This week saw more twists and turns in the SOPA debate as the new Cyber-Duck website draws ever closer.

Exciting news as the launch of the new Cyber-Duck website, as well as the tablet and mobile friendly versions are all set to be released over the next few weeks. The ducks have been working hard to ensure everything is primed and ready, and we look forward to introducing our new web presence to you in February.

Features of the new website include a brand new, clean design, detailed case studies, live chat facility and completely overhauled careers section. The new website will also make a bigger feature of the blog and weekly, and will be built with a fully customised CMS, so the team will be able to easily edit and update the website when necessary.

Last weekend also saw the ‘end’ of the SOPA and PIPA bills, after a massive backlash from the digital industry and other influential companies. Last weekend Wikipedia blacked out their website for 24 hours in protest of the bill; this and other high profile demonstrations look to have been rewarded. The campaign against these bills gathered support from the likes of Facebook, Google and eBay who all made their feelings clear that they thought the laws would hinder the Internet’s development.

Google have transformed their Privacy Policy this week with an update that allows users to access Google products under a single agreement. Google recognised that they have a wide variety of products, each with its own rules and regulations. With the change, users will be able to access all Google products by signing up to one policy, which Google thinks will create a “simpler, more intuitive Google experience”.

Google map out their new user policy.

The changes could also lead to criticism of the company, as they have already recognised that users may be disgruntled when they see their Google documents showing up in Gmail or contact details from one area of their lives popping up in another.

Finally, the ducks gathered on Thursday to celebrate the birthday of HR manager Karolina Pajewska. We also want to wish Cyber-Duck’s UX designer Neil Dawson a belated happy birthday as he celebrated his birthday last week while he was off skiing in Austria.

Neil’s modelling career is soon to kick off.

That’s it for this week, see you all next week for yet another Cyber-Duck weekly.

It’s been a big week for us, with the official launch of ‘The Knowledge’ and two new awards being added to our collection.

One of our biggest projects of the year was officially launched this week. The Knowledge, an extremely well-respected source of information to the film, TV and commercial production industry, was re-built from the ground up. Cyber-Duck provided a total digital solution featuring a refreshed design, powerful new features, an enhanced user experience and was built with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) friendliness in mind.

The launch of the new website was celebrated with Champagne by both parties at Cyber-Duck HQ, where all those who contributed and put so much hard work in were congratulated.

The Knowledge can now boast a new and enhanced homepage interface.

Our award winning ways continued this week as we received two separate awards for our work on The Far Horizons Website. The first was a Gold W3 Award in the category of travel, honouring creative excellence on the web.

The second was a international WebAward as we were presented with the Travel Standard of Excellence award for our outstanding achievement in website development. The awards are great recognition for all the hard work put in to the project.

We were also informed today that Optima have been shortlisted for a Construction Marketing Award in the ‘best use of technical information’ category for the iPad app we worked with them to create. Winners of the category will be announced at a ceremony in London on the 29th November 2011.

Siji Showcases one of our latest WebAward certificate.

We’re also pleased to announce a new weekly podcast from Cyber-Duck. Over the coming weeks we will be giving free informative audio discussions on User Centred Design (UCD), Scrum, iPhone vs Android – The future from an Agency’s perspective and Web Design Trends in 2012.

We’re also pleased to share with you that we are currently planning, wireframing and designing the next iteration of the Cyber-Duck website which is due to be launched in 2012. The aim is to refresh Cyber-Duck’s existing website and showcase more of the services we offer as a leading digital agency. We are also in the process of designing a new ‘DuckPad’ iPad version, so look out for that too.

As you may have heard, Blackberry users have been severely affected this week as services across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America were all disrupted by a server crash. As a result, many Blackberry owners could not access email, Internet or Blackberry Messenger.

Makers of the Blackberry, RIM, said the problems were caused by core and back-up switch failures. The Blackberry service has since been fully restored meaning all Blackberry users can once again access all their favourite features from their Blackberry device.

Apple announced in a press release this week that pre-orders for the iPhone 4S topped one million units in the first 24 hours. The new iteration of the smartphone features Apple’s dual-core A5 chip, a new camera with advanced optics, full 1080p HD resolution video recording and an intelligent assistant ‘Siri’ which uses voice commands to control various settings.

