Spyda Web Design

Spyda go bye bye

2009-08-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

Just to kinda let you know the Spyda site is going to be disappearing shortly. As part of the whole new venture into hosting clients ourselves I've had to change the doman over to the new place. Of course this means messing about with nameservers and horribleness like that.

Now I know I'm taking a risk but for the foreseeable future the Spyda site will be unaccessible until I have cleared the existing workload and sorted the redesign out.

So if you want me grab me here or on Twitter.

A small note to Virgin Media

2009-08-18T05:59:00.000-07:00

Well if you have been following Ehkho's blog you may know the large amount of problems that we have recently experienced with Virgin Media, in particular their broadband internet, or more specifically their "customer service" department.

Well after finally getting sick of it and cancelling all of our services I received an e-mail from said "customer service" department, asking if I can take a small amount of time to fill in a questionnaire telling them how I am enjoying "the NEW services I have with them"...New?? Try NONE!

Thanks for getting in touch with our team recently about changing your Virgin Media package.

We hope you're happy with the new services you have, and that they're just what you wanted.

In fact, that's what we're writing about. At Virgin Media, we want to make sure we give you the best customer service out there. So we'd really like to find out how things went for you when we changed your services

So I took the chance to let them know a few home truths. I filled out their rating form as low as it would let me. Apparently their drop down menu designers neglected to put in appauling or sh*t as choices. They did however give me a wonderful little text box in which to type anything I wished to convey to them, below is what I deemed important enough to stop swearing at the screen and let them know.

After arranging a disconnection that didn't happen, I was then charged a further
months fee for the services I cancelled and harassed by a member of your staff
to not drop Virgin Media and to continue using them. I have received no
"jiffy bags" to send back equipment or final statement as promised by the Virgin
Media representatives I have dealt with over this matter.

Your customer "service" team were the reason I left Virgin Media and the reason
I will stay away from Virgin Media. Your customer service operators lie, forget,
do not note things properly, do not listen and above all never seem to think
that THE CUSTOMER IS RIGHT! RETRAIN THEM ALL!!!

Life Update

2009-07-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

Wow!

Well things have certainly changed a bit over the last little while so I thought I'd let you all know what's going on in the world of Spyda Web Design.

First off, we're finally moving!!!! Yup we're outta this small little hell hole and we're off to a nice new house in the back and beyond of the county. A small little place called Blaydon. We're minutes from the main shops (all be it up a massive hill which you have to go on tip-toes not to fall down backwards while walking up). The place is lush, I got pics but they of bare horrible walls that haven't been decorated and the designer in me isn't going to show a non-finished product!

This is it as seen on Google Earth from the sky. I'm not going to tell you which one it is incase you start stalking me, or just looking on Google Earth to see if you can see me nudey sunbathing in the garden!

I will tell you that it's the one with the tree!

Oh and the marker that is on there is wrong, so you can rule that house out. Wow, so many clues, you'll be posting me stuff next.

Right so yes house that's the first big thing.

Second would have to be the new post I have as an article writer at Wuup. Wuup is the free blog, of the team of Web Designers and Developers based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Now yes, I know I'm not from Norfolk but they don't seem to have noticed that yet, or are just being polite enough not to mention it (which is nice so shhhhhh). It's a great little blog with loads of helpful tutorials and articles on it so I highly recommend you check it out! Also you can Follow Wuup at Twitter.

Now to the frankly huge news! Come this Friday I will be officially un...oop no scratch that...self employed!!!! I'm telling the job center where to put their fortnightly visits to the job center and paying myself!

This comes hand in hand with a pile of new work for Spyda so we're running around like lunatics at the minute!

As you can see from the posts below we have just updated Ehkho's blog. We have also just finished the blog for BuiltByBeth. Through PHDN we have just landed a contract to build Elar-recruitment's new site (nothing there right now) using theKore CMS (in it's PHDN disguise) which has just emerged victorious from it's battles with the vigorous testing procedures thrown at it.

Soooo all in all we're very busy people right now so you'll have to excuse me I have stuff to do!!! :-O

So much to do so little time.

Diggin the new look?

2009-07-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

What do ya think? Too cartoony to be a serious web design company or sociable enough to attract anyone?

Ehkho's Blog

2009-07-12T16:24:00.001-07:00

After much waiting around for me to finish theKore CMS my darling missus got fed up of waiting and demanded to see something so I quickly...(2 days including my birthday)...made her blog template in the new style.

http://ehkho.blogspot.com/

The most demanding template I've done to date but all is looking GRrrrrreat!!!

Stay tuned for more from Sypda in the Blogger template department!

