Voodoochilli Design

Recently we have been using Google’s fabulous  website optimizer to improve conversions on a site we are running. The system uses A/B testing and is very easy to set up and use. It does have one major problem however, and that is you cannot exclude the IP address of certain visitors. I discovered this when I started to notice my own results showing up in tests, thereby invalidating the results. you would think that such an otherwise comprehensive system would not have this oversight, but apparently it does.

The Solution

There is however a solution to this problem, albeit one that requires a bit of code know-how, and a system capable of running PHP or another programming language. Simply add the following code to your pages:

[source:php]

<?php

//exclude certain IP address

if ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']!= “YOUR IP ADDRESS HERE”){

?>

[/source]

Google code goes here.

Then simply add:

[source:php]
<?php } ?>
[/source]

Do this for every page that has the tracking code. There, problem sorted, and all results from that IP address will now be ignored as they will not be reported to Google. You could of course use a whole list of IP address to exclude should you need to.

Recently we sent out about 100 bottles of hot chilli sauce to our existing clients as well some to potential clients we would like to work with. Feedback has been very positive and it has also generated some new work which is never a bad thing. As well as tasting lovely, each bottle has a special code on it that enables existing and new customers to a 10% discount on their next job with us. We still have a couple of bottles left that we will be sending out to a few more potential clients.

Check out more on our chilli sauce page.

Development has begun on a website tracking and recording the history of a village in the Forest of Dean, Kempley. The project is a large one comprising of a custom built database system, content management system, maps and archives, a blog and of course the front end website itself. The project is being developed in collaboration The Friends of Kempley Churches and other volunteers interested in preserving the villages important history. The Kempley project is being funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund and will be launched later this year.

We were very pleased to have been picked from the short-list of web design and development agencies pitching for a very exciting new project. The Roma Routes website will charter the migration of the Romany people across Europe.  Working in collaboration with The Rural Media Company, the project is being funded by the European Union and is due to be launched later in the year. Watch this space!

We have just launched a new site for our clients, www.familidrugsupport.com. The redesign holds a special importance to our company as it was in fact the first commercial website built by founder of Voodoochilli, Harry O’Connor way back in 2003. For years he has wanted to redesign the site encompassing a more up to date approach to web design, both visually and technically and we are all very pleased with the results.

The site was actually built with the aid of our 50% charity discount, halving the project cost. Contrary to the beliefs of many in the web design industry, charities have very limited funds and offering a discount can sometimes be the difference between a charity having a professional designed website or not.

The new site features a brand new design, replacing the now very dated one that was online since 2003. People can now make donations via PayPal, connect using various social sites such as Facebook and more. However, the biggest single upgrade has been the addition of a custom built Content Management System allowing staff at FDS to update the content themselves, keeping it fresh while at the same time reducing long term costs.

We are pleased with the results and hope people continue to find the site a useful resource.

We have something spicy lined up for our clients. Check it out:

We have just launched a new online marketing website, The Online Marketeer. We have only just started it and just written a couple of articles but check back soon for more! Where as the company blog serves tell people what’s happening with the company, and what’s going on in the web design business we hope that The Online Marketeer will be a place where people can learn all about the marketing aspects of what we do.

Here at Voodoochilli we like to try and keep things fresh. Web design is an exciting industry to be in right now, there’s plenty of things happening, new technologies and styles appearing all of the time. It is essential that a company such as ours keeps up to date with these things and keeps being innovative. Although we love building sites for our clients we have made the decision to adopt the 20% rule – from now on Fridays will be a day when we work on our own self-directed projects. This will enable us to keep coming up with new ideas as well as sharpening our creative tool-set.

Below is a rather interesting video which mentions another company adopting this approach. Fascinating stuff!

We have recently been advertising a positing for a freelance PHP developer to join our team. So far the response has been great with dozens of applicants and we have contacted a couple. The problem now is finding the right person from all of these applicants!

As you may not have know already we always hire freelancers – fitting the right person to the right job. Not only is this cheaper than hiring a team of full time web designers and developers, a saving that gets past on to the client, it also means we can hire for specific tasks. For example a client may ask for a flash website. This is not a request we get often as we prefer sites that perform well in search engines, however if a client does specify this we can pool together an ad-hoc team geared towards flash development. For the one or two projects that require flash in a year, we could never justify the £30K salary of a flash developer since the earning potential would be so low. What other companies do is try to make their designers and developers do a bit of everything: jack of all trades, master of none. This is far from ideal and you really should be hiring experts to developer websites on a bespoke basis.

We recently received an email from one the members of our online portfolio for artists, Voodoochilli.net. Steve Diffenderfer emailed us with a modification to our existing logo that we liked immediately.

The logo that hasn’t changed since the site was founded back in 2002 now sports a funky little portfolio icon. The change is so minor but as soon as we saw it our reaction was disbelief that we had not spotted it ourselves.

We asked Steve some questions about the new logo:

Please tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am an artist and designer. I graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in ‘91. I have worked in different design and production roles ever since. I worked in vinyl graphics for an exhibit company, as a signmaker, digitizing corporate embroidery, as a business owner, and freelance design. I am the father of three talented children and live in Vermont, USA.

What made you think of the changes for the logo and of approaching us with them?

I saw that you were making changes to the homepage (as noted in the newsfeed) with an invitation for comments and suggestions. I wanted to lend a hand. I looked it over and thought I could contribute by making some suggestions to modify the logo.

Can you tell me a little bit about the process involved in modifying the logo.

I imported the website gif into Adobe Illustrator. I needed to created a high resolution file. I vectorized the logo using “live trace”. I redrew the portfolio element adding a handle and slightly rotated counter-clockwise for more visual movement. I then worked with the “Voodoochilli” element. I used the “tweak” filter at vertical 1% to slightly roughen the design. I manually manipulated points in the element while maintaining the definition and strength of the original design. I then replaced the type with a similar but slightly bolder sans-serif font scaled horizontally 110% and manually kerned.

Anything else you would like to add.

VoodooChilli is an excellent site. Having a website to share artwork and communicate is great. I am proud to be part of the online community.

We said a little thank you to Steve by giving him a years free pro membership to the website.

Voodoochilli.net is an online portfolio for artist’s run by Voodoochilli Design Ltd. If you are interested in joining, check it out!