Optimal October

Wayne

The clocks have gone back, it’s dark at night and it’s frickin’ freezing!

But this kind of year brings some really nice days when the sun is out. It’s crisp and refreshing, which is good for the creative projects we have on the horizon as businesses are back in full swing now that the summer holidays are a distant memory.

During October I spent a lot of time with Matt & Simon updating the front-end framework which we use to build our websites. Using our own framework ensures our websites load quickly. It has many advantages over popular alternatives such as Bootstrap, for example being a fraction of the size, having full control over each element and having it tailored to our design and coding style.

Some notable updates include improved design elements, a new ‘slider’, better compression, updated media queries (the responsive elements which make the website adjust to different device widths), an improved navigation menu and reduced server requests. The time we have invested in Grilla 2.0 so far has reduced the time it takes us to build a website and we are already seeing much improved page load speeds compared to the initial version of Grilla which we rolled out in February 2018, which itself was already much faster than Bootstrap.

In October I have been helping Matt with a number of websites which we have been working through as the workload picks up heading towards the end of the year. I got to work on a web project from start to finish – it’s been a while since I’ve had that opportunity – and you can see the result below. Xceed Fitness is run by our good friend James who himself is a Personal Trainer and runs a number of fitness classes in the local area. As well as a new website we have also developed an online booking system which allows their clients to register online and book on to Xceed Fitness classes. This has helped Xceed become a cashless business, reducing the admin time and avoiding any “can I transfer it you later on” scenarios! Xceed Fitness now have a full working database of class attendance and member details making it easier to manage turnout and figures.