Want to get the best from your design studio?
Whether they’re newly hired or long-standing partners, here are five top tips, based on 15 years of agency-side experience, that will get you results, rapport and respect (and possibly even access to their stash of brightly-coloured confectionery).
How many times have you heard of or have been a part of a failed digital project? Why do you think it failed?
Was it the people? The technology? Strategy? Unrealistic expectations of senior management or client?
It could be all of the above or none of the above. However, across the majority of digital project failures there is one common denominator… a scientific best practice methodology was not followed.
What does the word mobile mean? To many companies, including those in retail, mobile is used to describe any connected device that’s portable.
That makes some sense: despite the fact that there are differences between the growing number of connected devices that can fit in a pocket or bag, there are often enough similarities, at least on the surface, to justify putting them in the same bucket. But can and should the all-encompassing use of mobile translate to strategy?
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are being rapidly adopted by large companies, public bodies and small tech start-ups with equal amounts of enthusiasm. But that’s not the case for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Tech startups and large companies have clear justifications and well-documented commercial incentives for constructing an API. Something else they share in common is the presence of a strong internal advocate, or API evangelist, who will personally back the API initiative and put dedicated time and energy into implementing their API strategy.
In small and medium companies the justification is less clear. The barriers to adopting API technology appear larger and the business benefits appear smaller.
In many cases the decision maker is the CEO of the SME who may not fully understand the potential opportunities or threats that APIs may mean for their business. This lack of understanding about API technology represents a significant commercial handicap for SMEs.
Here are five API opportunities and threats that every SME should be aware of:
When a retailer or brand decides it’s time to replatform their ecommerce website, many will opt to embark on an ITT process (Invitation to Tender).
This can involve two or three distinct phases: RFI (Request for Information) and RFP (Request for Proposal).
With a recent study showing that only a tiny 14% of CMOs are happy with their mobile strategy we thought it was about time people start asking questions about their brand in mobile.
Mike Philips (Strategist) and I put together nine questions that every CMO should ask their mobile strategist.
Facebook’s success hasn’t only netted its founders, early employees and investors billions of dollars, the world’s largest social network has built an ecosystem that has served as the foundation for other businesses collectively worth billions.
From large social gaming companies like Zynga all the way to individual developers building Facebook apps out of their bedrooms, Facebook’s launch of a development platform in 2006 proved to be a game-changer for online entrepreneurs.
Nearly half of B2B companies will up their marketing budgets in 2013, with more than half of those saying they’ll increase their investment in email marketing, social media, online video and search.
But one marketing asset will be receiving the biggest investment by far: the company website.
One Web is a foundational website development principle for tackling today’s diverse, multi-screen world.
You may or may not have heard of it yet, but One Web will soon be acknowledged as the only way to build modern and future-proof ecommerce websites.
Being a freelancer can be a fulfilling and profitable career path.
In digital industries, where job mobility is high and five years with a single employer is ‘a long time’, many professionals view freelancing as a viable and attractive career path.
But make no mistake about it: freelancing is a business and as with any business, starting up, surviving and thriving can be difficult to do.
Here are 12 success-promoting things every freelancer, new and experienced, should have in place.
A new year is a great opportunity to pause and take stock. It is a chance to look at how your digital offering evolved over the last year and what opportunities are ahead for 2013.
First, lets look back at last year. How much of your time was spent actively planning the future of your site as opposed to reacting to circumstances and requests for change? Did your digital strategy have clear leadership or was it shaped by events?
What about this coming year? Do you have a clear roadmap for development over the next year? Are things on that roadmap because they will help achieve clear business objectives? How are you going to measure the success or otherwise of your roadmap?
Finally do you have staff in place, not only for the ongoing management of your site, but to think and plan strategically over the long term?
With publishers serving more and more of their audience through mobile and tablet devices, it’s no surprise that responsive designs are growing in popularity.
From the BBC and Guardian to Metro and Express & Star, the number of publishers jumping on the responsive design bandwagon is growing rapidly and for good reason: there’s a lot to like about responsive design and done right, it’s pretty compelling.