It's been nearly a year of waiting but it's been worth it. Our Microsoft Surface unit arrived on Friday and boy was it heavy... Apart from looking like a prop from Raiders of The Lost Ark, it was a pretty normal looking huge wooden case (as if we get these all the time...). It didn't take long for this packaging to be torn, sorry carefully removed to reveal the Surface unit in all it's glory. One of the most exciting bits is the standard Microsoft mouse and keyboard that comes with the unit. We then spent some time calibrating the unit and got practicing our gestures, and playing with some of the standard applications on the unit. We are working on some apps of our own so more news when we have finished. If you are interested in a demo of the new Surface unit then please contact us and we would be happy to show you around this amazing piece of technology.

Well after a long long wait our Microsoft Surface unit is in the air and on its way to us at Splendid. We are all rather excited to get our hand on this new toy, I mean amazing business device...

Some of Splendid's work has been in the press this week so we thought a quick round up would be helpful.

Splendid's work for Microsoft on the Aston Martin proof of concept was chosen to be the keynote at the ReMix event in Hong kong, the premier User Experience event in Hong Kong. The demo was very well received and Aston Martin Hong Kong sent 2 cars (1 DB9 and 1 Vantage) to the event for photo taking and organized fun-rides for lucky draw winners. Shoichi from Japan and their General Manager in Hong Kong also attended the event. The Aston Martin proof of concept covers the online car buying experience, the in-dealer experience and the in-car experience all designed by Splendid.

Smarta is a new, unique online proposition that addresses a real gap in the business support landscape. It is a Social Enterprise being launched in the UK in November 2008 and expanding worldwide from 2010 onwards. Smarta is a website for business people by business people. Smarta already has RBS, Vodafone and Microsoft on board as partners as well as high level Government support. Big name entrepreneurs like Theo Paphitis and James Dyson are supporters and patrons. We have been working with Smarta since the start, we helped develop the proposition and designed and developed the current marketing site. We have just started working on the user experience for the full launch site, its a whopper and a really exciting project for the team to get their teeth into. Check back for more news as it happens.

With England out of the Euros '08 the football fraternity looked elsewhere for its fix. Boasting more internationals in their squad than Arsenal, the splendid football team took to the hallowed turf of hangar lane to partake in the annual 5 a side Nexus cup.
Unfortunately due to a busy schedule our lead in to the tournament was not as smooth as hoped. With minimal training, fitness and knowledge of the game, team splendid took to the pitch with the hope that shear will and enthusiasm would help us triumph over stiff opposition such as MTV, Publitronic, Nickelodeon, Red Bee, MDM and Aquirva.
Needless to say that at the end of the day the results did not go our way, but fun was had by all and in usual splendid tradition we did our best work at the bar post match.

We love to put our work on the wall, this isn't us just showing off - its all about communication. Most of our projects start as a collection of thoughts, problems and ideas. These ideas are then taken through our process to define what they are and how they will work. Creating a project wall is how we define, communicate and document this process. Here are some reasons why: It's visual A picture really does say 1000 words. Written briefs can get forgotten in the design process. Wouldn't it be better if your brief was brought to life as a set of images, diagrams, personas, research findings and great reference material which grows with the project? It's big We can all see it, all the time. From the designers and developers dedicated to the project, through to the rest of the studio who may have useful knowledge or experience in a similar field. It's a living document A couple of post it notes or some fresh wireframes can update the whole team very quickly and easily. We can all see where our designs have come from and easily trace the original concepts if needed. All ideas are captured in one place. Even better, it is kinder to the trees as print outs are all in one place rather than each team member having multiple copies. It's external Ideas can never develop if they are locked in someone's head or burried in a hard drive. Collaboration is vital in producing a well rounded user experience. The wall provides a focal point, a meeting place for the team's efforts. A neutral space where ideas can develop and grow. You can see more than one thing at a time Reviewing designs on screen is great for certain aspects of the process. But, to understand the flow of a user journey, you often need to see the full story from beginning, through the middle to the end. The project wall lets you see all of these aspects at the same time, ensuring that the customer is always our number one priority. You have to stand up to take part Maybe it's just us, but we like to stand up for energetic debates and discussions. Everybody gets it, quickly! As designers part of our job is to communicate our progress on a job. Thanks to the project wall, everyone can instantly see the progress made from the last checkpoint. Although it looks deceptively simple, it's actually a very useful tool. Think new team members being brought up to speed really quickly; think developers getting project without wading through overweight documentation; think stakeholders quickly grasping the current status of a project. All of this without being subjected to a massive powerpoint. That's what we call a result.

