What we do

Websites you can update yourself

The single most requested feature from our clients is the ability to update the website themselves. So, we built a fully featured yet easy-to-use Content Management System (CMS).

Called SweetCMS, the system is now used by the majority of sites we build, and is flexible enough to be customised for a wide range of applications. All have one thing in common: they put the site content in the hands of the website owner, freeing them from reliance on their web designer for making updates.

Once you have experienced the thrill of making a change to your site as soon as you think of it - and having done it without having to pay your web designer! - you'll never look back.

Websites with a good CMS are updated more frequently, which means you can keep product details, news stories, press releases etc. up to date.

And our CMS creates fully W3C Web Standards-compliant pages, so our commitment to accessible, search engine-friendly websites is undiminished - which is more than can be said for some content management systems.

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User-centered Design

Websites exist so that people can find information or perform a task and it's in everybody's interest to make this experience as easy and pleasant as possible.

Users want to do things, not work out how to do them. If they are made to struggle with complicated navigation systems, or fail to find information where they expect to, they'll loose interest in your site and find one that treats them with a bit more respect.

Getting it right from the user's perspective is the starting point for all our web work and continues to be the most important consideration throughout the course of the project. Our development process incorporates key stages to ensure that this remains the central focus; from initial information gathering and user-task identification through wire-framing, prototyping, visual design, to user-testing and refinement.

There are tangible benefits to our clients in doing things this way, not least of which is a having a quality website that will instil confidence in your users, enhance your reputation and increase your traffic. Designing a site around the user is also a cost effective method of development. It reduces the likelihood of costly late redesigns (when you find your customers can't use your shopping cart) and can reduce the development times by focussing on the really important issues. Once they're up and running, user-friendly sites reduce the (often hidden) costs of providing training or fielding all those enquiries from confused users.

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Accessible Web Design

Accessible web design means making sure that your site can be used by the widest group of people possible. As well as being a sensible objective, since 1999 the Disability Discrimination Act means it's a legal requirement.

About 20% of the UK population have some kind of disability and many of these people will find it difficult to use a lot of sites currently on the web. We build our sites to W3C web standards. These standards govern many aspects of a site's construction and ensure that it can be accessed effectively by people with a wide range of abilities and technologies. This is particularly important where the user may be using assistive technology such as a screen reader. We start from the principle that all sites should be accessible. This means that the costs of implementation, which can be considerable if accessiblity is bolted on as an 'extra' at a later date, are included as part of the the overall design.

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Search Engine Optimisation

Your website can live or die according to its search engine ranking. However, we don't provide search engine optimisation (SEO) as a specific service… here's why.

We build all our websites to be intrinsically 'search engine-friendly' by removing any technical barriers that would prevent the search engine finding and understanding the content.

Message Director Jamie Freeman coined the term 'Holy trinity of SEO' to distil the three simple factors required to create a site that performs well in search engines. Your site needs:

• Relevant text content
• Clean, standards-compliant code
• In-bound links

If you spend your money on 'SEO' then you are wasting valuable budget! Read more about the Holy Trinity of SEO and why you shouldn't be paying for SEO services.

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Graphic and User Experience Design

One of the first ways the majority of users will experience your website is through its look and feel.

This visual impact needs to convey, in an instant, the core values of your organisation and the purpose of the site. When a person arrives they need to feel they've come to the right place. EasyJet and BA both sell air travel, but a typical customer from either company might not feel comfortable at the other's site.

Professional, wacky, conservative, laid-back… the look of your site could go in a million directions, and we will work with you to identify the right one. There is no 'one design fits all' attitude at Message; we take the task of designing the look of your site as seriously as we do every other stage of the process.

During the discovery phase (the initial website planning stage) we will have identified your potential or existing users. Knowing your users is a key consideration not only in the visual styling, but also the types of navigation conventions that we might use.

The 'feel' will also be determined by factors beyond your corporate identity. Going beyond the visual design of the websites or applications we build is the way the site behaves. Our considerable experience in designing usable interfaces is combined with our expertise in cutting edge programming techniques to produce beautiful interfaces to the underlying application.

We might use Ajax techniques, for example, to create an interface that does away with annoying page refreshes. Or we might deploy JavaScripts to enhance the user experience with smooth animations and a fluid interface. We were responsible for the web's first Ajax shopping cart (on Rapha.cc ) and we continue to blur the line between website and desktop applications.

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W3C Web Standards

One of the cornerstones of Message's approach to web design is creating W3C Web Standards-compliant websites. This helps to ensure the future compatibility of your site, aids accessibility and helps search engine users find your site.

A website designed to meet the W3C's web standards will be more compatible with not only the current range of browsers, but future versions too. Other devices (such as mobile phones or PDA's) are also more likely to correctly display your website if it's built to web standards.

Our approach also make a big impact on the accessibility of the site, as required by legislation in the UK, US and Europe. because we make sites standards-compliant by default it means we've done much of the work on accessibility without any extra effort - or cost to the client!

Search engines such as Google rely on being able to automatically navigate around websites in order to rank them and include them in its search results. If your website is built using 'clean and lean' standards-compliant code, Google will actually rank it higher as a result of not having to trawl through unnecessary code.

For more information on web standards read our client guide to web standards

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Content Evaluation

It's one thing knowing you want a website, it's quite another deciding what you should put on it.

In the absence of a clear plan and purpose, it's easy to include everything and the kitchen sink. The site becomes a huge mass of information requiring a navigation system that would baffle the most experienced user.

We understand what works on the web and what doesn't and can help you plan and organise your site content. This can include anything from defining the information architecture to suggesting interactive elements, or copywriting. And with our background in advertising and marketing, we understand the importance of working with your offline communications.

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Project Management

Many small design companies overlook the importance of good project management. We don't, because we recognise that it's vital for our clients and for us to stay within our schedule and budget.

Developing websites is an involved process made up of many tasks, and if these are not managed effectively things can quickly get out of hand. We have developed effective project processes to ensure things stay on course.

Having a clear method has many other benefits to us and our clients:

• It provides a source of common focus and understanding about how the project will unfold.
• It makes clear the project objectives and the quality standards expected, making us accountable at every stage of the development.
• It allows better scheduling and costing as the project can be broken down into clearly defined stages.

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