All the way to Sierra Leone in fact, check out the logo design on the t-shirt that the chap next to Craig Bellamy is wearing – we did that .

Always pleased to see our work ‘out there’ we luckily caught this article broadcasted on ITV4  highlighting the brilliant work that the footballer champions out in the West African country.

The Craig Bellamy Foundation (CBF) is a charity that offers underprivileged children in Sierra Leone the chance to reach their true potential through sport and education, enabling them to build a better life for themselves and their communities.

Visit the Craig Bellamy Foundation website to find out more.

‘Tis indeed the season for jolliness as the team at Komodo Digital received a visit from the ‘secret’ Santa who left gifts and treats for all the good girls and boys of this hard working agency.

He seems to have left one of his little helpers behind though!

Anyone who can assist with his safe return to the North Pole please get in touch.

Sometimes incremental enhancement is the order of the day and this was the case with Bike Hub who appointed Komodo Digital to rework key aspects of their homepage as part of their continual program of website development.

During this phase some of the areas we reworked were the news carousel, the site footer and featured article listing improving presentation and usability of these areas as well an overhaul of their WordPress installation.

High hazard industries demand exceptional safety standards, and since 1969 Mech Tool have made it their business to deliver exactly that. Blast, fire, noise: their design and engineering teams have been working together to solve some of industry’s toughest safety challenges and create breakthrough innovations.

Building on our experience within the engineering sector Komodo Digital designed the new website of this market leading brand complete with powerful content management system enabling them to take full control of ongoing content production.

Whether you’re looking for PET resin capable of producing high gloss, highly durable packaging or require PTA of pharmaceutical standard, Lotte Chemical UK has the manufacturing capabilities and technology to deliver.

They also have a rather nice new website that will tell you all about what they do designed and built by Komodo.

Isle of Wight law firm Jeromes has a history spanning over 300 years; so they have had plenty of time to fine tune their services to a truly excellent standard and were pleased to offer ours to design their brand new website which we built rather nicely on WordPress.

Tech to get truly excited about.

The Lytro lets you take pictures like never before. Unlike a conventional camera that captures a single plane of light, the Lytro camera captures the entire light field, which is all the light traveling in every direction in every point in space. This enables you to focus the image after you have taken the picture – no auto focus motor means instant image capture with no lag or delay, a huge bug bear of mine with digital cameras.

I’ve been following the development of this camera for a while now and can’t wait to get my hands on one.

Learn more about this bit of kit at the Lytro website.

This year, Team KO‘MO’DO are partaking in Movember. Since the beginning of the month their boyish, clean shaven faces have had, shall we say, varying rates of regrowth. One or two members are rumoured to have relied ever so slightly on moustache enhancement software. Can you guess who?

If you’re feeling generous and you’d like to help raise awareness of prostate cancer, you can donate at the the Team KO‘MO’DO Mo Space.

So, you’ve decided you want to take advantage of the rise of the mobile web market. Before you jump in, there are a number of things to bear in mind when making your site mobile friendly:

1. Key Features and Functionality
   The fundamental starting point of any mobile web project is prioritising your objective and goals. Think about what your users ultimately want from your mobile site or app and how you can make this as easy as possible. Access to your analytics can reveal key features from your current site that should be streamlined and optimised for mobile use.
2. The Size of the Content
   How much of your content is absolutely necessary? Going mobile is all about stripping down to the bare essentials. Users don’t tend to “browse” the web on their phones. They want answers quickly; it’s a entirely different experience from desktop browsing.
3. How and Where It Will Be Used
   Think about the situations in which mobile devices are used. It is rarely from the comfort of your own home of office. It is on the go, on a bus, in a busy supermarket. Maybe they’re running late, maybe they only have one hand free. All of this must be factored in when implementing key features. Take our recent development for Go North East, which finds departure times for nearest bus stops. The app exploits the device’s GPS feature, saving the user valuable time from manually entering a location.
4. Time and Budget
   The advanced functionality of an app can require a lot of time to develop. If you’re under tight time or budget constraints, simply making your site accessible for mobile users may suffice for opening you up to the mobile market.
5. Accessibility
   Identify your target market. Do you need to be accessible to all or just a small niche group? Taking a look at your analytics may give you a clue. Perhaps you don’t need a Blackberry version of your app if your mobile clients are predominantly iPhone users.