A good friend of Splendids, Ali Augur, has been working with photographer Spencer Murphy on a project to document Soho's record shops. The exhibition is round the corner from our office so we thought we have a shout about it
In December last year, Photographer Spencer Murphy and Designer Ali Augur went about capturing a series of portraits of Soho's independent record shops and their cult owners. These portraits will be on show from 15th May - 24th May 2008 at 63 Broadwick Street, London W1.
The lyrics of Earl Zinger's 'Saturday Morning Rush' were the inspiration behind the project. The track was significant as it captured a moment in time and documented a scene on the brink of change. Ali originally set about illustrating the shops, but this proved too labourious, with many shops disappearing before he was able to draw them.
An introduction to AOP winning photographer Spencer Murphy last year put the project back on track. The result is a series of powerful portraits of the record shops and their owners. From Junglist legend Nicky Blackmarket at BM Soho to Harold Moore's Classical Emporium. Also included is Mister CD which sadly closed down at Christmas - an unfortunate example of the historical importance and cultural relevance of the project.

Splendid's work for Aston Martin has been chosen to be presented at the ReMix event in Italy. ReMix follows on from the Mix08 event in Las Vegas earlier in the year. The Mix event in Italy is in Milano on the 23rd of April.
The Mix events showcase the best in User Experience work and Splendid are really excited about being asked back. The Aston martin work uses Silverlight 2.0 and Silverlight DeepZoom to create a rich and compelling user experience, it's part of a full 360 project involving Dealer based systems and In-car systems.

Long term Splendid boy Mark Leeks (or Leeksy) has gone and got married to the lovely Gio in her native Brazil. Dont they look lovely?

And our very own Creative Director, Simon Parbutt was the best man. We dont have a video stream so a picture will have to do of his cracking best man's speech...

The day looked great from the pictures, but we are not sure about the one of Leeksy wrestling the Mother in Law...

Congratulations to long-term client Muse for their latest success in the Album Charts. 'H.A.A.R.P.' was released on CD and DVD on 17th March and is now in the top 10. This latest release is a live recording from one of Muse's incredible nights at Wembley Stadium in June 2007. Muse's set was nothing short of spectacular, but what do you expect from one of the best live acts out there? We were lucky enough to be involved as we developed the packaging and artwork for the release. The challenge was to bring together the feel of the night with the concepts already developed for the online work..

Team Splendid are off to Las Vegas again to go to NAB (that's the the National Association of Broadcasters by the way) and its the biggest broadcast show in the world.

So if you are in town for the event and would like to meet us then get in contact.

On the strength of our performence in Las Vegas with Aston Martin we have been asked to present at the Future of Web Design Event in London.
We are presenting the work we did with Aston Martin using Microsoft Silverlight, XNA and Silverlight DeepZoom.

We are on at 10.50 on the 17th April, but if you haven't booked it's now sold out (though you can buy a DVD after the event) We also have a team on the Microsoft stand who can talk you through the work and maybe give out some tips and tricks on using Silverlight...

Here at Splendid, we work on the methodology of user centred design, which focuses on the needs of the user to create a useful, uniform experience based on the users desired workflow, not the needs of the system. This provides us a framework for design that is inherently flexible, based on the target audience for each product, the complexity of their needs and the method of delivery.

