We're excited to announce the arrival of Microsoft Surface 2 in the office. The new Samsung SUR40 introduces some dramatic changes to both the design and the user experience.

In terms of design, the new unit boasts an impressive 40in screen with Microsoft's PixelSense, a major improvement on the original Surface screen. The development has also allowed free standing legs and a raised standing height, which is far more ergonomically comfortable to use. Under the hood, the new unit runs Windows 7 and supports a growing number of apps, available from Microsoft.

We've delivered some very successful projects for the original Surface unit, for clients including First Direct, Douglas & Gordon, McLaren & Tag Heuer. We're looking forward to seeing what the new unit can do and sharing the benefits with our clients.

Splendid went down to Barcelona to check out the Mobile World Conference and catch up with some of our clients.

We saw lots of new stuff including the new Nokia emerging markets affordable smart phones, the mega-mega pixlelled Luminars, a bunch of tablets and apps galore.

Splendid were out supporting our clients ebay and Redlaser and keeping a close eye on some of the emergent embedded technologies we think will transform device usage.

Specifically embedded NFC technologies are being shipped with a number of high end handsets. NFC was the talk of the town last year but the technology base hasn't expanded as quickly as predicted. Looking at the landscape now there seems to be a momentum building with payment providers, application builders and hardware manufacturers. Your mobile wallet is not far away.

Join the ever growing number of dedicated musers at muse.mu.

With the current surge in growth of tablet devices, and more and more daily reliance on smartphones, how should we really serve content to our customers? For most users, we want our content wherever WE are. Whether that's at work on the desktop, home on the tablet or on the move on the phone. Sounds great right? But what does that mean for those of us designing those 'go-anywhere' solutions?

Approach options

There are a few ways you can approach the design of your products.

1. Linear experience (independent experiences with connected content and branding)
2. Multi-experience (Same/scalable experience on multiple devices)
3. Mobile DNA (carry your stuff with you on your own mobile device)

Which approach should you use? That all depends on your strategy. Over the past few years, we've applied linear and multi-experience approaches to design for various clients (including Aston Martin, Tesco, National Express), however an alternate approach is emerging. We're tentatively referring to it as 'Mobile DNA', and the premise is that the user uses their own content on multiple display devices. Several companies are already taking steps towards providing this solution to their customers.

Nokia's approach

Advances in phone technology are beginning to influence the customer journey, providing a completely personalised experience within the context of third party products. Imagine you get into your car, plug in your smart phone, and your in-car-system automatically contains your choice of sat-nav provider, all your music, fully Bluetooth phone capability for hands-free use... and even better, you take it with you when you park up. Nokia have been working on a system that does just this. A great approach, but it's a proprietary system and will only work with certain Nokia handsets.

Flight of fantasy

You get to the airport, check in using your smart phone, peruse destination information within the airport, pass through the gate using the boarding pass on your phone. Once on-board, you plug your phone into the charging cable, and your content is available through the in-flight entertainment system, supplementing the airline's content. You can play your own music and movies through the seat-mounted system and navigate content using your own interface.

How can this be extended?

The reality is that several companies are trying to achieve exactly this. Jungo, whose middleware offering allows users to plug in their Android, iPhone, iPad (or any other device), and then project the content on the head display of your car. Jungo's offering contains its own interface, but taking that a step further and allowing 3rd Party companies to create their own 'Mobile DNA' apps would provide infinite choice to users on exactly how they want their slim mobile experience to be. Car manufacturers then need only build in a touch screen with a phone connection, saving on costly infotainment systems and giving users the choice and control to use whatever they like.

So what does the future hold?

We'd like to see manufacturers of car and in-flight systems providing their own apps, allowing exclusive content and bespoke interfaces. The third party market could then open up, enabling competition which ultimately results in more diverse interface experiences for users. This then gives rise to users having the ability to customise their interfaces and provide themselves a bespoke augmented mobile experience across multiple devices.

It becomes uniquely your mobile DNA.

We've spent the last few days at Microsoft's offices in Reading going through app development within Windows 8 Metro (recently announced at BUILD). This is all part of the programme now we are confirmed as Windows 8 Build Partners.

In a nutshell, the days were made up of presentations and development labs, giving us the opportunity to start building simple apps that show off different features. We were also introduced to the language of Metro.

