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Design Sense in the Business Community

September was a busy month for us, as we co-hosted the Business After Hours and Women in Business events.

The KBCCI's Business After Hours was co-hosted with Goldfields Baptist College. The event was a great success with approximately 60 from the business community attending. It was a great opportunity to talk about what we do, and network with clients and colleagues. The college was a fantastic venue, and we were treated to an excerpt from GBC's upcoming musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by the students. BAH events are held monthly. See http://kalgoorliecci.asn.au/events/register/ for information on upcoming events.

Later that week, the Women in Business' Boulder street walk began at Design Sense. We met with over 15 other businesswomen to connect and share ideas and support. We then walked down Burt street, stopping at Industrial Lane and Just Add People Short stay apartments, finishing up just a few blocks away for canapes and drinks. See https://www.facebook.com/GoldWIB/ for more information about the Goldfields Women in Business.

Logo access, copyright & registration

Can I have access to my logo?

Graphic design companies have different policies about giving clients access to their logo. At Design Sense Graphics & Web, we believe it is important for you to have your logo to use. We will supply the logo in a range of formats, either via email or on a disk. You will be able to place this into stationery and documents as required. HOWEVER, we do ask that you follow the guidelines provided on this website (or in your company style guide where applicable) for the use of your logo, in order that the integrity of your logo and its design is not compromised. It is recommended that you engage us to design important promotional items for you, to ensure consistent application at all times.

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Design Sense Content Management System (CMS) vs Wordpress

What is the difference between a custom Content Management System by Design Sense and popular free open-source CMS platforms such as Wordpress?

We often have clients asking us to compare our quotes with others they have received for websites built using different open-source CMS platforms. However this is like asking us to compare apples with oranges. There are a few key differences between what we offer for CMS and the free solutions out there. For the purposes of this article, we are using Wordpress as the main comparison.

Flexibility – Function & Design

Wordpress is a free publishing software that can be used to create basic websites which include a blog in the standard installation.  All other functions that you may want on your website e.g. a calendar, online store etc. must then be added by using plugins or widgets. While there is a vast array of these to choose from, you may not be able to find one that does just what you want it to. In comparison, when Design Sense builds a custom CMS for you, we can tweak every last detail down to a T so that it will operate exactly how you want it to.

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What features should my website include?

Aside from your main content, there are so many features available for websites that it's hard to know where to start. Consider who your target audience is, and what information you would like to convey through your website. How will you draw in new visitors, and how will you get people to come back again?

Here is a list of some ideas for website features that Design Sense Graphics & Web offers. Make sure you choose tools that are useful and relevant to your business, and that will enhance your primary message rather than distracting from it. Note that this list is by no means comprehensive. If there's something not on this list that you'd like included in your site, just ask!

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Protecting your web forms from spam

Web forms can be used on websites in many different ways and can be a great tool for gathering data or allowing your customers to make contact with you.

However, including a web form on your site can open you up to receiving unwanted spam. Spam is often submitted by automated spam robots that search the internet looking for forms, and often once they find yours you will often get a large volume of spam in the first hit.

While we don’t want to deter your customers from sending you their information by making your form too difficult to submit, there are a few simple countermeasures that can be added to stop (or at least slow down) spammers.  Hopefully this article will help you decide which option will work best for you.

Hidden Fields

This option is invisible to customers but may not block some of the smarter spam robots out there. A field is added to your form that is visible to robots who read the code, but hidden from the customer using css or javascript. If a value is entered in this field, the form will not submit, thus stopping robots who cannot tell the difference.

Human-friendly Question

Another option is to add a basic text question that would be easy for a human to answer, but that a robot could not answer. This could be a simple maths problem, or something everyone would know e.g. The colour of the sky is? This is a fairly common method and should not annoy your users too much or prevent them from submitting the form.

CAPTCHA

This is probably the most secure option, however as you may have experienced, CAPTCHAs can be quite hard to read, and may annoy or deter users. We recommend only using this method for important forms, or if neither of the above methods are working and you are still receiving a large volume of spam.

There are other solutions available, so speak to us if you don’t think any of these will work for you. And just note that spammers are always finding new ways to get around your countermeasures, so any method implemented may not be a permanent fix.