News articles from Technophobia

Accelerated Innovation Workshops - Supporting Innovation and Manufacturing in Sheffield

Technophobia — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The ideas and innovation workspace at Gripple-owned company Loadhog

Technophobia is pleased to be working in partnership with Creative Sheffield, the Innovation Futures Initiative at Sheffield Hallam University and Gripple to organise and sponsor a series of Accelerated Innovation Workshops. The workshops are aimed at supporting Sheffield’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop methods they can use to drive innovation within their businesses. Independent multi-disciplinary designer & innovation consultant, and managing director of Elmwood, Colin Burns, facilitated the event.

The workshops are intended to get more Sheffield companies thinking about innovation and exposed to a range of innovation techniques.

Innovation is about more than just new product development, it is about reinventing processes, observing technological developments and trends in peripheral industries, anticipating customers’ needs, and aligning them with key business objectives. User-centred thinking and placing innovation at the heart of an organisation are key themes of this initiative.

The first workshop took place on the 23rd February, following a successful pilot, held in June 2011, and had a fantastic response. The day’s activities included various tasks centred around observation, including an exercise to identify the demographic profile of a photographer entirely based upon the nature of their photography. Technophobia user experience designer, Kevin Rapley, also presented a best practice approach to digital prototyping. Attendees also took part in a brainstorming and prototype development exercise, designed to stimulate hands-on innovation and creativity, which considered the potential to redesign a supermarket trolley.

All the groups collaborated well, plenty of impressive ideas were forthcoming and the delegates awarded the day a great satisfaction rating average score of 4.85/5.

“‘I was very excited by the workshop - I have already reorganised my department in response to some of the things I saw.” Accelerated Innovation Workshop delegate.

Subsequent sessions are scheduled for April and May, if you are interested in getting involved contact Alex Prince (a.prince@shu.ac.uk).

Moving on up

Technophobia — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

We moved into our new office today, and it is fantastic!

In 1996 Technophobia first set up offices in the Workstation, and from small beginnings in one compact office, the company has continued to grow, moving floors and expanding into more offices and studio space. However the time came when our evolving needs and increasing staff numbers could no longer be accommodated, so after a long and harmonious partnership with the Workstation, it was time for us to relocate to fields-a-new. We were sad to leave, but haven’t moved too far: Velocity House, 3 Solly Street, Sheffield, S1 4DE.

The new office design was created by adt workplace, with their brief being ‘We need a space that reflects our driven and vibrant culture, and supports creativity and collaboration whilst providing a practical working environment”. Its design is stylish and contemporary; the layout gives ample workspace for teams, formal meeting rooms and collaborative breakout areas. We also have special areas for research and more fun, restorative areas for socialising and recharging.

Emma Marshall, managing director said, “We are very excited about the move. Unlike our old office the new space has been designed around us; it will accommodate all our staff in comfort and adapt to the demands of a growing organisation.”

We look forward to welcoming you and showing you around our new home.

From Monday 9th January our new address is: Velocity House, 3 Solly Street, Sheffield, S1 4DE

Technophobia in the top half of The Drum Digital 100

Technophobia — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Technophobia is delighted to have been ranked number 48 in the 2012 Digital 100 by The Drum.

The results were published at the end of last week and ranks agencies based on their income from digital activities over the last year. This is the first year The Drum has compiled the Digital 100 list.

Emma Marshall, Managing Director, said: “We are really pleased to be ranked within the top 50 of the Digital 100 list. This really is a testament to the team at Technophobia and shows how much we’ve grown.

It’s been quite a year here; with the acquisition by Capita, a search for a new premises, which we are due to move into in early January and a number of key appointments. Also, we’ve had the opportunity to work with, and build relationships with some great businesses to help them achieve their aims and our result in the Digital 100 stands us in great stead for 2012.”

Candy Diemer hired to lead user experience team

Technophobia — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Candy Diemer has been appointed as user experience (UX) team lead.

Candy is a user experience specialist, who will lead a team of eight user experience design professionals working with clients to build their digital strategy and drive value out of their online interactions.

Candy joins Technophobia from Rightmove.co.uk, where she was lead UX designer for two years. In this post, she created a mobile development team and launched the first property portal mobile app to feature successful business products for the public.

‘We are very excited to have bought someone like Candy on board. She will play an integral part in leading our ever expanding UX team into, what we feel, are going to be some of Technophobia's most significant years,’ said Emma Marshall, managing director.

Ed Goring, business director, added, ‘As we seek to widen our footprint in all areas of user experience and customer centric service design, Candy represents the calibre of leader that we seek to bring into Technophobia.’