App developers are going to live in a world of promises, chromeless windows, content first and charms - pre-packaged extensions into the OS you can use for sharing, search etc. Charms in particularly allow developers to add functionality, with very little code and packaged with the standard Metro UI. Meaning happy users as well, as they'll now have a consistent experience across applications.

Splendid will be taking part in ICE2012 in January, with Head of User Experience Benedict Ireland taking to the stage.

Benedict will be speaking about new approaches to user experience across the gaming sector, addressing commercial, social and technological influences. He'll be joining a host of international business leaders to discuss key insights into the future of the industry.

ICE2012 will be taking place at Earls Court, 24-26 January. Follow the link below to see the latest lineup and register now.

Splendid worked with Microsoft and McLaren to deliver a true interactive experience using Microsoft Surface, allowing users to engage in rich content from McLaren's extensive archive.

Splendid were asked by McLaren and Microsoft to explore how Surface could be used to engage users in a number of areas; the McLaren Technology Centre and at races. McLaren has a rich heritage in top level motor sport and the idea was to bring this to a wider audience.

Splendid worked through a number of sketch concepts with McLaren and centred on a time-line based application that showed the development of key cars in their history. These took the form of two projects.

Project one involved taking creating a company timeline with key racing cars supported by information on championships one, each event on the timeline brought up video, images and text to explore in a mult-touch environment.

Proof two used the same interaction framework of video and photo presentation, taking season event images and mapping them against each race. This version also provided a larger space for Sponsor related content to be shown, with each key sponsor having their own content tab. The device was then deployed into the VIP area of the brand Centre.

This version of the Surface application was deployed in the Brand Centre at the Monza Grand prix in Italy. Splendid provided a resource to ensure the unit was correctly calibrated and used the Splendid created mobile light meter to determine suitable placement at the race event.

Lloyd's RiskMap is a groundbreaking online news tool, which displays emerging risk hotspots around the world.

Lloyd's is the world's leading insurance market providing specialist insurance services to businesses in over 200 countries and territories, RiskMap was a campaign to raise awareness of Lloyd's as the leading expert on risk globally. Lloyd's commissioned Splendid as suppliers to create a standalone web application for RiskMap, a new channel for Lloyd's that will be promoted from the Lloyd's website portal.

Lloyd's RiskMap initiative came out of the 360 Risk Insight project. Research showed that Lloyd's audiences liked 360 web content, but wanted it more condensed, accessible and timely. The intention is to position Lloyd's as a comprehensive hub for news and information about current and emerging risk. This reinforces Lloyd's thought leadership credentials for risk. The audiences are: Risk managers, Market and the business community.

An initial POC (Proof of Concept), had proved successful, and the RiskMap project was undertaken. Working closely with Lloyd's meant fast iterations of ideas and high visibility of our progress and direction. Lloyd's end user input was considered, consumed and responded tothroughout the process.

A complete understanding of the product from concept through to delivery of the website.

We achieved this by:

• Understanding the service that the product was to provide and the key audience base.
• Working to a process of Researching, exploring, wire framing and visual design with key templates and modules through to delivery of a built website.
• A Splendid team based on site at Lloyd's, Lime Street.
• Refining the wire frames and concept with Lloyd's project team.
• Verifying design direction through a series of user scenarios and consistent user testing.

The RiskMap is a global map showing risk related news events in real time. News is displayed by location and by risk category. Real-time news is sourced from Dow Jones Factiva (News aggregator), Dow Jones Newswires, and RiskMap is built to accommodate other news sources as needs expand. Supported by rich and deep contextual information from Lloyd's and other trusted sources. RiskMap is designed to be easy to use, and to allow the user to view information how they want to view it. Three views are provided: Geographical (Map) view, Category view and Newsfeed view. Uniquely, the RiskMap allows Lloyd's to associate their respected and valuable content and messaging along side real-time risk news information.

With Lloyd's RiskMap, you get valuable content from Lloyd's and its partners laid out on the map in real time. The map view gives you an overview of what risk-related events are happening in the world and where they are occurring, allowing you to make focused and informed risk based decisions as events unfold.

