Corporate and government web design agency
When corporate and government teams are charged with the task of procuring a new web presence for their organisation they have a challenge, sorting through the wide range of web design agencies who appear to offer the ability to deliver an effective web presence.
Ecru's challenge has always been to make the connection with these individuals, and we have always found the most effective way is a review of our portfolio. This enables you to quickly understand the factors that define Ecru, and differentiate us from other agencies. To show our talent at understanding the needs of our clients and contributing to the success of their business.
There are a lot of agencies practicing accessible web design and development, and this is a great thing. In just a few short years we have moved to a situation where the application of web standards as an element of web development isn't an option, it is the minimum expectation. If you are commissioning an accessible website you have probably read PAS 78, the new produce Publicly Available Specification produced by the British Standards Institute (BSI) that outlines good practice in commissioning websites that are accessible to and usable by disabled people. Ecru has been building websites to the standards set out in PAS 78 since 2003 when we started our first web development project working with the assistance of AbilityNet, setting accessibility standards and then having our development independently audited to achieve a minimum of W3C Priority AA standard. Since then we have worked on a project with them that they have independently audited to achieve W3C AAA - the highest accessibility standard. When we work on web development projects we set accessibility standards during the specification stage, and we are proud of our ability to see deeply into accessibility issues to the point that our clients can rely on us to deliver websites that are accessible and effective, and meet real world accessibility requirements.
Ecru websites have always been built using cutting edge Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) based design. Tables were banished from the word go. But we've not stopped developing, there is always something new to learn. A really cool feature of our CSS now is that we carefully manage browser hacks. Writing code so clean you could eat off it, we can now manage which browser versions our web pages work with, and as browsers become out of date and unused we can decide to ignore them and stop making special code to accommodate their peculiarities.
We have always felt that technology should improve peoples lives, not act as a barrier. And our content management system (CMS) is a great example of this principle in action. Imagine being able to manage the content on your website without needing to have special technical skills. And your colleagues too, delegating tasks to people who can write content aimed at their audience but without expecting the skills of computer boffins. This focus on ease of use is very liberating for our clients. Add to this ease of use that we tailor each implementation of our CMS to the precise needs of each client, and you end up with websites that really are a joy to use, that liberate and empower.
Our clients are busy people. They need to be able to rely on us to develop a deep understanding of their organisation, so when we propose website text to them it is meaningful, well written, compelling, plain English, and moves their web development projects forward in leaps and bounds. A common comment from our clients is "you know so much about us, you could work here!".
Ecru is a web design agency founded by a team of creative website designers and developers whose skills fit together like an amazing jigsaw. Our principle is that there are corporate and governmental clients in the London area who require a bespoke service, and that we should develop creative, tailored projects to bring ideas to fruition that benefit these clients and deliver a quality of web presence with the level of gravitas that they rightfully expect.