Category - Web Development | Blog

Why I Loved 2011 - Part 1: Colin, web developer

Author: Colin Oakley, Tue 3 January 2012, 13:02:49

I think 2011 was a pretty good year and I figured I'd sum up a couple of highlights of the year. As a web developer it is great to meet so many different people in the same industry and talk about what… Read More

Website leasing - a new affordable way to get the website you need

Author: Phil Hudson, Mon 5 December 2011, 10:15:43

The creative brains trust at allmedia Towers were recently in a meeting. We were discussing our product range for our clients with particular reference to a common complaint we hear from people. Essentially-… Read More

Create CSS drop shadows the easy way

Author: Malcolm Hire, Wed 26 October 2011, 09:23:21

In most of our Web Development projects, we also design the majority of the builds and have discoved something that our design team likes to add to most of their designs; Box Drop Shadows. These give… Read More

Regressive enhancement in web development

Author: Colin Oakley, Wed 19 October 2011, 17:52:54

We talk a lot about progressive enhancement with web development, however in some cases we need to look at regressive enhancement. Elements of CSS3 and HTML5 provide the basics for a development team… Read More

allmedia joins Facebook

Author: Malcolm Hire, Tue 18 October 2011, 17:15:35

Today we finally joined Facebook and I think you’ll agree this was long overdue. We’ve recently started developing Facebook Like pages for several of our clients and were surprised by the… Read More

Speeding up web development

Author: Colin Oakley, Mon 17 October 2011, 15:45:22

To speed up web development we will often use a base set of tools to give a more solid base to build a website on. These can range from a web application framework, a publishing platform or even a CSS… Read More

Magento web development

Author: Colin Oakley, Thu 13 October 2011, 17:33:59

In web development we will change what tools we use for developing a clients website to fit there need. When we build a ecommerce platform we will often build a bespoke CMS for that client's workflow.… Read More

Understanding Agile Web Development

Author: Colin Oakley, Thu 6 October 2011, 17:18:37

I was always taught about lengthy system developments, usually using a water fall or a steps diagram (I am sure we've all been there). While this is fine for large scale developments it takes along time… Read More

What is Content Strategy

Author: Colin Oakley, Thu 29 September 2011, 11:51:35

I used to think of websites in terms of design and development. I now think of websites as design, development and content. Often the biggest challenge in the development cycle is creating the content.… Read More

Markup - brings instant mark up to any website

Author: Colin Oakley, Mon 5 September 2011, 17:23:54

Markup is a great bowser based mark up tool - it allows you to draw over a live web page with a veriety of tools. You can then publish the marked up web page instantly and share it with other people.… Read More

Twitter Bootstrap - Less based CSS framework

Author: Colin Oakley, Mon 5 September 2011, 11:50:03

Twitter Bootstrap is a CSS framework to help speed up web development. It is built with Less and consists of a grid system, typography and styles for forms, tables and navigation as well as other… Read More

Fuel - PHP web development framework

Author: Colin Oakley, Mon 5 September 2011, 10:57:36

Fuel is a community-driven PHP development framework. The main people involved have come from CodeIgniter, PyroCMS and ExcitedCMS. Much like CodeIgniter, Fuel users an MCV approach which adds to a speedy… Read More

The Evolution of the Web

Author: Malcolm Hire, Fri 2 September 2011, 11:52:34

Google Chrome turned 3 yesterday and to celebrate Google released an infographic to show the evolution of the web. The Google infographic shows how the web has developed and how each browser has advanced… Read More

Perkins - Design & Develop the Web, Faster

Author: Colin Oakley, Fri 12 August 2011, 15:23:36

I've already talked about Less.js and it's benefits but now LESS has been integrated into a framework. Perkins is an HTML5 framework which has a grid system, css typography and @font-face driven… Read More

I love jQuery plugins - part 1

Author: Colin Oakley, Thu 4 August 2011, 13:26:51

jQuery is a cross-browser Javascript library designed to make a websites more interactive or functional. Some parts are jQuery are very much about enhancing visual aspects others deal with validation.… Read More

Why is my bounce rate so high?

Author: Colin Oakley, Mon 1 August 2011, 10:14:18

We have recently inherited a site that gets about 1,500 visitors per month - sadly it has an 80% bounce rate. On one day last week it actually had a 100% bounce rate. What does this mean? Well bounce… Read More

Responsive Design Frameworks

Author: Colin Oakley, Mon 25 July 2011, 12:57:57

Its important to give web sites context in terms of the device you are viewing them on. What works on a desktop will not always work on a mobile. One way around this is to make your site adapt to the… Read More

AddThis - Real time Analytic and social sharing

Author: Colin Oakley, Fri 15 July 2011, 16:22:02

AddThis is one of the world's largest content sharing and social insight platform :- it offers key real time information on sharing of content via its analytics platform. It has a powerfull API that allows… Read More

Verifyapp offers user feedback, concept testing and more

Author: Colin Oakley, Mon 11 July 2011, 10:45:06

Verifyapp.com is a web based application used to quickly create tests and collect data about your website or application. It allows you to test user concenpts with immediate feedback which allows you… Read More

Blueprint CSS Framework fast, flexible and easy to use.