Prior to her time at Rightmove.co.uk Candy lead the creative team at leading intimate apparel retailer, Figleaves.com. Her appointment will be fundamental in the development of Technophobia’s user experience strategy and her experience and expertise will add significant value to client projects.

Private and Public Sector Collaboration - Collabojam

Technophobia — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Technophobia is proud to have participated in this year’s Collabojam hosted by Sheffield City Region’s Creative and Digital Industries team.

The event aimed to capitalise on the current buzz surrounding Sheffield’s creativity scene and bring together innovative companies to share experiences to create a support network and develop a sustainable local collaborative culture.

Technophobia’s Innovation Director Chris Dymond was invited to speak to the delegates, most of whom were a mix of aspiring and seasoned collaborators, about public and private sector collaboration. This is something Chris and indeed our company as a whole feel extremely passionate about, particularly due to our involvement in projects such as the Technology Strategy Board _Connect platform, which is primarily designed to cultivate collaboration in the UK’s research and innovation communities.

The following highlights are taken from Chris’ presentation:

'Collaboration is one of those generic words that describes something so big and contested it doesn't really describe anything on its own, like ‘innovation’ or 'knowledge work' or ‘engagement’. But that's also what makes it interesting - we wouldn’t be here to discuss it if it was simple.

Technophobia has worked with both public sector and private companies on large, high value and long term web development contracts and each presented their own challenges in terms of collaboration.

However, it is important to remember that there are always external influences on the level of collaboration possible: the parameters of the contract, the client organisation’s culture, personalities and the level of stakeholder knowledge always vary and consequently the influences of these factors differ greatly.

Often with private sector projects an agency’s engagement is with one small team from the client’s side and they are responsible for handling stakeholder engagement and change management. Public sector organisations, on the other hand, are generally less averse to you approaching stakeholders directly. Also, public sector organisations are, perhaps counter-intuitively, often less conservative than the private sector and more open to embracing new innovation from outside.

There are three major dynamics within which collaboration needs to occur on projects of this type:

Firstly, the product being designed and built, and its effectiveness at being a platform for collaboration; secondly, the stakeholders and the extent to which they are involved in a collaborative process; and finally the project itself and the effectiveness of team members to collaborate with each other and externally.

Each of these dynamics is crucial to the success of the project.

Regarding the product, collaboration should be ‘baked in’ to the strategy so that is doesn’t just become a forgotten ideal, and a conscious effort should be made to review and reiterate the collaborative potential of the product as it develops.

Regarding stakeholder engagement, it can be difficult to get collaboration going in certain environments - people are generally time-poor and perhaps too focused on the internal dynamics of large programmes. However, the crucial thing is to continually reiterate *why* the project is happening and what the objectives are so that when people later on suddenly recognise the change that's happening, they remember the intentions and adjust better.

In addition, Technophobia operates agile development methods, so teams have a stand-up 'scrum' every morning in which the product owners are involved, and at the beginning of each development 'sprint'. Collaborative planning sessions are also held; these review the roadmap and produce the detailed work schedule. Client-appointed programme managers are involved in this process and form the connection back to senior management.

These collaborative processes allow project team members and client representatives to learn and practice collaboration, but, on long projects that is not enough. It is occasionally prudent for the team to disengage from the day-to-day work for a little bit and collaboratively think about and discuss the bigger picture. Pre-arranged periodic ‘project refresh’ days allow this to happen.

To sum up, it shouldn’t be assumed that everyone ‘naturally’ knows how to collaborate - it is a learned behaviour. People need to practise it both in routine contexts and more widely. Sometimes collaborating over trivial things early on can prime people for collaborating over important things later.

If done well and often, collaboration improves efficiency, communication and team motivation, improves outcomes and reduces the very significant risk of ineffective knowledge-sharing.'

The day was a great success, the next event is already planned for 10th August. Images from the day can be seen on the Collabojam Flickr group

Welcome to Yorkshire

Technophobia — Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The Yorkshire tourism industry has just received another boost thanks to Welcome to Yorkshire with a little help from us. We have just completed another successful project to integrate a new search and booking engine to replace the Destination Management System (DMS) that powered the Yorkshire.com website. The new system allows visitors to the site to search for attractions and activities and book accommodation within the region by specific area and by type of activity.

The successful integration of the third party system provided by Visit England and Visit Britain also included the redesign of the users’ search interface and a Welcome to Yorkshire website administration system.

Tourism is of huge importance to Yorkshire; it is worth c. £7 billion annually and is one of the largest industries in the county employing almost a quarter of a million people. There are 216 million visits to Yorkshire each year made by people travelling from all over the world.

As a result of the user experience review and new integration the interface is now more tailored, user friendly and pleasing to use.

