News

02/05/2013

I launched two new websites this week:

Parenting Succesfully for children’s & family psychotherapist Andrea Clifford-Poxon and a starter, one-page, site for local business Coalville Lettings - commercial & residential property to let in Coalville, Leicestershire.

14/04/2013

The Training in Contemporary Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, or, less tongue-twistingly, The TCPP, asked me to take over the support and updating of their website www.thetcpp.org. The site was built using WordPress mainly known as a blogging platform but which many, many people use as a Content Management System (CMS). WordPress allows authorised users to update pages on their website as well as to add blog posts. 

As a designer I find WordPress somewhat limiting and often frustrating. The initial design has to use a pre-built “Theme” which is tailorable either by selecting options (colours, images, placement of items, etc) or by getting into the php and css code. There are a lot “Widgets” to add various functionality - forms, menus, calendars etc. But inevitably they don’t always do exactly what you want and often the Widget that you’d like to use isn’t supported by the Theme you’ve chosen.

As a designer I’m not keen. But I do appreciate that many thousands of people have built excellent websites on their own with minimal technical knowledge or support.

Anyway, I’ve now updated The TCPP website to include more text, especially related to the “Psychotherapy Training in Birmingham” search phrase they expect to generate more enquiries, additional pages about the training course  and it will soon include a news / blog section.

11/04/2013

This month I developed a new website - Different Perspective Counselling - for Matthew Simpson, a Relational Counsellor practising in Preston and Lancaster, Lancashire. Includes some interesting graphic images to illustrate the theme of getting a different perspective on your life. I will be working with Matthew to improve performance of his website and include new items and features as his practice grows. (see what I do for website support)

05/02/2013

Well into the new year now. I’m working on several new websites for clients as well as providing my usual full management support service for some long-term customers. So time flies.

27/11/2012

 During November I completed two new client sites, both for psychotherapy & counselling practices:

• Zen Kyle - Counselling and Psychotherapy services in Edgbaston, Birmingham & Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
• Kym Winter - Psychotherapy, counselling and consulting in St Albans, Herts.
   

20/11/2012

I designed and look after the website for the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy based in Birmingham. They hold a meeting on the 3rd Monday of each month and invite a speaker to talk about a psychotherapy topic or to lead a discussion. Yesterday they invited me to give a talk about “Your Practice Website”. Many WMIP members operate as individual therapists or as part of a group practice and only about a third had a website already. The questions, from what one might assume to be people of similar background, were really interesting and showed quite a range of website development, experiences and understanding. It’s a good reminder that clients are all different and one shouldn’t take anything for granted.

 

29/08/2012

Do you have a website that’s a bit tired or isn’t performing? This Autumn I’m offering a website review at a special price (£299 instead of £399). Take this chance to get a professional opinion on your website and a forward plan of action to improve return on your investment and get your website working for you! Find out more >>

 

22/05/2012

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued changes to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations which take effect on 26th May and UK websites have to comply.

The directive on cookies is that users should be warned about the use of cookies on a site - before the page opens up and any cookies are posted - and asked if they agree to cookies being used. If they don’t agree then the code using cookies must be disabled or the user directed elsewhere.

It’s not clear how the proposals can be implemented without too much intrusion into the operation of the website - especially where a web page delivered to the end user is served from several domains. These things will be worked out in time or maybe just go away. The general view is that if you’re just using cookies for Analytics it’s OK to post a notice or a link to a notice at the top of the page explaining that’s what you’re doing. This could be done as part of the website privacy statement, terms and conditions, copyright statements etc.

This is going to be a developing situation - especially since this could put UK websites at a disadvantage compared with worldwide sites.

Having said that, it’s quite sensible, and good customer relations, to explain how our websites work and that we are keeping their privacy in mind as well as creating a great on-line experience. See my page “About this website”.

For more about what cookies are and how they are used read  my article on cookies >>

 

For more news have a look at my blog or read my newsletters.