Apple has also launched iCloud, a cloud based storage and syncing service. iCloud allows users to change contacts, add events and store documents from the platforms iWork apps in the cloud. Users can also use the platform to find their device on a map as well as remotely lock or wipe their device should it be lost or stolen.

To finish off this week, we have some team news. Firstly, we’re delighted to welcome Lucas Wager to the team on a 6 month internship. Lucas has travelled from Germany to join us as an Intern Web Developer, and will be supporting the development team on key Cyber-Duck projects.

There are two reasons to celebrate this week, as talented senior Web Developer Lee Hseuh-Chia is getting married over the weekend. Interactive Designer Raj Remanan is set to become a father for the first time too, any time now in fact!

On behalf of all the ducks, we’d like to congratulate both Raj and Lee and wish them all the best.

In December of 2010, Cyber-Duck was approached to help create a completely new solution for The Knowledge Online; a market leading source of film and TV contacts and information.

Since originally launching as a printed book in 1986, The Knowledge has built up a reputation as an extremely well-respected source of information for people in the industry. However, in order to maintain their position as a market leader, Wilmington Publishing knew that it was necessary to modernise the website, placing emphasis on a unique and refreshed design, new features, usability and search engine friendliness.

The Knowledge can now boast a new and enhanced homepage interface.

The new website was built from the ground up, including integration with existing databases and an in-house CMS that enables Wilmington Publishing to easily add new content and edit pages/categories/sub-categories. It also features advanced predictive search functionality, and 5 different membership options.

Production Intelligence is a brand new subscription-based feature, which enables companies and individuals to gain access to a rich database of information about forthcoming productions. This includes access to relevant contact details of those involved in the production such as the line producer or production company.

Production Intelligence is the new subscription based service offered by The Knowledge.

Cyber-Duck provided the total digital solution for this project, including usability testing, design, development and integration of back-end systems and extensive testing. On a monthly retainer basis, Cyber-Duck will be working with TKO for website support, as well as building on the search engine optimisation of the website, and supporting other marketing activities.

Cyber-Duck’s Matt Gibson also gave his views on the launch:

Feel free to take a look at Cyber-Duck’s latest launch and let us know what you think of The Knowledge’s new website.

Members of the Cyber-Duck team were interviewed by Autodesk a few months ago – we can now share the final video!

World leading 3D design software company, Autodesk came to the Cyber-Duck offices to interview members of the team on the reasons why Cyber-Duck use 3D, as well as our thoughts on why it’s becoming more popular in the industry as a whole. During the interview the ducks explain how the popular ‘3Ds Max’ software has been used to positive effect for the Cyber-Duck website as well as for several clients.

The team explain how the in-house eye tracking equipment was used to analyse how the use of 3D characters on a website generates more engagement, creating something truly unique and memorable.

Cyber-Duck have successfully implemented 3D and animated characters to great effect for several clients. For Rosslyn Analytics, 3D owls were created as part of a rebrand and revamp project; the website has since won a Davey Award and W3 Silver Award.

Another project is Wisteria Formations where an animated giraffe character was created to give the website personality and engagement. The giraffe talks the user through the formation process, helping to improve conversion rates in the 10 step process. Cyber-Duck used software known as ‘Crazy Talk’ to animate the mouth and head movements.

Cyber-Duck’s infamous 3D Ducks.

The video will be used in a range of Autodesk conferences and is soon to be uploaded to their own YouTube channel, but until then we’ve got special permission to give you a preview!

Cyber-Duck have taken home their first ever Webby award from the 15th Annual event.

The Webbys are an incredibly prestigious industry recognition of outstanding work in the digital industry, and with almost 10,000 entrants from around the world Cyber-Duck was one of only a handful to claim a prize.

The award, an ‘Official Honouree’ title in the employment category was for work on the OfficeCavalry.com project. The entire website, including the back end, was developed in-house by the Cyber-Duck team.

“It’s a really proud moment for us” said Danny Bluestone, MD of Cyber-duck, “We’ve won plenty of awards over the last 4 years, but this is the first Webby we’ve got our hands on; it’s a real reflection of the point Cyber-Duck has got to in the industry.”