In the initial two weeks post launch the homepage bounce rate improved by 22%, pageviews also increased significantly, up 25% and pages per visit climbed by 52% compared to the same period the previous month.

“Technophobia did a tremendous job for us on this project. What we valued was being able to work with a team who really knew how to make things work in a creative and efficient way. Working to incredibly tight timescales, they built us a brilliant platform that we can use to keep expanding our business with. Thank you all very much!” Sean Murricane, E-Business Manager, Welcome to Yorkshire.

Technophobia acquired by Capita

Technophobia — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We are delighted to announce that today Technophobia has been acquired by Capita, the UK's leading outsourcing company.

Technophobia will become part of Capita’s IT Services Division but we will retain our own distinct identity and remain as a standalone business entity. Emma Marshall will remain as Managing Director however the acquisition sees founding partners Pip and Amelia Thorne, who have been on sabbatical for the last year, exit the business.

Emma Marshall, Managing Director, Technophobia, said of the announcement, ‘We are extremely excited by Capita’s acquisition. Becoming part of the Capita Group offers us fantastic new opportunities and greater resource to support our plans to grow the business whilst allowing us to retain our own unique character and creative approach to business solutions.

Capita recognised in Technophobia not only a great business proposition but also the fantastic team of hard working, bright and talented individuals who make the company what it is. This acquisition is in no small way a testament to the team. I’m very confident and looking forward to the organisational and personal opportunities this offers us all. I feel very proud of what we have achieved and excited about the team’s future.’

PizzaExpress gets mobile

Technophobia — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We have designed and built a new lightweight mobile website for PizzaExpress.

The site has been created with the customer in mind - slick, simple and easy to be use on the move.

Taking our lead from pizzaexpress.com – visited by 500,000 customers a month looking for food news and directions to their nearest restaurant – we considered which areas of the site were most popular with mobile users and how and why they were using it. User testing ensured a great user experience for smartphone customers. As a result:

The location/restaurant search is very prominent
Search results can be displayed as a list or on a map
Each restaurant is flagged as “open” or “closed” depending on the time a user visits the site
The full restaurant menu is available to view
There’s a simple to use feedback form
Customers can sign up to receive news and offers.

Why a dedicated mobile site?

PizzaExpress has seen a steady increase in mobile traffic to its main website and as the market leader of the casual dining sector, understands what its customers want.
Customer needs are becoming increasingly mobile, with information in a convenient format in demand while on the go.
Added value for the customer, such as being able to leave feedback instantly, also means deeper engagement for the brand.

Building on success

Technophobia — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It’s not always the largest or most complex projects that give us the most satisfaction, sometimes it is the simple pleasure of a longstanding relationship and that is just the case with the new website we have launched for Henry Boot Construction Ltd. Technophobia has provided web services to the Henry Boot Group of Companies for over 10 years.

An award winning contractor, Henry Boot Construction is committed to sustainability, the highest standards of health and safety, corporate responsibility and reducing environmental impact. They provide construction services to the health, education, housing, custodial and public sectors, as well as a diverse range of commercial and industrial clients in the private sector. Putting something back into local communities is important to Henry Boot and there is a strong company focus on corporate and social responsibility.

The elegant new site features all the latest news, an array of project sheets organised by work sector, company policies and information on jobs and careers.

As part of a commitment to keep people informed about work operations, there is also a dedicated Considerate Constructor’s Scheme section, including contacts for all current sites to make it easier for anyone to get in touch with queries or concerns.

Following the site redesign, Simon Carr, Managing Director for Henry Boot Construction kindly said, ‘’ We are getting fantastic comments on the website so well done to everyone who helped get it off the ground.’’

A new-look Planning Portal

Technophobia — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Planning Portal, the UK Government’s online planning and building regulations resource for England and Wales has launched a new-look portal with support from ourselves.

The project was a truly collaborative process. Technophobia advised on the user experience and developed the look-and-feel elements to make sure the site was functional and in line with the Planning Portal brand. CX Partners helped to shape how the service should work. And the site was implemented by and built on IBM infrastructure using IBM software.

The result is a platform that is well positioned to not only accommodate evolving information, needs and technology but also will enable the Portal to invite other private and public suppliers to develop tools and services to sit alongside existing content.

‘As with all projects the success of our endeavors’ rely heavily on our partners and Technophobia has played no small part in this. Thank you for the high quality of input and support of your team.’ Chris Kendall, Portal Director

Technophobia Top Yorkshire & Humberside Design and Build Agency Again!

Technophobia — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Of the recent acknowledgements reflecting our achievements one of the most gratifying is that Technophobia has again been ranked Top Design and Build agency in Yorkshire and Humberside in the esteemed NMA’s 2010 Top 100

After narrowly missing out on making last year’s Top 100 we are delighted this year to be ranked at 71 in the 2010 list.

