your pages and the actions performed by any buttons or effects you want to include on the site.

It is a good idea to draw up a draft site structure as part of this section. You can do this as a basic flow-chart with boxes for pages and lines representing the links between them. This will highlight any areas that may cause additional cost and delay later in the process.

Always ensure that your Functionality Specification includes the following:

• Navigation
• Media requirements (just text and pictures or animation, virtual reality and sound?)
• Interactive elements (e.g. ‘Print this Page’ or ‘Email this Page to a Friend’)
• Will the site consist of ’static’ web pages or be assembled from a database?

Also consider how you will view the site as it progresses.  We are able to host a ‘live’ version to which you have access over the Internet so that you can see how it is developing and provide essential feedback before it is accessible by the general public.

Accessibility Specification
The Accessibility Specification gives us precise instructions on ensuring that your website is accessible to the widest possible audience and meets accessibility guidelines and legislation.

Deliverables
The Deliverables for a project specify exactly what we must provide by the end of the contract period. These will usually include:

• Documentation – a list of the pages along with a map of how they fit together
• Clear information on how your business will manage the site
• The website itself – usually a series of HTML pages

Budget
The Budget for your website will be a key factor in the website you receive. It is particularly important to remember that you may be charged for any changes you make to the design along the way.

It is to your advantage to provide as much information in the brief as possible to avoid incurring these additional costs. Also, interactive elements on your pages will be expensive and you should always consider whether they add significantly to the user’s experience. If not, leave them out.

Timetable
Always ensure that the timetable for developing your site includes ample time for checking and evaluation prior to launch.

Also, establish clear milestones for delivery within the project, including dates for initial concepts, completion of functionality and sign-off of design.

It is important to establish clear lines of communication from the outset of the project. Make sure there is a single point of contact in your company and with our development team, and that all project-related information is passed through these two people.

And Finally…
dbd will be happy to work with you, as required, during this development process. We recognise that writing a website brief can be a daunting task but we are here to help you, in any way we can, through this important phase of your website creation.

We have compiled the following Jargon Buster to help you understand what the hell we are talking about!

If you think we have left something out, add a comment to this post and we will get straight back to you.

Banner Ad – is (usually) a rectangular advertisement on a website above or to the side of a website’s main content.  It will usually have a link through to the advertiser’s own site.

Blog – Short for Web Log is a web page in the style of a personal diary/commentary by the author that is usually updated on a very regular basis.  It can be accessed by anyone and often allows visitors to the site to post comments.

CMS – Short for Content Management System is the software that enables the user to manage their website content, such as adding news items or uploading images etc.

Data Capture - Collecting data (name, email address etc) from your customers / clients. Useful for e-marketing purposes.

Domains – A domain name is used in a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to identify specific websites.

E-Commerce – Short for Electronic Commerce it is business that is carried out over the internet, but more specifically relates to buying/selling – shopping carts/online purchasing.

Flash – (Adobe Flash) is the description of the technology that allows web developers to incorporate animation and interactive content into their websites.

Hosting – A web hosting is a service that enables individuals/companies to have their websites online and accessible to all via the world wide web.  You can lease space on a web host company’s server but still have your own domain name, this is a less expensive way of doing things.

HTML – Short for Hyper Text Mark-up Language is the name of the language used to create Web documents.  It defines the page layout, fonts and graphics etc.

HTML Emails – is the use of HTML (see above) in emails to provide more possibilities for use than just text ie diagrams, tables, graphs etc.  They are used in email marketing campaigns and email newsletters etc.

Javascript – Is the name of the programming language that enables web designers to design interactive features into their websites.

Keywords – These are words used by the search engines to find the most relevant websites.

Online Advertising – uses the internet to deliver marketing messages to attract potential customers, including the use of Banner Ads (see above), social network and email marketing etc.

PHP – Short for PHP: Hypertext Pre-processor is also a language that enables web designers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases.

PPC – Short for Pay Per Click is an online marketing strategy in which the advertiser pays the search engines a certain amount for every click received on their site.

Rich Media – This is a description of media that allows for active participation by the recipient or interactivity usually incorporating audio, video and high resolution graphics.

RSS – Short for Really Simple Syndication is a web-feed format specifically used to publish frequently updated websites, such as news, blogs, audio etc.

SEO – Short for Search Engine Optimisation it is the process of increasing the number of visitors to a website by ensuring it appears high in the search results of Google (and other search engines).  It gives a website a “web presence”.  Websites can be built to be “search engine friendly”.  These search results are known as organic results.

SSL – Short for Secure Sockets Layer is the procedure that enables you to send secure/private documents/data via the internet – sites have it when privacy/security is essential for example when credit card information is involved.

Clearly some people are a little more skilled in the dance department than others – but it’s the taking part that counts.  This FWA winning website is a fantastic example of how a bit of viral video uploading can create a truly amazing website.

The world is full of video cameras and people who aren’t afraid to use them.  Give someone a reason to upload a video of themselves doing something cool, stupid or dangerous and you could have a hit on your hands.

The developers of the Eternal Moonwalk were also nice enough to point us in the direction of this YouTube posting on how to achieve the perfect moonwalk! Clear some space, get a bit of MJ on the go, get the video set up – and away you go!