Jean-Christophe Novelli needs no introduction - if you don't know who he is, then you watch shockingly little TV. Despite his celebrity status he's actually very down to earth; when we met for the first time last year to discuss redesigning his website, it was obvious this process would be an enjoyable one.

The Novelli team already knew the website's major failings; it was almost impossible to keep course information up to date with the clunky administration tools, and the order process was tedious for customers, not allowing more than one attendee to be booked on a course at a time. The challenge was to solve these problems to a budget and a deadline – the Christmas sales period was looming!

First off, we sat down with the people charged with keeping the website up to date. Normally we put aside some time to chat and have them talk us through the process, but in this case the process was literally taking up every minute of their day. So instead we chatted between the long pauses while the system loaded a page or saved a change, and observed the process in real-time.

The administration tools weren't up to the task, every process was convoluted and the application itself groaned under the strain of performing even relatively small tasks.

"It's a nightmare to use if you're on the phone to a customer, you have to keep chatting while you wait for it to do something in case they think you've hung up!" half-joked one member of the team.

After a few sessions we identified what mattered the most, what the team did often and what was time-critical. When we built the new tools we made sure that the vital processes were as simple and streamlined as possible. Many of the changes weren't rocket science, like automatically sending an invoice and voucher to customers when they order, instead of one of the team having to write an email, attach the relevant documents, and send it to the customer manually. That saved a lot of time!

The buying process was a joke. There's no getting around it, it was just awful. From find a course to give me your credit card details, not one step in the elongated process was intuitive or reassuring for the visitor. Worst of all, if you ordered a course for two or more people, you were only asked for one person's details, which meant lots of calls to the Novelli team by confused visitors. I suspect a lot of people just gave up.

More than half the planning time went into creating a great buying experience. We gave customers two ways to find a course; either by using the calendar to choose a date, or by course category where they can select something specific to their interests and tastes. And the order process? Well, we built it with care and finesse, as Jean-Christophe himself would prepare a dish. We kept it brief, but made sure we asked the questions that needed to be asked. You can see the results for yourself.

The new website went live just before the Christmas sales period and the figures so far mean Jean-Christophe will be very busy this year. If you love good food (I think we all know the answer?), we invite you to sample the Novelli Academy website.

As important as it is for a website to be well designed and attractive, it simply won't achieve its full potential without good text content, also known as copy.

I have been a part of Getme for many years and my role has slowly evolved, from creating the structure of the web pages using HTML and CSS, to, these days, supporting website production or updates by either proofreading or producing copy from scratch.

This has become one of my main roles partly because I enjoy writing, spelling and grammar more than most at Getme, but there are other contributing factors within my background. I have A-level English Literature, always enjoying the subject at school, and spent five years working in Quality Assurance and Compliance at a major UK video games company. There is a surprising amount of text within modern computer games; it's not all shooting gangsters and punching cave goblins.

Of course it may be difficult to produce copy if I'm unfamiliar with the subject, in which case the client will generally provide the text and I will proofread. If the subject is more general, I can produce copy as a service if required, perhaps based on a list of important points or a general explanation of what is wanted.

Returning to my statement from the first paragraph, by 'good' copy I don't just mean well written – correct spelling and grammar should go without saying – but also appropriate: focused on the subject, not too long or short, and containing the details your potential customers are likely to search for.

The quality and relevance of your website's content is related to the subject of organic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), as one thing which can help to improve your search engine ranking. Assuming the code structure of your website is "search engine friendly" (if Getme have produced it, you can), you're free to concentrate on the page titles, headings and content. If content is useful – valuable in some way – to people, they may well create a link to it, and these links help to contribute to an improved search engine ranking.

The 'full potential' of your website may be difficult to measure, but whether you intend to publicise the activity of your charity or sell a squillion grommets, the right content matters because it will help your target audience to find you. Once your target audience has found your website, the right content matters because it will help to persuade them to act upon what you have to say. And if they do that, you will have very little to worry about.

While we are mostly known for our websites, it appears to be a little known fact that we also design for print?

I graduated from university quite a few years ago, before the internet was widely used, and if someone tried to talk to me about HTML I found myself staring back with a blank expression on my face. This was hardly surprising as in my first year we didn't even use computers, it was metal type and composing sticks for us. Ask me about ligatures, em spacing and kerning and I will happily bore you for hours about the importance of good quality typography.

That's where my design career started, and it is still a massive part of my life. Yep, I'm that guy who sits in a restaurant and will study the menu, not just for what I want for starters, but also looking over the design. I constantly find myself picking up brochures and magazines. The content could be anything, but it's the layouts and the grids I am interested in. It has become an irresistible impulse.

