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Newsletter: September 2004

In this issue:

Studio Director's Note: Another Storm, Anyone?

When we haven't been boarding up windows or planning evacuation routes this summer, it has been fascinating to watch how technology keeps up with hurricanes. Florida State University, here in Tallahassee, produces the "super ensemble," which is part of the National Hurricane Center's official forecasting mechanism. But although forecasts are generally getting more accurate, a trend you can continue to count on is that mother nature still holds the upper hand. Check out this time lapse archive of where Jeanne actually went.

Jeremy Spinks, Studio Director

Feature: Department of Health Undergoes Preventative Screening

The Florida Department of Health recently commissioned 3W Studios to conduct a thorough review of their website and provide useful recommendations for its future improvement.

Reviewing the DOH site was no small task. With approximately 8000 pages spread across multiple domains, getting a comprehensive picture of the scope was challenging. As well as the design and organization of the site, we also tackled the internal procedures for its daily maintenance.

3W Studios provided an exhaustive review of the site code, production environment and organization of content. ADA compliance (Americans with Disabilities Act) is a Federally mandated requirement for a government website, so we scored the site against several accessibility standards. The department also publishes its own web guidelines, as well as being subject to the State Technology Office as part of the MyFlorida initiative, and we examined those too. The report was a blend of many tools, including some automated validation processes, some real-user experiences, and our combined years of experience in the industry.

 

The result was a very valuable document identifying several key areas of improvement for the site, as well as the successful elements that need to be retained. As part of our recommendations, we created a functioning design template that demonstrates some of our key recommendations. There is no timetable for putting the recommendations into place, but we look forward to seeing the site evolve.

Launch News: 211 Big Bend TV Commercial

3W Studios has expanded our services to include commercial production for broadcast television. The first beneficiary of our new capabilities is 211 Big Bend. The organization provides a 24-hour-a-day free community hotline service offering confidential counseling and human service information. They have recently been promoting their services through advertising with the help of Kidd Tucker Group.

  

The 30-second spot was completed in-house and marks a production milestone for our studio. We can now add DVD-quality video to our other multimedia capabilities previously utilized to great CD presentation and interactive kiosks. Watch the commercial online and visit the 211 Big Bend website for more information about the organization.

Other News: Search Engine Optimization and Web Standards

This interesting story came across our screens this month in a support forum for some software we were evaluating. The originator of the thread was concerned about how the software in question might affect search engine ranking. The ensuing debate featured many contradictory viewpoints about what criteria search engines use to rank sites, with plenty of heated discussion but little in the way of hard evidence.

But one post was able to back itself up with great real-world experience. The author had discovered that one of his pages ranked first in Google, although he had made no efforts to rank the page. The secret of his success? Standards-compliant code.

See the google rank (search terms were "vacation photo idaho") and then see the page.

The page in question has, well, beautiful source code. And while there are at least 100 factors that go into a single Google rank, this one page gives great support to the theory that 3W Studios has subscribed to for several years now: standards-compliant code can make all the difference.

Not sure if your site meets the standard? Drop us a line and we will evaluate your site.