At the recent Microsoft Mix08 conference in Las Vegas, we displayed a project that clearly reflects their user-centered approach. In what we called a '360? design solution', we sought to address the design challenges in three areas of the Aston Martin experience: Exploration (car configurator), Purchase (in-dealer configurator) and Ownership (In-car system). These use a variety of hardware and software, ranging from Microsoft's web-based Silverlight technology, through the XNA gaming platform to the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

In the case of Aston Martin, the challenge we faced was to design for several audiences, from children who are fans of Aston Martin and want to build their ideal car, through to owners and their in-car experience. There are obvious differences in the needs of a fan versus a customer. We assess each user type and ensure we understand their needs, and address them accordingly. We take time to study data on who is using a given product, and the client's needs in terms of who they believe their customer to be. Often, these are at odds, but by assessing both we arrive at a true understanding of who the users are.

Understanding the users goals is the next step. In the instance of Aston Martin users, this ranges from 'create a pretty car' to 'exactly WHICH trim do I want on my foot-well carpets?' We then assess the workflows that user needs to follow in order to achieve those goals.

Once the workflows are understood, we engage ourselves with optimizing the workflow, and assessing the merits of various potential solutions. Once the functionality is defined, we skin the project in a way that respects brand guidelines and is visually pleasing and appropriate to the user.

For an Aston Martin customer, the journey begins as soon as the user enters the Aston Martin website. The configurator is a prominent link on the homepage, and upon clicking the link to launch the configurator the user is taken seamlessly to a 3D environment in which the car is their canvas. The surrounding navigation remains familiar, allowing the user to leave the process at any point. As the user is guided through the configuration of their car, they are also free to explore further content of the site such as video, text and images, whilst always remaining flexible in terms of their place in the process.

While a linear tract can be followed, flexibility and exploration are encouraged. No-one spending that kind of money on a car wants to feel out of control of the situation. Similarly, many customers will attend the factory in UK in order to see their car being built, or even prior to build to help them determine their configuration having seen those of other customers. However, with over 70% of Aston Martin's orders coming from overseas, most customers aren't fortunate enough to be within such easy reach of the factory. For those customers, a realistic configurator is a boon.

This fear of disappointment can guide many customers to opt for more conventional, tried and tested colour schemes that provide a better resale value. This is, in itself, at odds with the ultimate configurability of the car itself. The challenge to Splendid was to provide a configurator in which customers had enough confidence to explore more daring configurations. Our solution allows that flexibility in the sheer quality of the product. The 3D model of the car shines as an example of the level of realism that anyone spending that kind of money on a car should expect, while the interface encourages exploration in a way that should not scare even the most inexperienced web user.

Then there are the textures. Aston Martin offer a variety of surface textures for their interiors, which, until now, could only be represented as real swatches of material. Microsoft Deep Zoom technology allows users to zoom in to the surface materials of the car and get a real feel for their configured interior.

The appropriate nature of the configurator was no accident. We worked to understand the nature of similar products in order to understand where they succeeded or failed. We then assessed users of the current configurator to understand our user-base. Once you truly understand your user, and can stand in their shoes, you understand their frustrations and desires. Designing to accommodate them then becomes a personal obsession, you're as involved in the process as the customer is.

Having configured their car (or even before), they can arrange a dealer visit. From here the dealer takes control with a hand-held 'remote control configurator', that displays the car on a plasma screen on the dealership wall. This device allows dealers the ultimate freedom they require in helping customers configure their cars. In interviewing dealers, we uncovered that their biggest fear is configuring a ?120,000 car only to discover that their initial vision of the colour and material combinations fails in real life, leaving a customer unhappy and with a car the dealership can't shift if the customer trades it in for a more conventional configuration.

Our split-screen response focuses both dealer and customer on the configuration in equal measure, providing the perfect forum for open discussion and collaborative working, at a time when the customer generally wants their hand held through their configuration. Once the car is configured, the dealer is able to avoid another current pitfall: the order placement.

The salespeople surveyed told us that order placement was often a contentious point, customers placing orders then changing spec in the few days between configuration and factory receipt of the order via the post. An immediate order placement system would help to imply importance of order placement, and also to promote confidence in the brand... as well as looking efficient to customers."