Since becoming part of Getme I have continued to design for print – anything from a leaflet for a local brewery to full product brochures. I love the challenge of having a blank page and considering all the ways I can get the message over as simply and creatively as I can.

Although, clearly, print design is in my blood, at Getme I also now venture into the world of web design. I feel the two are becoming more aligned, with the introduction of CSS3. Just look at the two column layout of our blogs. I would always do this in print as a matter of course, and now I can design like this for the web too – happy days!

I continue to work on both disciplines, always putting a strong emphasis on those techniques and rules I have learnt over the years producing design for print.

In 2001 Microsoft brought us Internet Explorer 6. Little did we know just how much hurt this little application was going to cause us – if we had there's a fair chance we'd have formed a circus troop instead. This year, 2012, sees the end of an era for us as we officially stop supporting for IE6. So why have we stopped?

IE6 had a nasty habit of making itself indispensable, not on merit, but through long standing ties with other applications. Many people got stuck because they relied on older Windows operating systems that only supported up to version 6, or used applications that in turn relied on it. So many got stuck in fact that in 2008, despite the launch of IE7 & 8 (beta 2) an estimated 39% of internet users world-wide still used IE6.

Today I'm happy to report that things are very different, in the UK less than three percent of internet users are browsing with IE6. The official Microsoft figure is actually lower still at 1.4%.

The browser market remains split, with IE8 & 9, Chrome, Firefox and Safari sharing the vast majority of internet users. But despite this split, and especially since Microsoft's renewed commitment to IE with their release of IE9 in 2011, the browser vendors seem committed to compliance, each striving to ensure that their browser supports the web standards put in place by the W3C.

With the passing of IE6 and the commitment by vendors to comply with web standards, we're no longer limited to the features of a decade old browser, nor do we have to spend hours applying dreaded 'ie6 hacks' to our beautiful HTML and CSS. This time will now be far better spent, not on browser compliancy, but on improving the experience for users.

The demise of IE7 – unlike IE6, IE7 never gained the popularity of its elder sibling, however in the UK at least it retains a decreasing but substantial 10% market share. In 12 months time, or perhaps less, it looks set that this too will fall below 5%.

Where did the stats come from – the percentages used within this article are based on data gleaned from our UK client base, except for the official Microsoft figure which is taken from http://www.ie6countdown.com/.

We thought we'd start the year on a high by launching our new website! It had been 5 years since the launch of our previous site, so it was about time for a change.

Like all of our new websites, we developed this one using our most recent platform - DeployCMS.

We decided to move away from having many pages of static content which can quickly become dated, and instead focus the website around our blog system, ensuring that there is always something fresh to read when you visit. The latest blog articles will show on the homepage, and those related to any specific aspect of our work can be found under 'What we do'.

We will be keeping the website updated with discussion about interesting industry developments within web and print, as well as company news and developments, so we welcome you to return anytime to catch up.

We'd love to hear what you think of the new look? Feel free to get in touch.

Wishing all our clients a Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!

A week ago I went to talk at Worcester University, it's the third year I've been invited and I always look forward to it. The director of creative media there is a wonderful chap named Andy Stevens, I met him whilst playing badminton at a local club and we got chatting about what it is we do.

Andy's background before he became an educator was in the commercial sector, at first in traditional publishing and then heading up the web division for the same company. I never went into higher education myself, I left school at 16 and stayed home for two years. I learnt everything from books and my father (who, luck would have it, is a programmer), I spent two months working in a factory packing cheap rubbish into plastic bags before I was offered a position as a web developer at a local agency (it was a tough choice but I took the web developer role).

As Director of Creative Media Andy oversees a lot of different disciplines, including illustration, photography, animation, infographics, web, and well more than I can recall. Keeping abreast of progress in each of these disciplines is a difficult task, so when possible he visits relevant companies to chat about what's new. He also offers companies the option to go and talk to small groups of students at the university, in the hope that we might provide insight into the commercial world - hence I get to talk.

There are also a number of other initiatives Andy, along with his colleagues, has introduced to try and give the students experience of commercial practices. In addition to talks, students are given projects to work on with real clients and, most refreshingly, real deadlines. Last year for example they designed and developed eco-friendly packaging for a mainstream brewery.

As I mentioned, I have little experience of higher education (and none outside the UK) so perhaps this is not that different to how most universities operate. What little exposure I have had through friends and family has often left me unsure of their present day value to employers. For example, my cousin took a course in Computer Game Design. In his first year one of his lecturers was a student who had graduated the previous year. I can't say if he was an effective lecturer or not, but I would think it difficult for him to prepare students for a commercial environment which he has never experienced.

I think what Worcester University and Andy are doing to try to prepare students is vital for both students and employers and I hope it's more widespread than I believe.