Author: Malcolm Hire, Thu 7 July 2011, 14:20:04

Here at allmedia we have started using the Blueprint CSS Framework in all of our recently developed websites. This has cut down development time as the design and development of each site is based around… Read More

Less js brings variables to CSS and much more

Author: Colin Oakley, Thu 7 July 2011, 14:17:56

LESS.js is a tool that brings new features to CSS such as variables, mixins, operations and nested rules. This means you can write code quicker and with less complications it also means you can use site… Read More

Google+ turns a week old

Author: Colin Oakley, Wed 6 July 2011, 09:49:36

Google+ is now a week old. While Wave and Buzz have long gone but Google+ is the latest venture into social networking for Google. The features of the site are familiar however the UI is clean (don't… Read More

Add a Google+1 Badge to Your Website

Author: Malcolm Hire, Tue 5 July 2011, 12:51:34

Nice little tutorial on how to add the new Goggle+1 badge to a website. Google's new Google+ service is taking the development world by storm, and why shouldn't it? It's minimalistic UI, use of… Read More

CodeIgniter MVC PHP Framework

Author: Colin Oakley, Mon 4 July 2011, 16:59:17

I've been using CodeIgniter for about 2 years now. I'm a big fan of MVC as it allows split off different parts of any project. CodeIgniter has a very small front print and has a good range of libraries… Read More

ignite100 + North East = digital start-ups city

Author: Colin Oakley, Fri 1 July 2011, 17:16:58

Newcastle is to be the home to Europe's first £1m digital start-up accelerator. The ignite100 programe is an itensive 13-week programme that aimds to develop 10 teams start up idea. The programme… Read More

Tales from #DIBI - Responsive Web Design

Author: Colin Oakley, Thu 30 June 2011, 13:20:00

I had the pleasure of attending DIBI this year. This is a local conferenced with a two track approach. I spent the day firmly in the design it talks. One of the best talks was by Jeremy Keith which gave… Read More

Google+1 Metrics Comes to Webmaster tools

Author: Colin Oakley, Thu 30 June 2011, 09:58:50

Another roll out of features this week was Google's +1 button to the main search. They also updated Webmaster tools with key data about search impact, activity and auidence. New features: - The Search… Read More

Google Web fonts API hits v2

Author: Colin Oakley, Wed 29 June 2011, 12:39:17

Google had a busy day yesterday with Google+, homepage and mobile UI updates, Swiffy and v2 of its font directory. The new Google font directory includes a massive update to the layout including information… Read More

JavaScript graphics with Paper js

Author: Colin Oakley, Wed 29 June 2011, 12:17:14

If you like canvas but struggle to fully use it then maybe you've already tried Paper.js if not it is a very good javascript library for generating vector based graphics. It is an open source scripting… Read More

Feeding IE steroids - CSS3 PIE

Author: Colin Oakley, Wed 4 May 2011, 17:20:53

The PIE stands for Progressive Internet Explorer. CSS3 PIE is a JavaScript implementation of common CSS3 features into IE6,IE7 and IE8. While not a perfect solution it provides an easy way of putting… Read More

Essential jQuery

Author: Malcolm Hire, Wed 6 April 2011, 12:06:11

You can argue that javaScript was never really meant for prime time. Today’s emphasis on rich internet applications has thrust javaScript into the forefront as more and more online applications-… Read More

Isotype: A cool jQuery Plugin

Author: Malcolm Hire, Wed 6 April 2011, 11:57:46

Isotope is definitely an incredible jQuery plugin which allow you to create dynamic and intelligent layouts. You can hide and reveal items with filtering, re-order them with sorting, and a lot more. Of… Read More

The new Google +1 button and the Effects on SEO

Author: Malcolm Hire, Wed 6 April 2011, 11:35:58

Google has recently announced the release of a new social button called “+1” (plus one). Similarly to Facebook like button, the new +1 button will allow users to bookmark and share the cool… Read More

Top 10 SEO Lessons Learned From Angry Birds

Author: Malcolm Hire, Wed 6 April 2011, 11:19:48

A MacWorld article on the 10 things CIOs can learn from the popular mobile app game Angry Birds was spun into a new top ten designed for Google SEO. Tedster made the list and posted it in a WebmasterWorld… Read More

Category - Web Development