Blog
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Author: Andrew Ashton | Date Submitted: | Comments: 0 | Add Comment -
Christmas arrives at Creo!
If you come to our office, you will see it now has a christmas atmosphere… After a serious debate and a few old christmas carols, we decided to go for a silver and gold colour scheme. If only it could make the time go faster until the end of December!
Author: Laura Nevo | Date Submitted: | Comments: 1 | Add Comment -
Connecting Facebook and Twitter
Linking your various social media sites to one another is quite a sought after feature and one that is on the rise. Many users who have multiple social media sites find it tiresome having to sign into each one to post a very similar microblog, having the ability to sign into just one or only a few, post your microblog and then share it on all your other social media sites saves the trouble.
The top two social media giants, Facebook and Twitter, both have an option to post your status updates/tweets to the other with ease.
Twitter
Twitter's option is hidden away in the 'Profile' tab of your settings under the 'Facebook' title. Simply click 'Post your tweets to Facebook' (If you are not currently signed into Facebook then you will now be asked to), your Facebook account name is then displayed along with the option to 'Connect to Facebook'. Clicking this button will result in your Twitter and Facebook accounts being connected via Twitter, your Facebook page is connected by default but if you have created Facebook pages then these can also be connected to Twitter.
Any tweets you post from now on will also be posted on your Facebook account/pages.
Facebook
To connect Facebook to Twitter, simply enter http://www.facebook.com/twitter into your address bar and continue to click 'Link my profile to Twitter'. You will then be taken to Twitter (you will be asked to sign into Twitter if you are not already) and then asked to 'Authorize app' which will result in you being redirected back to Facebook. Your Facebook and Twitter accounts are now connected via Facebook, a series of checkboxes are shown which allow you to choose what aspects of your Facebook account are displayed through Twitter.
Everytime you now update your status it will also be tweeted via Twitter.
Author: Lewys Bosley | Date Submitted: | Comments: 0 | Add Comment -
Using Microdata to improve SEO
What is MicroData?
Microdata is a specification describing how to structure data on your web page.
Previously webmasters would use standard Semantic HTML markup to describe data. An example would be the use of Heading tags (H1, H2 etc) to describe the data that the page contains.
This was extended by resource definition framework (RDF) which is a great format however due to its complexity it has not been widely adopted by the web community.
Google started using microformats in 2009 with their “Rich Snippets” and later in 2010 when they started using them to describe cooking recipes. However there was still no standard way of describing data and no agreement between search engine companies to support any specific formats. While they still support microformats they have now moved on to microdata.
What is Schema.org
Microdata is an extension of all of this. It has taken the ideas and work of Microformats and RDF, extended and consolidated it. Microdata is a proposed HTML5 specification.
Schema.org is a website set up by Yahoo, Bing and Google which promotes the use of these mircodata formats. Schema.org specifies the format of over a hundred categories of data such as events, organisations, places, products and news articles using the microdfta format.
Schema.org and SEO
The big question is if you convert your existing website over to this format will it improve your search engine ranking?
The search engines will always be trying to improve the way they understand and use the data they retrieve. If schema.org is widely adopted then it means search engines will be able achieve this and with this information they will be able to give users more accurate results to their queries.
So while you will still need to have great data if you are using microdata and your competitor is not then this should provide you with a better search engine ranking.
Author: Andrew Ashton | Date Submitted: | Comments: 0 | Add Comment -
Best of Welsh Design Awards Party
Friday night saw the culmination of another successful Cardiff Design Festival with a party held at the Coal Exchange, Cardiff Bay.
We were greeted by our white faced host master for the evening and were asked to select an envelope which contained half a playing card, a peg, and a piece of paper, the aim being to match up your card and draw a caricature of the person sitting opposite you!!
The evening progressed with board games, racing inflatable fish and metre long hot dogs, ending with the Award ceremony itself, Creo was shortlisted in the web design category but did not take home top spoils…we did however get a lovely certificate to display in the office!!
Author: Richard Ward | Date Submitted: | Comments: 1 | Add Comment -
Cardiff Design Festival Eindhoven Business Breakfast
When I think about Holland, red lights, windmills and clogs spring into mind. Eindhoven if I’m honest is possibly the last place I think of, Until now!.
Cardiff Design Festival held a breakfast talk with guest speaker Hans Robertus Director of Dutch Design Week.
Hans highlighted the passion, and success of Eindhoven, not only within Holland but around the world. The talk was a fascinating insight into how a city has focused on design and used it to propel its status, profitability and capabilities within design and production.
I came away from the talk with a few questions, would things be different if Cardiff managed to create a Love triangle between student – manufacturer – investment? Having graduated as a product designer I can’t help but wonder what would have been if Cardiff had managed to create such prestige?
The Cardiff Design Festival is a great event with a huge amount packed into a short space of time. I recommend attending next year, and supporting not only the festival but designers, universities and manufacturers.
Thank you Hans Robertus, and Cardiff Design Festival.
Author: Kyle Darlington | Date Submitted: | Comments: 0 | Add Comment -
Student Cookbook App on Android Market
In conjunction with VWD Design, Creo have submitted a student recipe app for Meat Promotion Wales to the Android Market.To download the free app, either visit this link or go to the Android Market on your Android phone and search for 'Student Cookbook'.