Information is displayed through five major risk categories: Political, crime and security; Natural hazard; Environment and health; economic, regulatory and market; Business and strategic. A large variety of international sources supply impartial news and analysis on current and emerging global risk. Accessible filter system allows users to personalise their RiskMap to focus on the risk or location that matters most to them.

A classic data view of news headlines offering deeper, fuller coverage of risk-related events. Convenient search box allows users to effortlessly locate a particular event, location, news story or contact. Content includes news coverage from Dow Jones Factiva, 360 Risk Insight and the Lloyd's News Centre, as well as risk reports and country - specific information.

Launched in 2010, there is already plans set in the future to develop, RiskMap, for example by integrating the natural hazard information, add new risk categories and making the RiskMap available in a variety of different formats e.g. Via mobile, email, large screens or touchscreens.

RiskMap is a strong communications tool for reaching a wide business audience about Lloyd's expertise in the area of business risk, and it contributes significantly to the development of Lloyds.com as an effective commercial business tool.

Splendid were asked to create a new user-friendly interface for staff handheld devices, in response to staff comments during a nationwide "listen & fix" campaign.

Over recent months Tesco staff across the country have been asked to lift the lid on the day-to-day obstacles that affect their work. As part of a nationwide "listen & fix" campaign, staff members from all departments were able to report on the processes and technology they found troublesome to work with.

A key issue highlighted in response to the campaign was a difficulty operating and interacting with staff handheld PDA devices. These devices are used by general assistants across all departments on the shop floor, providing a range of functionality such as stock checking, price reduction and product returns. Research showed that the existing system was hard to use and training time for new users was too high.

In response Splendid were asked to create a new user-friendly interface, which would speed up user recognition and increase staff efficiency. The new interface had to meet the technical requirements of new Motorola devices running Windows Mobile 6.5, and scale to two different size specifications.

To support this requirement for a simple and easy to use device we designed a complete family of 20 icons to visually represent each of the complex functions available. The resulting icon set provides quick recognition and delivers a consistent design style, which may be built upon as new functions are added. To support this roll out, Tesco have invested in thousands of new Motorola PDA devices, which are currently being distributed to staff across the UK.

Splendid were asked to create a new user-friendly interface for staff handheld devices, in response to staff comments during a nationwide "listen & fix" campaign.

If you've been following our @howsplendid Twitter feed in the last week you'll know that Splendid have joined BIMA, the British Interactive Media Association. We are also pleased to say that Paul Bishop, Splendid MD, has been voted onto the BIMA executive board. The executive board is made up of some of the UKs leading digital agencies and luminaries.

The BIMA Executive has undergone a dramatic transformation, and this gives Splendid a chance to have their say and get involved with shaping the future of digital in the UK. It also means we get to vote on the awards... though not sure we can vote on our own entries!

In San Francisco on Thursday 22^nd of September, the F8 Facebook conference will get underway, with the aim to bring together the developers, entrepreneurs and innovators who are building a more social web.

It will be closely watched by more than just the hundreds of millions of people that engage with the social network supremo's though, my bet is that Google will be wondering just what will the response be to the Google+ service (launched in June this year) that appears to also be making waves in the space.

This is not to say that Facebook would be worried about anyone mowing their lawn just yet, but recently they appear to be "borrowing" features from not only Google+ such as smart friends, but also subscriber mechanisms similar to twitter and other additional features that have popped up on various media sites that are quickly adding social sharing hubs.

What might we see?

Instagram is also having an effect [pun] with photo filtering becoming a craze of sorts and the news is that Facebook may just launch its own stand-alone application that provides similar functionality.

Facebook on iPad is still a mystery but it may just make that appearance this week. It's hard to believe that it's still not done anything until now, leaving users high and dry and relying on 3^rd party solutions to help keep the addiction alive while on the move with the tablet. Though the last thought around this is in connection with Project "Spartan" which involved Facebook reportedly attempting to recreate the entire solution in HTML5 - that would fit with not building a specific device application, but one that would run free in the wild for the foreseeable future.

It is what it is.

In the end, we will see what comes on Thursday and then see how we and our clients can use it.

The Microsoft BUILD Conference kicked off last week (13^th of September) in Anaheim California with some very specific goals to be delivered from Microsoft.

