Client: Cogent Technology
Cogent Technology Ltd are one of the country’s leading contract electronics manufacturers (CEMs). Established in 1985 and based near Woodbridge, Suffolk, they have been working with manufacturers of medical devices and military electronics, instrumentation engineers and a broad spectrum of entrepreneurs to manufacture quality electronic equipment on time, and to reduce their production costs.
Praxitar won the competitive tender process to develop Cogent Technology’s 3rd-generation of web site. Working to a fixed price and tight deadlines they engaged us to create a modern design, to address navigational issues and to create landing pages specifically targeted for their ad campaigns.
“Praxitar re-developed our web site. They brought together a team of outstanding talents for all the disciplines involved and delivered exactly what we wanted, on time – to the day. Praxitar quickly got to grips with the essence of our business and their project management skills are exceptional. Aside from that, associating with Praxitar brings benefits beyond as they are prolific networkers and have brought us into contact with other business with which we are now actively engaged.” – Nigel Slator, MD of Cogent Technology Ltd
Cogent Technology remain one of Praxitar’s most valued clients and we regularly review their site with them, making adjustments and adding functionality where appropriate as part of an ongoing maintenance and enhancement programme.
Cogent Technology wanted to retain the essence of their existing branding but bring the look up-to-date. The corporate logo was given a 3D treatment and Flash animations on key pages give a modern feel whilst remaining unobtrusive; static images allow the site to “gracefully degrade” if Flash is not available/enabled on the visitor’s browser.
The site aims were to achieve a good balance of imagery conveying the intricate nature of their work, along with informative content and clear navigation.
The new site was developed from ground up to be web-standards compliant, using validated XHTML and CSS. From reviewing Cogent’s analytics data early on in the project, it was determined that a large percentage (40%+) of site visitors still used Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), so it was imperative that the site work and be thoroughly tested on IE6. That percentage has since dropped to the mid-teens with the release of IE8 and Windows 7, however all changes and additions are still IE6 compatible; the site uses “graceful degradation” and “progressive enhancement” to give users of more modern browsers a richer experience.
The photography sessions focused on capturing the essence of their manufacturing process – consistently high quality, detailed work achieved throughout. Shallow depth of field gave stunning results and tranformed bland looking circuit boards into city scapes.
