Barkingweb - Web Design for Business

Latest News

All good things come to an end and this is true of the original Barkingweb site, which is now over three years old. It is time to redevelop and brighten our front-of-house. The site as you see it today will still be around for a while but our New Year's broom will be sweeping out this site and we will add our new look in due course. Look out for our new offering around the turn of the year.

I have been working at Microsoft during 2008 and getting to use some very cool tools and work on some exciting new projects. Take a look at Equipt, not only a great delivery vehicle for some cool MS apps, OneCare security and cloud access but a compliant Web 2.0 Web site that I built with xhtml, css and scripting. There is some very cool silverlight and wpf in the Equipt installation module but you will have to talk to me to see that unless you go and buy MS Equipt!

See the Portfolio section for more details....

Our latest all Flash Web site, Signature Smiles, has been live now for a while and our client's are very excited with the response that they have had. Art Culinaire's beautiful French range Web site has also been live for several months and we are getting rave reviews from users there, too. Stan Barrett, the owner of the hugely successful Woodinville Wine Cellars, has hired us to design and build an e-commerce site for their range of Washington wines and another range Web site for an exclusive $50k luxury cooker. Look out for the occasional sneak peeks of these sites as they start to appear in Beta. Also, don't forget to speak with any of our clients if you want to hear about the great things that we are doing here at Barkingweb. We stand by our word and personal attention to detail, so be sure to ask any of our customers about us!

We have just started on a new design project which utilizes a liquid layout, some neat Web 2.0 tricks, AJAX, Sprite and design enhancements that support different screen resolutions. Check out the Beta development page at Den15. The navigation links are under construction but you will get an idea of the functionality and layout of this great project.

Dreamhost is an excellent Web Hosting company and many of my clients use them for domain registration and hosting. If you are looking for a host then check them out and take advantage of the automatic discount that you can get through Barkingweb when you sign-up.

Accessibility

US Government legislation has evolved to provide protection to citizens with disabilities when attempting to access information technology. The web standards body, the W3C, has developed accessibility guidelines to aid developers in meeting these goals. Barkingweb follows these guidelines to ensure that our web sites are standards compliant.

Usability

Usability means 'ease of use' for your site visitors. It is the single most important factor in web site design. The aim is simplicity - make your visitors comfortable within the site, allow them to navigate easily and maintain a clear and consistent layout.

Barkingweb's sites are rich in usability features.

Innovation

Poor design, image saturated content and excessive Flash animation can destroy a web sites potential and render it almost invisible to Search Engines. However, stylish, image perfect and exciting web sites are possible at Barkingweb because we know the best way to design and build your web site.

Updated: 1/29/09

Web Applications for Business

Who is Barkingweb?

Barkingweb is a web design studio based in Woodinville, Washington, USA. It is run by freelance web developer Nick Barling. He works with other specialist web designers, developers, graphic artists and freelance digital media photographers and specializes in the creation of cost efficient and highly customized web sites for businesses in Woodinville, WA.

What is so different about Barkingweb?

Nick works closely with every client from project inception, through design, construction, launch and beyond. He does not employ templates and builds every web application from the ground up to provide a bespoke service that ensures that each web site is unique in every respect. UI/UX, great Information Architecture, the business model and fast, compliant Web 2.0 deliverables are all equally important. I thrive on semantic, accessible and a great UX.

Why choose Barkingweb?

Because you want to work closely with a single point of contact for the entire process of the development and deployment of your site and you want a personal, customized and unique experience. Nick, and his freelance associates, love their work, eat, sleep and live for the web, and value their clients above all. Working almost exclusively through referrals, Nick's personalized approach and quality of work speaks volumes about his reputation and reflects the trust that his clients place in him.

How does Barkingweb work?

It is all about personal service and one-to-one interaction. Browse this site and check out Nick's methodology, workflow process and portfolio. You will get a feel for the way in which he approaches each unique project. When you are ready he will be here to take your call. You can call 425 881 8136 or email Nick at Barkingweb. He will normally get back to you within 12 hours.

What will your web site look like?

Here are some Web sites that Barkingweb has created recently for three very different clients. You will see that each site is unique, yet the sites meet the client's brief, whilst maintaining the clean and uncluttered 'look and feel' of Barkingweb's design philosophy. All of these sites are built around xhtml, ECMA scripting and CSS, but he also builds xml data fed Flash Web sites, which are easy to maintain and update and are becoming more popular. Server-side technologies can be developed in PHP, ASP or ColdFusion and each is built to an exacting and specific standard that meets your requirements. New technologies are embraced here and xaml, wpf, the new Expression suite of Microsoft products and .NET 3.5 are some of the newer languages and applications we use.

Signature Smiles - A leading technology and client friendly densistry site!

We are really excited about Signature Smiles' Flash Web site. Dr Ken Wu and Dr Cristin Dowd have a fantastic, technologically advanced and patient friendly dental service and we wanted to provide state-of-the-art Web functionality to compliment their practice. We have added exciting Flash functionality, including dynamic text, which allows the client to add/delete text at will without the need for Flash or anything other than a simple text editor. We also use CSS to style the text and it is all easily editable externally from Flash. You can take a look at this Flash site and other client sites in the Barkingweb Portfolio.

Art Culinaire - Sole importer of the bespoke and beautiful Lacanche range of cookers

Passion, form and function merge to produce the finest hand crafted cooking ranges. Art Culinaire, a Woodinville based sole US importer of the Lacanche range of cookers have been a Barkingweb client for over a year. Their briefing was clear - produce the finest Web site possible, which reflects the beauty of Lacanche cooking ranges and captures the passion, colors and unique feel of Burgundy, the home of the Lacanche family in France. We are delighted to launch such a wonderful project. Now live, the French Ranges Web site is receiving rave reviews from users and sales have increased because of the added interactivity, information and quality of imagery within the site.

MRA Services - InReach Exhibition and Conference Management

MRA Services have rebranded their class leading Web exhibition and conference management tool under the InReach title. Their new Web site, which we have just launched, can be seen here. This is a custom built design with five distinct color themes, for each of the main content areas, and two navigation areas that use a combination of JavaScript and gracefully degradable CSS. Please check out this very stylish site.

Adobe Contribute CS4 Web Editing Tool

I highly recommend Contribute CS4 as the preferred Web editing tool for non-technical Web administrators. It is simple to use, cost effective and protects sensitive code so you can administer your Web site without fear of breaking your pages. Take maintenance costs away from the developer/designer and click here, for more details.