But this is just half of the experience. The best is saved until last, when the user takes delivery of their Aston Martin. An ingenious in-car system that sets the standard for Aston Martin's competitors to follow.

The in car system provided an enormous challenge in terms of hardware. Aston Martin control screen-based interaction via a hardware joystick and 'Menu' button. A touch-screen system would have been easier to design for, but would not have supported Aston Martin's user-centred design in giving the user the most intuitive and least intensive interface possible. We don't want them taking their eyes off the road.

Allied to this, the system uses groundbreaking GPS technologies to track the precise position of the car to within 6 inches, allowing the system to support racetrack use and to map progress on a real0time 3D map, even on a racetrack, where timing is also supported. This is real 'James Bond' technology for the masses.

Given the physical hardware of the car, the in-car system couldn't follow the same visual design as the configurators and also remain in keeping with the elegant interior.

We worked with the Aston Martin design center to create a unique brushed aluminium appearance for the in-car system, that perfectly complemented the centre console. The screen is barely noticeable in use, and replaces all other in-car systems in a space that was previously dedicated only to GPS equipment. The result cuts the number of interface elements the user has to be aware of by half, again allowing them to focus fully on the road ahead. This isn't just an interface concern, it's a safety feature.

Across the suite of products created, we had to maintain crucial brand elements, yet appropriate each interface to the intended audience. The result is an understated blend of style and function, the user experience a consistent journey through use of multiple products across a single brand. The transition between each piece of the Aston Martin lifecycle is elegant, platform transitions unnoticed by all but the most discerning user. Maybe this 'User Centered Design' stuff isn't all nonsense afterall.

It wasn't just our work with Aston Martin we were shouting about at Mix08, we also had a piece covering our work with easyJet. This is a cool project that uses Silverlight, Virtual Earth and SQL 2008 (with its nice geo spatial features) to redefine the travel experience.

Figure 1: Visual of the standard Slider Control

The slider has the following default template shown in Figure 5, basically the template is made of a grid with two nested grids within it which allow the slider to define a different layout for the two orientation modes horizontal and vertical. Concentrating on the horizontal layout, the layout consists of a 3 column grid. The first column contains an invisible repeat button within it to automatically decrease the value, while the third column contains an invisible repeat button to automatically increase the value of the slider. The middle column contains a thumb control which can be dragged along the track of the slider which spans all the columns behind the other controls. When the thumb is dragged the slider changes the width of the first column, moving the thumb along the track.

Figure 2: Built in Template for Slider Control

This template can be found in the source code of the controls or by using Lutz Roeder's Reflector to save the resource (generic.xaml) from the assembly the slider is contained in. The goal of the custom template is to 1. Change the visual of the track Layer 2. Change the thumb visual. 3. Add additional controls to move with the thumb, which show features of the car of sections of the sliders track, while communicating a picture and description for each feature associated the frame number, which is the slider value. Changing the track layer is easily done with a simple rectangle with gradient alpha colours and the aid of Expression Blend.

Figure 3: Custom Track XAML

Basically this effect is created by defining four gradient stops allowing the middle 60% of the track to be a solid colour while the ends of track gradually fade out by altering the alpha mask from 100% to 0% Equally the thumb can be given a custom template to be more visually appealing.

Figure 5: Built in Thumb Template

Figure 6: Thumb using a custom template

To add additional controls which move with the thumb an additional row is added to the control template and the additional controls are added to the middle column of the first row. Additionally another row can be added to the template to add a text block control spanning 3 columns and aligned centrally to describe any feature the slider should reveal. To make things simple we can add an image to the middle column of the first row. When the slider is dragged, the slider value is changed; depending of the value of the slider different images can be displayed. In order to achieve this, the custom control overrides the OnValueChanged method. The On ApplyTemplate method can also be overridden to allow references to the image and textblock control to be found the template. The basic XAML and code can be seen in Figure 8 and Figure 7. The final silder visual can be seen in Figure 9

Figure 7: Custom Slider Code

Figure 8: Custom Slider XAML

Figure 9: Final Slider Custom Visual

Conclusions: The sliverlight control template framework is very powerful and is incomparable to prior web technologies, it allows full customisation of a controls visuals while retaining its functionality. It is a completely different world from working with technologies such a combination of asp.net and javascript. If you want to know more about the Aston Martin project or our work with Silverlight 2.0 then all you need to do is get in touch.

