Web Tales: Web Design & Development. A Small Agency Perspective.

This is an episode in two parts. First we discuss 2014 in relation to: Memorable Karmabunny projects Technical challenges Changes we have adopted into our workflow Web and tech news Design trends Software we have enjoyed Anything else that occurs to us In part two we play Nostradamus and try to predict what we will be chatting about at the end of 2015.  

In this special episode we talk strategically and ethically about the CMS solutions we offer our clients. We shortly have a big decision to make as we discuss the pros and cons of our long term in-house CMS (SproutCMS) versus the many good 3rd party and open source systems available, including Wordpress, Craft CMS, Expression Engine, Concrete 5 and Silver Stripe. Topics include Why are we having this discussion? Why did we build our own CMS in the first place? Is our position defendable in this day and age? Do we throw out a very mature and trusted code base and just turn to a mature open source or licensed product? Do we fork a new version and make it open source given how much work is in the code base? Note that this is in no way a review of these 3rd party CMS offerings, rather it is a discussion of how they might fit within Karmabunny's client offerings in comparison with our existing in-house CMS.Articles referenced in this podcast:Why Use a Custom Content Management System (CMS)Never Fall for a Custom

This week the Karmabunny crew chat about: The bold design direction Google are going in, the moves Mozilla are making to protect your online privacy and the way that Microsoft are making people love them again. In our big chat we discuss who Karmabunny Web Design is: How we began Our path to steady growth The impact of a portfolio The importance of design and a client-first mentality Employing people Where we are now and where we want to be Websites referenced in this episode: Polaris privacy initiative to accelerate user focused privacy online Lightbeam Firefox plugin Google's material design language Microsoft to open-source entire .NET stack Visual Studio goes cross platform and open source as well Visit our website for all of our podcasts and the Karmabunny Web Design blog.

This week the Karmabunny crew chat about: The questionable usability of a popular ecommerce navigation pattern Josh's favourite new feature in Android Lollipop What Jana thinks of her early Google Inbox experiences In our big topic we discuss: Darren's unfortunate brush with identity theft Changes to the Australian Privacy Act that came in to play earlier this year The current state of user authentication methods Websites referenced in this episode: Form Usability: The Pitfalls of Inline Accordion and Tab Designshttp://baymard.com/blog/accordion-and-tab-design 12 of the best new features in Android Lollipophttp://www.theverge.com/2014/10/28/7082875/12-best-new-features-android-lollipop-nexus Googles new uber-nice email clienthttp://Inbox.google.com The Sunk Cost Fallacyhttp://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/ The Australian Privacy Act changeshttp://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-act/privacy-law-reform Mailchimp – the beautiful email marketing management toolhttp://www.ma