Creative Manager QUODEM Consultores
Interviews/ Antonio Castaño Romero

Antonio Castaño Romero
Creative Manager QUODEM

What are the main goals set up for the redesigning of the Quodem Web?

When we considered our corporate web two years ago, we were seeking a design with considerable impact, which would attract the attention of anyone who visited us. Now our goal has been to give equal importance to Design, Usability and Accessibility.
We want our web to cause an impact and to be highly appreciated, but we are also interested as much or maybe even more than the users in the fact that our clients and future clients can above all find us. We want them to be able to access our contents easily and also consider this content to be useful for their every day practice .

What innovations can we find?

All of them, beginning with the fact that the concept of the page has changed radically and from a corporate page it has become a very complete web site offering real solutions for those who need to develop their business through Internet. This circumstance naturally results in a change in the concept of the design in a very radical manner as well. What we are seeking now is not so much bombarding the user with overwhelming effects as furnishing him with a simple and intuitive concept.

We do not want to shock the user with Flash effects and brusque movements but guide his hand among other more extensive contents. The colour scheme is very much in line with the idea of facilitating the reading of the page. We do not want anything to disturb or distort the presentation. Design and interactivity, yes, but at the service of the user.

A great deal of interest in accessible contents is also clearly noted. Why?

At QUODEM we feel that all the users can be interested in the contents we offer. Another important goal of our new Web is that the main standards of accessibility are fulfilled but not only for social reasons, which are important in and of themselves, but also because an accessible page is clearly a page well done, one of great quality and it has represented for many years the future of Internet. Real Internet for everyone.

What have been the main guidelines behind the Design and Development of the new web??

As we have already mentioned before what we have most considered at the time of creating the final design has been the concept of Usability and Accessibility. Despite this fact, we have not ignored our traditional concern for an elegant, clear design, and one which is closely in accord with our corporate message. The lines are very direct and the division of the web is sharp and clear at all times. As regards its development, we have implemented several standards such as the strict XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2 which are closely related to the separation of the Presentation and the Contents. However, the WAI of the W3C standards of accessibility are also important. This way of presenting the development of our web page is directed as well at facilitating the indexing of the leading search machines, a subject in which QUODEM has been specializing in since its very beginnings. Importance has already been given to the facility of updating it; we can all remember our company’s corporate pages or intranets, which have “died” because sufficient resources were not devoted to their updating, if this proved to be too complex.

Our intention is for www.quodem.com to be very much alive, with contents updated every week and current references to the sector. That our present and future clients are able to find here interviews, articles and useful references. Along this line of continuous updating, we have also included the RSS format so that our users can discover the latest innovations of QUODEM.

Will these standards which we have just discussed influence the near future in regard to the way the design and format are developed on Internet?

They have been doing so for some time now. It is expected that all the official bodies which have still not changed their web sites to adapt to the higher standards of accessibility and xhtml, will do so within the next two or three years and so it seems that this will mark the future in Spain despite the considerable delay.

Then, that means that all the webs or web applications of the future will adopt this format?

Not necessarily. There are many clients who, depending upon the type of page they require, are much more concerned with the marketing and the seducing of consumers than on the contents and they will continue to rely on Flash type platforms to display their messages on Internet. Here the design will continue to take priority over the spectacular nature over the usability; the form over the essence. It is a matter of knowing what solution to apply to the needs of each specific client and at QUODEM, we know how to do just that!.

Fernando
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