Archives

NZUni Talent

4th November 2022
nzunitalent-promo

NZUni Talent is a recruitment website designed for employers to advertise graduate vacancies, internships, volunteering opportunities or entry-level roles to students and graduates across all NZ universities simultaneously.

Unlike other local job boards such as Seek, Jora, Indeed, TradeMe or Job Monster, NZUni Talent is the only job board with direct access to the platforms that the Universities are using to prepare graduates for their careers (with built-in services such as CV scanning, AI-based interview training, and skills training).

Employer access is an existing configurable component of the Access Group Career Development solution – the flexible platform that many Universities use to develop & measure student employability. With some minor development work, we were able to extend the platform to facilitate a targeted and hierarchical advertising revenue opportunity.

Jobs posted to the network by approved employers can be targeted to students (who are already using these established University employability sites to prepare for employment after graduation). Students are keen to apply for these suitable jobs and can follow specific companies to see new roles as they are published.

Job approval - flow

Employers could now advertise their roles and raise brand awareness to a captive audience of early talent. A promotional website was required in order to monetise this opportunity and market it to potential New Zealand employers.

I designed and developed a WordPress-powered CMS incorporating the client’s branding (including powerful SEO tools) to explain the tiered pricing model and drive employer self-registrations.

Following registration, the NZUni Talent sales team follows up to facilitate the creation of employer profiles (for increased company visibility) and job posts. Additional development was done to the Abintegro Career Development Platform to allow direct payments, provide enhanced reporting, and a centralised job management system (so a single job could be shared with multiple universities without needing to be created individually).

Captive Audience
Captive Audience
160,000 enrolled students
Direct Access
Direct Access
All eight NZ universities
Addressable Market
Addressable Market
500+ registered employers
Pricing Model
Pricing Model
job listings & employer profiles

Outcomes

In the first 18 months since launching in June 2021:

  • 84,000 job views and 18,000 job applications for 3,000 jobs
  • 2,600 companies
  • 1,100 employers (over 200% increase) and 132 employer profiles
  • 42,000 website views and 15,000 unique visitors
  • generating 3x initial ROI each month
H&C

Horse & Country TV

4th October 2017

About

Horse & Country TV is an international multi-screen network about equestrianism and country lifestyle. The digital offering (consisting of linear TV channel, live events and an extensive video back catalogue) was delivered to subscribers across web, mobile and smart TV platforms via an eCommerce B2C SaaS OTT platform.

Using written editorials powered using WordPress, potential customers are driven into a content marketing funnel from paid-for social advertising to subscription purchase.

Highlights

Slashed subscriber churn in half

Refined the dunning process (total number, periodicity and messaging) to reduce eCommerce involuntary churn by over 50%.

Increased web performance by 9x

Consolidated 15 websites instances into a single integrated WordPress multisite theme (for single global updates and performance improvements)

Over 20 mobile app store launches

Release manager for a large number of app platforms:

  • iOS mobile
  • Android mobile
  • Web
  • Amazon FireTV
  • Amazon Prime Video
  • Android TV
  • Apple TV
  • Roku

Launched across six territories (UK, US, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, and APAC) in multiple languages and currencies.

Improved CRO using multi-variant testing

Increased subscription signup conversions by testing multiple mobile-first landing pages on the UnBounce platform.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Ranking in search engine results were dramatically improved in a number of ways:

  • Creation of structured data (also known as “rich snippets”) which allowed the display of news, tv programs and individual video results to appear in more enticing ways
  • Global SSL certificates increased consumer confidence
  • Easy to understand in-page “traffic light” SEO evaluation system for editorial team
  • Better page rendering performance (including TTFB) which raised Google PageSpeed scores

eCommerce attribution

Example affiliate journey (including signposting)
  • End-to-end affiliate tracking program (which allowed full monitoring of conversions, from digital display advertising through to purchase)
  • Implemented country-specific Facebook tracking pixels (to allow the creation of “lookalike” audiences for retargeting)
  • Consolidated individual Facebook pages to a simplified geographic “Facebook Global Pages” structure
  • Google AdWords attribution modelling for evaluation of paid-for keyword ad placements

