Politico's Design*

Services

Introduction


Politico's Design provides a comprehensive service that covers the seven steps required to make the most of the web.

Step one: identify the role the internet can play in your work


We work with clients to identify their objectives and the context in which they operate. A detailed proposal is prepared for each project - starting not with the technology, but rather with an analysis of your role, the target audiences and your political objectives.

Only once these strategic aspects have been identified and documented, can we turn to the technology and draw up a creative and functional specification - and, having agreed costs and timings with you, begin to build your site.

You may ask us to undertake this consultancy on a fee basis, in which case we hand over all rights to our work. However, we prefer to carry out this preparatory work at no charge - in which case, although you are under no obligation to proceed, the proposal remains our intellectual property and may not be used in house or with a third party to build a site.

Step two: register your domain names


Once a domain name has been chosen, it is important to register all the popular variants. This makes it easier for visitors to find your site - and prevents others buying them up, with a view to creating a spoof version of your site or selling them on at a profit.

Having registered the domains, we manage them on our own name servers for your convenience; renewals are handled automatically on your behalf. We can also act as an anonymous broker for owners of existing domain names.

Step three: create an appropriate 'look and feel'


Where you have an established corporate identity, we use that on the site - adapting it only where necessary to suit the medium. If you have no existing branding, we identify your core proposition and develop appropriate fonts, colourways and graphics from scratch.

We also ensure that your site is as 'accessible' as possible, following best practice issued by the relevant non-statutory organisations as well as complying with legislation in the US, EU and UK.

Specialist web designers create our sites - and it shows, not only in their attractive layout but also in the usability that comes from an intuitive arrangement of content and navigation. We build interactive applications, not just a series of graphics laid out using a desktop publishing package.

However, this is only the beginning. It is vital that your proposition is embodied in the services offered by the site: if you are a candidate whose message is "I'm listening" then you must seek feedback at every opportunity - and reply to that feedback online.

Step four: build a simple site than you can edit


You can add content to the site yourself, simply by visiting a special web page. This division of labour makes the most of our creative and technical skills, while maximising the return on your investment - as there are no fees for adding material to the site or keeping it up to date.

The process is easy, quick and secure - requiring no knowledge of 'HTML' or web design; it simply involves cutting or pasting from existing documents, such as those created in Microsoft Office, or uploading pictures and Adobe PDF files from your hard drive.

A username and password is required, of course, before anyone can access the editor - and it can also be encrypted using the same level of security offered by online banks and shops.

The software is also intelligent: it can deploy your content in many different ways, even though it has only been added once. It can, for instance:

Your copy can even be distributed to other sites or appear on a version that is suitable for a personal organiser or mobile telephone. Most importantly, the system can automatically create - and update - a text only version of your site for visually impaired users and Braille readers.

Step five: hosting


We host all sites on our own servers, located in a purpose built facility.

Performance


Each server concentrates on a specific task, such as handling email or streaming video. This - together with the fact that they only run our sites - mean that they are specially configured for optimal performance. All of the software powering our sites is updated on a regular basis.

Reliability


We have engineers on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - allowing us to offer a guarantee that the machine will remain up 99.9 per cent of the time. Each server stores its information twice for redundancy, makes a third copy nightly and a fourth weekly - on a different machine. Each server also has a 'twin' that can take over if required.

Security


We check the latest security advice daily, applying the most critical updates immediately; the remainder are added overnight for minimal disruption. A number of automatic security measures are in place on our servers - and technicians make random checks, too.

Step six: attracting visitors...


Going live is only the beginning. A site is only effective if it attracts people and, moreover, the right people. Equally, traffic generation is only effective if it brings in individuals who would not otherwise have visited the site - either because they are unaware of your work or did not think it relevant to the issue at hand.

These days, most agencies include 'meta tag' keywords and descriptions to attract search engines. Our sites take this significantly further, by instantly generating unique tags for each page and updating these automatically when the content has changed. We also build pages that are particularly attractive to the most popular search engines - and submit your site.

Finally, we provide advice on other ways to generate traffic - such as including your domain name on all literature and writing copy that highlights key search terms.

Step seven: ... and encouraging return visits


Once someone visits your site, it remains to develop that relationship and involve that person more and more in the work of your organization. To do this, it is important to make the site 'sticky' - that is, generate repeat visits.

The way to do this is to add interactive features to the site - such as newsletters, polls, surveys and discussion forums. Much of this relationship can be carried out by email or text message (SMS) as well as through your website.

Finally, the success of the site - and points of failure - can be easily identified using software that analyses traffic. We generate graphs and statistics daily that show how many people are visiting the site, where they come from, what they look at, how long they stay and so forth. This allows the site to evolve in line with experience and delivers real insights as to what users want from your site.

© politico's design 2004 | terms and conditions