To be fair, the existing website ‘worked’ on a mobile [smartphone], just not very well. So we set about creating a responsive design that adapted itself to the browsing device. Away went the Flash graphics (not supported) and the fixed-width images, and in came fluid widths and elements that repositioned depending upon the screen width.

Take a look at the following images which show the same web page when viewed on two different width screens:

These pages are the same piece of HTML code, just styled differently by some ‘clever’ CSS. We’re proud of the result, which we think gives a striking and compelling website however you look at it.

To see for yourself, go to www.babbacombeinn.co.uk.

After all, the screens on these devices are much smaller than a computer monitor and, thanks to their inbuilt accelerometers, can orientate the picture into a landscape or portrait presentation.

At Studio Devon, we advocate the practice of Responsive Web Design to strive to ensure that, whatever the size of the screen browsing the website, the web page adapts itself to be seen in its best light.  To us, this is a much more elegant and practical option than having a separate website specifically developed to be served up to mobile devices.

Our first foray into responsive web design is the Babbacombe Festival ticket website, which has just been launched.  A striking yet simple site, this looks equally good on a large computer monitor or a mobile phone and, most importantly, is already attracting buyers for tickets for the various exciting and interesting events that are being held in the Babbacombe Festival marquee this June.

To have a look at how much better looking and easier to use a responsive website is on a mobile or tablet, point your iPad at www.babbacombefestival.com.

Only too pleased to help, we quickly imported their existing site into a new layout and then offered a selection of images for them to choose from to use in the site.  They opted for a nautical theme.  After amending the page text that they wanted to see on their site we were able to complete the work in very short order – and for a very reasonable price.

To visit the Heronbridge site, go to www.heronbridge.com.

With only a few weeks to go till the next show (1st & 2nd September) it was time for a refresh. The major change we made this time was to make the screen width flexible to adapt to the many different display devices that people use to access the web these days. We also spruced up the picture galleries that form a major part of the archive pages.

We are happy to support this community event which does so much to bind the people of the village together, and of course we will be on hand at the beginning of September to load up the show results onto the site, as per usual.

To visit the Bishopsteignton Village Show site, go to www.bishopsvillageshow.co.uk.

Members of the regatta team subsequently maintained the site, adding their own pictures and stories as the years passed. This year, we were approached to take the website one step further by integrating in an online entry system to allow competitors to register and pay for their regatta entry via the web.

This presented an interesting programming exercise for us, different from the usual design-and-build work we are normally asked to do. We built a database and a clever webpage which stepped the user through a process of entering their boat details, selecting the races they want to enter and then selecting their payment method.

After an acceptance test by the regatta team, the new functionality is now live on the Torbay Week website ready for this year’s event in August.

For many years, St Marychurch-based picture gallery Portfolio has been successfully supplying quality prints and canvases to the South Devon public. Recently, they decided to expand their business into the online world with a website from which to display and sell a fuller range of pictures.

They turned to Studio Devon to design and develop the site. We looked at their corporate image and turned it into a stylish web design, backed up by a database to store the online shop and product elements. This allows products to be added, deleted or changed without editing HTML code.  Allied to Paypal integration, the site offers a striking and customer-friendly shopping experience.

Released just a couple of days ago, the Portfolio Gallery website is set to offer a 24-7 expansion of the Portfolio business.

You can visit the website via www.portfolio-gallery.co.uk.

So says Clear Lakes Capital, Studio Devon’s latest client. We have just launched their new website to introduce and encourage people to recognise the potential in this progressive country.

Three weeks was all the time that passed between initial contact and publication of the finished website, and the client was extremely pleased with our reasonable rates as well as our speed of response.

To see the website, and maybe dip a toe in the Mongolian water, visit www.clc.mn.

Their initial brief was for a basic site to allow key contributors to post information about the society and keep a calendar of upcoming events.  Studio Devon realised that a site based on the Wordpress content management system would be an ideal solution.  Not only does it allow society members to write their own content but it can be easily expanded in future, by the addition of plug-ins, to cater for the extra functionality that the society may require as they place more demands on their website.

Set up of the site was very quick, as was the training required for those people who were going to manage the content.  Visit the site here to see the results.

The website, for marketing business All the Right Notes, was developed from a standard WordPress template with added bespoke tweaks to give a completely custom look.  This approach enabled us to deliver something quickly and inexpensively, while taking advantage of the wealth of CMS (Content Management System) functionality that WordPress offers.

Good luck to the new business, here’s hoping the website helps to attract lots of new customers!

To visit the new website, click on www.alltherightnotes.co.uk.

Taking on a website originally developed by someone else is something that we have often done and doesn’t have to be problematical or costly.  In this case the straightforward nature of the site meant that there was no time lost evaluating and acclimatising to the existing code, so we were able to help out immediately.

Part of our ethos is to strive to produce websites which follow recognised standards, are consistent in appearance and which are accessible to all users (for example blind users will probably have a screen-reader browser and so the website should be written to enable this to interpret it properly).  We applied this philosophy to our updated version of the Highclere website and the client was delighted.

If you have a website which you would like us to check out in the same way, then please get in touch.  It needn’t cost much, and may bring extra browsers and customers!