Archive for 2010
Does exactly what it says on the tin; just the posts that relate to the above...
UK social media traffic overtakes search
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
New statistics just out have revealed that UK social media traffic has overtaken search engine traffic in the UK.
According to Experian Hitwise;
“Social networks now receive more UK Internet visits than search engines. During May, social networks accounted for 11.88% of UK Internet visits and search engines accounted for 11.33%. May was the first ever month that social networks have been more popular than search engines in the UK.”
Experian Hitwise said visits to social networks as a percentage of UK internet visits had increased over the past three years by five percentage points, while visits to search engines had decreased from 13% in 2007, to 11.33% in 2010. With Facebook accounting for 55% of all social networking traffic in the UK, it is offering an increasingly strong alternative to leading search engine Google.
Ruby on Rails expert, PHP genius, Apple iPhone developer and mobile DJ joins the growing Mixd team!
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Some of you will already know Dave – ‘the international master of rave’ as he is affectionately known here at Mixd owing to his mobile DJ career – from his involvement in the technical aspects of your digital project.
He’s one of those guys that never sees the light of day, survives totally on crisps, coffee and red bull, and is an absolute genius when it comes to anything technical. You know… a (self-proclaimed) geek.
Anyway, enough of that geek talk, we have an announcement to make!
The Mixd team is delighted that Dave has ‘signed-up’ completely to the Mixd ethos and has become a permanent member of the expanding Mixd offering. Dave will continue to head up the Mixd website development team, as Senior PHP Developer, whilst leading online application development utilising his vast knowledge of the fast emerging Ruby on Rails programming language. As the digital world moves more and more into mobile, Dave’s expertise in Apple iPhone app development will also come to the fore.
Mixd’s Digital Director, Phil Shackleton, commented “With Dave coming onboard fully on a permanent basis, the Mixd offering moves forward even further and keeps us at the forefront of the digital world. Let’s face it, no discipline moves as fast and if you stand still you get left behind. We have a duty to our clients and to ourselves to be fully aware of the present and to embrace future trends within our industry as they happen”.
Dave has worked with Mixd for well over 5 years in a freelance and short-term contract capacity, so knows Mixd and its clients very well indeed.
Bob Tait, Producer at Mixd, was overjoyed with the appointment “The acquisition of Dave on a permanent basis is fantastic news for the Mixd team and our clients. People with Dave’s experience, abilities and passion don’t come along everyday and after a lengthy recruitment process, Dave was the right man for the job. I’m really looking forward to working with Dave on new exciting projects that can showcase our talents and offer a great return on investment for clients. However, the main plus point is that it’s made finding a half-decent DJ for the office bash very easy indeed!”.
Now that’s what we call music.
Good luck Dave and welcome (fully) onboard.
Opening external links in a new browser window
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
For the majority of websites that we work on, clients tend to request that external links open in a new browser window so visitors are not lost to other sites.
On first inspection, this may appear to be a reasonable request and that the client’s wishes may hold water. However, and this may sound controversial, we don’t develop sites for the client, we develop sites for the client’s users; after all, it’s the users that have to use the site (the term ‘users’ is a bit of a giveaway really). For the majority of target audiences, basic principles of usability that have stood the test of time within our ever changing and fast moving digital industry can be applied. So, here’s why when the client says “I want all external links to open in a new browser window”, the discussion begins!
At Mixd we build to the highest accessibility and usability standards, and follow 2 main sets of guidelines:
- W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) XHTML strict validation
- WCAG2.0 (World Content Accessibility Guidelines) level AA and in part AAA
We advise against forcing any on-site links to open in a new window, as to do so would invalidate both of the above. From a usability point of view, forcing this upon the user is considered bad practice and all modern browsers give the user the option to open in a new tab or browser window if they wish to do so.
A huge percentage of web users navigate using the browser’s back button. New window links mean that the back button stops working; often leaving the user confused or even worse, annoyed. Instead of keeping users from leaving your site, it may have the opposite effect by preventing them from returning when they actually want to. With certain pop-up blockers enabled, external links may not open properly either. Furthermore, new windows may also open in the background and not be seen at all by the user.
Instead of opening in a new window, we suggest adding ‘(external link)’ or a symbol after external links to indicate to the user the links which will make them leave your site.
Jakob Neilsen (largely considered the world’s foremost web usability expert) mentioned this in points 1 and 2, back in 1999 and this is as true now as it was back then; http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
Senior web developer job (Ruby on Rails and PHP)
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Mixd are looking for an experienced and passionate Senior Web Developer to join and lead the development team in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Candidate should have a minimum of 4 years experience in Ruby on Rails and PHP development.