New features

  • Daily/weekly TV guide (automatically updated every hour)
  • Countdown timers for time-based events and premieres (to increase FOMO)
  • 404 error page with multiple endpoints (so no dead-end customer journeys)
  • Simple, universal navigation for the hybrid web OTT and WordPress applications
  • Hundreds of 302 redirections (to avoid 404 errors from legacy links)
  • Improved content discovery (i.e. genre-based browsing)
  • Homepage geolocation (to prevent subscriptions being purchased from the wrong country)
  • OpenX ad distribution server (for automated deployment and rotation)
  • Multi-lingual subscription drivers (including a second paragraph mobile-only unit)
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Internal digital display advertising

Other enhancements

  • Improved client service by creating easily understood technical documentation (including User Personas & User Stories)
  • Enhanced internal communications with digital infrastructure (e.g. Slack, Zapier, Trello) and created detailed step-by-step Product Support Guides to facilitate backlog prioritisation and stakeholder buy-in
  • Google Analytics and Hotjar integrations (including open graph metadata for Facebook and Twitter)
  • Hundreds of 302 redirections (to avoid 404 errors from previous site migrations and other outdated links)
  • Technical documentation for RFP and evaluation criteria for vendor selection process
  • Single, unified domain name strategy
  • Responsive (mobile-first) email marketing templates in MailChimp – including weekly RSS news emails – and automated transactional email processing in Mandrill
User interaction heatmap
v-r.reviews

VR Reviews

18th July 2016
v-r.reviews - post template

About

Looking at the emerging Virtual Reality content sector, I realised that finding good experiences seemed to be quite a difficult process. Continue reading

AML’s Christmas Cracker

15th December 2014

This project uses WebGL  to allow the user to stretch and pull a virtual Christmas Cracker, revealing a random joke. The first 1000 cracker pulls donated £1 to Street Child Africa, AML’s official charity.

Created using Mat Groves’ excellent (and appropriately-named) WebGL PIXI.js platform (and based on one of his concepts). The music track is “Silent Night” and was kindly supplied by the African’s Children Choir.

For this project I was responsible for:

  • Research (development platform and prototyping)
  • Front-end Development
  • Quality Assurance
Click here to see the archived website
CFA Institute

CFA Institute Career Mapping Tool

10th February 2014

The aim of this project was to refine a bulk email databases of prospective students, by taking them through a 10-step career management tool (to determine a suitable role and learning program). Fully responsive, mobile-friendly and IE7 compatible, this site received over 140,000 hits in the first week of launching. Users were able to share their specific result in social media, using bespoke Open Graph API integration.

Cross-platform, Responsive Design

The tool encouraged engagement between the user and the CFA Institute brand and helps the user to determine whether CFA Program, Claritas or CIPM is right for them. Fully responsive, mobile-friendly and IE7 compatible, this site received over 140,000 hits in the first week of launching. Users were then able to share their specific result in social media, using bespoke social media API integration.

Extending the Brand

In consultation with the CFA’s marketing, creative development, education and web service teams, ThisCity were able to enhance the existing creative brand guidelines using gradients and animation in order for the implementation of an attractive, smooth and elegant visual design.

Metrics & Reporting

All micro-interactions with the mapping tool were measured (e.g. questions answered, quiz completions, visits, time on site, completion, forwards, shares) and this was reflected the engagement with the student prospects in the CFA Program, Claritas and CIPM database.

55
Unique Visitor Conversion (%)
7
Degree Disciplines Targeted
7
Global Key Markets
140000
Hits in the first week

On this project I was responsible for:

  • Front-end development
  • User Journey, User Experience and User Interface
  • GA custom campaign parameters
  • Back-end hosting and server configuration
  • Database Management
  • Administrative Documentation
  • Google Analytics reporting
  • Social Media sharing integration
Click here to see the ThisCity Agency Case Study
Click here to see the archived website

Allen & Overy Graduate Recruitment

12th September 2013

From its strategy of counter-cyclical expansion to its vision of broadening access to the legal profession, Allen & Overy has a history of setting precedents. This project for ThisCity Agency involved working alongside Allen & Overy, developing a WordPress-based theme to replace their existing graduate recruitment site. Designed mobile-first and fully-responsive, it ensured that the experience of the target audience (recent legal graduates) was delivered consistently across the broad spectrum of digital devices and browsers.

