Archive for the ‘Mixd’ Category
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Back on the bike
The appearance of a bit of sunshine in England brings about many changes. Those early mornings seem easier, everyone’s in a happier mood, beers taste better and the ladies don their bikinis.
After having a decent bit of decent weather of late, I decided sitting in front of a computer all day needed to be offset with some sort of outdoor activity to set me up for the summer.
Something that a lot of people don’t know about me (I’m not one to brag) is that I used to be a bit of a dab-hand on a bike. By “dab-hand” I mean, you know, stunts an’ that. Two or three years ago, my life-long hobby fell by the wayside a little bit (probably due to growing up and the responsibilites of forging a career path!) Oh, and this happened…
Enough to put someone off I think you’ll agree! And it did.
You must be mad!
I’m pleased to say I was okay (physically) after that crash (minus a broken pair of glasses!) and spurred on by the recent sunshine — as well as watching a few of my old riding videos one evening — I decided it was time to start riding again!
So that’s what I have been doing, and will be doing over the summer months. It’s not been going too badly so far, after a dozen rides I’m slowly but surely working my way back up to the sort of things I was doing a few years ago. I’m actually off to Bristol this weekend to ride in a street jam / contest organised there, although I will probably get a bit of a shock at how good everyone else has got in the time I’ve been away!
Watch this space as I’m determined to film some new clips and perhaps make another video sometime in the future. You can watch a video of me “nailing it” below, from back in my hay-day!
What about you..do you have any hobbies you will be dusting off this summer? Go on!
You’re hired…
Over the last few months the Mixd team has steadily been growing and as a result we have been encouraging web designers and web developers of the future to get in touch. Those of you that regularly read the Mixd blog will know that we work closely with York College and the University of Leeds on their graphic design and digital media courses. We get to meet a whole range of students, all eager to land their first job. Of course finding your first job involves one big hurdle that we must all overcome – the interview! And I think we can all remember that interview where you fell flat on your face with the first question or some other embarrassing moment!
First, a little bit of interview advice
So all this talk of interviews got me thinking about what lessons I have learnt and I think the biggest single piece of advice I can offer is do your homework!
It really should not need to be said but so many times I have interviewed people with little or no knowledge of the company or the kind of work we do. With the web being what it is these days, there really is no excuse for not knowing every little detail about the company. Twitter and Facebook are wonderful tools that can be used to gain insight and knowledge before going for that dream job. Check out the company Twitter feed and find out the names of key members of staff. Then find them on Twitter! Engage them and build up a relationship prior to going for your interview. If nothing else, you will get to know the company and are more likely to know whether or not they are right for you. You will also build up a list of topics to talk about if you are stuck for something to say!
My strangest job interview
So back on the subject of worst / strangest job interviews, I thought I’d tell you a little story about an interview that I had some time ago and the lessons I learnt. I was applying for a job as a white water raft guide and had been shortlisted and asked to attend an interview at a hotel close to London. I arrived early (always a good start) and was directed to a particular suite in the hotel. Expecting a one-on-one interview with the owner of the company, I was somewhat surprised to find a room full of other raft guides, all eager to land their dream job guiding on rivers in the Alps. My interview was at 11am, so I had time to chat with a few of them and it quickly became apparent that we had all be asked to attend an interview at the same time, 11am. At this point I did think the situation was a little strange as there was no one to be seen from the company.
11am came and went and we were all left waiting. No one knew what was going on. I tried calling the number I had been given but got no answer – the hotel didn’t know either and as time went on the ‘interview’ got stranger and stranger. First a buffet lunch was served followed by the opening of the hotel bar “It’s all paid for, have what you like” I was told by the barman. It was at this point that the room divided – those that took advantage of the free bar and had a ‘few’ drinks and those that felt it wasn’t appropriate to drink whilst waiting to be interviewed. Not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, I found myself with a small group of others stood at the bar chatting and getting stuck in to the free hospitality. After an hour or so the barman ushered the small group of drinkers round into a smaller round adjacent to where we had been. As we walked into the room our faces dropped – the owner of the company was stood there with one or two other members of staff. He simply smiled, opened his arms and said “congratulations”!
At the time, I didn’t quite know what had just happened but I later realised that the owner had planned the entire day and was sat watching us all from the adjacent room. Those that were outgoing and sociable (and enjoyed a drink) were exactly the kind of people they wanted in their company.
