Wordle ‘word cloud’
While redesigning the Contacts homepage this morning I was looking for a background image to make the heading “A-Z” look a little more interesting. I searched iStockPhoto for a while with some success, but nothing…
Search by author: Gareth Saunders
Gareth is the former web architect within the University of St Andrews web team and digital communications team. A graduate of St Andrews (BD Hons, 1993), Gareth joined the web team in 2006 and worked mainly on information architecture and front-end development (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). He then spent most of his time doing DSDM agile project management and business analysis, was the warden at Agnes Blackadder Hall from 2016 to 2018 and then moved into full time agile and scrum master work.
What browsers have our visitors been using this year?
The topic of which Web browsers are the most popular came up at our weekly Web team meeting this morning. So I went away and did a little digging in our Google Analytics account. (Bear in mind that I have no degree…
Advent calendars
I remember as a child during Advent counting down the days to Christmas: the excitement each morning of seeing the next door opened, wondering what would be revealed behind it, and sneakily trying to ‘accidentally’…
How to improve a web page in one simple step
When asked how one can improve a web page in one simple step it is the considered opinion of certain members of the Web team that this may be done by adding a photograph of a fire engine to the page. See, this page is…
Web team drop-in clinic
This afternoon (12:00 – 14:00) the Web team ran our third monthly drop-in clinic. By popular demand here are some reflections on how it went. How it all began Every now and then I’ll be chatting with someone, usually…
Should we still be supporting Internet Explorer 6?
Every couple of months the same topic of conversation comes up in the Web team office: should we still be supporting Internet Explorer 6? The answer so far has always been a resigned yes, but that may not be the case…
Xobni for Outlook
The University is currently in the process of moving to a replacement service for staff email and calendars, which are currently provided via two separate, locally-hosted applications, including Meeting Maker. The new…
mSaint – student portal for iPhone
Last month Duncan blogged about making the student handbook mobile friendly which was in preparation for mSaint – the new student portal for the iPhone, built on the campusM platform from oMbiel. mSaint went live this…
Papal Bull – Original or iPad edition?
The University’s Photo of the Week (and accompanying press release) this week shows one of the Papal Bulls issued by Pope Benedict XIII in 1413 that formally constituted the University of St Andrews. Is it just me, or…
Our journey into Agile, pt.2
Encountering Agile Back in April 2008 I attended the Scotland on Rails 2008 conference in Edinburgh; I literally have the t-shirt to prove it. It was an absolutely fascinating (read: über-geeky) conference let down…