Only 1 of the winning sites for the Webby Awards validates both for html and css.

The mission statement of the Webby Awards is: “The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet.” So does excellence simply mean usability and design? Or is compliance to web standards a factor? Well, the data I took from their winners shows that web compliance IS NOT a factor in the judging. A few months ago, the winners of the 2007 Webby Awards were announced. Among them, are some very content-rich and aesthetically pleasing websites. I had some time this week, so I took a look at every winner. As a designer, I couldn’t help but to pull back the curtains and dive into the code. What I found was very interesting. The table I have at the bottom of this post shows the data I found.

What was interesting to me is some of the same errors were being repeated. Not using the “alt” attribute on images; not encoding ampersands; using attributes that weren’t supported by their chosen doc type. Many sites actually came close to validation, and if they would have taken 2 minutes they could have validated. On the other hand, there were many sites that had hundreds and a few sites even thousands of errors. Their road to validation would be much longer, however not impossible.

Well, take a look at the data and you decide. Should we all contact the Webby Awards and push for change? Should we let the Webby Awards be a standard for how we design? You decide.

NOTE: I omitted some flash sites where validation didn’t really matter. Also, there may have been a couple I missed. Also, these were the results I got when I checked validation, and by no means am I saying it is what you will get as well.

Maybe next week I will follow up with a version 2.0 that explains what they could have done to fix it.

If anyone wants help with validation, feel free to contact me. I would be happy to help!

We are glad to announce as well, that we will be redesigning the current website for “The Mod Bod”. They are a clothing company here in Utah that tries to create classy and stylish clothing for woman, that they can wear all the time, without having to worry about it being too revealing. They have a great staff, and I have enjoyed meeting and talking with their CEO. We are going to completely redesign their website, update their shopping cart and add some new features. We are excited to take it on and complete it in time for the launch of their new spring line.

We are getting really close to finishing some other websites as well. We have been fortunate to be redesigning one of the biggest windsurfing camps on the East Coast (Calema). They are having a really big event this weekend, and we are racing ourselves to have their new look up in time for the thousands of people that will login to see.

Also, we were chosed by a new high-end restaurant in Orlando, Jeffereys, to create their website. I felt really stupid when I got it mixed up with New York, and told their marketing director that the next time I visit New York I would have to stop by. Good thing she has a sense of humor.

We are also finishing up this week a website for a featured plastic surgeon for Indianapolis, Turkle & Associates. My brother of 97thfloor.com has been doing their SEO, and they are killing the competition. They were ready to add a new look, and by the end of this week it will be live.

The last project we are currently working on, which should be done by tomorrow is a website for a start up company in southern california (So Cal Displays). When we researched their competition, we realized a lot of their competitors (its the product display industry) looked like they couldn’t display anything on their website. Honestly, horrible sites. So, needless to say his looks freakin good, and we are excited to have it live and working by tomorrow.

So, stay tuned. A lot is coming from this company. After this week (our hell week) I am going to make work harder to keep people informed. Also, I am having a sweet system programmed that is going to allow me to automate a lot of stuff, and hopefully create a lot more jobs.

When we first started talking to them they mentioned they like the high-end, classy look of the sites we create, especially www.97thfloor.com. They told us they wanted the look of their website to help them become leaders in the wedding industry on the web.

With that said, the design is underway and looking good. We looked into their backend and everything works and looks fine. I give my hat off to their last programmer.

Stay tuned for the final result to be launched by January 1st. Could be an award winner.

Basically evey mod that you could ever want in a shopping cart exists in Os Commerce, and if it doesn’t then you can easily integrate it. For this recent client, we added an ability for users to upload files during the checkout process. No problem. I can’t say enough about Os Commerce. I marvel at the guys that run it, and the amazing community of members that has been created. That’s what the internet is all about, sharing information. My hat off to Ponce De Leon and others (whoever that is). As for Modern Blue, we will keep using it and supporting it.

What this tells me right away is a few things. 1. They haven’t really planned ahead, which could cause problems down the road. 2. They see web design as a product rather than a service. 3. They may be shopping for a web design firm based on price, and not quality. 4. Maybe they have never worked with a design firm before and should be trained by some other company. The customers that know what they are doing, come to us like this:

“We have set aside this much money. What can you give us for that?”

Now we are talking. They understand that we can change certain things to match their budget. They are asking for quality rather than a product. These are clients we like to work with. This is one thing we look for when taking on new clients. If I were to ask for an illustrator or seo firm to do work for me, I would think how much I have to set aside for them, and then approach them that way. The list continues of what to look for in a client. It’s kind of like a dating service if you want it to flow smoothly and be beneficial to both of you.

In other news, I have been working hard on a new project. Its an interactive training CD covering Search Engine Optimization. Its going to be used by a company in Florida that has internet marketing / coaching boot camps. I was excited to focus most of my attention on CD’s rather than the web. Lately I have just been doing web pages, so its a nice break. I plan on putting up some screenshots soon.

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Anyway, one such sweet spot was reached after the 9th template (yes sometimes I change up that much) for www.97thfloor.com. Its my brothers search engine optimization firm, so he let me just do what I thought was best. The result has given me probably 10-12 clients. This website hasn’t got me any yet. Its the whole mechanic with a crappy car syndrom. Anyway, just a little blurb for today on finding that sweet spot and showing everybody.

Our site only sends out emails to users who have signed up for your membership based website, and who click on the “Agree to terms” box when they sign up. aol however doesn’t care about this stuff. They make you sign up for a feedback loop email, and then apply to get on their whitelist. I can understand how this would be useful for unsolicited sites sending mail, but what about us with solicited sites? Well tough luck. Is their method 100% guaranteed you won’t get in trouble (for doing nothing wrong I might add)? NO!

The problem: Users can still in their aol inbox click that an email sent was spam. If there are enough people clicking that button, aol will contact your host with a spam complaint.

Solution: I think we are going to have to delete all aol accounts, and tell users that they can’t sign up for our site using and email account, and then have a link to gmail or something. Obviously aol hasn’t thought this all the way through.

After I created the left nav, I worked on the header. I had this circle on a layer in photoshop I kept moving around. Finally I found a place for it. And the result is what you see now. The site is relatively simple. It is a private company, so it just has some information on creating an account. So, I wanted to keep the design and navigation very simple as well. Thus, three buttons on the left for the main navigation, and a couple common ones on the footer. I think it portrays simplicity and a modern feel. And yes, the curves do look good.