The Hatchery

An updated site and portfolio!

2012-07-05T14:03:00.002+02:00

It is difficult to believe that the last time we updated our blog was in April 2010. Oooops! Where have the last 2 years disappeared to?...

We are very proud to announce the launch of a slightly revised and wholly updated portfolio on our site, and welcome your feedback. We think we have made a lot of customers very happy with the hard work we have put in, and our attention to pixel perfection. Cloudbase has become a truly enterprise content and e-commerce management engine, and is packed with 6 years of learnings and development - an asset to any online project.

If you are interested in talking to us about your next project, please drop us an email at info@thehatchery.co.uk, and if you know any .NET developers or hot web designers that are looking for a job (no agencies or outsource partners please!), please get them to get in touch with their CV and portfolio asap. We are growing and need the best people to help us do so.

Thanks for visiting us. We will do our best not to wait 2 years next time to keep you up to date with all the happenings in The Hatchery.

Why did we build Cloudbase (our proprietary solution) instead of using an open source content management system?

2010-04-19T12:22:00.002+02:00

We were involved in two meetings on Friday last week and both potential customers asked us the same question: "Why did you build your own content management system instead of using an open source platform such as Joomla or Wordpress?"

In a sentence, the answer is simply that none of the existing platforms easily accommodated the requirements of our clients or ourselves.

So what were our requirements?

We needed a solution that met the following primary requirements:

Have a design agnostic, modular approach to content management - recognising that each client's site should be unique and unconstrained by the content management system it uses
Incredible ease of use for content administration (point, click, edit, save)
Provide an content editor that facilitates multi-language conversions
Easy integration with 3rd party tools such as Google Maps, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook Graph API, Amazon and any others that our clients might require
Versatility and robustness that can be morphed into a solution that works best for every client - not just the common denominator
Prevent user changes from breaking the site layout and design

So Cloudbase is our answer to all of those requirements (among many other less important ones) and we are incredibly pleased with the feedback we have received from clients that regularly use the system - a key to our success with this platform being that it has been engineered based on customer demand rather than our idea of what our customers might require.
A further benefit of Cloudbase is that it is built in such a way that all improvements we make to the system are automatically provided to existing client sites at no additional charge - thereby keeping one's site functionality fresh and budget healthy.
If you are designing a new website or re-designing your existing one, we encourage you to consider the following:

Can your chosen content management system (CMS) flexibly adapt to your evolving business requirements?
Will your CMS allow your designers to have complete control over the look and feel of your website (thereby ensuring your site stands out in the crowded world of the Internet)?
If your business has a key differentiating factor or focuses on a niche in the market, can you adequately represent this on your new website built on your selected CMS or will you look just like the competition?
Is your chosen CMS search engine friendly in the way it structures your page content and allows you to add metadata?

We love Cloudbase and so do our clients so we hope you will consider us for your next website build. It isn't an out-of-the-box solution and we don't intend it to ever be one. We design sites to be unique and to win our clients market share - not to simply look the same as everyone else. If this philosophy matches your own vision for your online presence then please get in touch with us at info@thehatchery.co.uk. We are eager to help.

Part 1: Does my business need a website, social media and all that stuff?

2010-04-12T16:04:00.000+02:00

We have recently seen a spike in requests from customers to explain how the Internet, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and social media in general can help their business grow, and what it actually all means. Although many customers are wanting to generate new business leads and maintain customer relationships in a relevant and convenient way, they are primarily worried that embracing the web and social media will mean that they spend more time in front of their computer and less time face-to-face with their customers or family.

This is a perfectly valid concern and needs to be properly explored in the context of one's own business before plunging into the gripping, limitless world of digital media and communications. In my next few blog posts, I will explore numerous popular technologies that may (or may not) be of business benefit to you.

Please note that while I hope you will derive benefit from this information, you shouldn't apply it without due consideration to your own business requirements, target market, resources and processes. The information provided is intended to stimulate thinking rather than answer all your questions. If you are lacking in confidence or remain confused by all the jargon and options, we would be pleased to undertake a full assessment of how you could and / or should use technology to grow your business and embrace your customers. For more information please email us at info@thehatchery.co.uk.

The Internet

The Internet has been around for years now and if you are reading this blog post then you already know what a browser is and how to navigate web pages. What you may not know is how the Internet is structured, how search engines show you exactly what you are looking for, and most importantly, how you can beat your competition to the next lead or sale.

How the Internet is Structured

I don't want to go into too much detail about how the Internet is structured as I want to try and keep this as jargon and clutter free as possible. If you feel you need more meat on the bone then take a look at Rohan's blog post about using 'View Source' to assess your website structure. What I will say about the Internet and how data is structured is that it isn't all a complete mess.

