Chicago Website Design by hurriKane Solutions

Great Chicago Accessibility Website Blog

Posted ago by Seth

Check out this Chicago Website Accessibility Blog.  I am sure as times goes on it will continue to grown and provide some valuable information.

Great Content Management System (CMS) Strategy and Governance

Posted ago by Seth

Found this awesome resource for Content Management System (CMS) strategy and governance.  If you are interested in learning more about Governance Modeling and Success in Content Management or Trends in Content Management then you need to check out www.cmsoutlook.com

Chicago iPhone Website Design

Posted ago by Seth

We couldn't be more exciting for making Apple's Staff Pick for both of our iPhone Website Design projects.

Last month we launched Networking Monkey and it was Staff Pick for Search Tools: http://www.apple.com/webapps/searchtools/chicagonetworkingmonkey.html

This month we launched The Options Insider Mobile and it was Staff Pick for News: http://www.apple.com/webapps/news/optionsinsidermobile.html

If you are interested in learning more about Chicago iPhone Website Design please do not hesitate to contact us.

Networking Monkey Makes Site of the Week

Posted ago by Seth

Networking Monkey make the site of the week on Boxexcss.com

Should Chicago Website Design be done with IE6?

Posted ago by Seth

I was reading on another Chicago Website Design blog that people in the industry and of the general surfing population should band together and force be people to upgrade to an alternative browser since it is becoming more difficult to design and develop for IE6.

Well, let me ask you this.  If I were to say that we should stop writing books because 1/4 of the population can't read would you agree with that?  Of course not!  Then why should Chicago Website Design companies ignore IE6.  According to W3School.com 27% of the internet surfing population is still using IE6.

Now maybe these other Chicago Website Design companies are getting lazy and they don't put in the extra time to do it right.  Oh... did I just say that.  Ok maybe that is to harsh.  Maybe they are just maximizing the free resources out there like Drupal or Joomla in efforts to maximize their margins by doing less work and charging more money.

I mean come on, how could you invest your money into a company that doesn't put the effort into making themselves compliant with the standards.

Does Joomla Validate?  Check it out here.
Does Drupal Validate? Check it out here.

Now what I find really funny is the founder of Drupal "Dries Buytaert" is now the Cheif Technology Officer for Acquia and their website is compliant.  Maybe since Acquia is corporate they felt it necessary to step it up a notch?

Anyway, if you want to learn more about why hurriKane Solutions still designs and develops websites for IE

Congrats to Christina Loukas

Posted ago by Seth

Chicago Website Design is Famous

Posted ago by Seth

It is a proud day of Chicago Website Design when one of our clients, Veruca Salt (www.shopverucasalt.com) gets featured on a national level in front of millions of eyes.

Tuesday May 19th, Verusa Salt was featured on CelebTv.com for their Celebrity Videos.

Check out the video of Veruca Salt on CelebTv.com

Compliant Chicago Website Design

Posted ago by Seth

Why is it so important for Chicago Website Design companies to pay attention and focus on doing things right?  Ask yourself this... Would you go into a building if you knew a city engineer didn't inspect it?  Would you go to a doctor that isn't board certified?  Then why use a Chicago website design company that doesn't validate their work with the W3C.

In todays competitive internet market it is extremely important to work with a company that is following the rules for not only design but for code.  Have you ever been to a website in one browser and it looked one way and then looked at it in another browser and it was different?  This is because the site isn't coded correctly!

Today I was visiting a website that is trying to be the biggest source for finding businesses and companies in the Chicago area and their primary navigation is broken in IE6.  What does broken mean?  It means you can't use it, see it or a variety of these types of problems.  You might say IE6 who still uses that.  Well according to W3Schools "The Largest Web Developer's Site" over 30% of the internet users out there are still using IE6.  That is nearly 1/3 of the potential prospects, clients, advertisers that might not visit their website again because it doesn't work.

Just because I was curious I did a validation on the homepage and it has 543 Errors.  Yes that is correct 543 Errors.  So I ask you again would you walk into a building that had 543 violations with the city inspectors?  I know I wouldn't.

So why else is it important to have a compliant site?  Well not only will it look the right way in the browsers that are following the standards but your website will out perform the competition with the search engines.  Search Engine Optimization 101 is following the rules that are set by the standards, google.com and other search engines.  How can you expect a computer program to know what to do or know where to go next if the computer program receives error messages?  Think about it.  If your site looks better and is built better than the competition don't you think you have a competitive advantage?

If you want to learn more about compliant website design or search engine optimization, stay tuned for more or contact us anytime.

Chicago Website Design is more than just design?

Posted ago by Seth

Having experienced many different types of Chicago Website Design I have come to learn that before sitting down to do a website or redo a website you must ask yourself this question.  Is Chicago Website Design more than just design?

I think the answer is yes.  In todays market place "Website Designers", "Web Developers", "Graphic Designers", etc... we have come to learn that anyone can do Chicago Website Design.  Just think about it for a minute.   1 Minute Later:   You could walk down to your favorite book store and buy HTML for Dummies and be on your way to becoming a "Website Developer".  You could then turn on your computer and work with the FREE photo software your new Apple or PC Compatible computer came with and you would be on your way to becoming a "Website Designer".

