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Facebook has gained over 1M users in Australia over the last 12 months @SMKAPAC
Interactive website for the movie Prometheus is a great example of the power of #HTML5 http://t.co/dEaOzfJE
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topics.
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Semi-Permanent 2012.
Our team attended Semi Permanent last week. In it's own words "Semi-Permanent is a world leading design conference that to date has hosted 29 events in 9 cities, covering 5 countries, with over 200 speakers and 50,000 attendees. In 2012, Semi-Permanent celebrates ten years of events- that's a decade full of stories and wisdom from industry idols." I thought I'd share my highlights...
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We love - Paris vs New York.
It's amazing how much you can communicate with so little! Each illustration in this series by Vahram Muratyan captures both cities (Paris and New York), highlights how they contrast and makes you smile at the same time. The combination of the simplicity plus humour is what makes them so effective. It's not surprising that what started out as a blog has evolved into a book and series of prints.
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It's good to share.
Attending conferences and working with clients on their social media strategies, gets a girl (OK, woman) thinking about the changes that social media has brought about. More and more, for me, it's that word 'share'. It used to be that if you knew something you kept it close and secret. Now, however, there is far more potential in sharing your knowledge and establishing yourself as a thought-leader. Take a peek at my daily go-tos for everything print, digital and brand.
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We love - the reinvention of the book.
Printing of the written word is being reinvented in awesome ways! I can't take credit for this find and have to name-check Springwise, a site filled with awesome ideas from around the world. As with the web, it's all about usability, a song book that you can recycle for rollies while you listen to the music and written recipes that you can actually then use in the cooking (OK so you've then lost the recipe but it's something different and I want to try it!). Yes please.
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Social Media steps up its role in connecting professionals.
If getting a new job is often more about who you know rather than what you know, why not take advantage of your established network of Facebook friends? That’s the idea behind BranchOut, an app that builds on your existing Facebook profile and connections and extends them into a professional network. This also means you don't have to maintain two separate profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn. We’re hearing more and more about BranchOut, so it a LinkedIn killer?
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We love - how a little thought can go a long way.
Check out these amazing images for Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker. They have taken the instruments of the orchestra and created the illusion of concert halls or large spaces you could wander through (for hours if you're daydreamers like us!)...just beautiful!
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Stakeholder workshops.
So, you are about to embark on a nice, juicy web project that’s going to take your business to the next level. You’ve got the team sorted, and you know what you want to achieve, and vaguely how you might go about achieving it. Everyone involved has imparted their two cents worth to the project, making sure their goals and objectives are covered. The brief is being written, revised, re-written, tweaked, written… again. And so by now, your nice, juicy web project is turning into a bit...
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We love - Instagram.
Ah yes, the app phenomenon that's taking the world by storm. We really love Instagram. It makes even the most mundane photo so awesome. The guys at mashable.com asked the team behind it to rate their favourite images. Check a few of their favs here. It's amazing to think that these were all taken on a Smartphone.
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The wonderful world of HTML5.
The latest buzz word to hit the Internet is HTML5. It’s been thrown around quite a bit lately, and most developers have a vague idea of what it is and what it actually means to the end user. There are a number of interesting technologies at work here; HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript APIs. We’ll take a look at some of these new features, and how they can be used to enhance your website.
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We love - stop. motion. videos.
If you like guacamole, stop motion video, or just random cool creativity, then check out this vid that we stumbled across.
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From the director who goes by the name PES, he transforms familiar objects into a tasty little guacamole treat. The animation is brilliant, but it's the sound effects that really make this come to life. Enjoy!
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PHP Developer - Ninja Required!
We are looking for a mid to senior PHP Ninja developer to join our team.
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istrategy and schmart marketing conference round-up.
I recently attended iStrategy, a global digital media conference, held in North America, the UK and Australia. It's billed as an inspirational, 2 day digital media conference for senior executives who believe that the success of their business requires a sound digital strategy. I also attended the Schmart Marketing Conference, which is aimed at business and marketing professionals who want to challenge the way they approach business. It tackles the art of strategy, creative, social...
