Neil Merton

ALA Web Design Survey

A List Apart has decided to run a Web Design Survey that will hopefully provide people inside (and outside) the web design/development industry useful information about those who are currently employed in this sector.

So, if you’re employed as a Web Designer / Web Developer then why not take the survey (shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes)?

Keeping track of tasks

In my new job there’s always a lot of new things to do and I decided that it was time to implement a way of tracking what is is required of me to do.

So, last night I went onto Hotscripts (a great source for web scripts) and had a look through what’s available. After trying out a few demos I decided to install one called TaskFreak.

What a great little application! It’s very simple (which is great) and presents the tasks in a neat way. It also utilises AJAX which nice. It’s created with PHP and its backend is MySQL so was easy to setup on my local PC.

So, if you need a way of tracking jobs then do investigate TaskFreak.

FlexiCrete Refresh

Yesterday I relaunched the FlexiCrete website. This is a website for a company in South Africa that makes easy-to-use prefabricated paving slabs / stones.

It’s the first website I’ve done in years that uses classic asp, so it was a matter of going back to the books to figure out the database code etc. I’m happy with the outcome.

The website also uses Slideshow Pro for the gallery section.

Why not go have a look?

Client Site Ripped

Just stumbled across a website that has ripped the design and css from a website I created a year ago for a freelance client.

I’ll be sending these guys a rather sturn email requesting that they either remove the website, or change the design - promptly.

Mewebdev.net Updated

Well, after my delay I’ve finally released the latest version of mewebdev.net.

At first glance you may think “What took so long? There’s not much to the website!”

Which is true - it’s now a single page website. The part that took extra time was researching what to do with the structure change and search engines. This is something I’ve never really thought about before. It turns out the best thing to do is a 301 redirect, as that informs the search engine that the page has permanently moved to a new location (the search engine should then update it’s links). I’ll monitor how this works.

As usual, please let me know what you think to the update.

Sytner Group Website Refresh

Thursday (13 July 2006) saw a refresh of the Sytner Group’s website. I spent alot of time ensuring that the overall look and feel was clean and pleasing to the eye. This is phase one of many to come.

Phase one includes a total redesign of the car locator - this now incorporates the ability to search both new and used cars along with searching by colour. Another feature is the car comparison - up to 10 cars can be compared side-by-side.

The website also sees my first attempt at using AJAX. If you click on ‘Browse by region’ underneath the list of dealerships on the left you will be presented with a map of the UK divided up into regions. Click on a region and AJAX will load the dealerships for that region. I’m pleased with the outcome.

The final big improvement is the dealership details page; this now uses Google Maps to display the location of each dealership. This ensures that the site retains a uniform look.

Let me know what you think to the website.