CSS Galleries - Creating trends or destroying individuality?

2009-07-08T03:53:00.000-07:00

Trends in design come and go; trends in website design come and go even quicker. As standards evolve and software and programming languages become more advanced so to do the websites that are designed and built using them. We have gone from plain text documents to beautifully hand drawn websites, passing through many stages in between. The overall trend to make a more beautiful, easier to use Internet.

Ever since CSS was announced as the way forward for the Internet, designers and developers were filled with the desire to show off their new, individual, beautifully designed websites. Over the years this has gone from simply having a website, advertising about it and showing it off, to the situation we find ourselves in now; websites dedicated soley for showing off or sharing your latest design creation to offer a glimpse of what is possible and maybe inspire something in others.

But is this the case?

There are some great CSS gallery sites out there, Browsershots showcase, CSS Elite to name but two of the ones I use most often. Don't get me wrong I love looking through these sites. I'm sure many of you spend time every day browsing through the gallery sites looking to see if there are new, innovative or just plain different design ideas appearing in the world. I know as a designer you have to keep up with the latest trends and incorporate them from time to time to ensure you don't "stale".

I sit and scan through these designs watching trends appear and disappear with alarming frequency. Looking over the pages of designs saved forever in the vaults of these sites can provide a fun trip back over memory lane, watching the style we see in the Internet today evolve in small increments. Back at the beginning most CSS Gallery sites started as designers and programmers came across sites they saw as "above the norm" and listed them for others to see, a kind of recommendation, "Hey you gotta see this...". But now more than ever these sites seem to be descending into little more than advertising portfolios for designers trying to "break into the industry" and "get noticed". This seems to have had an interesting effect on the design structures used on the Internet.

The trip down memory lane showed me another alarming fact. As you get closer to the newest designs it becomes harder to tell the designs apart. Yes there's obvious colour and layout differences, yes fonts are different and yes imagery and names differ. However look at the over all trends. I'm not going to sit here and do an in depth comparison of page x and page y. It's a bit irrelevant, I'm talking wider area here.

As you scan the pages, a style trend will appear, generally there will then be another batch of designs just after with the same kind of style. Maybe arranged differently, maybe coloured differently but definitely "Inspired by" the original.

As peope are visiting the gallery sites they are seeing big batches of the same style of design and to begin with think "ooh a new design style I'll have to incorporate it into something soon". We all do it, it's the way trends evolve and I have no problem with that. What happens with some is that this trend then merges itself with their work. All of a sudden there are 20-25 designs on this gallery site, almost on the same page, looking and feeling similar. As people see these they begin to realise the trend is getting a little to over(ab)used and move on to the next, slowly growing trend.

Soon enough the trend, as all trends are, is demoted to the "cliche" or "retro" boxes and pull them out only when a site really needs to use that particular look. Such is the way of design trends, after all they wouldn't really be trends if they hung about forever looking cool, like a granny wearing the latest emo gear. On a side note I think the only dress design styles that look good on old people are...Teddy boy and punk, but that's another blog entirely.

Sorry, back to the Internet...

So what of the original piece of fantastic design that everyone was so inspired by?

Well it has a chance of two things happening.

1. It gets consigned to the boxes of history in one of the two categories (cliche or retro for those who skipped some)

2. It claims a place in the history books as the site that inspired X number of other sites. The Silverback jungle scene using a parallax is a good example of this.

Who decides whether this happens, well I think that's us as a community. If we didn't rave about sites like this who would remember them? I doubt everyday Internet "users" have their own top 10 of wonderfully designed sites.

CSS galleries seem to be helping trends evolve in Internet design. Maybe a bit quicker than before but is that bad? Is it wrong to be inspired by a design and want to include the feel of it in your designs? Is it the end of the design industry if trends fly past quicker than a japanes bullet train?

As with all website designs only time will tell.

Maybe the question I should be asking is CSS Galleries - Around forever looking cool like a 70 year old punk or into the boxes of history with them?

Spyda Blogger Templates

2009-06-30T04:32:00.000-07:00

I now declare Spyda Web Design to have a new string to its bow. On top of awesome design skills, a fantastic Content Management System (theKore), friendly and helpful service, SEO and accessibility driven sites and up to date programming Spyda now adds Blogger Templating.

Driven by the exact same standards as out sites; our blogger templates will be individual, unique, spankingly good to look at and easy on the pocket.

Yes I know there are free templates out there, but honestly would you want to be one of a million people using the same template or do you have that little spark of individuality, does your blog have something different to say or do you just want to simply stand out?

Take us up on the challenge, if you're feeling bored, give us some colours and a style and we will stick up something on this blog that may take your fancy.