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are you just what we are looking for?
We are looking for a top notch client relationship manager to join our dynamic and close-knit team and create new business across key sectors.
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we love - little things.
Good things come in small packages don't you know. And it doesn't come much smaller than the Little Printer. We saw this the other day and it's so cool. It's little enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and can be programmed to print news updates once or twice a day from your preferred news publications, social networks and data-collecting apps. Updates appear in the form of paper strips about the width of an iPhone and up to 10 inches long. Due for release sometime in 2012, we c...
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Google Plussification - get plus happy.
Google are taking the word of mouth style recommendation influence on search results one step further by recently announcing their Search, plus Your World movement. It’s all about delivering personalised search results to you based on your Google+ world and it has big implications for your content strategy. Australia doesn’t see it all just yet but Google plan to launch it internationally and anyone who publishes content on the web should be prepared.
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We love - glow in the dark snowboarding.
Ok, so even though technically it's still summer (for want of a better word), as avid snow bunnies we just had to share this one with you. Check out this awesome video by Jacob Sutton titled L.E.D Surfer, of Artec pro snowboarder William Hughes lighting up the snow-covered French hills in a bespoke L.E.D.-enveloped suit. Truly amazing, not just in a "snowboarding-at-night-in-a-glowing-suit" kinda way, but from a cinematography perspective as well. Enjoy!
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Responsive web design for mobile, tablet, desktop... and beyond?
We’ve been looking into best ways to approach mobile site design, as well as integrating it with established desktop design and content for some time now. As part of that quest I’ve just read a book called Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte. This book suggests that websites could be independent of a ‘canvas size’ and should flow and adapt to whatever device it is viewed on while maintaining a high level visual and functional experience.
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We love - a green lane.
We've just heard about something interesting that's coming up in a couple of weeks time, and wanted to share it with you. The people at Pop Sydney: Sussex Lane are taking over Sussex Lane in Sydney for two days in March, and turning it into a lush, green oasis in the heart of this fair city of ours. We love a bit of grass action down a dark lane! It's your chance to feel the grass under your feet whilst listening to some interesting speakers talk about the City of Sydney's plans fo...
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Showrooming. A discussion.
What is it? I recently read an article about the practice of ‘showrooming’, where shoppers visit stores to check out merchandise and then buy it online cheaper, leaving the bricks and mortar store’s role as little more than a product showcase, and very often not as an online destination as well. The subject is gathering speed in the media and here I discuss options to combat it.
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We love - a good reply.
A very clever ad campaign from BMW.
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Colour and its impact.
Colour is a crucial design element. It can be used for emphasis, directing the eye, identifying recurring themes, differentiation or to trigger emotions and associations. It has been proven that colour improves memory and in the case of brands, colour has been shown to improve brand recognition by as much as 85% (source: Practical eCommerce). There are a lot of considerations when choosing colours and colour palettes for your brand and communication collateral...
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We love - having our creativity exhibited.
Our creative type Steph has recently completed a photography course at the Australian Centre for Photography here in Sydney.
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Don’t underestimate the power of content.
Blogging. It seems every man and his dog has a blog these days; well over 100 million men and dogs if you want to put a figure around it (source: www.pingdom.com). So what is the key to a successful blog? We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Content is king and is one of the most powerful ways to increase your viewership and send your communications into the stratosphere.
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A new way to reach clients and customers.
I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to communicate in the online world. It seems every day there’s some new site to do this, sometimes they’re different and quirky, but not really useful in the scheme of things, but others just have something about them that makes you want to jump on board. Introducing Pinterest.
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we love - our client's photoblog.
Shout out to one of our clients Beck! Senior Marketing Manager for ipac securities limited, Beck is a great example of how just because you may live in the corporate world from Monday to Friday, doesn't mean you can't unleash your creative side for the rest of the time.