The last few months have seen a lot of speculation, a lot of anger and a lot of hope all wrapped into one cosmos of conflicting geek point of view. Not only were the development communities involved in such speculation, but also commercial folks who felt kind of shaky with what has been an unprecedented era of secrecy from the not so secret big blue ship.

What did and didn't make the cut for the next release of Windows - Windows 8? What would the OS do for consumers and enterprise customers - separately and jointly? How would it run on a slate or tablet type device? Can the tile metaphor work on scale?

So many questions had to be answered, and for the most part I think they were, or at the very least a direction was given that allowed people to understand how some questions should be answered.

And the curtains were raised.

Steven Sinofsky showed his metal though and kept the engagement alive, enough for me to believe that he will eventually take the place of Steve Balmer as Microsoft CEO.

Jensen Harris – Mr Windows 8.

Sure some of Jensen's demos failed, but he recovered with seasoned grace and professionalism, comedic a lot of the time - there was no doubt that he "owns" Windows 8.

The Samsung Windows 8 tablet.

One of the conference buzz-words (and there were many) was "re-imagination". I have to say that the level of demonstrations shown (the ones that worked) were a fantastic level of entry to do just that - allow people to re-imagine what they could do with Windows, working with the Metro platform.

In terms of the Tablet, Samsung as you would expect, has delivered a really sweet bit of kit. I've not had it long enough to know if I would pay for it myself, but the early stages look pretty amazing to be honest.

I come from the old school of device usage, where a desktop is what feels the most natural to me and I have struggled for a very long time to get used to working with a Laptop, a mobile device and all the connections in between that. It's not that I don't use these all on a day to day basis, but I am clarifying that I am not at my most comfortable when trying to respond to long emails or indeed try and compose a blog post like this.

I am writing this post on the new Tablet, and what better way to understand if something is going to work for me, then by putting myself in a position where I have no choice in what I am going to use. I am traveling at the moment between LA and San Francisco, and so I have decided to make the Tablet my only device for the next few weeks to really get a feel for Windows 8 and to know if it is going to work for me.

Is Windows 8 working for me?

I have the Bluetooth keyboard connected and I am typing away like I am on fire and when I am taking that break, I just grab the tablet and go and sit and use the device in a very natural setting. Maybe this is the time that I will now change how I am working, because the device, the polymorphic usages that have been designed into it and the OS, are really making me feel like technology is starting to work the way that I want it to.

I guess the other penny I am waiting to drop is for the OS to start crashing badly, all the time. It just hasn't happened yet which is probably leading me into a false sense of security. Experience tells me that at just the most inopportune time, this will surely kill off all my work and not let me do anything about it. I can't complain can I - there is that giant caveat in place - developer preview.

So all good things to report so far - most impressive is the start up times and even at this stage, the smooth as butter transitions and ease of use to navigate around the operating system and supplied applications.

WinRT and all the secret sauce parts.

WinRT as a concept is a very sound one and by its implementation, it ensures that all language adaptions created for use with Windows in future will yield the same performance runtime on the OS. To clarify what that means, you need to understand that there is no .Net layer to WinRT, so theoretically, regardless of how you create the applications (in terms of language) the results will be the same in performance and experience. I've heard that before as well, so let's just wait and see.

The direction change.

Microsoft have done very well to create a unique and impressive solution that copies from no other, something they were constantly accused of doing in the past. Metro will be a success which is different than saying that Windows 8 will be a success to be sure, but with over 500,000 downloads in the first 24 hours, some people in Redmond must be rubbing their hands together and patting themselves on the back at the moment.

For me it means a new iteration of the Expression Blend book to show how to use the new tooling features and a few other projects can also now be exposed and tested.

All in all, I am happy with what has come out, and I think given a good look, most others will be also.

Splendid were asked to create a new user-friendly interface for staff handheld devices, in response to staff comments during a nationwide "listen & fix" campaign.

Never before has so much choice existed to tempt customers and users to buy into your products and or services. Your solutions need not only to reach and engage the masses, but also provide greater levels of return on investment in these increasingly challenging economic times.

Get ready for a new platform that is set to change the face of personal computing for a generation and along with it, provide you with the opportunity to show that you are in touch with what your customers want from technology today.

Truly connected experiences are here.

