In 2012, I’m looking forward to using ‘Experience Mapping’ as a UX tool to thoroughly define and document the customers’ experience of a service and the needs that arise on their journey towards their goal.
Nikolas Head, Information Architect.

With more and more different types of devices on which you can browse the internet becoming available, I think responsive design will have a greater role to play in 2012 in order to create great interfaces that work across multiple platforms. 2011 saw the beginnings of this but I think 2012 will be the year when more focus is put on displaying content that it relevant to the device, which you are viewing it on.
Nathan Parris, Designer.

2011 saw brands really embracing the idea of storytelling, and I look forward to seeing how this will evolve further. I will also be watching technologies such as mobile computing, gesture control and augmented reality, as I expect their growth in the industry will continue to soar, bringing with them exciting new brand to consumer experiences.
Melissa Bennett, Copywriter.

Mobile Commerce has been growing fast and I believe it will be bigger in 2012… Most people never leave their mobile and with longer working hours and people having less free time to actually ‘go to the shops’, browsing and buying via a mobile device or tablet is starting to fit into people’s lifestyles naturally – Bring on 4G!
Georgie Pares, Project Manager.

With online games starting to popup using Canvas, (such as Cut The Rope www.cuttherope.ie) you can really see how Canvas is easily as good or better than Flash on a performance level, without any need for a single browser plug-in, purely native, along with being GPU powered it really is quite good. JavaScript is becoming almost real-time in processing, due to the latest browsers JS engines’ precompiling code on load to really speed things up, they make a great partnership in what will be the  mainstream medium for graphically rich websites.
Joe Angus, Senior Developer.

2012 is the year of the first digital Olympics. In the UK, the BBC will stream 2500 hours of digital coverage of the games for TV, desktop, mobile and tablet, allowing users to personalise their Olympic experience via the media platforms they use. I predict social media will play a big part in this. Allowing users to act as commentators through real-time posts and tweets. This simple yet personal experience will hook the interest of even the uninitiated and encourage digital media consumption to rocket in the future.
Nia Lonergan, New Business Co-ordinator.

If Microsoft releases Windows 8 with their own app store and with IE 10 (which is planned for this year), to fully support all HTML5, it will be huge step for mankind and it will rapidly increase the standardisation of HTML5. There is still long way for HW acceleration for advanced graphics and 3D. But most of the microsites and apps on the web are not using that much graphical effects so people will turn to HTML5, which would work on most devices and doesn’t need any additional installation (unlike Flash Player).
Stefan Vadocz, Creative Developer.

2012 will be the year of the Smart TV, with us accepting the digital world into more and more aspects of our life, counterbalanced with it being (I think) the year Facebook crumbles!
Simon Beale, Designer.

Agree or disagree? Let us know what you think will be big in 2012!

What we are looking for…

An individual who can be responsible for innovative, well conceptualised and well developed multi-platform solutions for projects within the tech / creative department. You will be supported by a dynamic team in delivering high-quality end requirements for International clients.

If you think you have what it takes, visit our jobs page to find out more or get in touch.

Senior Project Manager

What we are looking for…

The best of the best! You have dealt with large and small clients alike and understand the variables in each. Be technically aware… We are digital after all. You keep your head at all times, can manage clients and staff, and keep projects on track and on budget. Agency experience is a must.

Find out more and get in touch >

Junior Frontend Developer

What we are looking for…

An individual who can be responsible for innovative, well conceptualised and well developed multi-platform solutions for projects within the tech / creative department. You will be supported by a dynamic team in delivering high-quality end requirements for International clients.

Find out more and get in touch >

Stephen Gray joins us with varied experience working across different areas of the Industry…
With a background in print, coming from the same uni and course as myself, he made the transition into a more digital orientated role through his interest in User Interaction and UX Design.

Stephen is an ambitious designer, whose enthusiasm and creative vision will surely prove to be a great benefit to the team! Welcome Stephen!

Due to a number of exciting projects in the pipeline, we currently have our eyes peeled and on the lookout for some seriously talented creatives to come and join the team! Including:

Senior UX / IA
Senior Designer
Creative Traffic / Project Manager
Senior Project Manager
Junior Front End Developer

Come and be a part of these exciting times at the manor! Visit our jobs page to find out more and get in touch.

