UPDATE – THIS POSITION HAS NOW BEEN FILLED

To help continue the recent growth and success of Something Interesting, we are now on the hunt for a Marketing Assistant to join our team.

About the role

As a small and exciting agency, we have worked with some big names in the UK and this is an amazing opportunity for you to help shape and grow the way Something Interesting positions and markets itself going forward. It also offers you an opportunity to learn and develop yourself.

Throughout this role you will be involved in the following:

• Developing a marketing plan
• Working to set targets for leads & sales
• Managing our social media campaigns
• Writing blog posts & website content
• Establishing online & offline PR
• Organising sponsorship of events
• Working with outside agencies
• Managing a marketing budget

What we need

We are looking for someone who is self motivated and can set themselves targets. You will have a strong personality and know what you want and won’t be scared to contact other companies.

Based in our office in Southsea you will also be expected to visit existing and new clients – for which your own transport would be helpful.

Something Interesting will be happy to help train you and develop you going forwards.

Typical hours are 9 to 5 Monday to Friday, salary up to £18,000. Please apply to jobs@somethinginteresting.co.uk with your CV.

NO AGENCIES PLEASE

In addition to developing the web-based product for AA’s new Drivesafe Insurance scheme, we also worked in partnership with Wunelli to develop a mobile presence for the fledgling brand. The result was the AA DriveSafe iPhone application, which went live for customers on the App Store earlier this month.

Overall Score - AA iPhone App

Project summary

The AA Drivesafe iPhone application allows insurance customers all of the perks of the web-based Driving Dashboard, including at-a-glance policy summaries as well as daily breakdowns of their driving habits. Not only that, but the application harnesses the full power of the iPhone to bring additional exclusive functionality, including the incredible GPS-powered ‘Find My Car’ feature.

Find My Car - AA iPhone App

Matching expectations

Continuing the trend of our previous web projects, we worked tirelessly with the AA to ensure the application retained brand consistency while maintaining the highest level of data management and personal security possible. In particular, a huge amount of work went into communicating the vast amounts of data associated with a telematics-based insurance product to a mobile device. We wanted to make sure the application remained stable and responsive when it mattered most – on the go.

Reports Screen - AA iPhone App

By utilising bespoke reporting tools we’ve succeeded in making the AA DriveSafe application not only a wonderful mobile experience, but also a worthy alternative to the services web-based offering. We look forward to seeing how customers use the product ‘out in the field’ and hope the application proves truly indispensable!

If you’re looking for a web development agency that also has solid, proven app development skills then give us a call.

Something Interesting build iPhone application for The AA.

The last week has been absolutely fantastic for a couple of our key clients.

The Belle Isle

Started off in Southsea a few years back, The Belle Isle soon found it had hit the right spot with the discerning locals. Serving a range of world beers and an exciting menu all set in a chilled out environment, The Belle Isle is a great venue for a quick morning meeting, a laid back lunch or evening out. And now they have launched a brand new restaurant in Chichester – bigger than the Southsea restaurant.

We worked with Paul Taylor, a freelance graphic designer and illustrator based in Southsea who designed the website and continues to create lovely, simple and very effective artwork for them, both online & offline.

At Something Interesting, we couldn’t be happier to be with a client like The Belle Isle who continue to grown and expand even with the tough climate out there.

Belle Isle Chichester Sign

Belle Isle Website Homepage

Reserve a Table

ShipFinder

It was just before Christmas when we launched the ShipFinder website, a technically brilliant idea which tracks the movement of thousands of ships throughout the world. Each ship tracked shows a wide range of data – speed, destination, cargo etc. Not only can you see current data, but you can also view historical trips (using playback) and you even have the ability to “Sail Me” – which shows the path taken using Google Earth.

Working with pinkfroot we built a great website which handles an amazing amount of data every second to plot thousands of ships around the world.

The best part for techies like us, was seeing the ShipFinder website featured on BBC Click – for us this is a really fantastic achievement & we are really pleased that we got to work with pinkfoot on this and the PlaneFinder project.

ShipFinder Map View

ShipFinder Ship Detail

ShipFinder Image Gallery

So, all told, an amazing week for our clients which just makes us grin from ear to ear. And here’s to next week and what it may bring.