Content included interactive infographics, a PDF document archive, over 21 videos, and CMS training documentation was also created to enable in-house updates.

21
Videos
204
Increased Applications (%)
148
Increased Website Visits (%)
13
Global locations

This site was a finalist in the 2013 National Graduate Recruitment Awards for The Best Graduate Recruitment Website.

Targetjobs National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2013

On this project I was responsible for:

  • Front-end development
  • User Experience and User Interface
  • Back-end hosting and server configuration
  • Database Management
  • Administrative Documentation
  • Google Analytics reporting
Click here to see the ThisCity Agency Case Study
Click here to see the live website

Business Auckland

24th June 2013

New Zealand is one of the easiest places in the world to do business. It is ranked number one of 189 countries for ease of starting a business, and at number two for ease of doing business – and it can all be done online for little cost (the whole process takes less than two days).

This web project was for local government (Auckland’s Tourism, Event and Economic Development – ATEED). ATEED’s role is to improve New Zealand’s economic prosperity by leading the successful transformation of Auckland’s economy. This means being responsible for identifying market failures and opportunities, connecting key players and influencing resources being focused in areas of growth for Auckland.

As the Business Digital Advisor for ATEED, my role involved combining more than 66 independent websites into a single hub for over 12 business units, and providing online tools for self-service delivery. Built using ExpressionEngine, the CMS allowed a comprehensive approvals workflow for the team at ATEED to draft, preview and send content for review before it could be published on the live site.

The resulting standards-compliant and fully-responsive website had various capabilities, including video, social media, tools & resources, dynamic graphs (using HighCharts), news, and a currency calculator (updated daily).

On this project, I was responsible for:

  • Information Architecture
  • Scoping/Research
  • Interface Design
  • Content Planning
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Managing Creative/Visual Design
  • Functional Specification
  • Project Management
businessaucklandz.com - wool wireframe
Physical Wireframe (using wool!) to demonstrate relative interconnectivity between pages.

Happy 21st, Pasifika!

21st March 2013

Many people don’t realise that even traditional workflow tools can benefit from using programming techniques.

One of my earliest coding experiences was writing an automated script for Adobe PageMaker (a print-based layout application) – this took a CSV file exported from the Microsoft Access advertising listings, and created correctly-sized ad boxes with the advertiser’s name (saving production time of about 16 hours). In another project, I used JavaScript to program expressions in After Effects to automatically create a script-based numerical on-screen counter (from 100,000 to 259,000 – with motion blur). These approaches allow much more control and flexibility than traditional manually-based workflows.

For this promotional video for AucklandNZ.com to celebrate 21 years of the Pasifika Festival, I used particle emitters to control a separate timeline with 3,000 images (auto-imported) and animated using this particle system. With a few simple parameters, I was able to control sizing, speed and translation limits to create the right effect. I then added a few type elements for the years, and placed everything within a ‘space tunnel’ (actually a large graphic with a polar co-ordinate distort filter).

I designed a quick endframe in Photoshop, then asked the graphic design team to make sure it was on-brand and add any flourishes required.

Once completed, I then worked closely with the Pasifika events management team to get a soundtrack cleared for use, then edited it to match the animation.

About the Festival

The Pasifika Festival began in 1992, and has grown into one of Auckland’s biggest cultural events. It came to life through a joint initiative between the then Auckland City Council and the South Pacific Island Nations Development Association. The Festival aimed to bring Pacific Island communities closer together and to celebrate the richness and variety of their values, culture and lifestyles. It has grown to become the biggest celebration of Pacific Island culture and heritage in the world.