It’s no secret that the mobile web market is booming and with more and more people accessing the internet on mobile devices, it would be foolish to get left behind. (See ‘Get Moving and Go Mobile’).

If you’re thinking about optimising your site for mobile, you may feel slightly overwhelmed by the different options available, each with varying levels of functionality, accessibility and cost.

That’s why we’ve put together this simple jargon-free guide, helping you to identify which approach is right for you.

Mobile Stylesheets

The simplest and therefore quickest way to make your site mobile friendly is by creating a separate mobile stylesheet. This option is all about making your site behave properly in mobile browsers by ensuring text is legible, navigation is clear and clutter is eliminated. Simply providing an alternative stylesheet can make a huge difference to how your site is viewed by mobile devices.

To prevent alienating the mobile market, every serious business should at least make their sites accessible for mobile internet users. However, this basic method does have its limitations in terms of functionality and interactivity. It may be ideal for small brochure sites, the main function of which is to be viewed and to raise awareness.

Responsive Design

Responsive design is a relatively new concept which is quickly gaining more and more interest. Currently a big topic among the web community, some have called it the “future of web design” and it’s something Komodo are getting rather excited about too.

As you can now access the internet from your desktop PC, your mobile and even your TV, the range of screen sizes has grown significantly. So much so that the standard website width of 960px isn’t flexible enough to accommodate all of these devices.

With the need for a new standard came the concept of designing once for everything. Aspects such as screen width, orientation and resolution can be queried to determine the kind of device and therefore how it responds – hence the name. The example below shows how the content is displayed differently as the screen size changes.

All this without the need for a mobile stylesheet or dedicated mobile site.

Mobile Sites

A mobile site will usually have its own domain such as m.youtube.com. Similar to mobile stylesheets and responsive design, a lot of the functionality and appearance will be simplified. Content and images are kept to a minimum giving prominence to the main actions and areas of the site.

A great advantage of a dedicated mobile site is that is specifically designed and developed for optimal use on a mobile. Hence sites with a lot of functionality can be streamlined and crafted to perform tasks quicker. This makes it more accessible to users that are on the go as there is no unnecessary mark up to download.

Mobile sites are often cheaper to develop and maintain than an app, as only one version need be created to access via multiple devices. User upgrades are not necessary, as they will only see the latest version and no worrying about App Store approval either.

Apps

Not everyone needs an app, but there are instances when only an app will do. We don’t tend to “browse” the web on a phone as we would on a desktop. It’s most often done on the go, on the bus, in the street. It’s all about finding out what we want to know – and quickly. Why they’re so good for cheating in pub quizzes… not that I approve.

Apps are the ultimate in optimising the mobile experience, making a goal easy to achieve rather than replicating your desktop site. There’s lots of extra functionality and device specific features you can take advantage of such as GPS and camera facilities. Then there are the interactions: the shaking, the sweeping and the pinching, which can add elements of fun to your app.

There are levels of interactivity that can be created in an app that give the user control over uploading, buying, searching, playing, managing accounts among countless other tasks with minimal bandwidth usage. They can range from the addictive game to the practical and useful, such as our recent development for Go North East.

Apps are device specific, which means separate devices ie. iPhone and Android will need separate apps. But each will be developed specifically for that device, exploiting its features to create the best experience possible.

We’ve managed a 100% submission rate to the App Store so far. If you’d like to discuss your ideas for an app or how you’d like to make your site more mobile friendly, you can contact us to book a free, no obligation, initial consultation.