The perfect candidate will be an expert in advanced web development using PHP and MySQL, Ruby on Rails and WordPress as well as a strong command of web standards and best practices. They must demonstrate excellent customer service skills, technical wizardry, flexibility, a sense of humour, motivation and an eye for detail. Any experience with iPhone development and Facebook applications will also be highly desirable.
About working at Mixd
You’ll be working with some exciting clients, creating websites, online applications and iphone apps at the leading edge of usability, accessibility and functionality. It is an exciting time to join Mixd as we continue to grow in size and are looking for a senior developer to further expand our development team.
Benefits
In addition to being rewarded with a competitive salary and excellent career advancement opportunities, you’ll benefit from a number of perks:
- Negotiable and competitive salary based on experience circa. £28,000 – £33,000 per annum
- Prefer someone who will work in our Harrogate office, but would consider remote working
- Personal training/conference budget available
- Flexible working hours
Required skills:
Here is what you need:
- Exceptional development skills in Ruby on Rails and PHP
- Advanced experience in WordPress
- Database design, development and management
- JavaScript, DHTML, Ajax scripting and jQuery
- Experience with version control systems (GIT or Subversion preferred)
- Good understanding of web technologies (HTTP, Apache) and familiarity with Unix/Linux
How to apply
Get in touch with your CV, covering letter, URL examples of recent projects and salary expectations at: info@mixd.co.uk
Strictly NO recruitment agencies – if you are a recruiter, do NOT contact us about this post.
Google phases out IE6
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
News released from Google this morning will bring a smile to many developers! The firm said from 1 March some of its services, such as Google Docs, would not work “properly” with the browser. It recommended individuals and firms upgrade “as soon as possible”.
Quote from the Official Google Blog;
“The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice. Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively. So to help ensure your business can use the latest, most advanced web apps, we encourage you to update your browsers as soon as possible. There are many choices:
Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products — as well as new Docs and Sites features — won’t work properly in older browsers.”
The great meltdown
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
And no, I’m not referring to the great thaw in Harrogate, but the loss of internet for a few hours yesterday afternoon.
We work in the digital world, so probably notice it a bit more than most, but what did we all do before internet access, broadband and Wi-Fi?
We almost felt naked. In the dark ages. Like an engine that’s lost its driving wheel.
Never to be beaten and down-hearted though, we adopted some novel practices:
- Updating Twitter and Facebook using an iPhone;
- Phoning and speaking to clients;
- Reading reference books; and
- Talking.
Whilst we abandoned MSN Messenger and talked, we discussed what we’d all be doing if the internet and web design didn’t exist:
- Phil decided he’d be a Fireman;
- Mike reckons he’d draw stuff and visit the library more;
- Dave would be a superstar DJ (The International Master of Rave);
- Bob juggled the idea of being a musician (living on the bread-line) or a self-sufficient small-holder; and
- Matt would drive limousines.
Thank goodness for the internet…
Let it snow!
Friday, January 8th, 2010
As the nation almost comes to a stand still with the ‘big freeze’, the Mixd crew can’t wait until the weekend to get out in to the glorious white powder that is snow for a good old play about!
On Tuesday, Harrogate was one of the worst hit places in the UK for snow, frost, ice and general coldness… but that’s not going to dampen our spirits! Of course, mishaps happen owing to the weather; we know:
- Matt has crashed his car (he’s okay so that’s cool);
- Bob has twisted his knee;
- Matt then fell and damaged a finger;
- Mike had to be dug out of the car park;
- Bob’s outhouse has frozen so washing machine and outside loo are defunct;
- Dave got stuck on a train; and
- Phil nearly went into the River Wharfe at Pool after slipping on ice in his car!
Not to mention that Bob has been working from home since Tuesday owing to trecherous roads, frozen car and the general desire to shirk a tad.
But what the heck! How often do we get great snow like this? We intend to thoroughly enjoy ourselves in it.
Look out for the Mixd crew this weekend; you’re sure to spot at least one of us:
- Snowboarding down the Otley Chevin;
- Sledging head first towards a river (incidentally, Bob can confirm that the River Tees at Preston Park has completely frozen over);
- Clearing paths for the elderly and disabled;
- Taking part in a huge snowball fight with relatives, friends and anyone else who might want to ‘ave it;
- Building a phallic snow sculpture;
- Going shopping for house-bound neighbours; and
- ‘Snow-surfing’* behind a car (always wear a crash helmet folks);.
So come on Britain, let’s not moan about the cold weather… let’s embrace it!
*snow-surfing is not big and it’s certainly not clever.