This morning at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas Paul Bishop MD of Splendid delivered a keynote presentation before an audience of 1600 people, to view the entire presentation click on the link below.

As well as the audience in Vegas 250,000 people around the world on the internet viewed the keynote speech. Paul and James are attending a series of press meetings this afternoon and we also have a follow up event tomorrow evening at the Aston Martin dealership which we're very excited about. Viva las Vegas!!

After working with clients in the US, such as ebay and Microsoft for the last year we have now taken the plunge and started our move into the States. We now have a Splendid presence in the US and working with our partners ?What If! we have offices in New York. This gives us team space and meeting rooms in a cool office in the Tribeca district, all very exciting. This is pending a full time office in New York and the West Coast later in the year. So if you want to work with Splendid in the US we can be contacted here; splendidusa@howsplendid.com 62 White Street, New York, NY 10013, USA As well as our usual address in the UK in the footer of this page.

Big things happen when you take the coolest brand in the world mix it up with a bit of Splendid and the biggest technology company in the world and put them on stage in Las Vegas.
Now in its third year, MIX is an intimate opportunity for cutting-edge technical, creative and business strategists to engage Microsoft in a conversation about the future of the web. Keynote presentations from Steve Ballmer, Scott Guthrie as well as Splendid unveiling Microsoft's latest web-oriented products and technologies.
We have been working with Aston Martin and Microsoft to exploit the latest technology and create a 360° user experience that brings customers closer than ever to the Aston Martin brand. This work has been chosen as the keynote event of Mix08 in Las Vegas this March.
Splendid have built on their close relationship with Microsoft in the UK and with the product teams in Redmond to create a truly ground breaking digital experience for Aston Martin. We have been given early access to unreleased technologies such as Silverlight 2.0 and Seadragon (deep zoom) and use of existing technologies such as WPF and XNA (don't you just love acronyms?) to work with Aston martin to create this proof of concept.
More information on the technologies involved can be found here

Today Splendid are pleased to announce to be working with ITV on a high profile development project for ITV.com

Steve White head of technical development from ITV says

"I approached Splendid to help with a very high profile project as I needed a team who could deliver a quality product to very tight timescales. Having previously worked with Splendid I knew they could fulfil this criteria.

I am delighted with the progress of their work in this project to date and look forward to enriching itv.com when it is released in March 2008".

Alex Eicke Managing Partner at Splendid has been invited onto the board committee by Mr JC Chopin CEO of the born Group to advise on future design developments to the site.

Alex is extremely pleased to have been asked by the board committee members and is looking forward to making a valuable contribution to their online business.

Well I spent the day at the Welcome Trust today for the launch of Microsoft SQL 2008 (as well as Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008) and I am writing this while trying to get our keynote for Mix08 finished...
It was full day that started with a briefing from Gordon Fraser, UK MD of Microsoft, then the US team gave us some of the details of what the products had on offer. We had a bite to eat with Gordon and Paul Curtis from easyJet (see picture)
The highlight of the day for me was customer demos, forget what Microsoft say about things... lets see what the customers have done with the products, kinda selfish here as we had designed and developed one of the demos for easyJet.
We have been working with easyJet for the last 18 months on a number of cool projects including this latest POC (proof of concept in Microsoft speak). The work is based around what easyJet could look like in the future, what would a customer journey experience be? Could easyJet become a travel portal rather than a booking engine? these were some of the questions we were trying to answer, and according to the user test feedback we succeeded.
For the POC we used a good chunk of Silverlight 2.0, some AJAX controls on a Virtual Earth map and served it up with some cool geo spatial features from SQL2008. This allows users to define tourist attractions 10 minutes (or however far you want to walk) from your hotel based a predefined polygon of information. A more detailed technical post will follow as I am not a developer (as most people at Microsoft will testify) but what the technology allows us to do is create a great user experience, and that's what matters at the end of the day.
There was also a very cool demo by a Profesor and a Doctor from Cambridge University, looking at modeling data from 1820. Very cool demo.
We then ended with a live link up to Steve Balmers keynote in the States.

