Insights

We’ve all been there: following a set brief to the letter, super glued to finding a screen-based solution. How can we break out of this narrow way of thinking, and design solutions that truly boost the user’s experience? Here, I explore a great new way of thinking, revealed by Golden Krishna in his fantastic ‘The Best Interface is No Interface’.

It’s time for Cyber-Duck’s fourth annual Quack Hack! Inspired by our business challenges, 19 ducks dreamed and developed creative, ambitious projects in our intensive, 24-hour Hackathon. Here’s a snapshot of our weekend.  

At this year’s Quack Hack, Craig and I teamed up to build ‘Can I Ride?’. Our animated app allows users to check the weather and see if the conditions are best for riding their scooters. More importantly, this project was a way for us to experiment with coding performance-optimised animations. 

Working against challenging briefs, budgets and timelines, our days are often focused on getting things done to the best of our ability. Giving someone the congratulations they deserve can get lost along the way.

Our team is the heart of who we are as an agency. Blending our unique characteristics and capabilities together, our quirky culture enriches the office environment. So, team building is very important to us, particularly as we bring more ducks on board. This year, my Quack Hack team created Duck Duck Guess: a simple, fun game, meant to bring us all even closer. 

For Quack Hack 2015, Andrew and I formed a two-man team to create ‘Brace’. Our Slack integration – combined with a Mac menu bar app – allows our staff to set their current location, find others and look up their phone extension with ease. Here, I’ll run you through the production process.  

At Cyber-Duck, our developers are committed to Progressive Enhancement. This means we can build core experiences that work across a range of devices, while pushing the technological limits to enhance features for users on modern browsers. Here, I’ll explain our take on the complex approach, and how it improves our client projects.

Cyber-Duck has been awarded ‘Elite’ agency status in The Drum's Digital Census. The top marketing publication analyses the performance of agencies offering digital services, evaluating key players’ financial prowess and client satisfaction. Our strong performance across both tables recognises our continued growth, driven by a dedication to our clients. 

It’s been a week since the “Reasons to be Creative” conference festival in Brighton. Now the dust has settled, here’s the story of my experience as an Elevator Pitcher.