March 13th, 2009 by Bret
Oftentimes, when we’re building out web sites, factoring in time for IE6 amounts to a lot of extra time, blood, sweat and tears. Entire societies have crumbled as a result. Financial markets have been thrown into irreparable states of turmoil. Lives have been lost.
We’ve often stated that we’d drop support for IE6 when its browser share drops to 10%, a time for which we have waited with baited breath, anxiously watching Google Analytics reports as they inch ever closer. Alas, it’s been hovering around 20%, which is not yet there.
However, we recently read an article that put it all into perspective for us: IE6 is holding back the progression of the web. There. I said it. IE6 just isn’t a good match for your web site anymore. You see, in order to support IE6 so your web site doesn’t look like a discarded pile of yesterday’s images and text, we have to hack your web site’s code to do things it was never meant to do. Degrading things. Demeaning things. Things your web site will forever regret like the haze of a night on the town gone badly.
The biggest stumbling block is the dreaded Windows 2000, which will not run IE7 or greater. How do we support these users? How do we keep your web site intact when someone using IE6 wants to use it? It’s easy: Warn them that they will have a much better experience with another browser. After all, Firefox is free and it’s fantastic.
All hacks aside, the fact is, the big boys are starting to drop support for it, too. Google, Facebook and 37 Signals have all announced and/or provided lessened user experiences for IE6 users.
This is the beginning of the end for IE6 support, and at Workshed in particular, it is the end. As of April 1 (this is not a joke, either) we will no longer support IE6 for web sites we build without additional hours built into the project budget. There are far too many exciting things happening in the world of Web Development (embeddable fonts!) to have to dumb down the experience for a browser that’s 8 years old and counting.
It’s time to move on.
Posted in Technology, Workshed News | 2 Comments »
March 6th, 2009 by Bret
We recently had a client whose CMS stopped saving data. We knew we hadn’t touched the code on it in at least a year, so it was a very strange situation. After poking around, googling incessantly and debugging a ton, we discovered that another developer who had been working on SEO modifications for them had created a .htaccess file that was wiping out all POST data sent to a index.php file — ANY index.php file. Our app was written in an older version of the Fusebox 3.0 framework for PHP and as such, everything is channeled through the index.php file in the CMS directory.
The fix? Adding a new .htaccess file into the CMS directory that turns off the Rewrite Engine did the trick.
Tags: empty, htaccess, php, post
Posted in Workshed News | No Comments »
February 10th, 2009 by Bret
We’ve just been informed that the JGS, Inc. Forward Thinking Museum, which Workshed helped to develop, has been nominated as one of five finalists in the SXSW Web Awards Art category! This is the big one, the hot tamale, the cream of the crop! We’re excited to have been a part of this project along with our friends and partners at MacTechHelp.com.
So everyone close your eyes, begin to chant whatever chant you desire, and think good thoughts for the Forward Thinking Museum. Nam myoho renge kyo… nam myoho renge kyo… nam myoho renge kyo…
http://sxsw.com/interactive/web_awards
Posted in Awards, Events | No Comments »
January 12th, 2009 by Bret
Hi All, we’ve had a few reports of difficulty reaching us through our new phone system for Camas businesses and residents. If you have difficulty reaching us at 360-833-2901, please try our toll-free number, which should not cause issues. We are working with our phone system provider to track down the issue and appreciate your understanding.
TOLL FREE: 888-963-1117
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December 19th, 2008 by Bret
That’s right folks, at the end of December, we’ll be moving into a new office space—just down the street from our current location. If you’ve been in Camas, you may remember Artistic Home and Garden. We’ll be taking over the front end of their space and making it into our own little Workshed haven as of January 1, 2009. Our new address will be:
421 NE Cedar St.
Camas, WA 98607
We’ll have the same old phone number and fax number, as well as the same PO Box address.
We hope you enjoy your new year as much as we plan to enjoy ours!
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December 19th, 2008 by Bret
Hi everyone. I wanted to take a moment to update you on our office status during the inclement weather we’ve been having here in the Northwest lately. Workshed’s policy is typically to follow the school closures in Camas. When we close due to inclement weather, we generally telecommute and are available to answer questions via e-mail.