Most people use browsers to view websites and pages and those browsers are all trained to interpret structure and styles using standardised codes defined in languages such as HTML and CSS. If there was no structure to the Internet it would make a search engine's job of finding relevant information much more difficult - almost impossible. So bear this in mind: how your website is structured is important. You can get away with quite a lot but for optimal search engine results and usability, you absolutely must pay attention to how your website code and content are organised.

Search Engines

Nowadays one can find almost anything on the Internet. Individuals, families, groups, businesses and governments all contribute to the data available on the World Wide Web. The brilliant minds of Sergey Brin and Larry Page that created Google developed some incredibly complex algorithms to simplify the process of finding information on the Internet quickly and easily. Larry Page devised the system we now call PageRank which tries to determine the relative importance of a set of links and therefore pages. In academic circles, the basis on which he built his link analysis algorithms made perfect sense as it mirrored the commonly used 'citations' framework in academia. It was logical that the more times a paper was cited by other academics, the more important that paper was. And so, one of the key metrics used for evaluating relevance on the Internet was, and remains, links. The more times your website is referenced by others, and the more important those other websites are, the higher your website will be ranked relative to those with similar keywords, titles and content.

So, a key consideration for your web strategy should be link building. We don't advocate buying links (even though this may seem like a quick way to improve your rankings) primarily because search engines are becoming smarter all the time and will penalise you if they discover your site has tried to take advantage of this somewhat questionable ecosystem. Do this properly and traditionally. The Internet should be seen as another marketing channel and despite being shrouded in bits and bytes and unfathomable concepts, it is still administered by people. People write most of the content on the Internet and as such, are responsible for adding links and referencing other websites. Find those people and connect with them. I will discuss more about how to do this when I talk about Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the other social media tools out there in a subsequent posting.

Beating the Competition aka Improving your PageRank

There are literally hundreds of articles on the Internet that will tell you how to improve your PageRank and drive more traffic to your website. Here are my top tips for doing so:

Include high quality, relevant information on your website
Promote your site to everyone you communicate with - ensuring you include your website address on business cards, letterheads, newsletters and emails just to name a few
Get your website featured on some of the bigger sites on the Internet
Tell the Press about your website
Keep your website running smoothly and keep it up to date

...and for more advanced users:

Consider Google Adwords and other online advertising opportunities to drive more traffic to your site (more on this in subsequent posts)
Provide a RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed for your website which will alert users to changes in your website content

Those tips will get you going in the right direction. Remember that essentially when your website is published it simply says 'here I am'. Now you need to get search engines, blogs and other websites to point at your website and say to their readers - 'Look there, you will like that.'

In part two I will be discussing social media and how you can personally start to drive more traffic to your website. The tools are all free, but the process of cracking social media will take time and dedication.

Good luck optimising your website and ranking higher in the search engines.

Read all about it - we are exiting the recession

2010-03-15T19:57:00.000+02:00

My primary source of news nowadays is Google Reader which I have configured to pull news stories from all the sources I feel publish content relevant to me and The Hatchery. Last week I noticed a change that made me think - can we use the news to quickly predict economic fluctuations?

Well of Course You Say

The aforementioned statement may sound silly and obvious but the simplicity of the indicator I am referring to struck me as slightly different. On Saturday morning I opened Google Reader to find 486 unread news articles. Wow. On average, the number of unread articles I receive every morning is somewhere between 200 and 280, but on Saturday (and ever since), that number has more than doubled.

After reading (or at least scanning) them all over the past 3 days, I can say that I am struck by the amount of positivity in many of the articles and blog posts. The underlying sentiment is not as dreary and filled with doom and gloom outlooks and predictions. Can we deduce that we might be seeing a turning point? Could the most simplistic economic indicator be the number of news articles published across a random selection of sources?

The Indicator

In the past it was pretty difficult to determine the quantity of news published by multiple sources. One might have noticed a slightly thinner newspaper or fewer ads in print, but generally the comparisons we could draw were limited to a single source and their historical track record. Google Reader throws that limitation out of the window and I for one am excited by the insight I feel it provides.

The economic indicator I believe I may have stumbled upon needs context - like all other useful indicators. For example, approximately 60% of my news comes from Silicon Valley or the USA and another 10% from South Africa. So a rise in the number of articles or improvement in general sentiment may be just that - general; and may only be relevant to the region(s) in which the majority of one's news articles are published.

What do you think? Until the economies of the world have recovered and an approximate turning point identified, can this potentially be used as a simple indicator?

Offshore Development - Where are the landmines?