We are looking for new, interesting & exciting clients to work with, if you’ve got a project that needs some love and attention please get in touch.

Our latest website launched earlier this month for The AA (partnering with Wunelli), including a full pricing website, customer reporting and admin reporting suites. We followed our tried and tested approach to managing a project of this size and complexity – allowing us to bring the project in on time.

Research Stage

We’ve worked with a number of big clients on website design and development, but one thing is always constant – the research stage.

This stage includes:

• Branding & Style
  although it is a different product, we need to keep brand consistancy
• Data Management & Security
  ensuring the integrity and security of data is maintained throughout all systems
• Customer Requirements
  the end user’s needs taken in to consideration
• Bespoke Reporting
  how to best produce multiple reporting suites for various scenarios

Brochureware Homepage

Project Planning

A project of this sizes takes some serious planning. Internally we still use Basecamp, but for working with external partners we needed the classic Gantt Chart – for which we use OmniPlan. As well as being solid and reliable it also integrates nicely with Microsoft Project as well.

Working closely with a number of different third parties, we were able to bring the website development project in on time by keeping a close eye kept on the project plan at all times.

Dashboard Reporting

At Something Interesting we have built a number of websites that interpret vast amounts of data and display them in an easy to digest manner – like we did for PlaneFinder and ShipFinder.

For the AA, we built a customer Dashboard, showing their customers their DriveSafe Score – which ultimately affects their insurance premium.

The Dashboard design ensures that all their customer’s driving data is distilled in to an easy to use website. Part of this included designing an email & alerts system to better communicate with the customer.

Dashboard Homepage

And, to assist back-office staff, we created a reporting and administration portal, showing a range of important KPIs and data – all delivered in a secure system.

Overall DriveSafe Score

This was an amazing project to work on, allowing us to further hone our skills at managing and manipulating large data packets on the fly.And we are really pleased with the way the product has been received, both by the client and the public in general. It was also nice to see the project featured on the BBC News website back in February.

Something Interesting launch website for The AA DriveSafe Insurance

We’ve been a bit busy recently with the launch of the AA website and working on a new iPhone app for a client, so we thought we do a quick post with some of the latest pictures from the office. Hope you enjoy.

If you’re interested in working with us, we’re looking for a PHP Developer to join the team.

About us.

Over the last 10 years, Something Interesting has built websites and apps for some of the biggest names in the UK. With a keen eye for userbility and interface design, we are progressively building our client base and reputation.

We are now looking for a talented and passionate designer to come on board and help grow on the great foundations we have built.

What we do.

We build websites, web apps and iOS / Mac apps both for our clients and also ourselves. Some of our clients include The Co-operative Financial Services and Planefinder.net amongst others. Our own apps include TrackRecord & DropIn.

We operate from a small, friendly office in Southsea, Portsmouth.

All the normal software is used and we are a completely Mac based office.

About you.

We need a designer with passion and proven ability, someone who can really push their beliefs and passions. And who will ensure that everything we put out, from full web apps to the smallest icons, is of the best possible quality.

You will also be able to work as the lead designer in a team of developers, you will need to be flexible but strong.

Key skills.

• Strong understanding of usability and UI/UX principles for web & mobile apps.
• Comfortable leading the design side of a project from brief to completion.
• Passion for great design and ability to push for excellent design standards in everything you produce.
• Some basic understanding of HTML, CSS etc would be useful.
• Experienced of working with developers to get the best results.

What we can offer you.

• A friendly, lively place to work where communication between the team is key.
• Involvement in new and interesting projects, some in-house, some client-based.
• Relaxed dress code.
• Occasional hack days and time allocated to your own projects or ideas.
• A competitive salary with bonuses

To apply for this role please send your CV and some examples of your previous work to us.

Photography students from Portsmouth University will be holding an exhibition of their work at the Round Tower in Old Portsmouth on 7th and 8th of December. Something Interesting is happy to be helping sponsor the event.

2nd year Photography students at the University of Portsmouth have been exploring the concept of ‘Territory’ and a group of us will be exhibiting our work at the historic Round Tower in Old Portsmouth.

