Internet Architects is proud to have launched the new website that promotes the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival for 2010. The 15th edition of this yearly festival is held between 2 and 10 September and is a real feast for classical music lovers. They can choose from almost 50 concerts in 9 days. Valery Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra invited a selection of top international orchestras, choirs and soloists. This year’s theme is the post-war reconstruction of Rotterdam.
The Gergiev festival site is a WordPress-site that we adapted to meet the specific needs of the festival. We set it up in such a way that it is really easy for the Gergiev webmaster to make adjustments and update the events calendar. The site is available in two languages (NL and EN) and offers an intuitive online ticketing system. Visitors who want to read all about a concert before buying tickets can just click the concert of their choice in the calendar. And sharing the concert experience is a breeze thanks to the integrated social media links to Twitter and Facebook.
The site went live on 2 May and was an immediate success. The first day we recorded more than 5000 page views. Have a look at: www.gergievfestival.nl
The Province of Antwerp asked Internet Architects to build a 360° photography tool. And that is exactly what we did. Visitors of the ‘Provinciaal Veiligheidsinstituut’ can now have a real-life look at what the institute has to offer and experience the building floor by floor and from every angle.
This virtual tour is not just about showing 3D-images and photographs of the inside of the building. We took the design of the virtual tour to the next level and developed an interactive and informative online experience. True, you can just quickly have a look around the building, floor by floor. However, if you are curious and want to learn more about the institute, you can click any of the icons and listen to extra information, watch an embedded video or read the details on a safety subject.
Technically, we made it really easy for the Province staff to upload fresh images, video, sound and texts into their existing CMS in which we integrated this tool. This also means that soon you will be able to take virtual tours and learn more about other buildings and services of the Province of Antwerp.
We know nothing beats a life visit, but this comes very close. See for yourself at the virtual environment of het Provinciaal Veiligheidsinstistuut (The Safety Institute of the Province of Antwerp)
Internet Architects is proud to have launched the new website that promotes the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival for 2010. The 15th edition of this yearly festival is held between 2 and 10 September and is a real feast for classical music lovers. They can choose from almost 50 concerts in 9 days. Valery Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra invited a selection of top international orchestras, choirs and soloists. This year’s theme is the post-war reconstruction of Rotterdam.
The Gergiev festival site is a WordPress-site that we adapted to meet the specific needs of the festival. We set it up in such a way that it is really easy for the Gergiev webmaster to make adjustments and update the events calendar. The site is available in two languages (NL and EN) and offers an intuitive online ticketing system. Visitors who want to read all about a concert before buying tickets can just click the concert of their choice in the calendar. And sharing the concert experience is a breeze thanks to the integrated social media links to Twitter and Facebook.
The site went live on 2 May and was an immediate success. The first day we recorded more than 5000 page views. Have a look at: www.gergievfestival.nl
As of this month Internet Architects switches to coding in html5. Implementing and using this mark-up language is a significant step forward and will help make our code future proof. However, the transition from the xhtml standard to html5 will happen gradually to ensure we keep supporting users of ‘older browsers’.
In this first phase we will only implement code that is supported by all the major browsers: IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera en Chrome.
Now what does this mean for users who do not know all about the nuts and bolts needed to build web pages?
Here are some of the main advantages of pages built with html5:
- Html5 guarantees quicker loading of pages containing video and/or audio thanks to its dedicated tags for video and audio. The code that needed to be loaded for the Flash player becomes redundant when you use a browser that supports html5. This results in a significantly better user experience when surfing sites such as YouTube for example. And a nice plus: html5 pages are fully compatible with your iPad and iPhone.
- Some fields in forms, such as the field where you enter your email address or phone number will be automatically validated. This makes completing forms more intuitive and dramatically reduces errors.
- Html5-coded pages are better accessible: linking can now be done on complete information blocks, even when that block consists of various elements such as a title, body text and an image.