Well done to everyone involved in the project, and we wish OfficeCavalry.com every success in becoming the next big thing in the freelancing world.

The duck offices are a little quieter today as some of the team set sail for sunny Texas to attend the much anticipated SXSWi event.

So after a long and exciting wait, the ducks have finally began their journey to the SXSWi event in Austin, Texas as part of the UKTI digital mission this year. Cyber-Duck will be in the presence of brands including Google and Facebook and we have also taken our popular Tobii Eye Tracker to showcase to all attendees of the event. Make sure you follow us on twitter to keep up to date with the latest from there.

The office gathered together on Wednesday to celebrate the birthday of Cyber-Duck MD Danny Bluestone. The team presented Danny with gifts for his special day before we all gorged ourselves on his birthday cake. The team would like to once again wish him many happy returns.

Happy Birthday Danny!

This week has seen the launch of a completely new and redesigned website for Ashworth. The website was built using HTML5 and CSS3 technology and can boast new features such as placeholder text for form inputs, which has helped to enhance user experience. On top of that, company addresses are marked up with the use of microformats, making it easier for search engines to interpret.

We are proud to announce that we were runners up at the 2011 Jewish Business Awards last week. The Awards recognise and celebrate the best businesses and Jewish entrepreneurs, attracting hundreds of entries each year. It was a privilege to be nominated and in the presence of Lord Young, who was the guest of honour at the event.

New laws to give consumers greater control of how their web browsing is tracked will not be implemented come May. It had earlier been stated that websites must have authorised consent of the user before using tracking technologies such as cookies. It remains to be seen whether this will be enforced around Europe in the future.

The team have been singing the praises of Microsoft this week as they have announced they plan to get rid of IE6. Microsoft has created The Internet Explorer 6 Countdown, which encourages developers and website owners to upgrade. The website also shows current browser statistics per country, and it is hoped that the death of IE6 will save hours of work for web developers.

The IE6 Countdown shows current browser statistics per country.

Hewlett Packard have announced that in 2012 that their mobile operating system, WebOS, will be integrated in to every PC they ship. The move comes as HP looks to attract more developers and push the operating system from mobile devices on to desktops.

Make sure you return next week as we will have all the reaction to the SXSWi event (plus plenty of pictures!)

A new client win and the launch of one of our latest projects were topics of discussion for the ducks this week.

Cyber-Duck have officially announced the win of a brand new client this week. RetireEasy will offer a web-based service aimed at giving retirees and soon to be retired users the ability to understand and take control of their finances in retirement. Cyber-Duck have been commissioned to provide full digital agency services from branding, UX design right through to building the SaaS platform itself.

The ducks have also been busy with the launch of the new Far Horizons Website. The website allows users to book a variety of luxury safaris in Uganda and Rwanda, and showcases tour routes, a detailed description of the activities on each day and allows for customisation of tours. Cyber-Duck will continue to supply technical and online marketing support.

Figure 1. The far horizons engaging new interface.

A global trial of the internets new addressing system is being prepared for 8th June 2011. Global net brands such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook have all committed to taking part in the test, which is encouraging net firms to switch to IPv6 as addresses in the old scheme (IPv4) will run out by November 2011. ‘World IPv6 Day’ should leave the majority of web users unaffected.

A clip found on YouTube caught the attention of the office this week. “The Chase Film” features web favourites such as Facebook, Apple and Google, and is a viral video created by Intel, designed to demonstrate the multi-tasking potential provided by their new 2nd Generation Core™ i5 processor.

Figure 2. “The Chase Film” from Intel.

Microsoft has asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to reject Apples application to trademark the phrase “App Store”. Microsoft believe the term is too generic and competitors should be able to use it without fear of punishment by Apple. Apple submitted their application back in 2008, which has raised concerns over why Microsoft has only just taken action.

Facebook have acquired the domain FB.com for a massive $8.5million (£5.4million), which is 42 times more than it paid for its original facebook.com domain. Facebook acquired the domain from the American Farm Bureau Federation, who have revealed how much they received as part of the deal.

Google have announced they are set to drop the H.264 video codec support for Google chrome. Reasons for the move are “to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs”. The majority of YouTube videos (which Google owns) play through the H.264 codec, which would mean they need recoding when the changes come into effect in the next couple of months.