Have you had a strange or particular bad interview experience?
p.s. I was also once asked at a job interview “If you were a mythological creature, what would you be and why?”
p.p.s. Bob once attended an interview where the only task was dished out by a miserable looking bloke “Get this raw egg in this glass milk bottle without cracking the shell. I’ll be back in an hour.”
12 months of MixdMessages!
Time flies…
As I was preparing the content for the May 2011 edition of MixdMessages, it occurred to me that we had completed our first year of our monthly eNewsletter of ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ according to the team here at Mixd towers. Crikey… that’s flown by!
Any good?
Over the last year, we have received a lot of pleasing feedback and comments regarding our broadcasts that have helped shape the format and month-on-month content. We want more though! If you are an existing subscriber, please use the comments feature on this blog post to tell us what you like about MixdMessages, or indeed what you feel could be improved. If you aren’t a subscriber (you can sign up towards the bottom of this page on the right-hand side) we’d love to know what you’d want to read about in a digital agency’s eNewsletter. More importantly perhaps, if you were a subscriber that unsubscribed, please let us know why… it would really help us shape the next 12 months of MixdMessages!
Let us know…
Thanks for your time and attention… now just submit a comment in the box below!!
London to Harrogate East Coast train service
In case you didn’t know…
Earlier this year, East Coast announced a direct train service returning from London to Harrogate of an evening (leaving King’s Cross at 5.33pm) to complement the direct service from Harrogate to London on weekday mornings (leaving Harrogate at 7.28am); prior to this, you would have to return with a change in York. Harrogate Chamber of Trade & Commerce, of which Mixd is a member, had led the campaign to bring the new direct train services from London King’s Cross to Harrogate; so well done the Chamber!
Use it or lose it…
The Chamber is continuing to lobby for additional direct services in the future and this decision will be largely dependent on the level of usage of the new services, so please recommend the service to your friends, family and business colleagues travelling between Harrogate and London.
The honest review…
Whilst initially these direct services via Leeds are a little slower than the current mainline services via York, they do avoid the problems of connecting on to the local trains.
Chamber member?
If you are a Chamber member, you can take advantage of an East Coast special offer and travel to or from London next Monday (23 May 2011) for a magnificently low price; it really is low… the fare each way will be cheaper than the Burger King meal at King’s Cross. To take advantage, contact the Chamber.
Website for Obesity Surgeons Group launched
Harrogate web design company Mixd is proud to have recently launched the new website for the Obesity Surgeons Group based in Leeds.
The Obesity Surgeons Group (OSG) is a surgeon-led organisation that offers leading surgery solutions to patients revolving around four core principles:
- Highly skilled professionals with vast experience in weight loss surgery;
- State of the art, purpose built facilities;
- Provision of top quality after-care; and
- Sensible pricing structures that offer best value and finance options.
Mixd was approached by long standing online marketing partner 29Red to co-create a new website that would match up to the quality of the OSG service.
Accessible and usable website design
We were chosen primarily because of our experience in website accessibility and usability and our attention to detail. Throughout the project, a ’2 heads are better than 1′ approach was adopted with key decisions being made by everyone involved and the end result reflects this. Specifically, our work included:
- Full planning, investigation and scoping;
- Creative;
- Client content management system;
- Technical development;
- Online BMI calculator (what’s your BMI?!);
- Illustration and video animation; and
- Accessibility and usability consultancy.
We’d love to know what you think of the Obesity Surgeons Group website, so do let us know… …and why not check out you BMI online whilst you’re there!
Stop press… soon to be seen on TV!
Professor Mike McMahon, lead surgeon at OSG and a pioneer in keyhole gastric surgery, will be appearing on Channel 4′s Embarrassing Fat Bodies in May; a spin-off from the ever popular series Embarrassing Bodies. ‘The Prof’, as he is affectionately known, was selected because of his skill level and will feature as the weight loss expert who consults and operates on one of the programme’s patients with a particularly tricky and complicated case.
The benefits of agile development
Agile
Adjective
Able to move quickly and easily. Concise Oxford English Dictionary
Agile development
Agile methods generally promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices intended to allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. Wikipedia
Mixd agility
Here at Mixd in Harrogate, we adopted agile development methods almost two years ago and a number of projects have benefitted enormously; including:
- Booking engine and business management tool for a European holiday company to minimise staffing levels and maximise the customer’s online experience; bringing together APIs, availability & bookings, eCommerce and customer data. Furthermore, the system deals with property owners, agents and staff to differing degrees to streamline the company’s business model.
