• Switching to Google Chrome

    A few weeks ago, I finally made the switch to Google Chrome from Mozilla Firefox, after several failed attempts. These were the plugins that allowed me to do so.

  • Google Mail is Becoming Gmail Again

    Just now, I logged in to my Google Mail/Gmail account and I got a nice little message stating that Gmail was on its way back to the UK.

  • Site Focus: Three.co.uk

    Recently, Three.co.uk (the mobile and broadband provider) got a big facelift and had their website redesigned. In this article I describe key elements of this redesign.

  • Create an HTML email signature for Mac Mail

    Recently, I tried to create an HTML email footer and attach it to a Mail account for the the Apple Mac (OS X). It isn’t as simple as linking to an HTML file like in my much preferred mail client Thunderbird.

  • Site Focus: Jon Brousseau

    We often think that websites must have flashy animations or “Web 2.0″ style graphics. It is often overlooked that some of the most beautiful designs are the simple ones.

  • Using WordPress to Track Marketing Campaigns

    Marketing is a crucial aspect of any product, whether it’s a website or the latest George Foreman grill. If done right, it can lead to huge conversion rates. But how can you track such campaigns on the web?

  • Off to Strawberry Street

    After 2 years of working with the guys at Save9, it has come to the time in my life where I need to progress with my career and move on to bigger and better things. As of the backend of May I will be a web designer/developer at Strawberry, in Hull. I did get a [...]

  • Site Focus: Woodend Creative Workspace

    The building in which I work (for Save9), Woodend Creative Workspace, recently had a bit of a facelift for its website. The work was undertaken by Colour Creation, one of its many tenants.

  • Property Website Content

    Ok, so maybe this doesn’t have to do entirely with the actually property listing websites themselves, but more so in relation to the content they have. I am currently looking at new accommodation and I’m growing increasingly frustrated.

  • Site Focus: Line25

    Line25 is a web design blog written by Chris Spooner (I’m sure many of you in the web design industry will have heard of this cheeky chappy). The main focus points of this design blog is to give ‘inspiration to web creatives’.

  • Inspiration vs. Theft

    Some people will have you believe that theft in design is ok, because all ideas come from somewhere else. How can that be the case? Where do original designs come from? Sure, some designs can evolve from studying natural form, but the best designers and artists out there just have a creative mindset that allows [...]

  • My Boss Said

    Although in most of my free time when I’m not spending time with friends, or wasting away the hours with Facebook or Day of Defeat: Source, I am heavily concentrating on my Find Creativity project, I will soon be developing a small project (very likely through Tumblr) inspired by a friend (after he told me [...]

  • Hello CodeIgniter

    It became apparent that it was getting a bigger and bigger project as my planning and research continued. This was where I decided that a PHP framework might come in handy.

  • BarCamp Scarborough Talk

    Digital Scarborough is presenting BarCamp Scarborough in a few days time. This is an event loosely based on the principles of BarCamp, looking for people from the world of business and people studying all aspects of computing and digital media to come along and discuss issues and raise ideas with like-minded people.
    This event is [...]

  • Getting British Business Offline

    On Thursday 25th February, an initiative (from Google, Enterprise UK, BT, e-skills UK and Enterprise UK) launched a web service called Getting British Business Online (GBBO). But what’s so bad about this?

  • Find Creativity

    I was in a pub one day, having a drink with a few friends – one of whom said something along the lines of, ‘it’s really annoying – there are all these creative people in the area, but no one knows about each other.’

  • Tweaking Monster

    I got one of those emails from Monster.co.uk, telling me about all the latest IT jobs that were available – none of which matched, because it was an out of date C.V. So. I updated my profile, and that’s where it started to go downhill.

  • Leave it to the Professionals

    There are so many more reasons you should consult a professional to create your online presence. What do you think sets apart professional web designers from every other Tom, Dick and Harry who happens to have a copy of Photoshop?

  • Custom Wordpress Comments Template

    The default template will have all the usual details. Username, gravatar and comment etc. By adding some code to the functions.php file in your Wordpress theme folder, you can have more control over what is going on.

  • Welcome to 2010

    Yes, I know it’s now February, but welcome back to Willans.net 2010 style. I have to decided to bring it all back to the Willans.net domain. Blog, portfolio and about – and when I decide to do any freelance work, it will be under the name Willans.

About

I am a Scarborough (England) based web designer who specialises in creating attractive and usable websites. I currently work for Save9 Ltd. and also do freelance work in my spare time. I have been designing websites since the age of 15. So that's 7 years of web design experience. Read more about Simon Wilans.

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