• Analysis: We relied heavily on New Relic’s outstanding RPM performance management suite to give us insight about the parts of Basecamp that were accessed the most as well as those that were most in need of improvement.
• Caching: We’ve begun using Memcached in a variety of spots. Caching can be tricky with dynamic apps like Basecamp since different people often see different things, but we’ve implemented it carefully where it could be used to its best advantage.
• MySQL optimizations: We’ve been working with a MySQL performance consultant to help us optimize our database calls and queries. We’re still early in the process but we’ve learned a lot so far.
• Hardware upgrades: We recently made some significant upgrades to our database servers. We went from servers with 2 x Dual Core 2GHz processors, 32GB of RAM, and 6×73GB 15,000 RPM SAS drives to servers with 2 x Quad Core 3GHz processors, 128GB of RAM, and 8×73GB 15,000 RPM SAS drives. We’ve also upgraded our load balancers and have new switches coming soon as well

The Harbour Agency provides the very best Australian talent for hotels, clubs, festivals, private functions and major outdoor and industry calendar events through out metropolitan and regional Australia.

The Harbour Agency had a legacy website that was difficult to maintain and did not showcase their diverse roster of artists. Conversant Studios was contracted to build a new website that solved both of these problems and quickly.

Using Textpattern to provide the framework, we were able to produce a website in a very short space of time that answered both of these requirements . The crew at The Harbour Agency have been maintaining the site since June ‘06.

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This seminal book is the first must read for anyone working on the web. Published in October 2000, its simple message is clear: the most important usability concern for anyone designing or building a website is to not make the user think. Steve Krug calls this (with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek) his first law of usability.

The process

1. Consult, analyse and plan

The first step is to outline the needs of your business and the needs of your customers and balance those needs against the brand & technical requirements. We also work with to outline your role in the project and the positive impact you can have on the time line.

2. Refine, design and use

The second phase centers on information architecture, outlining template structure, defining ‘calls to action’, functional process flows and security and scalability. The objective of this phase is to reflect the requirements of the brief gathered in phase I and provides the customer with the first opportunity to interact with an intrerface. The outcome of all this work is a functional set of approved wireframes.

3. Design and develop

The third phase concentrates on completing a user centered design process that meets the brand and style requirements. This is where we lock down the colours palette, typographic treatment and basic interactions. We also develop a content strategy and asset list so we can develop all the content needed in parallel with the next phase.

4. Prototype and populate

We build a dynamic prototype and populate the site with live content. Browsers are dynamic environments - everyone has a different screen size, default size and personal preferences - and this is the phase where we pour the content into this dynamic environment. This allows us to bring all possible errors to the surface at an early stage without a major impact on the time line.

5. The programming

At this stage all the look and feel and content should be locked down so we can provide the technology needed to drive the website. At Conversant Studios we are (mostly) agnostic about your technology preferences. We do have a few preferred technologies - but we are happy and able to build websites and applications in just about any technology.

6. Test, deliver and release

The final phase in the development involves migration to staging platform, user acceptance testing (UAT), final modifications from UAT and getting the site live.

New a new site? Get in touch with us.

If you’d like some help simply give us a call on +61 421 699 494 or use the contact form to drop us a line.

The process

1. Defining the business objectives

We work with you to define the business objective of the website. What you want to achieve, what the customers might want to achieve and the we go about defining some benchmarks and gaging how we can measure the success of the site.

2. Personas - defining the user objectives

We use a proven methodology to define the types of customers you can expect to visit your site. We outline how they find your site and their objectives once they reach your site. We give them a name and a face, make them real people and take the subjectivity out of building the website.

3. Wireframes

Like an architect drawing up plans for a house, information architects define the structure and the ‘flow’ of the website. This is an iterative process where we lock down the sitemap, navigation, nomenclature and develop solutions to meet both the customers and the businesses objectives.

Do you need an information architect? Get in touch with us.

If you’d like to reorganise your site simply give us a call on +61 421 699 494 or use the contact form to drop us a line.

The flip-side to search engine marketing is optimising your site through accessible code and keyword density.

The process

1. Defining key objectives and budget

We work with you to define the key objectives of the campaign and set a budget for the first few ‘mini-experiments’.

2. Optimising your site

We optimise your website through accessible code and keyword density. This ensure that both the customers and the search engines can fully access the data on your website.

3. Choosing your keywords

We use all available technology to perform research on your industry segment before recommending a targeted list of key words and key phrases for the campaign to target.

4. Run the experiment

Once the ad is approved we monitor the performance of the keywords against the key objectives and the budget.

5. Results and recommendations

Once the mini-experiment has completed we assess the results and provide a set of recommendations for the next mini-experiment.

Want to start advertising online? Get in touch with us.

If you’d like some help simply give us a call on +61 421 699 494 or use the contact form to drop us a line.

We take the difficulty out of managing your customer list and ensure that you are complying with the anti-spam legislation and provide reporting to allow you to monitor each campaign and draw your own conclusions about their success.

The process

1. Defining the objective

We work with you to define the objective of the email newsletter campaign. What you want to achieve and we establish some benchmarks to measure the success of the campaign.

2. List management

We gather the list and list and ensure that you are complying with the anti-spam legislation. We integrate your existing database with your current website to ensure your list stays up to date.

3. Design

We have a range of email newsletter designs for you to choose from. Alternatively, we can easily customise an email newsletter design to suit your own brand requirements and the objectives of the campaign.

4. Reporting

Our online reporting system will allow to monitor the campaign success minute by minute. It will show you how many people have opened, click and unsubscribed from your email newsletter. This allows a fine-grained approach to analysing the results of the campaign and compare them against the established benchmarks.

Want to send an email newsletter? Get in touch with us.

If you’d like to send an email newsletter simply give us a call on +61 421 699 494 or use the contact form to drop us a line.

Each project and product requires a different approach and we will help you identify the objectives and goals you want the site to achieve in the short, medium and long-term.

We specialise in helping business organise their products and services to take them online and dominate the competition.

New help with your business? Get in touch with us.

If you’d like some help simply give us a call on +61 421 699 494 or use the contact form to drop us a line.

It is also a service we offer to reconfigure and re-skin your existing table-based website.

New to re-skin your site? Get in touch with us.

If you’d like some help simply give us a call on +61 421 699 494 or use the contact form to drop us a line.