FYI Flooring

FYI Flooring

5th March 2013
A client came to me looking to refresh their website and add the ability for customers to replenish consumables and purchase accessories. Continue reading

Digital Display Advertising

19th March 2012

Adobe Flash player was a driving force for creativity in the early days of the web, as well as the delivery mechanism for delivery of animation and rich media digital display advertising units. Designers were able to use simple stage-based animated frames and scenes, and developers had access to powerful scripting frameworks.

The ad:tech industry has now mostly switched over to the less proprietary HTML5-based animations (for easier debugging and battery optimisation).

This is a small selection of my Flash banners, where I have often tried to invoke a sense of utility – because when advertising is done well it is useful.

Visa business credit cards

An Actionscript (AS2) Flash-based banner campaign to promote Visa’s credit card for business, these animations were used in many sizes and creative executions. It starts with the real-time (retrieved from the user’s computer clock), and increases in speed to give the impression of ‘time flying by’.

Careful attention to detail meant it closely represented both the analogue mechanism and a blurred animation effect, while still being fully generated in real-time.

Ever wonder where the time goes?

UBS tracked investments

Rich media banner containing a live stock ticker feed from an external source.

National Booktokens

Mouse-based drawing application delivered as part of display advertising.

Samsonite Cubelite

The Cubelite premium luggage collection (now re-branded as Lite-cube) started in random locations and utilised a simple collision-detection algorithm – as well as realistic shadows – to generate more visual interest on repeated viewings.

Get Adobe Flash player

Dove Body Wash

Multiple layers of blurred raindrops (arranged using Disney’s “multiplane” animation technique to give the impression of depth), artificial steam, three product shots and a logo into a minimum file size.

Daily Mail Wine Club

The image transition here uses a simple smooth animated mask reveal (controlled programmatically using AS3).

Lee Warn

leewarn.org

7th January 2012

Logo design, business cards, website design, email marketing and production for Lee Warn – a multi-sport athlete, marriage celebrant and motivational speaker.

The dynamic identity contains a reference to Rorschach inkblots, which allows the viewer to manifest their own interpretation of the brand. Each application of the logo employs a different inkblot – for example, the business cards used eight different backgrounds and the email footer uses a slowly changing GIF animation.

Click here to visit the live website
Operation Smoke Storm

Operation Smoke Storm

12th March 2011

Worldwide, 1 person dies every 6.5 seconds due to smoking and other tobacco use. Every day in the UK, over 900 school children (aged under 16) try smoking for the first time.

Operation Smoke Storm is a brand new style of learning resource for schools which targets this problem by creating a lifesaving shift in teens’ attitudes towards smoking and the tobacco industry. It was designed to create classroom discussion about unscrupulous tobacco industry practices that target young people. It focuses on tobacco marketing strategies from the perspective of a tobacco industry executive and marketing company, as well as a health campaigner, both seen through the eyes of a teenager and reported direct to camera in the form of a social media blog. Operation Smoke Storm comprises of 5 principal resource components:

  • 3 separate 50 minute sessions which can be delivered consecutively over 3 PSHE sessions or during an entire curriculum free day (relevant curriculum links are provided)
  • 1 Family Component — a take home booklet
  • 1 Booster Component — a follow up interactive session usually delivered one year after the original three sessions have been presented

In the sessions, the teacher streams a pre-loaded online multimedia presentation and displays this on an overhead projector screen at the front of the class. The teacher can navigate through the presentation both backwards and forwards, playing video clips and pausing to facilitate activities and discussions. Clear teacher instructions and booklets for students are provided. It was so successful, both a trial DVD version and extension Booster sessions were added.

For this project, I was part of a larger team. My responsibilities included;

  • Development of an adaptive web-based AS3.0 Flash application
  • Technical Direction
  • Content planning and delivery
  • Video compression
  • Audio cleanup (mobile phone interference removal)
  • Project Management (assisting the Lead Project Manager)
60
Video files
25
Audio files
10
Flash interactive games

Project Documentation

A recent London trial showed that Operation Smoke Storm improved student attitudes and misconceptions held about smoking by as much as 39% and increased awareness of key smoking issues by 77%. This project was a finalist in the 2012 BETT (British Educational Training and Technology) Awards for Secondary Digital Content.

British Educational Training and Technology Awards
Click here to see the live website