omega2 web design

Keep those passwords unique and safe

2011-02-03T16:43:00.000Z

Following a recent site visit to a client, where their server was protected by a default username and password (and I guessed it first attempt) it seemed timely to remind everyone about some basic password rules.

Creating a secure password:

Mix capital and lowercase letters.
Include punctuation marks and/or numbers.
Include similar looking substitutions, such as the number zero for the letter 'O' or '$' for the letter 'S' or number 3 for letter "e".
Create a unique acronym.
Use an unrelated piece of date e.g. name of place on map selected by random pin

You should avoid:

Don't use a password that contains personal information (name, birth date, etc.)
Don't use keyboard patterns (asdf) or sequential numbers (1234).
Don't make your password all numbers, uppercase letters or lowercase letters.

And remember to keep passwords safe and change them regularly. You might want to load your passwords into a password safe where you need a master password to access them when the time comes.

Time for spring cleaning...

Repetition, repetition, repetition

2010-10-22T01:42:00.001+01:00

The message is in the title. Do it well, do it regularly and remember to tell people about the results. Whatever you do well, show it off. Do not boast, let your actions tell the story. If you are doing it well, and often enough, it should be easy to get the message over to those that matter.

Re-order that list visually!

2010-05-15T07:25:00.001+01:00

A great way to re-order a list of items in an intuitive and visual way. New list order is then stored back to the MYSQL database. There are several ways of doing it, but this is a neat addition. Have a look at the jquery library for a series of sortable options.

Textures to impress

2010-04-17T03:15:00.003+01:00

Clean high quality textures can lift a site from the mundane to impressive. Offering multiple sizes of their images this texture site is clean and simple to use and offers some particularly high quality textures.

Watch out for page load time and be cautious where you use the larger images. Less is more!

Fabulous Fonts - but use them wisely

2010-04-13T08:54:00.002+01:00

You may notice sites using some impressive fonts, without using graphic images only. If you want to apply a font consider the Cufon javascript font replacement. This allows you to encode a chosen font on the page and then specify the elements to which it will apply.

A powerful tool, but keep it to the main headings or selected page elements or it can look too much (and will slow the page load).

The results are excellent, although there is some break up on some of the mini browsers such as Opera Mini when used on smart phones.

There are other tools for achieving this, but this is a good way of breaking out of the standard browser fonts.

How to grade a website

2010-03-26T00:24:00.003Z

Ok, it is not the whole picture, but a useful free tool is the web site grader from hubspot. Test your site and see how it is rated. It is very focused on social media, but overall a useful tool as a pointer to site performance.

SEO in 2009

2009-01-02T22:51:00.003Z

As we head into 2009 we need to review the performance of our sites and ensure that we are getting the best possible performance. Watch this space for a selection of top tips.

SEO for client sites

2008-10-14T10:47:00.003+01:00

Increasingly companies are using open source systems to design their early sites and then finding their search engine optimisation is not as effective as it might be. A recent article in The Telegraph highlighted a site owners plea for help. There are certainly many companies who will part clients from their money and in several instances we have been both surprised by what they had charged for the service and bemused by some of their tactics.

There are many factors affecting search engine positioning, but the "black hat" techniques tend to ultimately damage reputation rather than enhance it. Keeping the techniques "above board" never harms a site.

Search Engine Optimisation should really be one of the first things considered when laying out the design of a site and deciding on the appropriate platform. If this has not been done there are still factors which can be improved, both on and off the site, but they do require some active monitoring and a programme of regular updates to maximise the opportunity.

Whilst Google does not focus on meta tags, other browsers do and it will not harm your site to set down the accurate basics:

1. Check that your site contains keywords (preferably not single words) that people are actually searching on

2. Don't use too many keywords (or too many characters in the keyword meta tag)

3. Keep the description meta relevant to the page content.

Keep those colour palettes co-ordinated

2008-06-09T10:31:00.001+01:00

Whilst there is no definitive rules for colour palettes, there are good tools to suggest combinations that work together. One such tool is the Kuler project from Adobe. There are numerous submissions and you can select from the most recent or popular or colour hue etc. There are user comments on style sets and it can highlight alternative sets.

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Kuler Palette

2008-06-08T10:21:00.002+01:00

Keep those palettes clean with Adobe Kuler. Some good new colour combinations and you can see what is currently popular. Subscribe to the RSS to keep up to date.

Google Analytics Tracking Code Issue with Contribute CS3 - _gat is not defined,

2008-06-02T15:23:00.004+01:00

You may have noticed in Google Analytics that there is a new code and a legacy code. We recently experienced an issue where a client updating their content using Contribute CS3 repeatedly got script errors on their pages as soon as they published changes. The site reported that there was a closing issue with the script and it added ")); below the footer on each published page. The site was written using the new Google tracking code:

The solution, after trying several alternative template changes, seems to be using the legacy analytics code as it seems to work without issue with Contribute CS3.

Please note: the legacy tracking code is urchin.js and the new tracking code is ga.js

There is a much longer explanation of the issue, but for now, the simple fix saves lots of time.

Web design glossary of terms

2008-05-31T17:10:00.002+01:00

An easy reference list for those looking for a quick guide to some of the much used web design terms

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The omega2 web design blog ...

2008-05-31T11:12:00.001+01:00

The omega2webdesign blog goes live. We will keep you up to date on everything we think you will find interesting in the world of web design. Keep coming back and we will develop the content into a useful resource.

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