Samsung have showcased their new ‘flexy-screen’ media player. The pocket sized device has an OLED screen, which boasts a higher contrast than LCD, better viewing angles, lower power consumption and claims of it being “unbreakable”. The screen is also made only of plastic and has no glass protection.

Finally, we would like to welcome Marsha Mothersill to the Cyber-Duck team. Marsha has become one of the ducks as a new Junior Developer.

Cyber-Duck are pleased to announce that the EU’s new UK website, “The EU – What’s in it for me?” has fully launched.

Cyber-Duck have launched their second website in as many weeks with the EU’s new UK website. The new website is based on the booklet “What’s In It For Me?”, a brochure aimed at providing information on how the EU helps Briton’s in their everyday lives, as well as being easily accessible to anyone else looking to learn more about the EU.

Cyber-Duck tackle the Media

On Monday, members of the Cyber-Duck team, including MD Danny Bluestone, attended the official press conference along with the head of the European Commissions UK Office, which attracted journalists from the BBC, New Media Age and Information World Review.

The EU’s new UK website attracted a great deal of media attention.

Cyber-Duck’s Production Director, Matt Gibson, conducted and presented the day’s press conference, tackling a variety of questions from the media about the website’s functionality and user experience as well as the reasons behind the site’s inception.

The EU’s new UK website went live this week.

The EU’s Dilemma

The problem for the EU was that Britons did not fully understand the implications of EU decisions on the UK, with 83% of Britons declaring they knew little or nothing about the EU. The website provides an attractive, engaging and interactive environment for people to explore relevant issues and make up their own minds.

Eye Tracking

The project involved the use of Cyber-Duck’s specialist eye-tracking equipment, with which a range of users were tested on several tasks. The resulting data enabled us to ensure the final site provided the best possible user experience.

The website is made up of five key sections, each designed to inform and engage the user:

• What the EU does
• The EU in my area
• EU Myths
• About Us
• News and Reviews

The site also integrates social media such as Twitter and Facebook and has been designed to comply with guidelines on accessibility.

Antonia Mochan, the European commission’s project manager said, “it was a real pleasure working with Cyber-duck. Their creative skills helped us breathe new life into subjects that usually seem a little dry – which was the ultimate aim of the project. We hope people will find the website a useful source of down-to-earth information, which will help them in their daily lives.”

Danny Bluestone, MD of Cyber-Duck said, “We hope that this new website proves to be a useful resource for anyone looking to find out more about the EU. The EU and Me, like all Cyber-Duck productions, was designed with the user in mind throughout the process to enable users to interact with it in an engaging and interesting way, whilst encouraging users to share and disseminate content on their social networks.”

This week saw the beta launch of the innovative new Freelancing portal; OfficeCavalry.com.

The site launched with over 3,000 Freelancers and Project Owners already signed up during the initial registration phase with an huge amount interest from the online marketing and PR activity.

How it all Started

OfficeCavalry.com approached Cyber-Duck with a business plan and a vision to reinvent how Project Owners can engage with Freelancers. The concept is simple: Project Owners need a place to search for Freelancers within a community that protects both parties. This bespoke offering encourages Project Owners to post their own projects first. Most competitors are focused on extensive navigation systems, whereas OfficeCavalry.com has a dedicated Cavalry for each key category.

Project Owners have the ability to define their project requirements .

The service requests the Project Owner to define the initial scope, timelines and budget upfront to avoid a ‘Dutch Auction’ whilst ensuring the project is always market competitive, allowing the Freelancer to achieve the best rates available for that particular assignment. The process ensures that the Project Owner benefits from the quality of the completed assignment. It also ensures that the Freelancer gets a fair market rate for the work completed.

Cyber-Duck embraced this philosophy, and planned a radical and easy to use interaction model with built in interview tools, and a commercial engagement mechanism. Cyber-Duck also developed the concept of 6 Cavalries, which can best be described as specialist hubs, each with targeted search tools relating to particular skills categories.

Cyber-Duck created a variety of designs in the early stages of the project.


The Technology

Cyber-Duck’s web developers incorporated a range of SaaS (Software as a Service) features, including software such as Codeigniter and jQuery. This has resulted in website features which include; two secure payment facilities, a two-way rating & feedback system, loyalty points scheme and 6 Freelancer hubs across Tech, Creative, Marketing, Support Accountant and Legal related categories.

