We recently had our Mobile Browser Usage infographic (included below) featured on the phenomenal Design Float website, and we thought it was about time we delivered the design to our own readers.

If you’re anything like we were when researching this infographic then you’ll probably find some mobile browsers in the design that you haven’t come across before – so why not consider trying out some new browsers on your mobile, you never know, you might find something you like!

As always with our infographics you’re more than welcome to use the design on your own blog, just please link back to Pixel Design Studio if you do.

We recently designed an infographic for the high-profile Speckyboy website, entitled the ‘History of Online Shopping’. You can check out the infographic below, and let us know what you think in the comments!

If you’d like to see a larger copy, simply click on the infographic below:

Enjoy our History Of Online Shopping infographic? Please consider sharing it using the social media buttons! Feel free to repost this infographic, just please link back to us or to the original publisher Speckyboy if you do.

1. Scratchcard Style
This is a classic idea of taking something totally unrelated to a business card and adding it in to make it a bit more fun. Giving the user some way of interacting with your card, and making it fun, is the perfect way to make then remember you! SEE MORE

2. SheetSeat
Designed to mimic the product itself, this business card looks as clever as the real product! It’s a very clever little bit of origami-style folding and you have yourself a model chair…with contact details! SEE MORE

3. Brand Doctor
I think this tongue in cheek medical business card may be my favourite from this list. Each designer was assigned a ‘medicine’ based on their name and profession, in this case ‘Ruxiten – for improving visual identity’. A brilliant idea, with even better execution; the blister pack is full of mints. SEE MORE

4. Tear Off
Designed to fit in with their website branding, these cards are designed by two German packaging designers working for Junge Schachtel (meaning ‘young box’). It brings back the interactivity element again, and the minimal design is really well offset by the hot neon pink. SEE MORE

5. Edible Cards
Unfortunately this is a concept that will only work for food based businesses, but is great fun nevertheless. I’m afraid they’ll either go stale or be eaten before anyone remembers your contact details but they really look great and would be fab for an event. SEE MORE

6.Coasters
A really nicely designed idea here, with the design screenprinted directly onto the wooden coasters, but then again we’d expect noting less from a fine graphic design company like Murillo. The best bit about these is that they will hang around in a home or office for years, always re-enforcing your brand in the back of people’s minds. SEE MORE

7. Data Card
A really great concept, the ‘BizDisc’ card may look like a (roughly) regular business card, but can be inserted into any CD drive and played like a CD too. In the same way mini-cd’s work, they are cut down versions of regular cd’s, run on the same spindle and hold 450mb of data. Enough for your CV, portfolio and lots of other things. SEE MORE

8. Ctrl + Alt +Del
A great metaphor for the digital generation, these three buttons are all about problems. What better to advertise a psychologist, and very nicely done as well. SEE MORE

9. Shuriken Cards
Inspired by the famous Japanese throwing stars, these cards by Russian designer Albert Polyakov are embossed and silk screen printed. They look great on their own, but the blood splatters really make them pop. SEE MORE

10. Brckt
Bracket is a worldwide publication that contains articles on everything from politics to design, and they supply their employees with some great cards. Minimalist outsides are squeezed to reveal the folded inner contact details. Perfect for a publication that tries to be anonymous and minimalistic. SEE MORE

Let us know what you think in the comments below, and be sure to check back regularly for more infographics and useful web design infomation.

The Evolution Of Web Design:

As more and more companies utilise QR codes for their own business, many people are attempting to stand out from the crowd by being a little more creative with their QR code designs. Here are a handful of creative QR codes we’ve come across over the past couple of weeks:

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True Blood

The marketing team behind the hugely popular HBO series came up with this designer QR code, brilliantly capturing the essence of the show whilst allowing viewers to find additional content and up-to-date information. This QR code was for season 3 of True Blood, and was the first QR code of this kind to appear on a national television advert (in the US).

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Help Japan Now

The Help Japan Now QR code is an excellent example of how you can add to the traditional code layout to bring additional meaning and branding to the design. They have extended around the QR code in order to present the internationally recognised Red Cross symbol, as well as using ‘fake’ QR codes around the outside to include medical and aid related iconography.

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Fillmore Silver Spring

This QR Code for Fillmore Silver Spring (a music venue in the US) is a fantastic example of how creative you can be with your QR codes. The code is colourful, eye-catching and contains some excellent design touches and music elements – improving brand awareness and encouraging reader interaction.