2010-03-08T21:29:00.001+02:00

Choosing an offshore design and / or development company over a specialist agency based in the UK can potentially save thousands of pounds; but unless you have the expertise to manage the remote team and the technical know-how to perform adequate QA on the delivered product you may be setting yourself up for failure and wasted expense.

Benefits of Offshoring

Price. Hiring developers in India, China or South Africa can be significantly cheaper. On average we have found offshore development to cost 30% less than hiring staff in London to do the job, but some of that saving is offset by the cost of a suitable project manager with technical know-how to ensure the offshoring process saves, rather than costs, money.
A full team instead of just one resource. Most offshore companies now offer customers pricing based on time spread across multiple resources. You might get a part time project manager, full time developer, part time designer and test specialist in a package that is attractively priced. This is great. In fact, it is vitally important, but the benefit is negated if you use a specialist web design / development agency in London as their team will provide the same benefit - and often with more experienced, value adding resources that have a good understanding of your target market.

Disadvantages of Offshoring

Timezone Differences A 5 hour (or so) time difference with India might not seem like a problem but adding up the delays in communication across an entire project development lifecycle can easily double the expected time required to deliver a completed product. You will be required to sign off on deliverables on a regular basis and any delays in that sign off will directly impact on the delivery date. Make sure you can afford slippages in your product or site launch or plan according to the likelihood that timezone differences will cause slippages.
Language Difficulties Adequately communicating requirements and managing a project from start to finish with native, English-speaking developers and designers is a challenge at the best of times. Doing this with limited-English speaking teams can be a nightmare.
Consistency Many offshore companies rotate resources between projects and one can quite easily receive a project that only just hangs together in both design and code consistency. While your website or product may appear to do the job, it is vital that you look under the hood and make sure the delivered project is reasonably constructed and easy to maintain. Our experience is that often this is not the case.
International Experience Many designers and developers in the commonly used offshore countries have little or no international work experience. We regularly undertake projects that are fundamentally unfit for purpose but only because the designer or developer didn't understand the market in which the product or website was to be used. A good example of this comes in the form of e-commerce websites. The rules and requirements governing e-commerce (and in particular, payment processing) in the UK can be quite different to other countries, and often those requirements are overlooked and therefore render an offshore project useless - especially if maintaining or changing the code provided by the offshore company is a mess.
Lack of Professionalism There is also a definite difference in professionalism between in-country and offshore providers. Ensure that you match the right resource with your requirements and don't just accept the offshore provider's recommendations. It really will help to have a specialist project manager consult locally to help you navigate the technical jargon that is thrown your way.

I have highlighted a few of the obvious benefits of offshoring your next design / development project and mentioned a few of the mines you need to avoid if you decide to do so.

If price is your only consideration then dealing with the risks associated with offshoring won't worry you too much. If quality, maintainability and time are your most important considerations then our suggestion is that you manage the risk of offshoring by contracting an experienced, local, technical consultant with experience of the process and project requirements to get the job done properly.

If offshoring isn't for you then contact us (info@thehatchery.co.uk) for an all-inclusive package that is affordable, unique and professional.

The Confusion Virus

2010-03-01T17:40:00.001+02:00

As a child I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. As an adult, I still don't, and I believe this confusion virus is spreading like wildfire. The media (all types), big business, Universities (perhaps even schools) and now social media breathe the virus into all of us...and I wonder if anyone is working on a cure? Is this a virus without a cure? Is it a virus that does more good than harm?

We read about headline success stories, the 'one in a million' person that achieves something incredible, and we can almost taste it for ourselves. Should we do what they did?...we can do that...we should do that! We are constantly comparing and moulding ourselves to a benchmark that doesn't exist - at least not outside our own minds and the media frenzy.

On observation, in business it seems that the new form of entrepreneurship is not about setting up a physical store or offering an on-site service, but rather doing something on the Internet and something for ourselves...and our benchmark for success is presented by the media in headlines, by Universities in case studies and in social media by word of mouth. We believe we don't have to sell because the internet is so big it sells itself; we believe it is easier working from home than commuting to work every morning; we believe that raising $10 million for our business is just a matter of time; we believe all the millionaires in the headlines achieved their success with little or no help; we believe it is all too easy. We are confused by the signals of mass media and the reality of life.

Last night, Canada beat the USA in the ice hockey final at the Olympics 3-2 in overtime. Their victory was stunning and deserved but the headlines only reflect the glory, not the blood, sweat and tears that have got the team to that point in history. The headlines make us focus on Crosby and propel him disproportionately ahead of all the other players, as if he was the only person on the team. The problem with the virus I am writing about is that it blurs our vision and doesn't allow us to appreciate the full picture.

