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Archive for November, 2008

TLD Xmas begins

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

Xmas at Top Left Design

We have already had our official Xmas Party!
This is not the ONLY celebration we have planned, but it’s the “formal dinner” one where we all went out for our Xmas meal, pulled some crackers, ate, drank, and wore hats.

We did a joint party with our friends from The Well Studio and Pilot Bean and there were approx 20 people there.
From Top Left Design there were 5 of us – Nick our intern, Keren, Amy, Anine and Gemma.
We went to the Hoxton Bar & Grill on Great Eastern Street, and we had a full three course meal. I must say, there was amazing selection of wine and dessert there.

You may be wondering – “Why did that have their Xmas party in November?”
The reason is that Amy is off to South Africa quite early in June and because Dave Partrick is off on holiday this weekend, we really didn’t have a choice!

We also had Christmas Crackers with mini games inside and a special Xmas quiz. The prize for the quiz was a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Champagne and it was won by Lee and Pete from The Well Studio.
The questions were thought up by the 3 company directors – Keren, Dave (from the Well Studio) and John (from Pilot Bean)
Needless to say, Keren, Dave and John didnt participate in the quiz as that wouldn’t be fair, we knew all the answers already!

What is a Favicon?
What does AJAX stand for? (funniest answer: Amazing Jammy Aphrodisiac Xylophones)
What does CMYK stand for?
What does Kbps stand for?
What is a “soft bounce” (funniest answer: it’s a squidgier version of a hard bounce)
How many pixels are there in an inch? (Funniest answer: “10,0000”)
Who got kicked out of Strictly Come Dancing last week?
How old is Dave Patrick?
What are the names of the 3 companies here?
How many engaged couples are there here?

We wouldn’t mind opening the TLD Xmas Quiz out to all of you (Ok, it’s the TLD, WS, and PB Xmas Quiz if you want the long name)

Some of the questions, such as engaged couples at our Xmas table and Dave’s age, are of no relevance to you readers unless you were there – so instead, here is the quick quiz. Submit us your answers by email and then you too could win Veuve Cliquot Champagne or another equally generous prize.

So, your questions are:

  1. What is a Favicon?
  2. What does AJAX stand for? What does CMYK stand for?
  3. What does Kbps stand for?
  4. What is a “soft bounce”
  5. How many pixels are there in an inch?

Get back soon with your answers!

Why we love Favy

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

UPDATE on FAVY – now Cognitive Match: Alex Kelleher has now rolled Favy into his B2B service Cognitive Match (www.cognitivematch.com) – using the same technology of matching individuals with content in real time.

You probably haven’t heard about Favy yet – but that’s because it’s not been OFFICIALLY launched yet. We are able to have Favy on our browsers because we have connections – we know the man behind Favy – Alex Kelleher. Great guy!

Simply described in my own words – Favy is an add-on toolbar which attaches to your browser and allows you to bookmark favourite sites with tagging technology.

Why we love Favy

There is a whole “smart” element to it where it can track your taste in bookmarks, but I haven’t really tested this bit yet.

It’s really handy and easy to use.

What I love about my Favy toolbar

I love that I can tag a website with different keywords and it comes up in different folders

I love that I have a whole new fresh modern set of favourites which is a lot easier than going through my old list and checking every link

I love that there are 5 search engines – Google, Wikipedia, You Tube, Dictionary.com and Favy search – all handily included.

If you want to learn more about Favy, visit http://favy.com/home and request a free invitation!

The Pickle Syndrome

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

As all our readers know, At Top Left Design we provide top quality affordable websites – and we wanted to draw your attention to a specific phenomenon which affects website users and websites owners.

People who visit websites are a mixture of FICKLE and PICKY.

They are fickle in that they will quickly scan information, flitting from page to page and quickly absorbing only selective information.

They are picky in that they can see something like out of date information, a squished image, a layout that doesn’t appeal and isn’t relevant, inconsistancies, missing or confusing information – and they completely lose trust in the business/organisation which owns that site.

We call this the Pickle Syndrome.

This is why the care, design talent and attention to detail that we at Top Left Design provide for our clients is so VITAL to a company’s success through their website!

The Pickle Syndrome

To continue along those lines, Nick Sera-Leyva (who is working with us here at Top Left Design for a few months) had this to point out:

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Pickles are fresh, green cucumbers that have been withered and salinated by a vinegary brine.

Similarly, websites overcome by Pickle Syndrome are websites that have become withered and salinated by the brine of bad design.

Good design=freshly picked, spritely, crispy green cucumber.
Bad design= emaciated, lumpy, sickly green pickle

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We hope you all agree – comments welcome!