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Discover LA Tourism Bureau

This superb QR code features subtle design elements that catch the users eye, improving engagement and interaction. The QR code also says a lot about the brand and what the code represents, making an excellent piece of marketing.

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Time Magazine

These superb examples from Time Magazine demonstrate just how much you can play around with your QR codes to create something that’s unique and innovative, as well as being useful in terms of branding and marketing.

We have finally decided it’s time to pull our socks up and get the job finished. We have gone for a clean, clear and simple design and will let our Portfolio do the talking. So keep an eye out for the new site which should appear in a month or so (I hope!)  

Pixie 

Companies in the UK must include certain regulatory information on their websites and in their email footers before 1st January 2007 or they will breach the Companies Act and risk a fine.

Every company should list its company registration number, place of registration and registered office address on its website as a result of an update to the legislation of 1985. The information, which must be in legible characters, should also appear on order forms and in emails. Such information is already required on ‘business letters’ but the duty is being extended to websites, order forms and electronic documents.

The change is being made by a Statutory Instrument that is expected to be passed on Thursday to implement a European law, the First Company Law Amendment Directive, into UK law. According to a Department of Trade and Industry spokesperson, the law will take effect on 1st January, one day later than the Directive requires. (The Companies (Registrar, Languages and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2006 has now been passed.)

The information is likely to appear in the footer of every email sent from a company, to avoid having to decide whether each email amounts to a ‘business letter’ or not. Many companies do this already because the term ‘business letters’ was thought likely to include emails even without this new clarification.

For websites, contrary to the fears of some, the specified information does not need to appear on every page. Again, many websites will already list the required information, perhaps on their ‘About us’ or ‘Legal info’ pages.

The E-commerce Regulations, passed in 2002, require that certain information is listed on a website, including, “where the service provider is registered in a trade or similar register available to the public, details of the register in which the service provider is entered and his registration number, or equivalent means of identification in that register”.

That has been understood as including the company registration number and place of registration. The E-commerce Regulations also required a note of “the geographic address at which the service provider is established” – which many have taken to mean the registered office address.

However, the wording in the E-commerce Regulations is ambiguous compared to the new provisions. Further, many organisations’ sites currently omit the information, perhaps making the mistake of thinking that the E-commerce Regulations do not apply to websites that do not sell online (in fact they apply to almost all websites).

Information that must be on your website: an aide memoire
The following is the minimum information that must be on any company’s website (from OUT-LAW’s guide, The UK’s E-commerce Regulations).

• The name, geographic address and email address of the service provider. The name of the organisation with which the customer is contracting must be given. This might differ from the trading name. Any such difference should be explained – e.g. “XYZ.com is the trading name of XYZ Enterprises Limited.” It is not sufficient to include a ‘contact us’ form without also providing an email address and geographic address somewhere easily accessible on the site. A PO Box is unlikely to suffice as a geographic address; but a registered office address would. If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included.
• If a company, the company’s registration number should be given and, under the Companies Act, the place of registration should be stated (e.g. “XYZ Enterprises Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1234567″)
• If the business is a member of a trade or professional association, membership details, including any registration number, should be provided.
• If the business has a VAT number, it should be stated – even if the website is not being used for e-commerce transactions.
• Prices on the website must be clear and unambiguous. Also, state whether prices are inclusive of tax and delivery costs.

Finally, do not forget the Distance Selling Regulations which contain other information requirements for online businesses that sell to consumers (B2C, as opposed to B2B, sales). For details of these requirements, see our guide, The Distance Selling Regulations – An Overview.

We are pleased to announce we are looking for another designer to join our us at Pixel Design Studio, which already includes a team of highly skilled web designers and developers from across Sussex. 

The Company:   

Pixel Design Studio is constructed from a team of young and fresh professionals who specialise in providing web design, web development and website hosting services in and around Sussex and the UK. We have won several awards for our efforts and have a portfolio that we are very proud of.

The Applicant:   

The applicant should have strong design skills and must be competent with Photoshop and should have good knowledge of HTML and CSS. 

The Benefits:    

Salary for this position is negotiable depending on level of experience.

What next?:   

Send a copy of your CV to:

Pixel Design Studio
PO BOX 4672
Worthing
West Sussex
BN11 9GF

Pixie

We have loads of news to keep readers informed of, but for now we are just going to get to grips with the tech/nerdy bits. So if you’re reading this, welcome! Please pop back soon for a read up on what’s happening at Pixel Design Studio.