good Irish web design firm

segasega

Hi, I work for a small landscape and planning company. We are in the process of choosing a web design company to revamp are out dated site. This may seem like we havent done our homewrok, but there is just so many web design firms out there today.I was just wondering if anybody could suggest a good Irish web design firm ,preferably in Dublin, that would do professional website with mostly static html pages but some pages being php for regular update from our office which would include work on current landscape and planning jobs. We already have hosting with hosing365 and have considered www.continuum.ie and www.adnet.ie . We are looking for a company that can create a clean, shape website that displays our info in a clear manner (i.e white space).

Thanks in advance.

Laslo

Personally, I'm not too keen on Continuum's work. Especially considering they've got black hat SEO techniques employed on their own website that could very easily get them blacklisted by Google. I'd hate to think what damage they could be doing to their clients sites!

Have a look at www.spoiltchild.ie, www.gravitate.ie and www.vitalspark.ie

grahamor

Be prepared to spend a fair bit of cash on a site if you go with a large company.

You could get someone in these forums to do a nixer for you that would be just as good and a fraction of the price.

Im getting tired of hearing large companies charge €3000 for a 5 page brochure site (just my opinion, dont want to start a war )

smcelhinney

Used to do a lot of work with Denobi, they're quite good. They do design and eCommerce implementations.

Laslo

grahamor wrote:

You could get someone in these forums to do a nixer for you that would be just as good and a fraction of the price.

Well it depends on what you're looking for. Any single individual who claims they can design AND develop a website using best practice - standards, SEO, accessibility... is probably taking on a lot more than they're capable of handling.

Lots of freelancers try to do it all themselves, and say that they can. The truth is that they cannot. Having said this, most large companies with pools of individual specialities produce crap as well.

Bob the Builder

I say nothing, all I say is make sure you have a portfolio of who your employing and PM their website to one of us, If you find a company, send me a link by PM, and I'll check them out...:D

Liam Byrne

If you're determined that your criteria is "preferably in Dublin", no point in me making suggestions, but I did see vitalspark mentioned (Ennis-based), so maybe there's scope to go beyond Dublin to get the right designer/developer.

PM me if you want to discuss this some more (I generally try not to actively advertise on the boards).

tomED

I can speak volumes about www.2bscene.net - maybe because it's my day job!

copacetic

www.resonate.ie or www.ebow.ie (no personal involvement in either)

Adam

tomED wrote:

I can speak volumes about www.2bscene.net - maybe because it's my day job!

The guy in your home page flash always makes me laugh, I think the laptop looks far to "phallic", if you know what I mean...

Laslo

daveym wrote:

www.resonate.ie or www.ebow.ie (no personal involvement in either)

Resonate's work simply isn't up to scratch. Companies that are still marking-up their websites using tables for layout shouldn't be selling sites as a professional service. eBow have the same problem - but only some of the time, which makes me suspect they sub-contract their web work. Aren't they a print company?

eamon234

Mirror wrote:

The guy in your home page flash always makes me laugh, I think the laptop looks far to "phallic", if you know what I mean...

Hee hee see what you mean - if that's not deliberate though I'd get rid of it - could offend potential clients - I love it though fnarr fnarr!

DJB

There are lots of options out there for you and it really depends on your budget. Some of the guys I've had the pleasure of dealing with lately (not necessarily to work with but I have checked out their work and I think it's good) include:

www.d3.ie
www.redflystudios.com
www.edenweb.ie
www.spoiltchild.com
www.themenace.com

I'm guessing websites from these guys is going to be in the region of 3k-10k for what you are talking about. You can probably get if for less but in my opinion and experience, you get what you pay for.

For marketing your website, I'll recommend www.redcardinal.ie - Richard should be able to give you some good advice and get you up the search rankings. No point having a lovely new website if nobody can find it. LD

Best of luck with it and if I can be of any help, don't hesitate to ask!

Be nice to hear who you choose in the end and why you decided to choose that company?!?

Rgds, Dave

tomED

Mirror wrote:

The guy in your home page flash always makes me laugh, I think the laptop looks far to "phallic", if you know what I mean...

Discussed here : http://www.creativeireland.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5963

zokrez

tomED wrote:

I can speak volumes about www.2bscene.net - maybe because it's my day job!

Hi i am in the early stages of looking to develop a site and doing research at the moment.
Some very good sites in that selection. I have am trying to get a hold of what prices different sites would cost. Could you please tell me what the following sites would roughly cost:

www.123.ie
www.thestreetgallery.com
www.fixmytax.com
www.buyingahouse.ie

Would the administrators be able to change site as changes were required or would there be maintenance fees charged in general ?

Is there any site that would be a ready reckoner to cost based on the different requirements one would have ?

Is there any conflict of interest in site design ? eg if an auctioneer in O'Connell street was already a client, would another auctioneer from the same street be allowed to become a client with virtually the same site ?

Thanks

tomED

Zakre,

It wouldn't be fair to divulge information on pricing here on a public forum.
All those sites have different capabilities, so no site has a similar cost.

In reply to would you copy a local auctioneers site - we wouldn't do this for a number of reasons, but a lot of people would!

Why not PM me or email me through the email on the website and I can answer your questions!

Tom

mneylon

Tom in 2Bscene is easy to deal with and a true professional

I've also had dealings with quite a few of the other designers / developers and most of them are a good bunch - though you will find some awful chancers!

tomED

blacknight wrote:

Tom in 2Bsceneis easy to deal with and a true professional

ah thanks - you're not too bad yourself

Ph3n0m

tomED wrote:

ah thanks - you're not too bad yourself

get a room you two

5 Times

www.magico.ie

Won Golden Spider last year.