Digital innovations agency Splendid have appointed Toast PR as its first UK PR agency

London and Nottingham-based Consumer & B2B agency, Toast PR has been hired as Splendid's first retained UK PR agency.
Splendid specialise in innovative design, digital innovation and user experience. Founded in 2003 and based in Piccadilly Circus, they have clients ranging from well-known brands such as emap and easyjet to rock bands such as Muse and start-up ventures.
In addition, Splendid are Microsoft's main partner for the delivery of ongoing development project for Aston Martin and will be appearing at the Mix conference next month in Vegas as part of Microsoft's keynote.
Toast have been brought in to help boost Splendid's profile in their target customer sector, as well as target technology and design press, focussing on Splendid's innovation and expertise.
Paul Bishop, Managing Director of Splendid said, "Toast showed enthusiasm and understanding of our PR requirements. They have excellent experience in our sector and came highly recommended from one of our existing clients."

For further information and images, please contact Julia Mitchell at Toast PR. or telephone 00 447867 638373

Bonekickers is a thrilling adventure series packed with historical mystery and contemporary relevance and the BBC, along with Mammoth Productions, has commissioned Splendid to create the titles, branding and all digital content related to the series. This includes the main Bonekickers website but also an expanded universe of content covering MySpace to Facebook. More details when the show goes on air this spring but get set for an exciting online adventure. Set against the backdrop of Bath, a city steeped in 3,000 years of history, Gillian and her team - Dr Ben Akomfrah (forensic, objective), Professor Gregory Parton (encyclopaedic but terminally louche) and eager young post-grad intern Viv Davis - are brought in under a variety of imperatives to extract bodies, books, weapons and all manner of artefacts which lead them into an investigation of the past that will unlock dangers and mysteries in the present. From the excavation of murdered 18th century slaves to the possible discovery of the True Cross, each episode is a window on a period of history but more importantly a reflection on how we live now. Running through it all is a greater puzzle that Gillian, a fiery Celt, keeps to herself for fear of ridicule - the hunt for the greatest treasure in the history of Man, a hunt that drove her brilliant mother insane, a hunt that pits her wits against her academic nemesis, the arrogant, urbane TV historian Daniel Mastif, and that will culminate at the end of series one in a desperate race for glory which may destroy her in the process.

Things move fast in the world of entertainment news so we thought it was about time to give the Heatworld site a post launch makeover, a bit of cosmetic surgery if you like. The revised design was based on user testing and work we had done with the editorial team, the work focused on simplifying the navigation and getting more content above the fold. While we were rummaging around in the back we also added a few choice tweaks and upgrades to the site like Heat Radio.

As a leading designer of great user experiences, Splendid were the people to ask to talk about what it all meant. Barclays Commercial asked us to speak at their annual event for the leisure industry and tell their customers all about the value of a good user experience, so that's what we did.

We love to tell the world about what we do and the value it can add to your business so why not get us to speak at one of your events?

After working with Splendid and Flow Interactive over the last year the new GNER site has gone live, after following our joint User Centered Design Process. The brief to the team was to create the ultimate in travel booking that would work for a full cross section of users, young and old. To support the new booking engine the main site has also been redesigned allowing users to get all the details they need to know about their journey and destination. Major rail operator GNER has launched its own online ticketing service, a move that will see it step away from TheTrainline. The East Coast franchise-holder has revealed the service - the first time the company has sold its own tickets - as part of a complete overhaul of its website. www.gner.com www.flow-interactive.com For more information on what we are doing with GNER and Flow Interactive please contact paul@howsplendid.com

Well we did it again and won the award (thats 3 awards on the trot now for our work with Muse) nothing more to say other than the team seemed to have had fun accepting the award judging by their mood the next day...

For more information on what we are doing with Muse please contact dan@howsplendid.com