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Consumer trends for 2012.
The site trendwatching.com has put together their list of crucial consumer trends for 2012. Whilst some trends are probably more relevant to some regions and industries than others, there are a few that we think are definitely worth planting firmly in your consciousness this year.
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We love - personalised messages on chocolate bars.
Our new years resolution for 2012 is to share more of the things we love with you. Short, sharp bursts of of cool stuff we see on our travels and during our research. It may be an awesome viral campaign, a great photographer, a beautiful piece of typography, or an iphone snap of a cool poster on the way to work (other phones can be used) all sorts really! Here's a great augmented reality campaign that has come all the way from Greece, and the chocolate bar brand, Lacta.
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Christmas is a coming - get shopping!
Our last post before Christmas! So we thought we'd each share one of our favourite sites for (often last minute) shopping or gift ideas...the weird and the wonderful! 5 more sleeps to go!
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Future of Digital 2012 presented by AIMIA - review.
I recently attended the future of digital forecasts and predictions for 2012 hosted by AIMIA. Industry experts included Jennifer Wilson, Director at the Project factory, Mark Wilson, MD at Wilson Fletcher, Mark Szulc, Senior manager at APAC Consulting, Tim Devine, Creative Technologist at DT Digital, Todd Wackrow, CEO at Pocket Vouchers and Angus Stevens, Director of Online Video and Television at Southern Cross Austereo. I wanted to share the key insights with you.
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Customising your Facebook and Google+ business pages.
Customising is the key to standing out, and this applies in particular to Facebook and Google+, where the vast majority of pages look and feel the same. We are going to look at some simple techniques across Facebook and Google+ that can be used to engage users and make business pages stand out above the rest...
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Mental Notes card deck.
What a great idea, think psych 101 for web design… Mental Notes collects many insights into human behaviour from psychology, then distills these complex ideas from many different sources into 50 short and succinct cards with an example of how each principle can be put into practice to aid your users experience. They feel just a bit special packaged in their faux-leather case, with excellently quirky illustrations by Kevin Cornell which help to bring life to each principle...
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Website analytics, Google and beyond - maintaining your site health.
A website these days is not a set and forget endeavour. It’s an integral part of any business, community or organisation, which means at the base level if you don’t have one, you really should. Having a website means you need to look after it, keep it healthy and performing well, and make sure it’s doing its job and stays relevant to the ever changing online world. That’s why a website is a long-term commitment which needs ongoing monitoring, maintenance and updates...
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Designing for emotion.
It seems we spend so much time focusing on designing for practicality and functionality, that sometimes we overlook the emotional aspect of what drives people to engage with the online realm, and don’t consider the heart. It’s all well and good to create a technically correct website, but at the end of the day is technically correct what attracts the online user, let alone keeps them on a site? What drives users to hook onto a particular site and keep coming back time...
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Apps review - augmenting reality.
We know that Smartphones are now the way of the world – in 2010 they out-shipped the combined global market of laptop, desktop, and notebook computers, 2 years ahead of predictions (source: SmartOnline). It seems everyone and anyone has a Smartphone, whether it’s an iPhone, Android or Blackberry, to name a few. Mobile phone technology has leapt from merely a device to make and receive calls and text messages, to a hand-held magical portal that allows one to effectively manage their...
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Mobile first approach.
The more I look into designing for mobiles, the more I become convinced that mobile users cannot be ignored. The amount of Smartphones being purchased, and also the amount of time spent accessing the Internet via Smartphones, are both rapidly increasing. I have just read the book Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski and he not only provides a very strong case for the necessity of mobile design but also suggests a novel approach – design for mobiles first...
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Curating social media.
We all know that Social Media is a great tool in so many ways – it helps spark discussion on a variety of topics, allows you to gather relevant information to pass on to those you know that have a vested interest in a subject, and provides a vehicle for you to spread the word about your product, service, or even just your thoughts. Anyone with an Internet connection, a half decent computer and something to say can publish endless amounts of information, footage, images and sounds...