Additionally, Workshed will be CLOSED during the following dates:
- Wednesday, December 24 - Friday, December 26
- Thursday, January 1
Happy holidays to everyone!
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December 3rd, 2008 by Bret
I wanted to take a moment out to shift focus from internal chest-thumping to a pet project one of our employees has been working on for some time, which has become an invaluable tool for many a web developer.
Oscar Godson, one of our designer/developer folks, has created his own web app called Project Deploy*. It’s a genius tool that speeds of the process of generating a ready-to-go web site framework so you can quickly get started on your new web project. Select a few radio buttons, choose your flavor of XHTML, set some more options and BOOM! there you go. Instant web site skeleton ready for the skinning.
Not only has he created a great tool, but he’s also gotten the traffic for Project Deploy* into the 35,000 rank on the Alexa index. A truly impressive feat that is further proof he had a great idea and ran with it.
Congrats, Oscar!
Posted in Workshed News | No Comments »
December 3rd, 2008 by Bret
While we don’t like to get all hoity toity around here, it’s getting hard to ignore the number of awards that have been given to projects with which we’ve been involved lately. It’s not like we’re out there begging for awards in the streets, but heck, if they keep giving them out, we’ll keep taking them!
This time, it’s the Zookbinders web site we developed on behalf of SDM Marketing, with the design provided by PBR Design. Workshed did all of the information architecture, wireframes, slicing, XHTML/CSS templates, SEO, Flash development, PHP development and custom CMS development (built on our very own Pegboard platform), as well as providing dedicated hosting services in our colocation facility.
The award was from the Summit International Awards — in the category of Emerging Media. The site was presented a Leader award. Of the approximately 700 entries from numerous countries only 12% earned recognition. There are 3 levels that were recognized: visionary, innovator and leader.
Workshed is extremely proud to have been a part of this project and thanks SDM Marketing, PBR Design and most importantly, the fine folks at Zookbinders for allowing us to be a part of it.
Posted in Awards, Workshed News | 2 Comments »
December 1st, 2008 by Bret
On Friday, December 5, Workshed will be celebrating the launch of a new web site for our clients at Jonesy’s Auto Restoration. The new Jonesy’s site allows them to share their work with the world, communicate with their clients via private project blogs, invoice and receive payment for their customer work online and manage their web site content all through a custom-built CMS based on our Pegboard platform.
Everyone’s welcome to attend. You can find out more about Jonesy’s, about the work we do and you can enjoy some live music from local indie act, Hellokopter. Did we mention the free snacks and drinks?
The event starts at 5:30 and goes until 8 p.m.
See you there!
Workshed Creative Agency
415 NE Cedar St.
Suite B (Downstairs)
Camas, WA 98607
Tags: first friday, hellokopter, jonesy's, live music, party, site launch
Posted in Events | No Comments »
October 10th, 2008 by Bret
It’s no secret that people are holding onto their money right now. Things are downright scary out there. Whether businesses are doing well or not, they are being cautious about spending money, with good reason. But they still need to market and have a web presence. When times are tough, the businesses that can still keep their name out there are the ones who will survive.
Recognizing a shifting market in a down economy, Workshed has decided to work with businesses and make a great, custom-designed web site, complete with content management tools and a blog, all the more accessible—all without breaking the bank.
Enter SimpleSites, our entry-level web presence solution. We design the site tailored to your business brand and style, we build out your pages, perform a basic search engine optimization and submission, then turn it loose for you to enter your content and go to town. We even provide a solid and affordable hosting platform for a reasonable monthly fee.
So, you may ask, why should you get a SimpleSite when you can get a template site for really cheap?
Simple: This isn’t a template site. It’s a custom design, done by an award winning creative agency that knows the web and how to design and build web sites. We’ve been able to streamline our process to make this product offering at a sigificantly reduced cost compared to a completely custom web site solution. Best of all, it’s built on a platform that is already search engine friendly right out of the box. Oh, and did I mention you can update your content at any time using an intuitive, web-based content management tool? We also probably didn’t mention that, depending on schedule and client turnaround times, we can complete your SimpleSite in as fast as one week.
Contact us for pricing information. We have some lovely, flexible payment plans at your disposal.
Fool the economy—stay in the minds of your customers by keeping it simple.
Posted in Events | No Comments »
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