Web Design

Our Web department has amassed years of experience in developing web sites of all levels of complexity - from basic static brochure sites, to database-driven content-managed sites.

As part of our web service, we will always advise our clients on the level of web development that will best suit their requirements - both in terms of the site itself and the organisation's capacity to maintain it on their own.

Our services also include domain name registration and web hosting provision (on either Unix or Windows platforms) - we look after everything for you to get online.

For web development packages beginning with a template-based site, with domain registration and one-year’s hosting – right up to custom-design and programming packages - call us on (01) 678 4077 or email our web team by clicking here.

To help in deciding what type of web site you're looking for, here's our guide to the three main types ...

Static web sites
"Static" in this sense is not a pejorative term, nor does it imply things that do not change, but refers to the coding behind the web page. A static web site will be generated through HTML ('.html', '.htm') and will be built on a page-by-page basis with the content of the sections embedded into the code. This type of site usually requires less development time up-front, but tends to require reliance on developers to maintain content on behalf of the company.

Before content management became an affordable option, static sites were the most common type of web site.

Dynamic web sites
A dynamic site is one where the content is not embedded into the code of the page, but is pulled from databases or Content Management Systems. The pages themselves are usually generated on-the-fly by marrying the content (stored in a database) with a series of design templates (stored on the web server). This can prove very beneficial down the line if you want to give your site a cosmetic overhaul to keep it fresh - you only need modify the design templates and the site content remains intact.

Content Management is an area that has become hugely pervasive in recent times and the vast majority of sites currently developed will be based around a CMS, so that in-house staff at an organisation can maintain their web site's content with no reliance on a third party. And with the proliferation of web sites increasing exponentially, a web site that is updated regularly has become standard rather than exceptional.

E-commerce also falls under the category of Dynamic sites, with the store inventory being held in a database and being updated on a regular basis.

Blogs and sites with RSS syndicated content fall under this cateogry also.

Motion / Flash sites
Flash-based web sites can usually be discerned by the fact that they have animated elements moving about onscreen. There is a choice with Flash whether to build the entire web site through Flash or whether to have some Flash-based elements within a more standard HTML web page.

Flash sites are very popular within the media sector as they can emulate television, film and game environments very well. Flash is usually kept to a minimum on more corporate, news or text based web sites if, indeed, Flash gets used at all on those.

And never, ever, let anyone convince you that a flying logo Flash intro sequence that takes an age to load and significantly less time to bore you tedious is a good idea.

It's not. Not now. Not ever.