The Top 100 Interactive Agencies 2010 lists the UK's top 100 digital marketing, design & build and technical agencies. These are ranked on the income they earn from digital media activities in the UK.

Technophobia Top Yorkshire & Humberside Design and Build Agency again!

Technophobia wins a place on national league table of Britain’s fastest growing tech stars

Technophobia — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Technophobia, ranked at 69, is one of only four companies in the Northeast to win a place on The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 national league table of Britain’s fastest-growing tech stars. The league table ranks Britain’s one hundred privately-owned technology, media and telecoms (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years of available accounts.

The majority of the companies are based in London (52) and the South East (17). Of the remainder 10 are based in the North, 9 in the Midlands, 5 in the Southwest, 4 in Scotland and 3 in the East.

The Tech Track 100 is compiled by Fast Track, the UK’s leading networking company for top-performing private companies, with title sponsorship from Microsoft and main sponsorship from Barclays Corporate and BDO.

Our new identity!

Technophobia — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We've been around since 1995, a long time in web!

The internet and the solutions we provide have evolved dramatically in the last 15 years. Since starting out with a handful of employees we now have over 60. During this time whilst we have been busy working with our fantastic clients our old identity, that was apt for a small company, had become eroded and no longer reflective of the amazing energy within the company and complex strategies, projects and technology we now deploy.

The time has come

We realised time had come to update our branding in line with Technophobia today. We selected the awesome talent of creative agency DED Associates to work with to develop our new identity.

We love the clean exciting new logo that features an ‘orb’ design. The ‘orb’ design was chosen as a simplistic representation of data visualisation which can be used to illustrate some of topics that are important to us including: social networks, solution and network design, data and knowledge transfer, organisational networks and structure.

We feel we now have an identity that is more reflective of the company and our work.

Technophobia listed as Europe’s 25th fastest growing digital media company

Technophobia — Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Technophobia has been included at number 25 on the prestigious Media Momentum 2010 Top 50 list of the fastest growing digital media companies in Europe! The announcement was made on Wednesday night, 12th May, at the exclusive GP Bullhound Media Momentum Awards 2010 ceremony, held in London at the exciting Sketch restaurant.

Emma Marshall, Managing Director, said, '‘We are delighted to make the list. It’s excellent recognition of the efforts of the whole team and the amazing work they do every day at Technophobia.

We hope to build on our success and to continue to enjoy the challenge of providing innovative web solutions and excellent value to our clients. ’’

Our success is in no small part down to the hard work, talent and ingenuity of our dedicated team.’’

The Media Momentum Awards, now in their sixth year, are organised by specialist media and technology investment bank, GP Bullhound, and sponsored by Schroders Private Bank, Acton Capital Partners and law firm Kemp Little; Grant Thornton is an award sponsor.

Beating the recession and driving Sheffield’s digital economy

Technophobia — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In a year where much of the UK was struggling in recession we are delighted to announce we have not just beaten the trend but, based on preliminary results for the year ending 31st December 2009, have increased revenue by 141%!

We feel proud to be a flagship for Sheffield’s digital industry, demonstrating how the new digital regeneration of Sheffield is helping to fight the recession. When financial results are released at the end of March we expect to see an increase in profit, up by 226% on the previous year!

Amelia Thorne, Director of Technophobia announced: “We are delighted with the results for 2009 and feel with the appointment of Emma Marshall to the role of Managing Director, driving the business, we are now in a strong position to further consolidate last year’s performance and implement our strategy for future growth.”

Emma Marshall, Managing Director of Technophobia commented: “2009 was a wonderful year for Technophobia; we formed many great relationships, saw expediential business growth , recruited gifted staff and implemented new and exciting initiatives.

It was also a challenging year and our successes are down to the hard work, talent and ingenuity of our people.

2010 offers the same opportunities and challenges, but with the team behind us I am confident we will continue to grow, learn and innovate.”

Technophobia’s impressive 2009 highlights included:

The award of a £1.5M contract by the Technology Strategy Board
The completion of a new online recruitment service for South Yorkshire Police
The award of an Alfa Romeo global community project
The award of an internal project for Pizza Express
Increase in employee numbers up by 20%.

Paul Scriven, Leader of Sheffield City who visited Technophobia on a recent business visit commented: “The growth of companies like Technophobia is important to the future prosperity and technological capability of Sheffield. That is why Sheffield City Council and Creative Sheffield have set out practical and financial measures to support this growth and ensure we continue to attract and nurture the right people and skills in Sheffield.”