I have seldom been one to compete with anyone else for status, money, and possessions (a rare character trait my Dad has blessed me with) but I would be lying if I said that it isn't a struggle to avoid doing so. In my life, the confusion virus presents as a different strain. I haven't been led to believe that I deserve or need what others have, but I have been buoyed into believing that anything is possible and why should I not do the best I possibly can to achieve wealth and material riches? Without this belief I know that progress in the world is unachievable; but with it, I wonder how many people are struggling to provide?...how many marriages are crumbling under the pressures of debt?...and how many heart attacks and strokes are induced by the realities of failure?

Are we on a collision course with reality or can we concentrate our energies sufficient enough to realise that life and all it's rewards demand dedication, single-mindedness, and all the other strong character traits?...and what of the softer traits - selflessness, sincerity, humility, love, care, compassion? Has the virus crushed those already or might they be our only hope for a cure?

Your site should degrade gracefully

2010-02-25T18:16:00.011+02:00

Browsers all interpret your web site slightly differently. Should the aim be to have your site look identical across multiple browsers, or for your site to take advantage of the latest enhancements offered by modern browsers while still covering the basics for the older ones?

Internet browsers all serve the same basic purpose: They display content contained on a web server based on a visitor's request. (The request could be in the form of typing a URL into their browser's address bar or simply clicking on a link.) This process is described below:

A user enters a URL (web address) into the Address Bar of their browser.
The browser then determines which web server hosts the content for the requested URL.
The browser then sends a request to the web server for the relevant content that makes up the website. This could require additional computation by the web server if the document requested is written in an advanced programming language like .NET or PHP.
The resultant HTML document sent back by the server is downloaded to the user's computer.
The browser starts to process the document and may be instructed (by the document itself) to retrieve additional supporting files from the web server. These could include CSS, Javascript, images, and video etc.
The browser then organises all the content into a visually pleasing and logical format for the user, based on the instructions included in the retrieved HTML, CSS, Javascript and other files.

Our problem lies in step 6 - the processing and organisation of the downloaded contents. Each and every browser - be it Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer - will interpret the instructions contained in the HTML and CSS slightly differently. Adding to the confusion is the fact that even various versions of the same browser can display the same element differently.

Web standards and the light at the end of the tunnel

This problem is slowly being negated by a common set of web standards that browsers are meant to adhere to, although even some of these rules seem to be open to interpretation. Web browsers like Firefox, Safari and Chrome all support these standards with only a small handful of quirks. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Microsoft's Internet Explorer. While this browser continues to improve with each major release, it's older versions - namely Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 (both of which still hold a fairly large market share thanks to lousy IT departments in corporate environments and the lack of high speed Internet to facilitate alternative browser downloads in the developing world) - are nothing short of atrocious in their flagrant disregard for the standards laid out by the W3C.

Browser usage statistics reveal that as at January 2010, 10% of web surfers still use Internet Explorer 6 (released in 2001) and 12% still use Internet Explorer 7 (released in 2006). This means that we cannot easily ignore them when building a site, but rather need to go out of our way to accommodate them. This process is costly and resource intensive, but cannot be avoided.

Building web sites that degrade gracefully

There are two ways to build web sites. You can build a web site specifically for the lowest common denominator, which will almost always be Microsoft's charming Internet Explorer 6. Doing this ensures that the web site not only works but also looks identical in all browsers. Unfortunately this also means that you're ignoring the last nine years of evolution in web design, effectively hamstringing your site.

You can alternatively build it for the strongest browsers on the market (adhering to web standards) and ensure that it degrades gracefully in older browsers. This means using the very latest technology and enhancements available to you, most of which will not be supported in Internet Explorer 6 and possibly 7, but also providing fallback information for the older browsers so that if a command is not understood, there is a backup instruction guaranteed to work. This ensures that your web site can use the very latest tools available, often greatly improving areas such as design or user experience. The down side, if you can call it that, is that your web site will look slightly different across multiple browsers.

The Hatchery will always choose the latter option when building your web site.

How major are these differences?

As I mentioned, most of these enhancements involve either design or user experience, and are thus cosmetic. Examples of this include a heading that could have a text-shadow effect applied to it in modern browsers but would just appear as plain text in Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8; or a box which could have rounded corners and a gradient background in newer browsers but would appear as a solid rectangle in older ones. Overall structure and colours should not be affected in any way.

Adhering to standards futureproofs your site

Internet Explorer has been around for a long time - too long in most designer's minds! But thankfully it is being phased out. Microsoft will stop supporting it (no more security fixes etc.) in 2011, and many influential web presences like Google Docs and YouTube have formally stopped supporting it already (or will do in the next month or so). Once it is gone you do not want to be amongst a crowd of competitors who chose to to use the latest technology available to them whilst you aimed for a basic Internet Explorer 6 compliant site. The fact that your site may look slightly different across multiple browsers really shouldn't be a major concern.