As part of a 3 year Honours Degree course, this group of 10 students, calling themselves “10 Degrees South”, has come together from around Europe to show their wide-ranging interpretations of this exciting concept – from local landscapes to military campaigns, from nature reserves to wine bars to football supporters.

You can find out more on their website.

Portsmouth University Photography Exhibition

Since 2001 we have been designing and building websites for a wide range of clients including The Co-operative Financial Services, Planefinder.net and Coverbox. Working from a close-knit lively studio in Southsea (near Portsmouth), we take a highly collaborative approach to our work, with everyone getting involved throughout the whole research, design and build process.

Recently we have started taking on new, exciting projects and we now need a talented PHP developer to come along and get involved with our current and future clients.

What we need from you

• Previous commercial experience in website development.
• A pragmatic candidate capable of seeing a project from specification through to deployment. Someone who values code standards and takes pride in every aspect of development.
• You will be expected to have extensive knowledge of  PHP, MySQL and XML webservices. As well as being comfortable in the following front-end technologies:  XHTML, CSS, JS.
• We like personalities! You will be dealing with our clients from day one so we need someone who can eloquently explain their reasons for doing things.
• We use a lot of different technologies, all in a Mac based office. You will need to be able to throw your hand at different languages over time.

What we can offer you

• A friendly, lively place to work where communication between the team is key.
• Involvement in new and interesting projects, some in-house, some client-based.
• Relaxed dress code.
• Occasional hack days and time allocated to your own projects or ideas.

Application

Please send you CV through to us (previous work examples preferred) and tell us why you think you’d be perfect for the role.

Just a quick update…

We’ve been working hard on the latest update to TrackRecord (our Basecamp time tracking app) which we are going to be launching on the 15th June. This update will include big changes to the UI, better system preferences and we’ve fixed a number of bugs. We know it has been a while since the last update and hope its been worth the wait.

There are of course more updates planned for the future and if you have any comments or suggestions please do let us know.

Please note that the price is going to increase on the 15th June for new licences, existing licences will be able to upgrade for free.

More updates available on the TrackRecord site and via Twitter.

Today sees the launch of our brand new app, DropIn, which is available on the Mac App Store.

You can follow what we’re doing on Twitter or on the DropIn Website.

About DropIn App

We created DropIn for the same reasons we built TrackRecord because we needed it during our working day. We use Dropbox a lot, we share files with customers and we can have hundreds of updates during any one day. When you leave your computer for a while and come back to Dropbox it is sometimes difficult finding out what has happened and changed in the hours you’ve been away in a meeting.

We also found it difficult focusing on the files and folders which we were looking for updates on.

DropIn solves these problems. It provides a clear and easy to view list of changes (up to the last 100) and clearly shows what has happend to each of these files – showing whether they have been added, deleted or moved.

Filters

By adding filters we can easily hide files or folders which we aren’t that interested in. This is incredibly useful when you are actively working out of a folder, making constant changes to it. By filtering out this folder, Growl notifications are a lot cleaner.

Filtering also comes in handy when you are looking for a specific client response to a file or folder. By filtering everything other than this folder, we are only notified when important files appear.

Inline Preview

Inline previews give you a quick snapshot of the file so you can see key information. This can include a preview image, file size, duration (video and mp3), resolution etc. You can use this screen to either open the file directly (using the system default for file type) or reveal the file in finder – showing exactly where the file exists in your Dropbox folder.

Notifications

You can choose how you want to be notified of updates to your Dropbox folder. This can include sound and Growl alerts, for All, New or Removed files.

A simple System Menu notification will also show you that a file has been added. When you look through the list of file changes, the latest (unviewed) files will appear in bold

This subtle visual change keeps the UI light and user-friendly.

Droplets

Personally my favourite part of the app! By entering your Dropbox User Id, you can quickly and easily drop new files on a single public directory by dropping the file directly on to the DropIn icon on the System Menu.

By doing this you automatically copy a public access URL to your clipboard ready to email to your client, friend etc.

I believe that Droplets will save countless people a great deal of time.

More information

DropIn is available in the Apple Mac Store now.

You can also keep up to date with what we’re doing on the DropIn Website and by following us on Twitter.