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New Web Site (2005)

We've spent the last few weeks updating the Berryware web site. There were a number of reasons for changing the look and feel. The primary reason is that the web site style has remained unchanged for about five years now- so it was time for a change!

The goals for the new web site were:

Improved Usability

To make the site easier to navigate we've removed a lot of the clutter. In addition to that we've provided explanations of the site content on the home page and added see also links at the top of many pages. The pricing information is now displayed directly on the product pages with links to download trial versions or buy the products. If you have further suggestions about how we can improve just contact us.

Flexible Architecture

The old web site was structured as simple HTML pages. The new improved version is now a collection of XML, XSL and CSS files instead. The XSL files serve as the "templates" that determine the web site structure (including such things as the javascript menu). The CSS controls the look and feel at the micro level. The XML files contain the actual page contents.

We have built a simple tool that we refer to as our "web site compiler" internally. This utility monitors the web site folder hierarchy and rebuilds the HTML pages on the fly the moment an XML or XSL file changes. Changing the web site layout for all the pages is now a simple matter of changing the main XSL template file. This allows us to have a web site that is structured as if it were implemented using framesets while having the appearance of uniform pages once "compiled."

Modern Style

Our old web site had a fixed width layout. On high resolution monitors this didn't look that great. The web site was effectively designed to look good at an 800x600 resolution. Since most PCs now use a resolution of 1024x768 this gave the web site a "skinny" look. At higher resolutions it looked even worse. Hence, the new site is no longer fixed width- it scales as you resize the browser window.

The web site also has an edge-to-edge feel to it. There isn't a white border around the page as there used to be. We've also used PNG files for all of the images to give the site a crisper look to it. If you're using a browser that supports it we've even utilized a bit of transparency (see the "products" menu). Internet Explorer doesn't currently support transparent PNGs but if you're using Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, or Netscape 6.x or 7.x (any Gecko-based browser) you should be able to see these effects.

Search Engine Friendly

Frames are decidedly un-friendly to search engines. So the simple fact that the site no longer uses frames will help. Also, when users search for pages in their favourite search engine (may we recommend Google ;-) ) and click through to visit them they won't see just the frame contents without any menu frame!! That's what used to happen with the old layout- and we don't feel that Framestuffer is a great solution to this problem although it is a nice hack.

Closing Remarks

In closing I'd just like to wish our current and future customers all the best for their current endeavours. And enjoy using our web site and products!

Best Regards,
Kevin Berry.  
 
 
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