WordPress Is Not Just For Blogs Dammit!

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Bronson Quick

I have been out and about networking a little bit more than normal over the last couple of weeks and I have noticed a bit of a common thread when I talk to people about WordPress (the CMS that we use for all of our clients at sennza). The majority of people who have heard of WordPress seem to react with the same answer: “But that’s just a blogging platform”. I want to put those rumours to bed in this post. I think this is a post that I might refer quite a lot of people to just so they can understand that WordPress IS a CMS (Content Management System)! Saying WordPress is only good for blogging is like saying Google are only good for searches!

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To Train Or Not To Train Your Staff?

Posted on June 11, 2010 by Lachlan MacPherson

I have worked at both great, and not so great companies. For me, one of the defining differences of a great company is their attitude to the training and the development of their staff.

When I was first given the opportunity to hire my own staff as a Sales Manager, I read somewhere that you either pay good money for good talent, or you choose to pay less but invest in your staff. For me I always chose to invest in my staff. This wasn’t because I was trying to be cheap (and this doesn’t work for every role, sometimes you need to hire for talent), I was creating a sales team and for me creating a culture was the number one priority. I felt the best way to do this was to start with off with a clean slate and train every one with great habbits.

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Google Acts On Language Based Usability With Virtual Keyboards

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Bronson Quick

Usability is something that each and every one of us occurs on a daily basis. We experience usability in both online and in the real world as well. Have a quick think about how many times you’ve thought things like this:

“Which damn aisle has the pasta in it? Why don’t they have signs?”
“Okay, so I left in a rush and forgot my GPS and my iPhone doesn’t have service here. Why haven’t I seen a sign for Timbucktoo in 30 kilometres?”
“Why do I have to fill out this damn form again online for the third freaking time?!?! Give me a decent error message and at least remember what I’ve already typed in before so I can correct it!”
“Uhhhh, so why doesn’t this train have a map so I can see how many stops there are before I need to get off. Hmm, I’ll just sit here in a mild state of anxiety until I hear my station called over the PA then I guess. Woot!”

Being a designer/developer I have to consider usability on a daily basis. Our company stands for simplicity so of course we have to think about usability as we develop products for our clients. That being said, sometimes a product is developed so rapidly that extra features can cramp usability when the good old “feature creep” tends to kick in when a client gets excited about the end product…but surely that’s a compliment to our work right?