Finalist this year.

Excellent service, quality and value.

Ennis Based

Ph3n0m

5 Times wrote:

www.magico.ie

Won Golden Spider last year.

Finalist this year.

Excellent service, quality and value.

Ennis Based

oh oh - i can see the can of worms already opened over the mentioning of those awards here (so people keep it on thread - OP was asking for recommendations - no bitching)

mneylon

5 Times wrote:

www.magico.ie

Won Golden Spider last year.

Finalist this year.

Excellent service, quality and value.

Ennis Based

The Golden Spiders do not take quality into consideration:

http://www.irishwebmasterforum.com/webmaster-discussion/695-golden-spider-awards.html

As for their quality .. It's been debated a bit as well:
http://www.mneylon.com/blog/archives/2007/02/14/accessibility-ecommerce-good-design-buying-chocolates-online/
http://www.mneylon.com/blog/archives/2007/02/20/lily-o-briens-followup/
http://www.irishwebmasterforum.com/site-reviews-announcements/1324-new-lily-o-briens-site.html

It's 2007. Surely people should be taking web standards etc., into consideration when designing sites?

copacetic

Laslo wrote:

Resonate's work simply isn't up to scratch. Companies that are still marking-up their websites using tables for layout shouldn't be selling sites as a professional service. eBow have the same problem - but only some of the time, which makes me suspect they sub-contract their web work. Aren't they a print company?

says you? they are both well respected design firms, the fact you think ebow is a print company shows you don't know what you are talking about.

daryllsheridan

jesus http://www.adnet.ie/ dosent format at all on firefox

What a shambles!

How do sites like this getting publisher (walmart in the states was the same rubbish)

34% of browsers are firefox

forbairt

daryllsheridan wrote:

34% of browsers are firefox

This this is all turning into a bit of a name and shame ...

but care to back up those stats ?

I just checked 3 of my high ranking sites and they've got 12 - 14 % firefox hits ?

edit: 88.2 percent of all statistics are made up :P

heggie

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

forbairt

Cheers for that but from a webdesign website ... I'd expect more people to use firefox ..

To quote the website ...

W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to use Internet Explorer, since it comes preinstalled with Windows. Most do not seek out other browsers.

destraynor

Even if we take the lowest statistic doing the rounds and round it down, we're still looking at 10% Firefox, which is too big to ignore.

I have no problem ignoring IE 5.5 on Macs, or Konqueror or any of the 0-1%ers, but ignoring FireFox is wrong.

forbairt

destraynor wrote:

Even if we take the lowest statistic doing the rounds and round it down, we're still looking at 10% Firefox, which is too big to ignore.

I have no problem ignoring IE 5.5 on Macs, or Konqueror or any of the 0-1%ers, but ignoring FireFox is wrong.

Don't get me wrong ... I design for firefox ... then fix IE ... was really just curious where you were getting stats like that from

daryllsheridan

i wasnt trying to shame anybody

I was just in shock that a firm that designs website (professionally) has a home page that dosent format in Firefox - seems unbeliveable to me (and ive only designed a few web pages but i always dual check, infact i have a stand alone internet explorer 5.5 and i check of that as well)

mneylon

A lot will depend on your website audience:

http://www.mneylon.com/blog/archives/2006/08/13/browser-os-usage/

Laslo

daveym wrote:

says you? they are both well respected design firms

Resonate? Never heard of them. Their work isn't professional enough, with no regard for Web standards. If they're respected, they shouldn't be.

daveym wrote:

the fact you think ebow is a print company shows you don't know what you are talking about.

Don't know much about eBow - I just thought they were originally a print company. I take it their main line of business is Web then? Fair enough. Their stuff's not too bad.

Oh... and I do know what I'm talking about sweetheart If you want me to categorically start picking holes in the work of some of the most 'well respected' agencies, I'm more than happy to do so. Reputation and competence are very different things.

heggie

maybe laslo's thinking of ebrook ?

PixelTrawler

daryllsheridan wrote:

jesus http://www.adnet.ie/ dosent format at all on firefox

What a shambles!

How do sites like this getting publisher (walmart in the states was the same rubbish)

34% of browsers are firefox

I'm finding about 11-12% firefox usage on my sites although this is still high enough to make sure it works

Figment

daryllsheridan wrote:

i wasnt trying to shame anybody

I was just in shock that a firm that designs website (professionally) has a home page that dosent format in Firefox - seems unbeliveable to me (and ive only designed a few web pages but i always dual check, infact i have a stand alone internet explorer 5.5 and i check of that as well)

Usually a design firms own work is the last to be updated. Thats if they are busy with paying client work.

Vicky

We are a bit like painters. Your house is always last to be painted.

Look at our new site http://www.pixel.ie

Very little on it.

No time to get to it. The other problem is it is pretty hard to design for yourself. I have made a few designs for PIXEL.IE. Guess what. None I really like enough to put up. I like them at the time I am designing them. Then for some reason. I start to hate them.

Right now it is on the back burner. hmmmmm.

One of these days....

For now I will stay working under my old name..

Eoin

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

I'm finding about 11-12% firefox usage on my sites although this is still high enough to make sure it works

That's around the same figure I get on my sites (Google analytics is the business!).

Vicky & Figment - couldn't agree more. I just give out links to sites we have done, rather than direct people to ours. We have a design planned, and all that, but we are just too busy to get it done.

mneylon

Vicky wrote:

We are a bit like painters. Your house is always last to be painted.

Look at our new site http://www.pixel.ie

Very little on it.

It's a great domain name though

Vicky

Thanks Blacknight.