- Customer Relationship Management and booking system for a ski holiday operator. Amongst many challenges, one of the features we developed was a user-friendly web-based graphical user interface (GUI) for the call centre team.
- Database driven application and website for a car supermarket that seamlessly handles a massive slice of car data, bespoke fields and customer searches.
- Secure social network, similar to Facebook, for a department of the NHS that handles a multitude of complicated processes to give users what they want, with minimal involvement from the administrators.
But how? Why? What are the benefits?
Benefits of agile development
Now, I was going to write the benefits of agile development as two lists, separated by the headings ‘client’ and ‘developer’; however, to do so would go against everything that agile is about… collaboration to develop the best possible solution and deliver true business results.
So, here is a single list of the main benefits of agile development:
- The emphasis is very much on:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
(taken from the Manifesto of Agile Software Development)
- Client satisfaction through the rapid delivery of software / applications they can use
- Adaptability of the end product remains high throughout development:
- The impact of changes only increases workload slightly the further through the process you go
- Changing requirements aren’t the end of the world, even late in the development process (regular adaptation to changing circumstances is possible)
- With more traditional development methods, the adaptability of the product decreases hugely within the first few weeks
- Visibility of the development process is clear:
- Relevant, working iterations of software are delivered frequently for review (weekly is commonplace)
- Progress is measured by the supply of these iterations of working systems
- With more traditional development methods, the visibility is almost non-existent other than near to the start and end of the project
- Business value is maximised at every stage of the process:
- Relevant, working iterations of software are delivered frequently for review (weekly is commonplace)
- A partnership way of working; regular co-operation between ‘client’ and ‘developer’
- With more traditional development methods, business value drops away until such time that the project is finished
- Business risk becomes low very quickly and remains low:
- The development process benefits from a steady, constant pace
- Projects benefit from a highly skilled team of motivated individuals with a common goal, who can be trusted to deliver
- Technical excellence and good design are always at the forefront
- Simplicity of development
- With more traditional development methods, business risk starts high and remains high until nearing completion
Have I missed anything? What is your experience of agile? We’d love to hear what you think of agile development, good or bad.
So, what are you doing this weekend then?
I was just sat here this Friday afternoon (wasting time) thinking about those halcyon days of being a ‘youth’. When lengthy school holidays meant everyday was a Saturday. Your normal ‘working’ day finished at 3.15pm. And your biggest worry was if that new girl you fancied thought your trainers were cool. “Those days are gone my friend” I told myself.
The older you get, the more responsibilities you have and the greater emphasis you put on weekends. So, I asked around the guys in the Mixd team and it’s safe to say they are relishing their weekends:
- Matt will be sipping Sangria, eating Tapas, looking at Gaudi architecture and generally lording it up with his good lady in Barcelona.
- Mike will be riding around his garden in a JCB Bobcat undertaking some groundworks for a new wall and what not.
- David will be largin’ it behind the wheels of steel at Janet’s 50th in the function room of the Three Horseshoes; spinning the tunes and knocking out phat beats to keep the whistle posse happy. Along with a spot of DIY.
- Phil is off to the Lakes with his wife to celebrate some friends’ engagement… although he hasn’t told his better half that he is taking his bike to get some training miles under his belt (sure Lou will be ecstatic).
- As for me… well. I’m ‘discussing wedding things’ with my best man tonight, which actually means some decent grub and a gallon of ale down t’pub. Tomorrow, I’ll be at Sound It Out records in Stockton, being the sound technician for some instore gigs to mark International Record Store Day. Marvellous.
What about you?
What are you doing to escape the stresses and strains of the working week?
MAFTA ‘Best Website’ award
GET IN! I’m shouting. I’m on a roof top. One of our sites has won the ABTOF MAFTA for Best Website!
What’s an ABTOF MAFTA? You may be wondering…
Well, ABTOF is a travel industry association and stands for the ‘Association of British Travel Organisers to France’. MAFTA, not to be confused with BAFTA, is the acronym for the ‘Marketing Awards for French Tourism’. Not sure where the last ‘A’ comes from! So there you have it, an ABTOF MAFTA is an Association of British Travel Organisers to France Marketing Award for French Tourism. You see why it’s called an ABTOF MAFTA now.
