Meadowlark: Sheffield based computer consultancy

Web site design

Over the last five years the nature of our work has changed as a consequence of the growth and ubiquity of the world wide web (WWW).

The web (or internet) has become the place to find businesses, the place to be found, and the place to conduct business. And with its exponential growth, there has been a corresponding decline in the use of conventional business tools.

Potential customers increasingly resort to the web first when searching for a supplier in preference to the yellow pages or telephone directory.

Businesses seek to search engine optimise (SEO) their sites to maximise their exposure on the web.

Traditional trading patterns have been overturned and replaced by trading directly on the web. This has often resulted in the elimination of the middleman, and price cuts for the customer.

Our approach to web design

We see the web as a fantastic opportunity for businesses of all sizes, and we do not lose sight of this essential purpose in our web designs.

The role of a web site

A web site must:

• Clearly identify a company's products and services.
• Be readily found on the first page of the Google search engine.(This may require SEO).
• Use appropriate technology for the site's intended purpose. We offer Flash web site development to customers, but, Flash Developers often implement it in a manner that effectively hides the site from the search engines.  There are ways, with careful SEO, that this major problem can be overcome. What use is a flashy web site if no-one can find it?
• Be accessible. What use is a web site that can only be viewed on obscure browsers that the majority of customers do not use or know of?

Web tools languages and technology we regularly use:

• Hypertext markup language (HTML)
• Cascading style sheets (CSS)
• Flash ActionScript
• Php
• VBScript
• Javascript
• XML
• Back-end databases like MYSql, MSSQL, Access

What you can expect from computer hardware in the future?

1. Smaller faster, cheaper, lighter computers for the desktop.  They will be no larger than a DVD drive.  They will be silent, and run free software, and much of this will be web based.  They will use solid state disks, and large quantities of cheap memory.

2. More powerful mobile phones will largely replace traditional PCs.  The screens of mobiles will occupy as much of the phone as physically possible.  "Soft buttons will have largely replaced mechanical buttons in top of the range phones.

3. Sophisticated screen display technology will be available that will allow us to use bigger computer monitors in smaller less likely workplaces.

4. Micro-factories: places of work no bigger than a loft extension, where budding entrepreneurs labour in their free time "printing" products with 3D printers and selling their wares by the internet.