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Content audits and card sorting.
I recently conducted a card sorting session with a company for their internal knowledge base system; a place where they record all their processes and learnings. As the navigation, sections and content could be added by anyone, it had grown out of control and nobody could find anything or where to put new content. Card sorting is a great workshop tool used to help define the information architecture of a new or existing site. Ideally around 5 groups of 3 participants...
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Social media and higher education.
Gone are the days of printed brochures, careers expos and open days… well, maybe not gone, but just inching that little bit closer to the back of the classroom. Higher education has become a rather competitive industry, and for those seeking tertiary qualifications the choices have never been so great. These days, the way tertiary institutions market themselves, and the tools they now have to do so, has been turned on its head. Never before has there been so much information...
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Mobile sites vs mobile apps.
A mobile website delivers web content to your mobile device through its basic web browser, which means it is accessible across most mobile platforms. A mobile application is built for a specific mobile device operating system and as a result can tap into all the extra bells and whistles that platform has to offer for a much more fluid and immersive experience. The 5 factors on deciding which way to go are reach, costs, requirements, freedom and payment options...
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Facebook changes – what it means for businesses and business networking.
Users have more control over the content they see in their News Feed. Facebook’s own blog explained this perfectly stating “When you visit Facebook, you should see the things you’re most interested in…”. Rather than the Two-Option News Feed, where you could have either Top Stories (stories in order of popularity) or Most Recent (chronological order), you now get a single News Feed that shows you both top news and recent stories...
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Scenarios to sketches workshop.
I recently attended a workshop as part of the recent UX Australia 2011 Conference in Sydney. Titled ‘Scenarios to Sketches’ and conducted by Kim Goodwin, it was an extensive look at personas and scenarios, through to the next step of sketches. I found it to be a great validation of what we already know and implement in the studio, but also a great source of many new and interesting tips to guide the overall process when you are thinking about developing a new or existing site...
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The power of advertising on Google.
At a time when many businesses are looking to get maximum value for their hard earned dollars, it's advisable to take the time to scrutinise your marketing and advertising spend. Putting big bucks into traditional channels such as print advertising might not be giving you the return on investment you need, especially when things are tight. In many cases press, radio or TV casts a wide net over a broad, fairly distracted audience, making the money you are spending fairly hit and miss...
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Mobile prototyping essentials workshop.
I recently attended a workshop by Rachel Hinman on ‘Mobile Prototyping Essentials’. The workshop was part of the 4-day user experience design conference, UX Australia 2011. Rachel (who you can follow @Hinman), covered a range of subjects, and here are my take-aways...
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Social Media for B2B.
After Kristen's (our talking type here at Philter) comments on the age of social recommendations and how social media is impacting business to consumer referrals, it got me thinking about how social media really impacts business to business. We utilise social media here at Philter in an effort to share our thoughts and learnings across digital strategy and marketing alongside web design and development. Clearly, we have a blog and we also have a Twitter account. When preparing blog...
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What is your website *really* doing for your business?
Long gone are the days where 'having' a website is an achievement and a business asset in itself. In fact quite the opposite, if your website isn't inline with your other marketing collateral, doesn't give off a professional image and doesn't provide any real value it could be doing your brand harm. It might be enticing to start dabbling in social media because it feels new and exciting, but remember, you own your website, whilst social media channels may come and go...
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The age of social recommendations.
There was a time, many years ago, when the web was in its infancy; a time when users browsed or ‘surfed’ simple directories like Yahoo in order to find relevant information. The simplicity of this time, in retrospect, is interesting: it was all that we knew, so it was all that we wanted. It was then that we entered the era of ‘search’, and saw the rise of the juggernaut that is Google. Now, however, the way that users are discovering content is changing again. People are more incli...
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How to help sales on e-commerce sites.