As a strategic web agency Internet Architects is proud to announce this switch. It will surely help us to write and deliver more top notch code and it will allow us to build nicer, faster and more powerful web applications in less time. Finally, we are convinced that users will enjoy surfing the web even more now that the infamous WWW-feeling can be avoided: the World Wide Wait on pages containing video and audio.
We will keep you posted!
Internet Architects rethought and redesigned the complete web site of the Karel de Grote-Hogeschool. The result is an exciting and fresh site with crisp colors and intuitive navigation that reflects the identity of the school.
The new home page lets users effortlessly find what they are looking for at a single glance. Not sure what you want to study yet? Use the Search function to read all about any of the courses offered and make an informed choice. Looking for the campus sites? Then the integrated Google Maps® is sure to come in handy. Or check the calendar for upcoming events.
In short, this cooperation between Internet Architects and the Karel de Grote-Hogeschool resulted in a user-friendly and contemporary site that gives both the school and its students a real head start.
Check out the result at http://www.kdg.be/.
Today the Belgian Monarchy launched its new website, www.monarchie.be.
The site was realized together with our partner Connexion that developed the site on the open source platform Drupal. Internet Architects was responsible for the concept, the information architecture, the graphic design and the web templates.
New team members, a healthy dose of ambition and a bag full of plans.
All of these made it so we couldn't postpone it any longer.
Internet Architects is moving.
As from 1 December, you'll find us at:
Koningin Astridplein 41-43
2018 Antwerpen
And being Internet Architects we approached this move project thoughtfully. As a company we firmly believe in user-centered thinking. And the challenge in this "project" was that the user was ... us.
Keywords in our search for a new office were: a light and airy environment, comfortable and able to make everybody feel at home.
Once we found the space, we wanted to transform it into a working environment that would reflect our way of thinking.
To help shape our ideas, we decided to call on the know how and vision of Bulo. Together with them we are now creating a flexible,
usable and up-to-date office that is perfectly in synch with our way of working.
All of us at Internet Architects can't wait to move in and experience the end result.
And we are sure you must be getting curious as well.
Don't worry, invitations for the "office-warming" will follow soon.
Earlier this year we started using our own IAXML Parser. This is an XML-based tool that helps us to focus on writing consistent html and that ensures clean templates even when changes are made.
As front-end developers at Internet Architects our job is to prepare static html templates, including all css and javascript necessary.
The maintainability of these templates is crucial to the quality of our work.
Last-minute changes, different lead coders and design updates often make it impossible to keep a clean set of templates over longer stretches of time.
Each html template we write is generated from an xml scheme, pointing to a set of components.
Each component houses the html code for a single, reusable GUI component within a project.
Now, the IAXML Parser combines these two and generates html templates from the schemes and components.
No matter how many templates a project might have, a single change to a core component updates all templates.
As a result, our html templates have become a lot easier to control and consistency of the html code has improved a lot. Even our partners implementing the html templates benefit from this, as they now have a clearer overview of the structure of templates and separate components.
In just six months, the IAXML Parser has become an invaluable tool for us front-end developers, enhancing the quality of our work and giving us the control we need over our deliverables.
Late minute changes are no longer an issue, nor are major design updates.
Internet Explorer 6 is probably the single most important source of
headaches for front-end developers ( that is to say: its quirky
interpretation of CSS standards.)
Our Front-end engineers ( kudos to Filip Van Tendeloo and Niels Matthijs )
came up with a little tool that gives a head start when it comes to applying
a series of basic fixes to known IE6 problems. As it only addresses part of
the most common issues it's not a miracle solution, but it does help to cut
down the monkey work.
Currently there are 6 issue fixes that can be selected and applied
independently generating output for a separate stylesheet or addition to the
master.
Evolved form the 0.1 alpha on April 6, 2009 to the current 0.4 version
released today, the tool has been used some 4600 times and will further be
developed.
You can find IE6 CSS Fixer Starter Kit page at Niels' blog.
All feedback is appreciated.
