http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm en-gb Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:00:13 +0100 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:12:00 +0100 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/9/1/The-Wilderness-Downtown Some snazzy HTML 5 used for this interactive film, giving you an idea of what can, and will be done with it in the future. Word of warning, DO close all other Apps on your computer before running, since it is pretty processor intensive. And if you have the Chrome browser, try it in that. Otherwise Firefox is probably your best bet! www.thewildernessdowntown.com HTML 5 id:loves Film Music Illustration Design Website Design Animation Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:12:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/9/1/The-Wilderness-Downtown http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Interdirect-Recruits-New-Developer Interdirect is delighted to welcome Kiran Mannava to boost its already impressive line-up of developers. Kiran comes to Interdirect with years’ of programming experience, the last six of which have been spent specialising in developing user interfaces for touchscreen and mobile phone applications. His impressive array of technical skills which include Java, Flash, Flex and AIR will significantly strengthen Interdirect’s ability to develop industry-leading touch screen interfaces. Kiran began his career studying Electronics and Communications Engineering but upon graduating, his attention was soon drawn away from this to Java programming and he hasn’t looked back since. Flash development swiftly followed and from there he discovered the possibilities offered through Rich Internet Application development. Kiran’s enthusiasm for learning new technologies makes him an exciting new addition to Interdirect and its continuing commitment to providing cutting edge technology solutions for its clients. In addition to this his vast knowledge of touch screen systems Kiran has experience of working with some of Europe’s biggest retail brands; making him an exceptionally valuable addition to Interdirect’s team of retail technology specialists.  id:recruits Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:57:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Interdirect-Recruits-New-Developer http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Interdirect-Recruits-New-PR-Assistant In a bumper month for recruitment, Interdirect is also thrilled to welcome Jessica Evans to expand its ever growing PR team. Jessica, who recently graduated with a first class degree from Nottingham Trent University, joins Interdirect as a PR Assistant and will help to ensure that Interdirect’s growing customer base of PR clients receive the top quality service that Interdirect has become famed for. Jessica will also work on Interdirect’s own PR, ensuring that its voice is heard throughout the industry. id:recruits PR Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:41:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Interdirect-Recruits-New-PR-Assistant http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Interdirect-Expands For most companies, summers are periods of lessened activity as team members and clients take holidays and recharge batteries. However, Interdirect’s team’s batteries must be positively Duracell Bunny-esque, as the summer has been a period of intense activity seeing tremendous successes such as significant account wins, new technological achievements and considerable growth in Interdirect’s team of talented and dedicated professionals. Most notable of all is Interdirect’s PR division, which has only just celebrated its first year anniversary and has already doubled in size! This is a fantastic achievement given the continued challenging financial climate and clearly bucks the gloomy trend of almost daily bad news stories heard on the evening news. So what is the secret of all this success? Flippantly, Interdirect’s team attribute it to the arrival the flock of peacocks that have adopted the car park as their home (they are good luck symbols in India). But more probably it is due to Interdirect’s great team and fantastic clients. As Interdirect gears up to celebrate its 15th birthday, it would like to thank all of its clients for keeping it so busy. Interdirect would be nothing without you. id:news id:recruits id:does Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:33:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Interdirect-Expands http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Interdirect-launches-the-Old-George-Mall-Salisbury This month Interdirect went live with a brand new website for Salisbury’s most stylish shopping centre, Old George Mall. The elegant and easy-to-use website now takes the number of centres that Interdirect works with up to 18, further bolstering its reputation as a leading provider of innovative digital solutions to the retail sector. Old George Mall is situated in the heart of historic Salisbury, with an array of cafe’s and popular high street stores. It wanted a website that could operate both as a stylish showcase for the centre and offer an access point for the community to discover what the town has to offer. Hywell Jones, Old George Mall’s retail liaison manager said: “We wanted a website which communicated the approachable elegance of the Old George Mall with every aspect of its design and usability. Interdirect’s expertise in the retail sector meant we were delighted for them to create our website but the final result still managed to surpass our expectations - not just in terms of the