Mixd site scoops award
At the annual Association of British Travel Organisers to France (ABTOF) conference in Saint-Malo (the port in Brittany with the huge walls) held on 1st – 3rd April 2011, the Ski & Summer Morzine site (designed and developed by Harrogate web design company Mixd) collected the MAFTA award for Best Website against stiff competition. In making the award presentation, David Ball of Social Fuel (main event sponsor) cited the cleanness of the site, ease of navigation, relevant content and the quality of the photographs.
Hurrah!
It’s safe to say we are well chuffed that over 12 months of work has been recognised by a travel industry award. The Mixd team was involved right from the get-go; working from a blank canvas to arrive at a fantastic, user friendly site. Our work included:
- Existing site audit
- Full investigation, scoping and planning
- Brand evolution
- Content consultancy
- Creative concepts, development and implementation
- Agile technical development
- Full content management system
- Development of a bespoke and fully integrated back-end booking and customer relationship management system
- Usability testing throughout
- Accessibility consultancy
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) technical work and recommendations
- Social media recommendations and training
What do you think?
We’d love to know what you think about the Ski and Summer Morzine website, or indeed the ABTOF MAFTAs. Do let us know.
Setting the mood with Oasis School of Human Relations
A recent new business win for Boston Spa based Oasis School of Human Relations gave Mixd an opportunity to work with a great new client and to work in some exciting and different ways…
The project brief was to supply a brand update and to apply that new logo to a completely redeveloped website. However, following our initial planning and scoping meetings with the client, we soon realised that Oasis had a difficult ‘personality’ to project to its clients – they had difficulty explaining to us exactly what they did and we had trouble understanding exactly what they did!
This led us to the conclusion that we needed to go back to basics and really get under the skin of the directors’ thoughts of how the business should present to its clients and we decided that the best way of getting to the bottom of it was to organise a ‘mood workshop’ involving all the key stakeholders at Oasis along with a couple of us from Mixd just to help guide their way a little.
So we started with a little show and tell…
In order to kick things off, we asked everyone to bring in something they felt encompassed the Oasis’ personality and gave each of them a few minutes to tell everyone what the object was and why they thought it was relevant to Oasis. This was a great way to start things as everyone had a chance to speak, everyone else got to understand how they felt about the business and it was a great icebreaker.
Once we completed this short task, and armed with boxes full of magazines, pens, scissors and glue, we got stuck in to collecting together materials to create moodboards. We split everyone down into small groups and tasked them with collecting together meaningful research. Everyone looked for images, typography, colours, words – anything they felt fitted with their vision for the new Oasis brand personality.
Once this task was completed we convened back as a group to review all the collected materials and to agree which should be kept and which should be discarded. It soon became clear that themes had quickly developed in the small groups and agreement was quickly reached about what should be retained so we stuck down all the various bits and pieces onto boards in broad groupings of Type, Colour, Images, Words and Anything else.
All this background research then helped us to start the creative process of forming ideas for the new identity – we had agreed colours, typefaces, images, shapes – all that was left to do was distil it all down into meaningful concepts that were relevant to Oasis.
We presented several worked-up concepts and everyone was quick to agree on a particular idea that was directly inspired by Oasis director Nick Ellerby’s eloquent description of the meaning of the business – Developing the Whole. When we looked through the moodboards we quickly saw that there were several references to circles and completeness and it all seemed to fit perfectly – we hope you agree…
Ruby on Rails freelance developer job
A bit like buses – two jobs come along at once!
We are looking for a mid-senior Ruby on Rails developer to come and work with us in a freelance capacity on a number of existing client projects. You must demonstrate excellent Ruby development skills, technical wizardry, flexibility, a sense of humour, motivation and an eye for detail.
Required skills:
- At least 2 years’ experience programming Ruby in a professional environment
- At least 4 years’ experience programming for the web
- A strong background in object-oriented programming
Location:
This is a freelance/contract position to work with us on a number of projects over the next 6 months either remotely or at the Mixd offices. We are ideally looking for someone in the Harrogate / Leeds or Manchester area although will consider those further afield in the UK.
Salary Range:
Negotiated on a per project basis
How to apply
Get in touch with your CV, URL examples of recent work and GitHub account details at: info@mixd.co.uk
Strictly NO recruitment agencies – if you are a recruiter, do NOT contact us about this post.