E-commerce websites have one specific purpose – to lead the customer to make a purchase. This makes the user experience particularly important. By keeping the customer happy throughout the process, you shouldn't give them any reason to leave the site, and get them not only to place items in their cart but most importantly through to the final goal of making payment. According to a recent e-commerce study by MarketingSherpa, at least 59.8% of potential customers abandon their cart...
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Setting the scene for the perfect user experience.
So, the personas have been created, but now what? It's all well and good to know WHO is using a site, but HOW they are using it is equally as important. Welcome to the wonderful world of scenarios! In a nutshell, scenarios are stories, or narratives of how a user would use a site on a particular occasion - either in the most common, or least typical way. Using personas as the characters, it's the story about their user experience; their journey from first point of contact with the...
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How to utilise the rise of the smartphone for your business.
Nielsen reported back in 2010 that smartphones would overtake feature phones in the U.S. by 2011. It is often true that where the U.S. leads we follow. I have had an iPhone for a couple of years now, as do many of my friends, if not an iPhone then mostly an HTC Android phone. Whatever your predilection for handsets they all allow you to connect with others and in particular services/offers in an easy, quick manner. With this in mind, and the examples I am coming into contact with...
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Mobile site design: part 2.
Following on from my previous post that looked at good examples of mobile site design, I have created some top tips for consideration when looking at creating a mobile version of a site. Catering specifically for mobile users is something that you can no longer afford to ignore. Gartner’s mobile market report says 428 million mobile devices were sold in the first quarter of 2011, representing a 19% increase year-over-year. A lot of that growth is due to smartphone sales...
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Is Google+ a game changer?
You hear it said a lot but I honestly believe this could be the game changer. For anyone who works in marketing, PR, small business or just takes an active interest in social media and the web, you'll know that sometimes it can become really tiring having to think about all the different channels you need to stream your information through. You have to remember what you said where and when, as well as ensure that next to each blog post or content entry you have the Facebook Like but...
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New sketching medium set to save time?
Recently my love of the trusty sketch pad and pencil has suffered a blow by the purchase of a stylus for my iPad and Adobe Ideas app. Before all the traditionalist sketchers get up in arms, I haven't put the 2B down for good, but here are a few things I've found the Adobe Ideas app can do: The interface is simple and well designed, with all controls located down the side of the screen to use with your non-drawing hand. There are more complex drawing apps available but I was surp...
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Mobile site design: part 1.
Designing for mobiles is a whole new ball game. When redesigning a mobile version of a website two of the main considerations are simplification and hierarchy. Deciding what content should be included in the mobile site (and what can be culled) and how the content should be ordered is key! Compared to desktop and laptop computers, mobile screens are much smaller, internet speed is slower and the way we interact with mobile devices is totally different. Touch screens replace the key...
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Personas - web design gets personal.
As designers, developers and account managers, we might know what looks great, sounds informative and functions well to us, but not all people are the same and we need to ensure the user experience is right for the target audience. One way to really get down to the nitty gritty of 'what users' want' is by creating personas - fact based characterisations of the people who currently are using, or who will potentially use, our clients' sites...
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Content: the (new) king.
Shortly after I completed my graphic design studies, at the end of the 90's, I got an insatiable fascination for the web. The layers of problem solving that go into making an interface that is not only usable, but also pleasurable to use, saw me working long into the nights, tinkering away at my own projects to gain knowledge in a field that was seriously lacking in solid educational options. Now with over a decade of web design experience I have learnt a lot! We all have...
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iStrategy conference round up.
I recently attended iStrategy, a global digital media conference, held in San Fran, Atlanta, Amsterdam and Melbourne. Billed as an inspirational, 2 day digital media conference for senior executives who believe that the success of their business requires a sound digital strategy I found it had some great real-time practical examples of digital strategy. Here are my favourite take-aways from the event...
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Is your website mobile?