Today the new site for one of Rotterdam's main music events this summer went
live. The Gergiev Festival brings one week of opera, night concerts, films
or children's programmes in the heart of Rotterdam from August 29 till
September 6.
Internet Architects conceived a new web site for
this 14th edition of the Gergiev Festival using the open source content
management system WordPress. The site contains information, multimedia, news
and blogs about the event and will support the ticket sales. Our partner for
the development was Nascom.
The Gergiev Festival (www.gergievfestival.nl)
is an event organized by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Today Leiedal, a cooperation between 12 municipalities, in the Kortrijk region in Flanders, launched 12 sites designed and built by Internet Architects on a common Drupal CMS platform. Internet Architects was awarded the public contract beginning of 2008. Our role was to define the new online presence, design the new information architecture and functionalities and design a graphical user interface for the 12 sites. We also were responsible for the accessible webtemplates and managing the project. The technical development was taken care of by our partner Dot Projects as a sub contractor.
Apart from sporting a feature-rich and user-centric interface, the platform also allows the municipalities to maintain a catalog of services with the connected web forms. Bringing e-government to the website and the users in a practical way is becoming increasingly important. The content owners and webmasters can easily create and maintain forms themselves, a necessity for efficient governance.
As it was put during the press conference this morning, this new generation of web sites for the region also proves it pays off for municipalities to co-operate: the overall quality increases while the cost is much lower.
This fourth generation of the web sites — Leiedal pioneered in 1996 with a first version — goes further than many other local public service sites. Neighborhoods can have their own section, some of the content is provided by the community, not solely by the municipality’s administration. In other words: municipality sites are no longer an information channel from the local administration, but are evolving towards an interactive platform of the city or town.
The sites can be found at:
On December 16, 2008, Internet Architects and Indigov organized their first
Webimprove event in Brussels. This first conference evolved around
Communication in the Public Sector and intended to give Communication and
ICT managers and eGovernment advisors an update on the current state of
affairs in the online world.
Two speakers gave their view on things to come:
- Nico Verplancke, Program Manager New Media and eGovernment at IBBT discussed the topic Research and Innovation in the
Field of eMedia and eGovernment.
- Boondoggle's Jesse Wynants presented the opportunities for Social Networks in Government Campaigns.
Internet Architects and Indigov gave examples of their practical approach to projects with four cases:
More info about this seminar: including the presentations (in Dutch) is to be found at the Webimprove site.
Belgium's government portal www.belgium.be that
Internet Architects designed was awarded gold by the public in the category
Government. The expert jury awarded gold for the best navigation structure
and silver for the category government.
Internet Architects was hired by the Directorate General External
Communication (Federal Public Service Chancellery of the Prime Minister) as
advisor for the new online communication strategy.
The new portal www.belgium.be, launched end of May
2008, is the first concrete result. In this project we were, amongst other
tasks, responsible for designing the user centric information architecture
and effective navigation model. The technical implementation was a separate
project under the lead of Fedict (Federal Public Service ICT).
This internet project of the FPS Chancellery of the Prime Minister and
Fedict is more than just an important web project for Internet Architects in
2008. The portal has become a reference point for information of the public
service. We're happy that the hard work backstage put in by the team at
Internet Architects has been awarded.
In the program, which runs over the course of 5 years, Internet Architects
is also providing the portal team and web communication staff from the
public services with training, coaching and support.
The renewed portal site is a foundation on which further communication
efforts will be built. Thanks to the new framework (web templates and user
interface components in XHTML, CSS and JavaScript), building new government
sites that are accessible and user friendly will be easier, as it adheres to
the Anysurfer standards. This means all information is also available to
people with visual or motoric impairments.
Interesting future additions could be the harmonization of government
applications and a one-stop shop approach with integration in the portal.
But today, the focus remains on optimizing the just-launched portal by using
web traffic analysis and by performing optimizations in the content and the
search engine.