I'm a Mac and Windows 7 was...sort of...my idea...

2010-02-22T14:04:00.004+02:00

Microsoft's Windows Vista was undeniably a massive failure and fundamentally rocked the foundation on which my house is built. For the past 3 years I have been paralysed. Not physically, but technologically as far as Microsoft technologies are concerned. Having installed Windows 7 this past weekend, I am asking the question - how does Windows 7 change me, and was it really my idea as Microsoft would have me believe?

For 12+ years I have been a Microsoft software developer. To this day, The Hatchery remains a Microsoft Registered Partner and Empower Programme Subscriber. In fact, our incredibly powerful content management and e-commerce engine (Cloudbase™) is built using Visual Studio on the .NET 3.5 framework. So, it is fair to say that I am not anti-Microsoft, but in the past 3 years I have spent more money on Apple hardware and software than I have on any other technology company's products. For a breakdown of my technology spend over the past 3 years please see the Appendix at the end of this blog post.

So how did this keen Microsoft developer turn sweet on Apple and sour on Microsoft?

Quite simple: Windows Vista and the iPhone.

In masterful strokes of genius, Steve Jobs and the team at Apple have identified why their company has struggled for years against Microsoft (the Goliath), and developed technologies that couldn't solve their competitive problems any better than they do.

At the same time, Microsoft has continued to try and be everything to everyone in a world where consumers would prefer devices and software that are built for a particular job and which do that job brilliantly; that are designed, not just engineered; and that make life simpler and more enjoyable.

In my opinion, the iPod was really the turning point for Apple. It put Apple technologies in the hands of millions. With consumers accustomed to using iTunes and Apple software and hardware, the iMac and Mac OS X began their rise to prominence in the home. Then the iPhone smashed onto the scene and put Apple technology in our hands, pockets or at least very nearby for 24 hours a day. With the iPhone, Apple dangled a carrot and many developers scrambled to learn Cocoa and Xcode - the language and environment with which one can build all Mac applications. Now, with Apple stores around the world attracting millions of visitors annually, and innovation such as the iPod, iPhone and the iPad relentlessly making our lives easier and more enjoyable, Apple is undoubtedly a major player in the league of tech giants and developers are actively building software for Mac OS X and Apple's mobile equivalents.

...and how did Microsoft sour our relationship with Windows Vista?

The product was touted as revolutionary and the tech community was treated to functionality promises that dazzled. However, the reality was far from what we were encouraged to dream would be possible with this operating system.

I started this blog post talking about my technology paralysis, and Windows Vista was the cause. For 3 years I have worked on the edge of my seat, expecting Vista to crash at any moment into a blue screen of death and my work to be irreparably lost to the Windows binary monster. It has happened on multiple occasions and cost me a bundle in irrecoverable time and frustration.

Not only was Windows Vista one of the worst operating systems that Microsoft has ever released to market, but the company made further mistakes when it released the product. Some of these mistakes included: a crazy pricing model with a myriad of operating system versions that confused even the tech community, pricing 4+ times the cost of Mac's OS X Leopard, arrogance in their denials that the product had fundamental problems, and the delivery of a product that was oversold and which under-delivered.

So when Microsoft announced that Windows 7 would be released in October last year, I really couldn't have cared. The announcement didn't make me hunt down keynote speeches for more info or make plans to queue for my copy. I just ignored the news. Microsoft's Vista had made me indifferent and paralysed my interest in Redmond's products - perhaps even making an Apostle out of me for the company's competitor in Cupertino.

The problem is that I need Microsoft Windows to build websites on our technology foundation, so when Vista crashed on me on Friday I resolved to take Windows 7 for a spin as my thinking was that anything must surely be better than Vista.

Boy am I pleased that I did. Despite taking 4 hours to upgrade my Vista installation, the first brush of my mouse cursor over the Windows 7 taskbar put a smile on my face and much was forgiven. Windows 7 doesn't look that different to Windows Vista but it feels more solid. User Account Control is more robust and appropriately implemented and the attention to detail that the development team paid to this latest release is obvious. Not only does the system function better but it is quicker and uses fewer system resources to do the job. Brilliant!

So how has this changed me?

Many would brand me as an Apple Fan-boy nowadays and there is no doubt that if someone asked me what machine I would recommend they purchase, a Mac / iMac / Macbook would remain my first response in spite of Windows 7, and irrespective of the initial cost. So I am asking myself the question, am I a Mac or a PC and was Windows 7 really my idea?