We all know that the web design industry involves plenty of change, and a continuous adaption and development of skills are required in order to stay up to date. In the past few years, one of the biggest areas of change has been the amount of internet users who are accessing websites via smart phones and tablet devices like the iPad. Ensuring that your web design is compatible across platforms and devices is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. It’s safe to say that most users will...
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Approved membership to Team Australia.
We have just received exciting news that a long time member of our Philter family has been approved residency in Australia! Jo, our talking type and an all-round delightful English lass found out the good news last week. This was such fantastic news to receive on humpday of all days. So in celebration, the team held an impromptu gathering with Sparkle Cupcakes and Moet in the lounge-room, while Dexter serenaded her with 'I Still Call Australia Home'. We would like you all to raise...
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The important questions to ask.
I've been thinking recently how branding no longer just encompasses a company, but each and every campaign that is run. Every campaign you do needs to be developed with the same thought processes and with the same level of research that was first put into developing your company’s branding way back when. Often when you consider stopping and really thinking about something it indicates larger amounts of money and time. Sure it may take a little more time, although quite often it...
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Dexter's got game.
We recently welcomed a new addition to the Philter team - tall, dark and impossibly handsome, we like to call him Dexter. Born and raised in the back of a shed in downtown Sydney, Dexter is the brainchild of our art director Ben and technical lead Byron. They set out with one goal - to create the greatest arcade machine the world has ever seen! A grand unveiling was held last month to welcome Dex to the team. Drinks were had, battles were fought and music was played...
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Split testing key to improving effectiveness of web design and development.
It's amazing how making one tiny change to a website can have such an impact! AB Tests has loads of great case studies that show the before, after and results for different web pages. Who would have thought that changing the text on a button from “play right now” to “instant demo” would have an 83.4% improvement?! Seriously take a look, you can get lost in there for hours. What could be tweaked with your website design or web development to make it perform better?
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The ‘F’ word - in print.
Digitalpress, a local printer dedicated to innovative digital printing, wanted to produce an alphabetised poster series of all things they are. We were given the letter F and asked to create an A2 poster print design with the only requirement being that it needed to reflect the company and what they do. First step was to brainstorm what we thought of Digitalpress and what they do, and F words associated with that. Secondly we looked at different techniques that could be employed...
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Web fonts: the new game changer in web design.
It’s been around for a few months, but we can’t help coming back to the Lost World’s Fairs. It's a neat little website that showcases the new typographic possibilities on the web. To most people it looks like just another website, the difference though is the fonty goodness that has all our designers quite excited. Rather than being restricted to good old Arial or Times New Roman the new WOFF format is a web based font format that brings a whole host of new fonts to our little web...
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Give your users the content they deserve!
You are privileged to have a user visit your site, don't expect them to read slabs of content as well! Users are time poor and task focused so at all times you want to avoid clutter and champion clarity. Great content is useful, concise, compliant and scannable...
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Real life gift giving via Twitter.
I don't know about you but after the first flush of excitement when sending a virtual birthday cake or congratulatory glass of champagne on Facebook I started to think what’s the point? Digital content is all it is, my friends don’t get to taste any of that cakey goodness or feel the bubbles on their tongue! As always Japan is pioneering the move of digital content into the real world and they're doing it via social media - with Japanese company Giftee...
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Santa get your gamification on.
In the lead up to last years silly season, we decided that we wanted to create something a little different for Christmas…something fabulously fun that we could share with our clients, friends and family. After much brainstorming, we decided to give the cute old guy (Santa) a well overdue rebrand. With the popularity of gamification on the rise, what better way to get amongst it than to create a site that lets users dress Santa in an array of completely unsuitable clothing...
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Digital marketing insights from Futurelab 2011.
I recently went to a Futurelab presentation, which was really impressive. While it touched on a number of subjects the direction digital marketing was taking was of real interest to me. As we all know the move to mobile and videos is having a huge impact in the way we create content and how companies interact with their target market. Interesting points flagged for digital marketing were...
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