The CMS awards are a yearly event with awards
for the best web sites. This year's event was held December 4, 2008.
Centea, a mid-sized Belgian bank launched its new website on 22-11-2008. The
bank offers full financial service to an ever increasing number of private
clients, independents and small enterprises.
Its client centric approach and strong service makes it the seventh biggest
bank in the country. Centea is a member of the KBC banking group.
The user-centered vision we have in common is one of the reasons why Centea
chose Internet Architects. In the project, we helped Centea with the
definition of a new online presence incorporating the general communication
strategy. We also designed a new information architecture and user interface
that makes the wealth of product and service information more findable and
accessible, and provided coaching to the internal development team.
Already in the first days, the new site is showing a substantial increase in
traffic and usage. Further optimization will enable Centea to capitalize on
its refreshed online presence.
We will be participating at the Digital Markting First event.
Come and visit us at our booth and leave your business card to get a chance at one of the 20 site audits we're giving away.
Alternatively you may fill in this webform. From the entries we will randomly draw 20 participants.
The site audit packs all of Internet Architects' expertise and takes a 360° view of your site looking at the various aspects that make a site successful.
The resulting report gives a description of the weaker points, their impact an how to resolve them.
And of course we can also fill you in on how we realized successful projects for Telenet, Agfa, Carrefour, Centea, Sodexo, Sony,
the Belgian federal government and the Flemish government. So pay us a visit.
About Digital Marketing First
Digital Marketing First, formerly known as Customer First, is an initiative of Inside Digital Media
and has become the first marketing fair in Belgium in three years time.
DMFirst gathers more traditional marketing techniques, as well as digital ones. Discover how these techniques can be useful for your company.
Europe's Fourth Information Architecture Summit was helt in Amsterdam on September 26-27 2008 at the magnificent Tuschinski Theatre.
Internet Architects's Peter Van Dijck en Erik Verdeyen were particpating as speakers.
Peter, who has been focusing on internationalization and localization in Information Architecture for quite some time,
talked about these aspects in relation with social networks. Erik discussed the process of designing sites - or user experperience in general for that matter -
by exploiting the insights tools such as web analytics provide us.
You can find the presentations on Slideshare:
Or in PDF:
Erik presented at Web Scene Expo 2008, here is his presentation with audio:
(The slides and the audio should be in sync, but you may have to advance the presentation manually.)
Erik Verdeyen discussed the newly-launched government portal Belgium.be and the effect this project may have on further Belgian e-government initiatives. In this 30 minutes presentation the rationale behind the new online strategy was explained as well as the next steps that could be taken to offer a better user experience to consumers of public services online and across different communication channels and contact points.
If you want more information or the slides, feel free to contact us.
Today the new portal, belgium.be, built and managed by the Federal Government is launched. With its much stronger focus on the end users it marks a new approach in online government communication.
Internet Architects was responsible for the program management, the vision and strategy, the information architecture, design (together with Brandhome) and front-end development. Our partner Netway was responsible for the extensive user testing and guarded the ergonomic aspects. We also set up and manage the traffic analysis. The portal is managed by a webteam of 15, whom we support and coach too.
This has been an interesting and challenging project and today is a very special day for everyone in our team who has worked on the project for the past 1,5 years. We look forward to work with the portal team to grow and evolve this site over the coming years.
On June 3th Internet Architects will be present at the Web scene expo, en event about all things web with a focus on content management.
Erik will be presenting "The new Belgian government portal. A catalyst for more user centric eGovernment?" during one of the sessions. Look us up, we will have a booth and new flyers and interesting case studies. See you there.
We have been chosen by Leiedal, an intercommuncal company, providing services to its 12 members, the municipalities of Anzegem, Avelgem, Deerlijk, Harelbeke, Kortrijk, Kuurne, Lendelede, Menen, Spiere-Helkijn, Waregem, Wevelgem and Zwevegem.