After much thought, I have determined that I am a Mac. I am not yet a Mac through-and-through as I still wear my PC tie under my uber-cool and relaxed sweatshirt in the form of Windows 7 running inside VMware, but nevertheless, Mac OS X runs in my veins and the iPhone rings in my ears. As great as Windows 7 is in comparison to Vista, it is still no Mac OS X, but to it's credit, it is feeling more and more like OS X to use. So...was Windows 7 my idea?...

I guess to some extent it was. By expressing my favouritism for Apple and Mac OS X along with millions of others around the world, Microsoft has heard the pitter patter of our feet from their door to Apple's and has suddenly sat up and taken note of the features that make Mac OS X so strong. I can only hope that they continue to fight Apple for market share so that both companies remain honest, but I also hope they find the innovation and skills to catch up and start leading the world of technology again, rather than watching Steve Jobs' back as he disappears into the horizon that is the future of computing.

Appendix A (My Technology Spend over the Past 3 Years)

My headline technology spend (approximations) over the past 3 years:

February 2007: Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv9299ea Laptop running Windows Vista - £1,900
19 June 2007: Queued for the Apple iPhone at Regent Street Store - £269
October 2007: Macbook Pro and Accessories - £2,100
11 July 2008: Queued for the Apple iPhone 3G - £99
April 2008: Microsoft Empower Subscroption - £260
April 2008: Mac Pro - £1,800
April 2008: Apple 23" Cinema Display, Time Capsule and VMware Fusion - £930
April 2008: iWork Family Pack 2008 - £59
March 2008: Enrolled in the iPhone Development Program - £59
March 2009: Re-enrolled in the iPhone Development Program - £59
April 2009: Re-subscribed to the Microsoft Empower Programme - £260
July 2009: Repairs to HP Laptop (what a waste of time and money this laptop and HP has proven to be) - £267

These figures exclude additional RAM purchases for my Mac's, a Samsung and Epson printer and a few other smaller technology items as well as gifts such as an Apple Magic Mouse that I received this past year for Christmas. It also excludes any carrier payments to Apple for my iPhone contract with O2.

I have also purchased or encouraged family members to buy the following technology in this time (all of which were previously Windows users):

iPhone 3GS (my wife): £149.99
iMac 20" (my folks): approximately £900 (purchased in South Africa)
iMax 20" (my folks-in-law): approximately £900 (purchased in South Africa)
Macbook Pro (my folks): £900

So, in summary my calculations show:

Microsoft: £520 plus the license fee that formed part of the HP laptop purchase (so let's be generous and say that that was £300) = £820
Apple: £5,375 plus approximately £3,000 spent by family members on Apple technology.

Appendix B (What else has changed?)

The fall of Microsoft in my recommendation standings is not an isolated incident in my world. Perhaps an even bigger fall has been Hewlett Packard as I have vowed never to purchase another HP product in my lifetime. Prior to purchasing the HP Pavilion dv9299ea laptop (mentioned above), all my printers and many other bits and pieces were HP products, but since that purchase I have got rid of it all. Not only should that laptop model have been recalled by Hewlett Packard (as they did similar products) given it's faulty graphics card that on two occasions crashed it's motherboard, but the support I received from the company was absolutely abysmal. If I am going to spend £19,00 on a laptop with that spec then I expect much more from the manufacturer. I am not the only one complaining about the same or similar problems and so I am not sure HP will ever redeem itself in my eyes. Only time will tell...

Assess your site with 'View Source'

2010-02-19T11:30:00.035+02:00

Self-diagnosis can be a dangerous folly, but being able to assess the competency of your web site on a deeper level than it’s funky cosmetics should be crucial in deciding when it’s time to hit the restart button.

Whether you’ve just had a site built or you’re stuck with an aging web presence it’s important that anyone who manages a web site can identify several key areas that dramatically effect a site’s performance and search engine efficiency. If your site can’t meet the criteria detailed below then you may be in a situation where a complete rebuild is the most appropriate solution.

Irrespective of how simple (static) or complex (dynamic) your web site is there is one common denominator that forms the foundation of what a user sees when they visit your website: HTML.

HTML is a basic programming language that, amongst other things, uses specific tags wrapped around content to tell a browser how to display an element of a web page. This is not nearly as complicated as you might imagine.

On a cosmetic level the tags tell the browser how to format the content contained within them. In the above example we are telling the browser that the text ‘Hello World’ is a heading, and it should be styled accordingly. Common tags include headings, paragraphs and images.

This code is not some obscure alchemical cocktail that is hidden in a matrix of glowing ones and zeros. You can have a look at the HTML for any web page at any time simply by asking your browser to show it to you.

