i-d media london

We’re delighted to announce the launch of the Times Spelling Bee iPhone app – available here – http://bit.ly/bxsOMd. The app is based on the fun, interactive spelling games that can be found on the website we developed for Times Online [www.timesspellingbee.co.uk].

Screenshots taken from the game:

Catherine King, of Adecco Group UK & Ireland is the latest CEO to post a challenge on the Times Online Business Wisdom website.

Business Wisdom is a website that we developed in conjunction with Times Online. The project invites five CEOs to share a challenge that their companies might face over the next few years. This is then broken down into its component parts (e.g. Marketing, HR, Technology, Research & Development) and presented to the Times Online audience, who are able to propose a possible solution. This is then presented back to the CEO, who will have the opportunity to endorse or challenge the collective wisdom generated by the site.

The current brief centres around Adecco’s challenges in recruiting the right calibre of employees for the London 2012 Games, sustaining momentum on a three year project, ensuring diversity is a key part of the recruitment process and creating a legacy for the Adecco Group that goes beyond 2012.

Can you solve the question?

We launched a new campaign-based website for Cockpit Arts last week called Maker Difference.

Cockpit Arts is the UK’s only creative business incubator for designer-makers. Renowned for being a ‘hotbed of creative talent’ their studios are brimming with cutting edge fashion, jewellery and interior products.

As a registered charity they exist solely to nurture creative talent, from first beginnings through to international success. They house 165 designer-makers at their incubators in London all benefiting from affordable studio space, inclusive professional development support, one-to-one business mentoring and public selling opportunities.

Cockpit Arts is launching ‘Maker Difference’ a new campaign to raise awareness of, and encourage support for talented designer-makers.

The campaign comes to life on 12-14 June 2009 and 19-21 June 2009 when Cockpit Arts opens the doors to its renowned London studios, inviting the public inside. At these free summer ‘Open Studios’ events you can meet designers and see new trends in the making.

We recently launched The Times Spelling Bee website for Times Online as part of their Spelling Bee Championship, a competition aimed at improving spelling. 

Working on this project was (and continues to be) a highly satisfying process. This got me thinking about what factors influence how you perceive whether a project was a positive experience or not. The reasons for this project being enjoyable to work on from my point of view include the following factors (in no specific order):

1. Excellent client relationship
2. Clear lines of communication – both internally and with the client
3. Interesting and engaging subject matter
4. Clearly identifying requirements at the initial stages of the project
5. Implementing new and challenging technological concepts, thereby facilitating for new learning
6. Executing requirements to the satisfaction of the client
7. Delivering a website that is fun and highly interactive from a user’s perspective
8. Achieving the goals that were set by the client in terms of measuring whether the project was a success
9. Being able to refine and develop our in-house processes as a result of this experience

Whether you enjoyed working on a project obviously doesn’t determine whether the project was successful or not. I would suggest, however, that if a project comprises at least some the characteristics mentioned above, it will have a greater chance of satisfying the following criteria:

1. The project was delivered within budget
2. The project was completed within the stipulated time frames
3. The requirements of the project have been satisfied

And these are surely considered to be The Holy Grail when measuring a successful project….

We’ve recently launched a new site for our good friends Renault.

The site, which supports the launch of the new Kangoo Van, is in it’s first phase with more to come very soon.

http://www.newkangoovan.co.uk

We begun filiming parts for a new project this week. Our meeting room was converted to a fully functional studio compete with green screen. Jake one of our designers roped himself into being the hand model for the day. Great hands Jake.

It’s all top secret at the moment though. We’re in the middle of scoping and IA for what’s going to be a really interesting editorial launch later this year.

Times Online tasked I-D Media with developing an Interactive Guide that demonstrates how to use the new digital archive, which contains over 20 million articles from the Times and the Sunday Times, dating back 200 years!  

With a target audience comprising a wide cross section of the public, The Flash 8 application has been designed for accessibility and ease of use, with graphic text boxes that reference Post-it® notes as a way to clearly differentiate between the TimesArchive engine and the Interactive Guide.

To use the archive, go to http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/