website itself but also in terms of the project process and its timely delivery.” www.oldgeorgemall.co.uk   id:launches Way-finding Website Design Retail Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:27:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Interdirect-launches-the-Old-George-Mall-Salisbury http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/27/Yahoo-Organic-Results-Switch-To-Bing Shashi Seth, Senior Vice President of Yahoo! Search Products announced today on their Blogthat Bing now officially powers Yahoo's organic search results in USA and Canada, saying "Yahoo! Web, Image, and Video search experiences on both desktop and mobile devices are now powered by the Microsoft platform in the US and Canada, with the UK to come." Yahoo will still power their own search advertising (PPC) platform until later in the year when Microsoft Adcentre is integrated. This integration is expected to be completed in October, just before the Christmas period, so start planning your paid search Chrstmas  campaigns to run on Adcentre, and bear in mind that there is likely to be new cost-per-click pricing to contend with. Some of the new account management changes you will see are: Negative keyword expansion beyond 1026 characters Negative keywords at ad group or campaign level Web import options of any format - Google, Yahoo, or MSN Significant upgrades to the adCenter Desktop tool Search network controls - can choose just owned & operated properties, or search partners Reporting upgrades, including removal of the 92-day time limit Enhanced conversion tracking options, including revenue tracking Campaign performance dashboards See the full article here Yahoo SEO Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:19:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/27/Yahoo-Organic-Results-Switch-To-Bing http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/20/New-Product-Skin-turns-any-Surface-into-a-TouchScreen Ubiquity is something we often associate with skin – whatever sex or race you are, and even species for that matter, every creature has it. It seems the perfect term then for the latest innovation from Portuguese based interactive hardware company Displax. Skin is a fine flexible film which can turn any non-metal surface into an interactive touch-screen, even if they are transparent or curved. This completely transparent “skin” uses multi-touch technology that can detect up to 16 fingers at once as well as air movement. The hardware is unique and operates via a grid of nanowires embedded in Skin’s polymer film. According to Displax “a small electrical disturbance is detected allowing the micro-processor controller to pinpoint the movement or direction of the air flow,” every time a user makes contact with the surface, using either their breath or their finger tips. This obviously has enormous possibilities. Now practically every surface holds the potential for multi-touch interaction. Now not just every creature but every surface will have a skin.     id:loves Touch screens Technology Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:52:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/20/New-Product-Skin-turns-any-Surface-into-a-TouchScreen http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/19/Resistance-3-Teaser-Trailer In the world of games, Resistance 1 and 2 were quite big news for the Playstation 3, so its no surprise that they have recently announced a Resistance 3. This teaser trailer for the game, is a beautifully shot piece of footage that hints at what is to come and leans more towards a film trailer than a game advert. Nice and moody. Check out the trailer Games id:loves Film Design Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:06:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/19/Resistance-3-Teaser-Trailer http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/13/Lagoa-Multiphysics These 3D particle effects created using softimage’s ICE platform are truly mind blowing, it just makes you think of what the next generation of gaming will look like... www.youtube.com Games id:loves Technology Animation Fri, 13 Aug 2010 09:57:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/13/Lagoa-Multiphysics http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/6/pasivdevice See if you can figure your way through this... www.pasivdevice.org Games id:loves Film Facebook Illustration Website Design Interactivity Animation Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:08:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/6/pasivdevice http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/6/Welcome-to-Chatroulette It's simple: The site pairs you with a random videochat partner. You can click "next" any time, or stay with your current pairing. You can expect to find over 20,00 people on Chatroulette and has exploded as the newest way to explore and connect. FCUK jumped on board earlier this year too,   taking one of the main intentions of the site, meeting girls and made it into a promotion for the brand . Challenging users to actually woo a real live girl on Chatroulette, FCUK has offered a "250 voucher to purchase a date-worthy outfit to the first successful man. Also in a recent web-savvy marketing ploy, Dr. Pepper trick unsuspecting users of the popular site Chatroulette into doing everything from dancing to acting like a puppy dog for their viral campaign. Take a look at the fun-loving video above to watch the  Dr. Pepper Chatroulette Cheerleader prank! Viral Marketing id:loves Chatroulette Social Media Marketing Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/6/Welcome-to-Chatroulette