Give it a go right now. If you’re using Firefox click on ‘View’ in the program menu at the top of the screen and then click on ‘Page Source’. Voila! You will be greeted by a new window filled with HTML code. Unless you come from an IT background this should look thoroughly incomprehensible. You will never need to understand it all. We are simply going to highlight some of the important bits so that you are able to ensure that they are both present and relevant in your own site’s HTML.

The first thing to appreciate is that although it looks like you can edit the text that makes up the code, you can’t. It’s read-only, meaning that you cannot influence it in any way. So flex your fingers and let’s dive right in.

What are the important bits?

There are three main sections in each and every web page.

A Doctype Declaration
A Head Section
A Body Section

The Doctype

The Doctype declaration should be the very first thing you see at the top of the document. It is typically just one or two lines of code. It tells the browser what flavour of HTML the page is written in. This is important because it ensures that the browser knows how to handle each element as intended by the designer or developer. If it’s not the first object in the document then that’s your first red flag: something’s wrong.

The Head Section

The Head section of the document is demarcated by an opening ‹head› tag and a closing ‹/head› tag. The content inside of these tags tells the browser about the content of the page but doesn’t actually contain any information that gets displayed within the browser window.

The first thing to look out for here is a page title. It sits within the ‹title› and ‹/title› tags. The title of the page is displayed in the browsers title bar, but even more importantly it is used by search engines to name the page in search results, and give it relevance when someone searches for associated keywords. Every page of your site should have a unique title. At The Hatchery we have found that giving each page a unique name followed by the name of the site yields the best results. For example a homepage will have a title of ‘Web & Mobile Design and Development Studio: The Hatchery Limited’, while our contact page will have a title of ‘Get in touch: The Hatchery Limited’. If your page titles are missing then you are severely hampering your site’s search engine efficiency.

The second item we need to look for in the head section is the meta data. Although there are many different types of meta data we’ll pay close attention to just two of them, description and keywords. These two items exist exclusively to tell search engines about the web page, and are therefore both very important.

Let’s look at your description first. The code will look something like this:

This description is displayed as the text below each item in a search result page and is used to index a site with relevant search terms. It is imperative that each page in your site contains a meta description.

The keywords are equally important. The code will look like this:

These keywords are recorded by search engines as potential search terms that your site would be a relevant match with. If either the description or the keywords are missing or incomplete then you have a serious problem.

The Body Section

The Body tags contain the information that will be displayed in the Browser window. It will probably look rather complicated as this is the code that defines both the content and the structure of the page. What you’re looking out for here is the extensive use of a wide range of HTML tags. Most importantly you need to pay attention to the use of heading tags, ‹h1› through to ‹h6›.

This is because search engines such as Google place more importance on text contained within these tags then they do on standard paragraph text.

The ‹h1› tag should be used for the most important object on the page. This could either be your company name or the title of an article, depending on what you think will have more traction with search results. ‹h2› Tags should be used for second-tier headings and contain words that potential visitors may search for. Headings should not be abstract as you are wasting an opportunity to boost search rankings. Similarly ‹h3› tags should be used for sub headings, and again should contain only relevant information.

Outside of headings, and if you’re starting to feel confident about your foray into the world of HTML, you can seek out the image tags in your content. Here is an example of an image tag:

The important thing to look out for here is the ‘alt=’ declaration, which plays a role in search engine optimisation and also assists disabled visitors (such as the visually impaired who may use screen-readers) in deciphering content.

Conclusion

If you find that these elements are missing or no longer relevant you’ll need to get your designers and developers involved in correcting the situation. I would not recommend attempting to rectify these mistakes yourself as this would mean editing the site’s source files (unless you use The Hatchery’s Cloudbase CMS which lets you edit this information in a structured environment).

Hopefully you’ll now be in a position to assess the foundation of your web site and determine whether or not it is providing the strongest possible platform for your online presence.

PHP vs .NET? Irrelevant question?

2010-02-15T13:33:00.016+02:00

A new client, the same question - "which is better - PHP or .NET for my new website?". This is perhaps the most regularly asked question we are faced with in our first client meetings and I am not sure we have identified the most suitable response - at least not yet.

We are primarily .NET (C#) and SQL Server developers but only because our proprietary content and e-commerce management system (Cloudbase™) is built on this foundation. We believe we have an incredibly powerful solution in Cloudbase™ and that every website inquiry we receive can benefit from the product, but we do have some experience of PHP and MySql and big companies like Facebook use those technologies almost exclusively. So what should your website be built on?

Framework vs. Scripting Language

To start with, I should probably qualify the comparison I am drawing here by saying that we aren't exactly comparing apples with apples. Microsoft's .NET is a framework while PHP is a scripting language. The difference is quite important because we should really be comparing PHP to one of the languages (such as C# or Visual Basic) that run on the .NET framework. To avoid getting too technical however, I am going to be referring to .NET throughout this blog post as all or any of the languages that run on the framework and comparing these to PHP.