Nia joins straight from graduating with a BA in Politics from the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwhich. Not a ‘green’ grad- she has experience as a fundraiser for the UEA Alumni Association, and previous work experience within PR & Events in Kent.

She brings the New Business & Marketing roll-call to three, and is busy getting stuck into all aspects of agency (and new business) life.

Mobile computing is currently the fastest growing IT market, with mobile information retrieval ranging among the foremost activities of smartphone users. Marketers and global companies are excited at the prospect that it will soon be common place for their users to point their mobile device camera at anything in the real world and create contextual information/visuals.

There were a few major announcements at this year’s event; including the fact that metaio will be releasing a free version of its Mobile SDK to bring latest AR features to a broad developer community. It will also be publishing a tool called ‘junaio Creator’ to allow virtually anybody to create AR content for junaio. This information is of particular interest as it will become increasingly easier for creatives to enrich the user experience and extend the story we take them on.

Thomas Alt, CEO of Metaio, commented:
“We predict AR to become a common feature on every smartphone and tablet. Of course we are pleased that our solutions have emerged as benchmarks for advanced technology and excellence in our industry, used by developers’ worldwide.”

Software from companies such as Metaio and Layar now makes it possible for social networking to become a real world live experience – when at a bar, shopping or at a gig:

Here’s another example of what can be achieved at the moment with augmented reality: Rofo on junaio

A great brand example is Lynx, who extended their campaign to Victoria train station in London, asking passers-by to look up at a giant screen where they saw, not only themselves, but fallen angels alongside them:

Services such as Google Goggles – a visual search tool, which in basic terms helps define what you see in the real world and wants to monetise the process. Once the public gets used to navigating their environment with tools like Goggles, everything we see and share will become searchable data. Combining environments with predictive technology, Google will be able to serve visual experiences that benefit both the consumer and advertiser.

Although consumers have been confronted with advertising messages for decades and the future could see a positive change of more targeted and relevant messages in our environment, I do worry that this real world product placement could also have a negative impact, for example, instead of someone looking for an item in a shop, people will become reliant on using an app to scan a room for it – almost like putting on your glasses to see. If this was the case, would we lose part of our real-world connections and daily communication with others.

Questions to ponder on… Who owns the advertising space in an augmented world and has the rights to the GPS coordinates? At the moment, anyone can create a message and attach it to specific coordinates. What will stop brands’ realities overlapping, and will this be a movement not just for entertainment and advertising purposes, but for how we see the world in the future? Will the divide between virtual and physical realities become blurred?

Other food for thought is whether ads in the virtual world have to match ads in reality. For example, brands could take over competitors’ outdoor press – presenting an alternative virtual world. Although treading on potential dangerous ground, there is nothing currently in place to stop such a thing.

I find this whole area of our industry fascinating. There is so much opportunity for virtual advertising, projection mapping and Kinect. This mix of augmented reality, social data and interactivity is a real game-changer. My only worry is that without structure and processes in place, the market and our everyday environments will become over-saturated and eventually lose value, becoming a lonely virtual world that no one wants to visit anymore. But, let’s make sure this doesn’t happen by working out rights ownership and allowing virtual ads to evolve into content that users can choose to experience on their own terms.

Podge is an opportunity – and one James and myself most heartily enjoyed – of our industry getting together to eat and be merry – both big and small companies, and not just agencies… anyone who plays an active part in the industry, was there. It may sound like just another ‘network’ event… but it’s not. It’s been a while since I enjoyed such a shindig so much. Meeting some great new people, some of them my heros in the design world when I was still a young nipper, as well as bumping into old friends.

Everyone left the ego’s at the door and set about having a good chinwag about what we are up to, how to safeguard against tough times, new opportunities or opinions on old. Remembering that we should always be collaborative, that we love this space of ours and should be looking to the future not protecting the past.

Anyway, enough of my chitta-chat. Many thanks to Phil for organising. Many thanks to FutureBrand for such an engaging concept. Hope to be back at Podge next year to say hi to everyone again.

Welcome to the team Joe!

What we are looking for…

The daddy (or mother) of Project Managers! You have dealt with large and small clients alike and understand the variables in each. Be technically aware… We are digital after all. You keep your head at all times, can manage clients and staff, and keep projects on track and on budget. Agency experience is a must.

Find out more and get in touch >