Responsive web - a light post

26 Jun 2012 - James Ing

Is responsive web the way to move forward?Hi everyone, today's post is just going to be some thinking I've been doing around responsive web

What is responsive web

To keep it simple, responsive web usually refers to a website that changes appearance and sometimes content when viewed on different devices such as a computer or a mobile phone

Smartphones are the most important device in changing our current design / UI / UX thinking. Before we simply had to decide on a layout (fixed versus liquid) and correct cross browser issues, we are now in a situation where we have multiple browsers and screen sizes.

What does this mean?

We now need to make decisions on how we present content across different devices. Before a mobile version of a website essentially just stripped out everything but a simple nav and the text. This ensured it worked across the majority of devices.

Now seeing a stripped down website on a mobile device leaves you feeling shortchanged. On the other hand, not tailoring your website to mobile devices can lead to awkward viewing window where the browser is trying to cram everything into that little space.

What's the answer?

I don't think there is a clear answer right now. Creating a responsive website isn't too difficult but it can mean adding to design and build times on already tight budgets. It can also mean having to rethink copy and whether or not you decided to edit content to suit different devices.

What approach should you take between the stripped down version and not doing anything at all? I would take the nothing at all approach. The reasons being, with this approach you still give put your websites best foot forward, and inbuilt phone browsers allow to you zoom to a point where viewing content is easy enough.

From all this it's still a very interesting time in the responsive web space, and a great time to be an innovator in this space and lead the competition by bring some responsiveness into your current websites

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The best is yet to come

13 Dec 2011 - Simon Dickey

Simon and Brodie - Simon's 40th Rat Pack partyI am sitting on the sofa at work, taking a breather after a year of fun and adventure, for both Frontend and my personal life. Frontend made double figures by reaching 10 years and I turned 40.

We celebrated our 10 year birthday with catered lunch at the bunker, sipping back on a few bottles of Veuve Clicquot. Brodie, my fiancé, and Sandy our copy expert provided a yummy feast for the team. It was great to say thanks to the team who I really enjoy working with every day, in a collaborative way.

I am also excited by turning 40 in November and asking mi more Brodie Reynolds to marry me at my 40th Rat Pack party - what a moment which has left me floating high on a fluffy white cloud.

This year we made a conscious effort to bring in a high level strategic component into our process. This has been key to identify the customer proposition and the gaps and the opportunities, then identify what channels and functions to meet those customers. We have partnered with Kostia Shinderman from Alphero, who's company focuses on digital channel strategy development with a core focus on mobile.

Now we see ourselves delivering across multi-channel from website to iPhone apps and iPad and each having a specific purpose to touch and engage customers at the right time.

Next year we see a huge growth opportunity in creating business apps for smartphones, which needs to fit into the big picture of how you engage with your customer.

So if you are not sure where to start, the best way is to storyboard current and future-view customer journeys, which will help realize opportunities to pursue.

I am very much looking forward to 2012 being a turn-key year for businesses embarking on mobile strategies.

I'll sign off by saying thanks to my team of Corinne Gibson, James Ing, Kelly Milligan, Graeme Dickey, Dan Clausen, Quan-Lin Sim, Rebecca Tansley and Sandy Hirstich and of course our friendly clients, who we enjoy collaborating with.

Smell the roses and have a Merry Christmas with those you love.

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Summer days -

28 Oct 2011 - James Ing

What I look like after a few days in the office without sunHi everyone, today's post is just going to be a casual chat about making sure we all look after ourselves and both mentally and physically.

As designers our days are spent meticulously crafting and creating our craft. So dedicated are we to this that we often work to the determent of our bodies. With summer arriving soon it means warmer weather and more hours of daylight. It's a timely reminder that we should also remember to keep ourselves healthy and live a balanced lifestyle that allows us to continue what we love doing for longer.

Get out of your cave

Graphic design is hardly an outdoors activity (excluding 'special' meetings with beer). We often find ourselves inside for most of the day basking in the glow of our monitors. During winter it's not unheard of to get to work before the sun is high in the sky and leave after it's decided it's had enough of hanging around.

Vitamin D is produced in the body from exposure to sunlight. It's no surprise that when Néstle worked along side the University of Sydney they found 42% of their office works were deficient in Vitamin D.
What can we do? Simple get more sun. But how? Well the sun is generally outside so I suggest starting your search there (mileage my vary).

Move about, and stretch it out

Typical office worker's neckAnother concern is the amount of time designers and general office work has us sitting down. Our ancestors toiled the fields, built shelters, and hunted dinosaurs (I assume). Though physically demanding, it meant they moved about. Quite the opposite of the modern office worker. Sitting down for extended periods can have all sorts of terrible effects on the body from terrible posture to shortening your life span.
What should you do? Take the occasional break, and just walk around a bit and stretch out those muscles. Don't over stretch, but just enough to ease up a bit

Stop thinking about stuff and or things

Find an outlet for stress, else end up like an awesome 90's movie (Falling down)What about the noggin? In many industries such as Graphic design, it's hard to completely switch off from work, even when at home or on holiday (I'm very guilty of this). I've left work stewing over a problem on Friday, only to have it suddenly hit me with a possible solution on a Saturday night (alcohol often helps in this regard). This can be problematic for those around you, as you're never quite out of work mode. There's no one solution I don't think. But I've found finding a new hobby or interest you can invest in mentally helps your brain from wandering back into work mode whenever it gets a chance.