Do we need to handcraft websites anymore?

I certainly used to think that anything other than hand-crafting every element of a website was not playing the game properly. But why is this? I think there’s a certain feeling of pride that comes from hand-crafting something. But is that really what we’re doing?

Paper Prototypes: What are they and why use them?

Website design is ever-changing and, consequently, the way that website designers work project-to-project changes as we learn better ways to do things, embrace new technologies, methodologies and processes. One part of web design that we thought we could improve was wireframing, here’s what we’ve done.

New website launched for… us!

We recently moved into a new office in the centre of Derby. Once we got settled in we thought it was high time for a new website to better reflect where we are as a business in 2015.

We’re starting a Code Club!

Yesterday we drove through the Derbyshire sunshine to attend a Code Club volunteer training session run by Katharine Childs, the East Midland’s coordinator. The session started off with lots of information about Code Club, the philosophy and the practicalities, and finished with us going through the first Scratch projects. Later we met with a local school to discuss setting up a club with them, all went well and we’re planning to start at the beginning of June.

How to: Choosing photos for websites

A question I have been asked by a client recently is how go about choosing photos for websites. Our websites are built on WordPress which means our clients can update their sites whenever they need to, but for many they don’t know where to start when choosing images. I’ve written the following guide to help.

Increase conversions for the three major types of website

If you have an e-commerce, lead generation or contact list building website this infographic has some great advice to help increase your conversions.

Couple flying up into the sky into a hot air baloon

How to create a successful website

The first thing you absolutely must do if you want your website to deliver value to your business or organisation is very clearly define what your measurable targets are. These don’t have to be set in stone but you need something to aim at

Web designers are bad for web design

‘Web designer’ is not a job title and we need to stop using it. Because really, what does a web designer actually do?

Does UX matter more than creativity?

Does UX matter more than creativity in web design? Should we be spending our time on data driven testing or looking for big creative ideas?

Using service design to create a business in two days

This weekend Helen and I attended a service design event in which we had to research, design, prototype and present a new business idea over a two day period. It was an intensive weekend full of brainstorming, post-it notes, skype calls and quickfire decision making.