Cyber-Duck created Avatars for each freelancing Cavalry.


Innovative Online Marketing

Aside from the website launch itself, Cyber-Duck and the OfficeCavalry.com team have been working on an integrated online marketing campaign to support the successful launch of the service. This has included competitions and promotions through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as well as various forums and blogs. OfficeCavalry.com has an established partnership with Crunch, the leading accountancy solution provider for Freelancers and an interactive affinity arrangement with the National Union of Students.

OfficeCavalry.com is fully launched.


PR and Press

Cyber-Duck have been working with PR agency Hot Cherry, which has just launched its first phase of an exciting PR campaign in conjunction with the OfficeCavalry.com team. Numerous careers fairs and trade shows have been attended to support the PR effort and to promote the launch at ground level.

The website launch was successfully promoted via online and regional media channels, including the London Evening Standard, where OfficeCavalry.com’s Andy Turner revealed which celebrity figures are most inspiring Britons to ‘become their own boss’. As part of the research, 2,000 men and women were questioned to find out who inspires them to become their own boss, with Lord Sugar topping the list for the men.

Lord Sugar even tweeted about the London Evening Standard article.

Subsequently, the story was also picked up by Lord Sugar who instigated a series of tweets about the London Evening Standard article. He tweeted “Someone will be fired at Eve Standard making mistake publishing positive stuff on me”. This and the other online channels created a surge of visits to the site.

Andy Turner and Ian Patrick, Co-Founders of OfficeCavalry.com, were united in their praise of the Cyber-Duck team, stating:

“OfficeCavalry.com wishes to thank every member of the Cyber-Duck team contributing towards this immense deliverable.”

Andy Turner, Co-Founder.



Cyber-Duck will be working with OfficeCavalry.com on a continued basis as the selected technical and marketing partner, exploiting social media, Facebook advertising and Search Engine Optimisation as well as making continued improvements to the website in response to user feedback, testing and a range of new and exciting product enhancements.

The Cyber-Duck team behind the launch of OfficeCavalry.com.

Yesterday, Cyber-Duck’s MD Danny Bluestone attended Middlesex University’s ‘Ramp Up for Business‘ event, which is part of their MODNet development fund.

The event provided the company with an excellent opportunity to meet with local business people, company directors, leading academics as well as colleagues from across London. The event’s guest speaker was due to be The Apprentice’s Karren Brady, but due to her cancellation, up stepped former Conservative Party politician Michael Portillo who spoke about our current fragile economy and described the benefits he had when he attended university, and compared it to financial hardships that many students are facing today.

The new Windows Phone 7 went on sale today, and the new smartphone can boast features such as a new social media hub and you can also access your Zune Player and Xbox Live accounts. After some initial criticism, Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer admitted that they “have a lot of work to do to get into the [mobile] game”. The criticism has cited that there is no cut-and-paste feature, no multi-tasking and it does not support Flash, Silverlight or HTML5 (so unfortunately no video folks).

HTC have a new HD version of their popular HTC Desire smartphone now available to purchase in the UK. The main features of the new HTC Desire HD is a stunning new 4.3” screen, an overhauled Sense UI, and most importantly an 8MP camera that also records HD footage at 720p resolution.

It’s also been a busy week at Apple, what with launching a sneak peek of OS X Lion, the 8th major release of their OS (operating system), a new Macbook Air and iLife ’11. On top of that, Steve Jobs courted controversy whilst making a rare appearance on the company’s earnings call earlier this week.

Jobs branded Google wrong for characterising Android as ‘open’, wrote off RIM’s ability to surpass iPhones sales, suggested that Apple may make a ’strategic acquisition‘ with its $50bn cash pile but won’t be handing it back to shareholders. Probably most tellingly, Jobs criticised the introduction of 7” tablets to the market claiming that they will not succeed because they are too small; however it remains to be seen if Jobs keeps to his word what with the technology market being so unpredictable.

And last, but definitely by no means least, Cyber-Duck would like to welcome Karolina Pajewska to the Cyber-Duck team. Karolina’s role will be to continue to source and retain the best talent as the Cyber-Duck team continues to grow.