http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/2/Wallpaper-WayFinding These two designers have posed a simple question and come up with an equally simple and incisive solution. Mike & Maaike have created a series of way-finding wallpapers based on the system of symbols produced through the collaboration between AIGA and the U.S Department of Transportation in the 1970’s. These symbols have become some of the most widely recognised in the world but are often only displayed according to function. Mike & Maaike recognised however that by incorporating them graphically into wallpaper they could create something both decorative and functional – a form of way-finding that moulds to the space rather than being placed in it.   http://rollout.ca/wayfinder.html   id:loves Design Way-finding Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:33:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/8/2/Wallpaper-WayFinding http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/7/30/New-European-Heights Interdirect scaled new heights in more ways than one this month as the company succeeded in winning both the touch-screen account for a large shopping mall in Budapest, and Managing Director Nicholas Mann succeeded in reaching the summit of the highest mountain in Europe, Mont Blanc. The shopping centre, due to open this October, is yet another addition to Interdirect’s retail portfolio and further establishes the company as one of the leading software development agencies in the retail sector.  Interdirect already has a wealth of experience in providing solutions for shopping centre’s which include touch-screens, websites and intranets, and already counts some of the country’s leading brands among its clients. Nick’s Mont Blanc ascent was also a success. His journey took him up the infamous Gouter Route where, struggling against 100 mile hour winds, freezing temperatures and darkness to avoid snow melt and rock slides, Nick reached the summit. The descent was equally as tough but all arrived safely, if a little bruised and battered, to the base of the mountain. This achievement was of course a personal goal but one none the less indicative of the ambitions of Interdirect as a company. These events though are by no means the summit of Interdirect’s success. Rather they are the beginning, as both Interdirect and its Managing Director seek to conquer more mountains and increase Interdirect’s dominance in the retail sector in Britain and across Europe. id:news Touch screens id:wins Retail Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:29:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/7/30/New-European-Heights http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/7/29/A-Proven-Formula-for-Social-Interaction-May-Not-be-Far-Away The digital residue that now trails behind every human being who engages with the internet and mobile phone technology is emerging in the shape of a mathematical formula for human behaviour. As Mark Buchanan observed in his recent article in New Scientist, data is like gold dust and for decades the speculative nature of social science has prevented it from being anything more than a poor cousin of the hard sciences. However the advent of social media and the mobile phone means that social behaviour is now very much quantifiable. A team at Northeastern University used mobile phone data to analyse human movements and found they could predict where an individual would be within 1km of a mobile phone tower with 90% accuracy. The resulting statistics showed a mathematical pattern strikingly like those of other organisms with even those who step outside the standard home-work-home commute ultimately fitting within a set pattern. In addition the data now obtainable through group and individual activity on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook means social scientists are now practically drowning in behavioural data. It seems then that a formula for human interaction may not be far away and despite the advent of technology and its apparent transformation of our lives with social media and our mobile phones, it emulates a social pattern that may not have changed for man or mammal since the dawn of time. www.newscientist.com id:says Twitter Mobile Social Media Marketing Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:48:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/7/29/A-Proven-Formula-for-Social-Interaction-May-Not-be-Far-Away http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/7/29/ID-Bowling-Round-3 Interdirect had yet another great night last Friday at the tri-monthly Bowling Night.  It was lovely to see old and new faces as former ID member John Bygrave came back to maintain his place as the ID Bowling Champion. New Recruit’s Terry Haggis and Vaughn Angoy also put in sterling performances, with Terry teaching the rest of ID some particularly interesting bowling techniques! Alas despite all his claims to the contrary Tom Jenkins failed to regain the coveted ID Bowling Trophy and lost to John Bygrave once again (see rounds one and two). PR Director Debbie Lamb’s brother, David, also put in a particularly dazzling performance to win the Best Celebration Award, cart wheeling his way to the medal after a particularly good strike. Debbie also deserves a special mention as despite failing to win any of the official prizes she did manage to get an astounding 4 strikes in a row, something which from now on at Interdirect will be called “A Lamby”! Bowling id:does Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:45:00 +0100 http://www.interdirect.co.uk/blogs/Interdirect_Blog/index.cfm/2010/7/29/ID-Bowling-Round-3