The current web platform (see www.drk.be was becoming outdated. This is a full scale project: definition, design,realization, optimization and project management. The technical implementation will be done by our partner dotProjects with Drupal CMS.
Fedra magazine is a publication of the Federal Public Service for Personnel and Organization written for civil servants by independent editors at F-Twee Communicatie for civil servants. In the February edition, the project leaders for the new portal for the Belgian government discuss their project. In an interview with Erik Verdeyen, project manager for the front-end team and co-founder of Internet Architects, Erik comments on the project: "People are not looking for a spectacular governmental site. They expect relevant answers to their everyday questions; they want to know who to contact to solve their issues."
Read the full article in Dutch or download the pdf file.
Read the full article in French or download the pdf file.
Today we offer the next set of podcasts from the Kortom eGovernment congress.
Kortom organized it's annual congress on december 18th. Internet Architects recorded all of the 25 session and helped Kortom offer them online at www.kortom.be/congres/2007. At this internet address you can download the presentations and the audio files.
As of this week we will be offering a new session every week.
Enjoy the podcast and check out the kortom website (www.kortom.be) to learn more about this organization and their activities.
Online projects, such as the website of the Province of Antwerp, require ongoing improvements. Internet Architects' first steps in the ongoing improvement plan for the site's design and usability included upgrading the screen width from 800 to 1024 pixels, and improving the navigation and facets . Optimizing sites is an integral part of Internet Architects' methodology. Managing a website is an ongoing process, which starts as soon the initial implementation is finalized. During the optimization phase, we monitor site use through web- and search analyses, and improve design to better meet the users' needs
Belartisan approached Internet Architects for help with the design and development of their e-commerce platform for artisans. Internet Architects assisted in the definition of the concept and the functional requirements for this solution, which is aimed at local, traditional crafts people.
The platform needed to support several independent web shops and a common shopping site in a later stage. To support this, the product catalogue needed to be managed centrally and to include Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionality, and other typical online shopping elements, such as payment systems and shopping carts.
Based on this high-level analysis, a first project was defined for Chocolatier Goossens. As a typical traditional artisan, master confectioner Goossens is a household name in the Belgian chocolate industry, offering a range of fine, handmade chocolates of superior quality. Drawing on several decades of experience, Internet Architects designed and built a website, including an online shop based on the Belartisan platform.
Internet Architects was responsible for the project management, the concept creation, the information architecture (organization of information on the site), user interface design, graphical design and front end code development. The backend for the site was provided by our partner dot.Projects, who implemented the Drupal content management system.
Peter Van Dijck, an expert information architect, has joined Internet Architects.
Peter has been involved in information architecture for many years and is an active member of the Information Architecture Institute. Developer of XFML, an XML specification to share faceted classification systems, and author of the book "Information architecture for designers" (published by Robovision SA, 2003), Peter is passionate about global information architecture and user experience. As a true citizen of the world, he has traveled broadly in South America and worked extensively in the US before returning to Belgium last year. Peter joins Internet Architects as senior information architect and will help several of our customers with their online strategy and the organization of information in their online projects.
To find out more about Peter, visit his website: petervandijck.com.
On Tuesday the 18th, Internet Architects will be present at the Kortom conference in Antwerp.
We will be giving two workshops.
- One dealing with usability, accessibility and user experience, will be presented by Erik Verdeyen (Internet Architects) and Bart Simons (Anysurfer).
- Another, given by Anja Neels (province of Antwerp) and David De Block (Internet Architects), will show a glimpse of automation within the province of Antwerp.
All sessions will be published as a podcast on the kortom website.
More information on Internet Architects and our methodology will gladly be provided at our conference booth.
Today we present our brand-new website.
The site consists of two sections:
- The topmost part gives a detailed explanation of our approach, our clients, our services and our company.
- The part at the bottom contains recent news items and will soon be expanded with more active content like a calendar and downloads. This part of the site will evolve into a true source of knowledge shared by our team and the industry at large.
Feel free to get in touch for more information on Internet Architects or this website.