Microsoft announced earlier in 2011 that they would be creating a new tooling environment and user experience that would spread an updated operating system (codenamed "Windows8") across multiple devices and platforms to give you new and exciting opportunities to engage with your users and customers.

The challenge has always been to enable design and development to create these complex solutions with maximum reuse of code and assets as well as reducing the ever growing cost of solution maintenance.

"Windows 8" will enable you to deploy cloud connected solutions across desktops, tablets, smartphones and media devices, with global roaming profiles and unprecedented levels of compatibility with the most favoured hardware in today's marketplace, such as iPads and Android devices.

Choosing a design and development partner is crucial to success

Splendid has for many years been engaged at a very deep internal level with Microsoft on a global basis. We were amongst the first to embrace HTML5 and JavaScript as a technology that would give momentum for the future and so it is no surprise that we have gathered the best of breed skilled resources to offer you a service that is second to none when choosing to enter the next generation of computing.

We have a recognised history of working with emerging technologies such as Surface and other Touch-Centric solutions, the same as what "Windows 8" will bring.

Back all this understanding up with a proven development team who have delivered solutions in the same languages across the Metro Platform and you have the confidence to know that Splendid will exceed your expectations of what is possible.

Everyone else will now need to try and catch up...

"Windows 8" is not just about delivering a solution for the tablet, or for the phone. It's about understanding how solutions and experiences are different on different devices and how your users will expect to engage in all of them, all of the time.

The new Microsoft Metro Platform is the key to delivering all of this technical goodness, and so having specialist in typography, user experience, visual ergonomics and user experience testing means that Splendid will bring you a whole new level of expectation that your competition will struggle to meet.

Other companies will begin to understand these greater challenges as they start to engage with new business. Fortunately for us, we had to solve all the challenges a few years back in preparation for what is coming tomorrow.

Splendid were asked to create a new user-friendly interface for staff handheld devices, in response to staff comments during a nationwide "listen & fix" campaign.

On September 13^th in Anaheim California, Microsoft is set to unveil the tooling ecosystem for designers and developers wanting to work with the new "Windows8" touch-centric user experience and I believe there could be a possible naming of Metro as a new development platform - not just a UI/UX design paradigm.

The event certainly has some hype surrounding it and oddly enough, Microsoft appear to have been able to keep some pretty good secrets this year surrounding what will and won't be shown.

So what will be shown?

Expression Web - all growed [sic] up!

Yes the geek comes out in me here just a little. I used Dreamweaver CS5.5 over the weekend on a HTML5 project I am working on, and to be honest, it was sort of like the first time you attend church naked - slightly uncomfortable and you feel a little dirty? it touches you in all the wrong places.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can get it right and deliver a tool that finally gets some broad market penetration, though it will need some pretty tight Visual Studio integration I think in order to achieve that.

Tablet Metro UI

I am also not sure if a file system will be exposed on the Tablet. It has made sense in a large part on the phone (not to show it), and the thinking I have been doing points to an effective use of a storage solution without file management really needed. The Metro platform appears to enable the user to select images and files with a completely new navigation experience so this could be interesting and certainly the basis of what would allow broad application sharing - think pushing an image from anywhere straight into a social network feed etc.

Almost everyone who has touched some development on a tablet to date (excluding iPad) will agree that the performance has been utterly shyte. At the end of the day, I hold my breath for this part of the story - after all, it doesn't matter how pretty the UI, how nice a swipe feels, if the solution runs like Molly the three legged pony, on the device, it simply will be rejected outright (even though Molly wasn't - see below).

Considering the Tablet will most likely become the corner stone of the device focus for Microsoft in the consumer space (x-box withstanding) they really need the manufactures to pull out all the good bits for this launch.

What if it tanks?

The Agenda is written here:

Clearly not put together by a Polymath? but keeps in line with the "no details" policy.

I hope to see some of you folks there!

Splendid were asked to create a new user-friendly interface for staff handheld devices, in response to staff comments during a nationwide "listen & fix" campaign.

