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Category Archives: Blog
Top tips for good e-mail marketing
One of the most established forms of online marketing, email is an inexpensive and proven method for increasing sales and brand support when done properly. It’s hard to get right, but here are some essential tips for increasing the success of your email and eshot campaigns.
Fancy becoming a Big Dotter?
Due to continued expansion, we currently have two positions open for the following:
Junior Web Developer
Negotiable salary and benefits
Working with a team of developers, and reporting to the Team Leader, the main duties will include the following:
- Provide support to the Lead Developers in all aspects of web development, working on any current web projects.
- Have a sound knowledge of computers and the internet. Some experience of web development would be a distinct advantage, including some knowledge of WordPress.
- Working closely alongside the team to ensure a project is completed to the highest possible standard and delivered on time.
- Keeping abreast of industry news and trends.
- You must be willing to quickly gain skills in web development, and have an active and keen interest in this industry.
Think you’ve got what it takes to join our hard working and fun loving office? Well then send your cv to steve@bigdotmedia.co.uk or speak to Steve on 01270 520050.
No agencies please.
Our favourite iPhone apps!
Given the plethora of iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches littering the office, I thought it was about time I put together a list of our favourite apps. Whilst it’s safe to say that the majority of the apps that we download are from the games or entertainment section of the App store, there are a handful we use for actual work! So have a read, get them downloaded, then let us know what you think!
The balance between design and functionality
We get lots of wonderful designs to turn into fully functioning websites here at Big Dot Media, and on the whole we love turning the vision of the creative agency into something that works well on the web. Sometimes though, we do stumble across problems especially when working with Content Management Systems. When the client of the agency has requested a content management system, the client assumes they will be able to edit every aspect of every page with their sparkly new CMS and never have to engage a designer or agency again. The reality is, there may be very little they can edit, even with a great CMS. Why? Well let me tell you..
Read more about The balance between design and functionality »
Mass hysteria as the iPad arrives at BigDot
This month saw the much anticipated arrival of the Big Dot iPad. There were ugly scenes of stampedes and mass hysteria as staff fought to answer the door to the poor bewildered courier. Once the package had been signed for it was carried carefully to the Chief, flanked by those wanting to be in prime position of the grand opening!
Read more about Mass hysteria as the iPad arrives at BigDot »
BigDot taking over the world.. well, another office anyway!
The Big Dot is getting bigger, expansion is planned once more, with some very exciting developments in the pipeline.
Perhaps the most exciting of these is the creation of additional space, which we have nicknamed ‘The Pit’, although this is a rather unattractive name for what will be a beautiful area for staff and clients alike. We are creating a meeting room, training facility and crash pad, adjoining our current office. As you know, our work is highly confidential so we can’t entertain visitors at our office which is why we decided to create this new area.
This brand new space will include:
Read more about BigDot taking over the world.. well, another office anyway! »
Focus On: Steve McGrath, Chief BigDot
Name: Steve McGrath
Age: Thirty eight
Occupation: Managing Director, Big Dot Media. Vice-Chair of Governors, St Annes Catholic Primary School. Director, Sunflowers Nursery
Spoken For?: Happily married for 15yrs!
Children: Three, 2 boys (6yrs, 3yrs) & 1 girl (9yrs)
Favourite Film: Up Close and Personal
Motto: Screw it, let’s do it (Richard Branson)
Which browsers do we test for?
With many of us using the internet on a daily basis we become accustomed to the browser we use to surf the web. Our web browsers are simply software applications that allow us to retrieve, present, and traverse information on the web and are packed with the latest features and technology to simplify, accelerate and enhance our browsing experience so it seems logical to pick the best browser for the job when it’s something many people use so frequently.
In the current era there are a large range of web browsers we are able to choose from. The ‘big players’ are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple’s Safari, Opera and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) but there’s a much more extensive selection making up a less significant percentage of the market. Each browser has a selection of unique features and range of added functionality and making an informed choice as to which is best to use is more important than ever. With Microsoft now shipping PC’s which allow user’s the choice of 12 browsers there’s an ever increasing awareness that there are alternatives to Internet Explorer, which is currently the most widespread browser on the market.
