Persona

Posted at: 11:44 AM by Hammad

Intercede are one of the world's leading Identity and Credential Management companies. Their services include enabling and managing: secure registration, biometric capture, application vetting and approval through to smart card personalization, issuance and management.

Here at Persona we were charged with overhauling their corporate website to provide a more modern look and feel but also to produce a site which was logically, informatively and strategically structured in order to optimise content and create an excellent first impression for visitors to the site.

The project is being developed in a phased approach; phase 1 has just been completed with a flat HTML site, which is now live at www.intercede.com. Phase 2 will see the site expand in terms of the number of pages, whilst at the same time pages being developed into our CMS to allow Intercede staff to manage the content for their website.

The Intercede site does contain a lot of information as is the primary focus for sales based activity. As such we have ensured that the information is clearly presented and does not intimidate the visitor with huge blocks of copy. One of the ways we have sought to achieve this can be seen at http://www.intercede.com/products-techspecs.html - the page contains a lot of copy, however with clever use of an "accordion" tool, the content can be read in easily digestible chunks.

Phase 2 kicks off in the next few weeks, and we'll keep you posted on developments...

Labels: cms, technical, web design, website

Posted at: 9:03 AM by Hammad

We all have a love-hate relationship with IT and it's no different at Persona. Recently we've been victim of a few growing pains and so we're taking steps to ease the pain. In fact, we're not just going to ease it, we're going to flip it on its head and make it work harder for us!

Firstly, we're rolling out a new web deployment workflow, which will mean a faster, slicker and more robust process from development to staging and then live. The documentation and testing processes are also being vastly improved to give an even higher quality of output and service.

On a technical level, we're moving to Microsoft SQL Server 2008, upgrading our version control system to the latest Microsoft SourceSafe Server and integrating everything more efficiently with our Visual Studio development tools. By using integrated technologies make the most of our internal infrastructure and keep our costs low and efficiency high. That's what helps us stay commercially competitive as well as working to the best standards in the industry.

That's not all though. We're also trialling the growing emergence of 'virtualisation' technology for creating simulated production environments and also playing with Windows Server 2008. We've even been dabbling with some open-source CMS platforms on Java! - all part of our role to stay up to date and at the forefront of technology, so you don't have to.

Give us a ring anytime to chat about how these evolutions could benefit you.

Labels: cms, persona, servers, technical

Posted at: 12:02 PM by Hammad

If you're a small, growing business that could benefit from some equity investment, you wont find a better place to research and contact the right people than the new Growth Investment East Midlands web site which was launched this month.

www.ginem.co.uk

Following a formal tendering process, the EMDA backed organisation commissioned Persona as their brand stewards and communications agency.

Our remit has been fully integrated and so far we've delivered a new visual identity, marketing material, advertorials and event signage.

The key channel though is the new web site at www.ginem.co.uk which has been developed on our Content Management System (CMS) for easy maintenance and longevity. The site has a clean, professional and modern design that's aimed at entrepreneurs, along with a suitable wealth of no nonsense news, articles and resources. It's worth bookmarking this one, as already the site content is updated regularly with events and videos.

Don't forget, if you need to regain control of your web site and could benefit from a more user-centric communications strategy, speak to us and we can have a friendly chat to see if we can help.

Labels: advertorials, cms, illustration, signage, technical, web design, website

Posted at: 2:56 PM by Lewis

I often try to keep up-to-date with the latest developments at the W3C, and in particular with CSS. There are many useful and promising features outlined for CSS3 (the next spec for CSS standards, which are in development as I speak) that have already got me excited probably more than is really necessary. One of the more obviously inspiring advancements though, will be with web fonts.

For years web designers have been mostly stuck in a rut with web typography; restricted to a only a handful of fonts because developers such as myself have to keep a tight reign on what's possible, knowing that fonts on one particular computer will not be the same on another's. Although the solution to these restrictions has traditionally been to create imagery to represent such fonts, this and other methods present their own set of problems and required work-arounds for developers, and in general we remain restricted - stuck in the past. It's amazing how little progress (though some would say obvious given the circumstances) has been made with web typography over the years, despite the capabilities being there for some time.

CSS3's font selector should eradicate all of that. With it, it will be possible for developers to specify not just another boring old font, but actual TrueType fonts. How? By simply referencing the location of the font file itself in a CSS, so if the user has the font installed on their machine or not, it won't matter because the CSS can pull them in accordingly and render them on the page (providing they are using a web browser which supports CSS3, of course.)

Currently, only the latest version of Apple's Safari browser has implemented the spec - but it's there, and it works. Both Opera and Firefox plan to include the selector in upcoming versions of their browsers.

Problems? As always, Microsoft (in their own non-standard ways) are unlikely to be keen on such a method, and instead propose a font format of their own. Although they are beginning to demonstrate better understanding and willingness to comply to standards with their upcoming Internet Explorer 8, only time will tell if the specs are properly implemented. Hey, we can hope, right?

In the mean time, we can all declare support for features like this by supporting, using and actively promoting the use of standards-based browsers such as Firefox and Safari, which do take the time to follow these exciting proposals, and in turn send out a clear message to those who don't. Because in the end, designers, developers and the general public want feature-rich functions like this, making the web just that little bit more engaging to use in the process.

Labels: css, css3, safari, technical, web, web typography

Posted at: 3:51 PM by Hammad

With a new year, comes a new Persona web site, available for preview at:

www.per-so-na.com

We've designed the new site to be much fresher and brighter, whilst fully integrating our new 'Experience' division into the brand palette.

The site is made using our Content Management System (CMS) that will hopefully mean we can keep it updated more regularly than before. Still to come is a new blog, many more content pages and fresh work in the portfolio.

Feel free to have a browse around and let us know what you like/dislike. It's still in beta stage, so we might even be able to squeeze some suggestions into the final version.

Labels: cms, persona, technical, web site