Having the ability to move graphics around a digital canvas does not warrant the title of "Graphic Designer" or "Website Designer"?  Having the ability to write HTML in notepad does not warrant you the title of "Web Developer"? 

Just a few weeks ago I was speaking to someone about how their Chicago Website Design project  and asked, do you want this site to be business driven?  This person needed me to explain and so I did.  Why should your website just look good and not function as a part of your business?  Why shouldn't your site be created in a way that it could provide an ROI (Return on Investment)?  The person that I was speaking with said, "Because website designers don't do that, the just make it look good."  I was in shock.  Hearing someones outside of the industry say that Web Designers in fact just make pretty websites was something that just threw me off guard and has brought up this topic.  Is Chicago Website Design more than just design?  The answer YES!

It should be about the look and feel.

It should be about the GUI (Graphic User Interface) more on the interface.

It should be about the marketing message and the content of the website.

It should be about the ability for visitors to find you through Search Engine Optimization or Internet Marketing

It should be about the ability for you and your customers to save time.

It should be about the opportunity for you to new business, sales or customers.

And at the end of the day it really should be about the ROI.

How has Search Engine Optimization Effected Website Design?

Posted ago by Seth

We have come to know and experience that Search Engine Optimization is currently having a huge effect on Chicago Website Design. Whether you are considering a new website design, redesign or just some fixes to help improved your search engine ranking you need to consider these elements when it comes to the design:

Sacrificing the use of graphics.  Well you don't have to sacrifice anything visually and still have a search engine friendly site.  With the use of CSS you can achieve content rich sites that do not overwhelm the human eye.

Designing with your keywords and content in mind. It is a fact that such search engines as google.com will give you higher points of relevance if your key targets are used often and early in your content.

Accessibility is gold.  Having an accessible website not only opens the doors up for additional audiences it also insures that you are following the strictest guidelines which has a direct impact on your visual design.  If you can find a common ground you will not only have a website that looks great but one that you can use in your favor with the search engines.

These are just some of the many important things that care currently having a direct impact on not only how websites look but how they are performing with the search engines.  If you would like to learn more about some of the other challenges with Chicago Website Design please drop us a line.

How do you measure the quality of a website?

Posted ago by Seth

Chicago website design is a very competitive service these days and I wanted to ask you a question to describe where the trend is going.

How does one measure the quality of a website?

Some people might say...
"How it looks!"
"How easy it is to navigate!" 

The problems with those types of answers are similar to complaints you hear in the Olympic gymnastics.... They are all subjective.  One person might like the look and another might not.  One might think it is easy to navigate the another might have issues finding things.

Is there a way to measure a website design with non-subjective means?  The answer is yes!

The quality of a website design can be measured with third party tools in the same way an architect does with their plans... the send them to an engineer to make sure their design is structurally sound, will stand through the test of time, weather conditions, etc...

Why don't all the Chicago Website Design companies use these tools is something we can not answer, however wouldn't it be nice to know that your website is following all the rules, built in a way that it will work with all the browsers and operating systems?  How can you expect to measure success if you aren't even following the rules?

Test it out!  Run your site through one of the many website design tools out at the W3C's website!

Search Engine Optimization and Different Results in google.com

Posted ago by Seth

Everyone we talk to when it comes to Search Engine Optimization always asks us for the answers well the fact is we will never have all of them.

A perfect point and case would ask yourself this...  Why does google.com show different results for the same search phrase?

Case and point is from my home computer searching "Chicago Website Design" on Feb 3rd 9:23:15 AM we come up #4 in the natural listings.  Then we did the same search "Chicago Website Design" from our office location at 9:24:15 AM and we come up #5.

Is it because of our ISP?  We we would conclude no because both locations are using the same ISP.  Is it because we are on different IP address, maybe.  Is it because the two computers are reach two different Google.com servers?  Is it because we are using two different version of a web browser?

It is easy us to say we don't have the all answers but we are often thinking about such things like this and are always working with all the search engines to make sure we have as many of them as possible.

If you would like to learn more about how we perform Chicago Search Engine Optimization please visit our Search Engine Optimization or contact us.

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Chicago Website Design Company is Hiring

Posted ago by Seth

hurriKane Solutions is currently accepting resumes for Chicago Website Designers, Chicago Website Developers and Search Engine Optimization candidates.

Please submit your resume to jobs@hurrikane.com

Chicago Website Design Featured On World Wide Websites

Posted ago by Seth

We have been fortunate enough to be featured on a few sites that are getting national exposure:

Css Mania, CSS Creme, Hot Webber, CSS Design Yorkshire, Logo Pond, Website Gallery, Boxed Css, CSS Hive, Pixel Gangster, Most Inspired, Screen Fluent, Daily Slurp, Design Snack, Deviantart, W3CSites

New Brand, New Design and a New Blog!

Posted ago by Seth

As hurriKane Solutions moves into 2008 we are very excited to announce our New Brand, New Website Design and especially our New Blog!

We encourage you to visit this exciting blog from time to time to read about the interesting and informative topics from hurriKane employees.  We will discuss such topics as Chicago Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Accessibilty Compliance and more.

Thanks again for visiting and we hope you are excited about our new brand as we are.