Read more about Which browsers do we test for? »
Views from the office
We take our partners confidentiality very seriously here at Big Dot Media, and becuase of this, we do not allow client to come to our office and potentially see work for other partners. Therefore we decided to post a video up of the view from our office so you can see what a beautiful environment we work in here. We hope you like it!
What’s all this talk of HTML5 and CSS3?
As is natural there’s been a lot of excitement about the potential and promise of HTML5 and CSS3 but what exactly are they and what’s all the fuss over? One reason for the abundance of buzz around the two is that they’re both major revisions to the core markup and style sheet languages of the World Wide Web. HTML is the most widely used markup language of the web and provides the means to create structured documents and allows us to embed images, objects and interactive forms into our web pages and much more. CSS defines how to display html objects with regards to the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language, such as HTML, both are fundamental technologies for building web pages.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are the maintainer of both CSS and HTML standards and compliance to these standards represents professionalism, makes for easy maintenance, the spread of good practice and is a quality stamp of a web developer’s work. Naturally Big Dot Media being a professional and quality company have excellent compliance. Read more about What’s all this talk of HTML5 and CSS3? »
Apples stance on Flash
Last month one of the most influential figures in technology, Steve Jobs, personally wrote a blog about his thoughts on Flash. Steve’s thoughts are important because as the CEO of Apple they transcend down into one of the most popular mobile phones of our generation, the iPhone, and also the iPad, iPod, Safari browser, Macintosh computers and everything else Apple has to offer.
What’s the big deal with Flash? Flash is Adobe’s cross platform multimedia system and allows your web pages to contain animation, whether it is advertisements, videos, or actual applications such as games. Flash has long been the prominent tool for media on the internet and has only recently come under heavy fire, most notably from Steve Jobs. Apple and Adobe have an extensive history and its estimated 50% of Mac users account for the sales of Adobe’s creative products but the mixed interest ends here. Read more about Apples stance on Flash »
Gravitate towards a ‘960 grid design’?
It’s now being widely endorsed that the optimal design width for the web is 960 pixels. So what’s the motive for the ‘960’ movement? It’s in essence an endeavour to simplify web developments work flow by making use of commonly used dimensions set upon a width of 960 pixels.
It can be considered that 1024×768 resolution is the new 800×600, thus 960 pixels logically appears a fine magic number to make the most of the wider canvases on which we’re progressively designing upon. Using this 960 grid we have set the foundation to use a variety of columns to effortlessly assist the development process, the most common number of columns being 12-column or 16-column with each division width being 60 pixels and 40 pixels respectively. So let’s put this into a visual perspective.
Cast your Net wider, get mobile device-optimised!
Over the last few years, the mobile internet has become more prominent with the introduction of more affordable smart devices, as many mid-range mobile phones now come with Wi-Fi built in, as well as being able to surf via the airwaves with 3G. The introduction of the iPhone has certainly accelerated the race to achieve the best internet browsing experience for all mobile device producers and this boom doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon, with the announcement of the next generation of iPhone on the horizon.
Read more about Cast your Net wider, get mobile device-optimised! »
Are Google speeding up the Internet?
By 2012 South Korea is expected to roll out 1Gbps broadband in its largest cities, whilst providing 50mb-100mb speeds everywhere else. This rate of development certainly makes the UK’s current broadband situation a bit embarrassing, even more so when you think that we’re getting excited by the offering of 40mb broadband by 2012! Still, there may be some sort of saviour for us now that the boffins at Google are including page-loading time in their SEO algorithm.
November last year was the first time we heard mutterings from Google that they were going to take account of loading time as part of their page ranking system and as of last week it all became official. The aptly names Site speed will quite simply outline how quickly a website responds to different web requests.