Key Differences

I initially started writing this blog post by defining PHP and .NET as well as all the major players involved with both technologies, but having just re-read it I have decided to cut all of that and state the key differences I see one facing when choosing one or the other. Much of these differences comes down to toolsets and pricing:

PHP is free whereas Visual Studio is not. Does this matter to you? No. The company you choose to do your website design and development will pick up the tab for the licensing of Visual Studio if you choose .NET so it makes no difference to you whatsoever.
MySql is free and the full version of SQL Server is not. These are database engines and both play important roles in dynamic websites built for the two languages. If you have a small (even medium-sized website) then SQL Express will suffice, and this technology IS free. Admittedly, the full version of SQL Server is pretty pricey but for the majority of websites out there, this question is mutable too.
PHP runs best on Linux servers and .NET will only run on Windows servers. Linux servers are significantly cheaper than Windows servers due to licensing. All true. The average difference we have seen between the two hosting options is around 10%. i.e. Windows servers cost approximately 10% more than Linux servers on a leased, monthly basis which equates to approximately £10 per month for a business dedicated server. Does this matter to a website requiring dedicated server hosting - probably not.
Support for PHP is poor and expensive. There are multiple, very large organisations driving PHP forward just as Microsoft does .NET but there are also a number of different PHP flavours and associated technologies available to choose from. The key question to assess the answer to here is whether your chosen development team is capable of delivering a quality, ongoing support service that matches your immediate and long term requirements.

So, a commonly assumed difference between the two choices is price, and Microsoft have gone to great lengths to compete with PHP and PHP-related technologies by releasing their Express versions of the .NET development environment and SQL database engine. In my opinion there isn't much in the race to be the dominant web scripting language, and for the foreseeable future, I expect both to be comparable, viable options for website development.

If I was choosing a company to do my web design and development, instead of determining which language they might build my site on, I would examine the following 5 aspects of the companies I am considering to build the site:

What does the company's portfolio look like? Do their design skills meet the expectation I have for my website's own look and feel? Apple has in recent years demonstrated that design is important to most of us. The success of the iPod, iPhone and now the iMac is indicative of our desire for beautiful, not just functional technology. Can the company / designer deliver a quality design on a reasonable budget?
What ongoing support does the company / developer offer it's clients? Many people choose to get freelance designers and / or developers to build their website. Unfortunately, these people tend to get bored quite quickly and move rapidly from one project to the next - seldom looking back and seldom supporting their ongoing client requirements. The 80/20 principle applies in web development too - 80% of the developer's time is spent finishing the final 20% of the site. A freelancer (in my experience) is less likely to invest this time in putting the important finishing touches on my website than a company geared to build a long term relationship with me. Although freelancers tend to be a significantly cheaper solution upfront, the question to ponder is: if I lose this developer, will someone else be able to pick up where they left off, and what might this cost me?
Will they provide me with the tools necessary to manage my own website for most day-to-day requirements and allow my site to grow as my business does - without platform limitations? A commonly overlooked requirement for any website is it's content management system (CMS). Many developers (and the PHP community in general has a greater propensity for this in my experience) use open source CMS technologies. Some of these are better than others but in most cases the choice of CMS platform is never discussed with a client before the contract is signed. I would discuss this. It might make or break my website.
Will my website's functionality and / or design be limited by the CMS? In most cases, and especially for open source CMS's the answer is yes. To me, this seems odd. It is like asking a painter to paint a portrait without providing him / her with sufficient paint or the colours he / she needs to finish the job. I would ensure that my website designer is unconstrained by the CMS my developer is going to implement.
What are the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) credentials of the company building my website? Search engines are critical to the internet, and so building my website with an understanding of how search engines index the content on it and help visitors find me on the web is of paramount importance. CMS systems can make or break a search engine optimization strategy so I would ask my developer whether their CMS of choice will limit or enhance this in any way.

To finish off and summarise, I think the choice between PHP and .NET is irrelevant on every level. The important choice is who you get to do your design and development. I have listed the top 5 aspects of website design and development that I would nail down before commissioning anyone or any company to build my site and I hope you find them useful.

Please do share your own experience-led thoughts on this topic in the comments.

A new look, a new website, a new blog...

2010-02-12T17:02:00.000+02:00

We are very pleased to announce the launch of our new brand, new website and now this new blog. Rohan (our Creative Director) and I (Andrew, Managing Director) will be posting weekly to this blog and look forward to engaging you with interesting Hatchery news as well as design and development tidbits we discover.