Key tasks and responsibilities

• To Develop, manage and document to the agreed format, all production schedules, milestones, projections, estimates and budgets for customer proposals and assigned projects.
• Deliver project outputs in accordance with project plans, costs & to customer expectations.
• Manage project scope, identifying, defining and communicating risks and change requests, before taking appropriate action to minimise impact on the project success.
• Focus on prevention of slippage and overrun
• Primary point of contact to manage customer expectations and communication to ensure that the client is informed on the project status and obtain customer approval and sign off on all major deliverables.
• Manage the project team including assigning individual project tasks, holding regular meetings to monitor progress & ensuring all timesheets are completed on time/budget
• Co-ordinate input from all project members including third party suppliers, and customer staff to ensure a successful delivery
• Ensure all work is produced in accordance with appropriate Splendid processes and that opportunities for improvement are identified and agreed.
• Ensure the relevant repositories are updated and maintained
• Regular and ad hoc meetings with senior management and Account managers
• Lead project reviews and produce project reports with in conjunction with Account leads and in house financial team
• Upon discovery, advise the Account manager of potential new business opportunities within the client.

Required skills and experience

• Business Degree (or similar) with Project Management qualifications
• Project management experience in software development, digital applications, multi media or systems integration
• Working knowledge of Microsoft office and Microsoft project.
• Experience of using a range of tools including Project Server 2007 and Sharepoint 2007
• Understanding of and/or qualification in a project management tool, preferably, Prince 2
• Some understanding of either technical and/or creative development process
• Personal Qualities (Self-starter, Team Working, Communication, Organising, Motivating, Leadership, Negotiation, Decision-making, Flexibility and attention to detail)
• Customer Management Experience

Splendid were asked to create a new user-friendly interface for staff handheld devices, in response to staff comments during a nationwide "listen & fix" campaign.

Planning for the future

Early on, this was based around the 3 screens and the cloud concept, which in all truth was premature in its marketing (considering that MSFT had made it as difficult as possible to realise that scenario, given the technology placement at the time. Also, Google were not very clear on their direction as always either) but it was enough for us to view cloud based solutions as a connector to all the provisions that we could see developing. So, not necessarily using Cloud as a deployment platform for solutions, but more about the level of profile sharing that could be delivered into devices and the solutions rolled out to each of them.

Regardless, we worked to create concepts that showed the possibility of multi-device experiences that could touch upon a user's journey in various scenarios primarily using technology such as WPF, Silverlight, Surface, Mobile Phones, Tablets and Web solutions.

It's tough to make some of those calls so far out, but that is what it's all about in today's marketplace and already we are looking a few years ahead to work through what we think will have the biggest impacts and benefits to our customers in those times, so the cycle of preparation doesn't stop.

It's all about timing.

I have to really give Microsoft some credit here, because it is in this area that Microsoft really sees the big picture compared to any of the other tech giants. Microsoft funds proof-of-concepts (POCs) in these early stages and although a lot of this is about generating evidence of a feature use in a new product or service, it's also about Microsoft preparing large scale enterprises for what is coming.

These larger clients, can't (and certainly don't) turn on a dime and without this POC proposition from Microsoft, and without these endeavours many of the larger clients would be coming to a halt in terms of their infrastructure improvement and efficiency gains that they expect to keep making year on year.

Splendid sitting in the sweet spot!

Splendid is perfectly placed to deliver these concepts now as internally we have worked hard to build a development team capable of working across the technology stacks with dedicated HTML5, Application, Phone and Web teams all working within a structured process to bring design and exceptional experiences across the greater technology platforms.

Marketing has been slow to catch up!

If only they had a more realistic view as to the cost of designing and developing digital solutions (as opposed to just digital content) the software creation industry as a whole would be picking up at an even faster pace.

What causes such unrealistic views of software cost?

Consequentially when marketing departments then look to increase their spend and their exposure across all their web properties, mobile solutions and potentially even into core production they are soon surprised by the cost of having to work with established companies that have overheads, support costs and governance costs that were not originally part of the small solution creation cycle.

The only answer to this issue is education and the larger players in the market have their fair share of responsibility in delivering that message. Micro-site doesn't translate to micro-budget.

The price is only going to go up.

Good experiences cost money to build. Award winning experiences cost even more.

The excitement level goes up as well!

A lot of the work we do at Splendid is around that concept of making things fun and enjoyable - even the most serious of challenges can in some way give inspiration of coolness, which in itself is fun. Sometimes our clients are very conservative (and don't hide that fact), but even they recognise that "enjoyment" plays a large role in the success of their solution. Enjoyment doesn't have to be purely interactive, it is sometimes in the form of appreciation - attention to detail, beauty and aesthetics or even just caring about the little things.