The iOS version of the app is to follow…
Author: Robert Kinsella | Date Submitted: | Comments: 0 | Add Comment -
Cardiff Design Festival launch
This years Cardiff Design Festival kicked off in great fashion with a launch event at the Senedd, Cardiff Bay. On a warm and sunny September evening the great and the good of Welsh design attended the event.
Deputy Presiding Officer David Melding AM formally started 2 weeks of events leading up to the Awards Party. Also speaking at the event was Lynda Relph-Knight - Editor of Design Week.
The senedd floor was home to a display of Shortlisted entries for the 'Best of Welsh Design Awards' of which Creo's entry for 'Writing Plaques' was one.
Author: Richard Ward | Date Submitted: | Comments: 0 | Add Comment -
Whats the best video format for the web?
Short answer
H.264 codec in a MP (.mp4) container.
Long answer
Video containers & Codecs
Video files are not simple files. They are a combination of container formats and codecs.
Video containers act like a zip file - they contain encoded video data. The following are examples of popular video containers:MPEG 4 (.mp4,.m4v) - The MPEG 4 container is based on Apple’s QuickTime container (.mov).
Flash Video (.flv) – This is used by Adobe Flash. Flash can now also play video in MPEG 4 format.
Ogg (.ogv) – Ogg is an open source video container natively supported in Firefox 3.5, Chrome 4 and Opera 10.5.
WebM (.webm) is a new container format. It is natively supported on latest versions of Chromium, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera.
Audio Video Interleave (.avi) – A very old container format developed by Microsoft.
A video codec is an algorithm which encodes the video stream. The following are examples of video codecs:
H.264 is ideally suited to low bandwith, low CPU devices such as mobile phones. YouTube now uses H.264 to display its videos via flash video (.flv); YouTube also provides H.264-encoded video to mobile devices, including Apple’s iPhone and phones running Google’s Android mobile operating system. H.264 is popular but is patent encumbered which means not all browser like to use it.
Theora is a royalty free codec and can be embedded on any container format.
VP8 was created by the creators of Theora. It has now been purchased by google and released as open source.
Doesn’t the HTML 5 video tag solve all this?
HTML5 includes a video element that can be used to embed videos into a web page. There is not specific video container or codec you have to use. You can specify multiple video files and the browser will play using the first video file it has identified that it can use. Different browsers support different containers and codecs.
So what Codec and Containers are compatible with my browser?
Browser Ogg / Theora H.264 VP8 Internet Explorer Manual Install 9.0 Manual Install Firefox 3.5 no 4.0 Chrome 3.0 No 6.0 Safari Manual Install 3.1 Manual Install Opera 10.5 no 10.6 In summary to display a video on web page using HTML5 you would need to upload all 3 different video formats!
I just want to have one video file!
It is possible to use just one video file but you have to use a combination of html 5 and a flash player. H.264 codec in a MP4 container which plays using the video tag on modern browsers including the iphone / ipad and will fall back to Adobe Flash 9+ to play in other browsers.
Author: Andrew Ashton | Date Submitted: | Comments: 0 | Add Comment -
Homemade brownies and cake!
For my birthday.
Any excuse for brownies…
Author: Lewys Bosley | Date Submitted: | Comments: 0 | Add Comment
EU Cookie Law
On May 26th 2011 a new EU cookie law came into effect. The new law states that UK businesses and organisations running websites in the UK need to get consent from visitors to their websites in order to store most cookies on users’ computers.
The Information Commissioner’s office has given organisations and businesses up to 12 months to ‘get their house in order’ before enforcement of this law begins.
What are cookies?
Cookies are little files that almost all websites use as a kind of memory. They are stored in your browser and enable a site to remember little bits of information between pages or visits. This is often used to store a user’s preferences.
Who is in charge of this?
The DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) are legislators they write and pass laws.
The ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) are regulators they police and enforce the laws. ICO is obliged to investigate any complaints it gets about the use of non-compliant cookies.
Are all cookies affected?
According to the legislation the vast majority are - all cookies that are not "strictly necessary for a service requested by a user". The law allows an exception for "strictly necessary" cookies, such as those used to remember when something has been added to a shopping basket. These cookies would be expected by the user implicitly for the action they requested to be carried out. Another example would be login.
How do I comply with the new law?
The ICO has issued some guidance on how to comply (http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/media/documents/library/Privacy_and_electronic/Practical_application/advice_on_the_new_cookies_regulations.pdf). This can be summed up as:
The ICO have implemented a bar at the top of their website (http://www.ico.gov.uk) which allows people to consent to cookie use.
Can I still use google analytics?
Google analytics uses cookies to track user behaviour and therefore before its use you need to obtain users consent. There are systems that have been developed to obtain consent before google analytics is used on a site (http://cookies.dev.wolf-software.com/).
However when ICO changed their website in order for it to conform to the requirements it resulted in a 90% drop in analytic data gathered!
Google have only made one comment so far on their Web Analytics tv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sa7eWQy5r4&feature=player_embedded
Basically they said they are working with European governments to come up with a solution.
Until May 2012…
Until May 2012 ICO will be satisfied if your business is preparing for a change in the law on website cookie usage. In order to comply you would need to:
After May 2012
After May 2012 ICO will start enforcing the law. Nobody really knows what this means yet.
Essentially the next step is to wait until there is a further announcement by the UK government. It will worth keeping an eye on government website such as www.direct.gov.uk or organisations such as the www.bbc.co.uk to see how they react.