Using XAMPP web server
As we all (should) know testing out software on live environments isn’t particularly sensible. For the last five years in the office, and longer at home, I’ve been running XAMPP from Apache Friends as a test server on…
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.
Keeping a collection of screenshots for inspiration
Back in late 2008 I read an interview with a Web designer who advocated keeping a scrapbook of cool designs that you’ve seen so that when the time came for Needing Inspiration™ you already had a volume of stuff to look…
Two useful resources when planning Web projects
Web ReDesign 2.0 A few years ago I came across this really excellent book by Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler: Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works (New Riders, 2005). In 10 chapters Kelly and Emily lead you through the…
An unfamiliar view of St Andrews
A few weeks ago I spotted this photo called, simply, “St Andrews” on the Our Scotland website; it was taken by Chris Cuthbert. What I love about it is that it’s not a familiar view of St Andrews. I had to think for a…
This week I are been mostly…
Above: Our current list of outstanding support calls. In the style of The Fast Show: this week I are been mostly… answering support calls. Many people suspect that the Web team summers are quiet affairs, with plenty of…
600th anniversary and alumni websites
It’s been a quiet couple of weeks on the Web team blogging front. Which is the complete opposite of what it’s been like within the Web team: blinkered, and with heads down we’ve been racing to complete the 600th…
What developers think of Internet Explorer
I like this self-deprecating advert from Microsoft about Internet Explorer 9. Only today I was thinking how refreshing it is that I now don’t have to worry too much about testing webpages in Internet Explorer 9.…
Upgrade to TerminalFour Site Manager 7.0 planned
This summer the Web team are planning to upgrade the University’s enterprise Web content management system to TerminalFour Site Manager 7.0. One of the main features of Site Manager 7.0 is a completely redesigned…
A letter from America
A few weeks ago a letter was passed on to the Web team which congratulated us on the University website. If the truth be known, it wasn’t the letter itself that was passed to us, it was a PDF file of a scan of that…
Web team strategy day
Yesterday the extended Web team—that is the Web team, a couple of Web application software developers and someone from the IT Services systems team—met for four-and-a-half hours in the Hebdomadar’s Room with our boss…