With what we know is coming, the cool geeky things that generate feelings of excitement and fun are only going to be amplified, along with the ability to add designed, beautiful experiences.

I can't wait until we can show and talk about those some more!

Splendid were asked to create a new user-friendly interface for staff handheld devices, in response to staff comments during a nationwide "listen & fix" campaign.

The ideal person will have the necessary skills needed to work on some of the worlds leading brands and collaborate with designers programmers and be comfortable dealing with clients at the highest level.

Required skills and experience

• Educated to degree level
• At least 3-5 years of relevant digital experience
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail
• Experience of UX prototyping tools, experience in Axzure,Visio, Omnigraffle, photoshop Illustrator
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• A confident professional
• As well as competitive rates of pay, we also offer a healthcare package, pension scheme, life insurance and various other in the workplace benefits.

Key tasks and responsibilities

You'll l be responsible for the design of web & Mobile based applications across a number of different sectors. Involved in high level design research, developing user personas and scenarios; producing site maps and user flows; leading design workshops; including designing & producing quality user interfaces.

We're looking for an experienced UX Designer to join the team in our Golden square office in London.

The perfect location, Douglas and Gordon's pocket sized branch.

Douglas and Gordon have been operating as an estate agent in London since 1958 and over the years have earned a reputation as one of the most innovative and respected independent estate agents in the city.

D&G commissioned Splendid to design and deliver a new online experience including their primary website and an attendant mobile variant. The mobile site requirement was to provide a 24/7 branch for their time poor clients and to reflect D&G's online brand experience across the mobile platform.

The mobile site built on current scalable technology keeps the continuity of the website look and feel but allows for mobile functionality and touch sized graphics and has been distilled from the main site to meet primary mobile user requirements.

In particular the site needed to be fast, dynamic and flexible enough to be easily changed or updated. Analytics have been incorporated to be able to produce accurate and reliable data that can be used for trend and usability analysis to assist in evolving the mobile site going forward.

As well as delivering a robust highly usable mobile site the project has also delivered Douglas and Gordon a new digital brand on the mobile platform.

We worked very closely with Douglas and Gordon, conducting interviews with both employees and clientele in an attempt to better understand their objectives and assess which features would be suitable for the mobile user. High-level competitor analysis, brand discovery and personas workshops all contributed to this understanding.

We iterated the interaction design collaborating with D&G to verify and hone the feature set to arrive at a mobile design which compelling, useful and supportive of Douglas and Gordon and its products.

Gaining a complete understanding of the company, its goals and direction. This provided a firm basis from which to build a mobile solution meeting their requirements.

We achieved this by:

• Understanding the service that the product was to provide
• Working to a process of research, exploration, wire framing and visual design with key templates and modules through to delivery of a complete mobile site
• A Splendid team working closely with Douglas & Gordon over a period of two months
• Verifying design direction through a series of user scenarios and consistent user testing
• Developing for smart phone systems, iPhone and Android
• Constant user testing on live handsets and emulators

The Douglas and Gordon mobile site provides a simple and effective route to market for this increasingly important platform.

We have distilled the full web experience into a seamless mobile offering by prioritising and refining the functionality to match user expectations.

The mobile site offers, property search, search results, property details, office locator and account login as well as a series of links for users to jump off to the full site should they so desire.

The site search has been modified for mobile so that the search box works harder. Since comprehensive link navigation is difficult to implement on a mobile site the search box will be the first port of call for many users. Allowing users to search for a keyword within a selected category makes things easier as it reduces the chance that the search will produce irrelevant results and begins to narrow the choice for customers.

In the UK web traffic from mobiles are already estimated to be growing eight times faster than traffic from PCs. This site will be able to evolve easily over time and allows Douglas and Gordon to establish themselves with mobile customers in a fast growing sales channel.

The mobile site has had relatively low development cost because of the multi-channel approach we have taken to this project. With this platform in consideration from the outset we were able to recycle the simple control sets and clean branding from the main site into the narrow width version. This project is a clear example of how businesses can create a mobile platform quickly and cost effectively using flexible scalable technology.

Visit www.douglasandgordon.com to find out more.