We help you show your customers that you care
by making sure we give them what they want, how they want it.
Great experiences are about far more than just aesthetics.
That’s not to say that looks are unimportant—our reputation as a studio is built on beautiful work—but that we must go beyond the superficial by trying to genuinely understand users’ needs and wants.
To deliver projects, we use a mixture of customer experience strategy, user centred design and agile development.
- We think every project should be brilliant and remarkable
- We do what we say we’ll do
- We work with you as one team
- We take pride in our work
over 10 years we have worked with some brilliant clients
Meet The Team
We are a world recognised web studio for one reason: our people.
Even though he's our managing director, Paul gets hands-on in every project. He works closely with clients to re-examine who their customer is, the problems they care about, the benefits clients can offer those users and what's necessary to do so. He's also particularly deft at helping to establish or refine business models, identify root problems hidden beneath the surface, and create real value on the web.
More than a decade ago, Jamie left lecturing to co-found Front with Paul. Since then, he's captained our studio's creative work and made sure that our designs support clients' business strategies while also delivering attractive, effective and effortless experiences to the users – no small task. In 2010 he was recognised as Best Web Designer by the Institute of Designers in Ireland. Jamie also sits on the steering group of the Northern Ireland Design Alliance, doing his bit to foster tomorrow's designers.
Patsy Lagan at UX Intensive Amsterdam, 2011
Patsy coaches and guides the team to ensure we stay focused on the priorities and that work is delivered on time and to budget. She's the epitome of fair but firm and valiently defends projects from creep, bloat and slippage. Her experience as a former software engineer comes in dead handy, and clients really value her understanding of marketing and organisational strategy. Did we mention she's also a Prince 2 whizz? We heart Patsy.
Shelly helps clients present the best versions of themselves through the words they use. Usually this means finding the right balance between what the customer wants to hear and what the client wants to say. It always means being authentic and delivering those messages in ways that are meaningful to the audience. She believes that compelling copy starts with asking the right questions before touching the text, that exclamation points are evil, and that truth well told is the ultimate achievement.
Adrian Dugan attending DConstruct 2010
Adrian is an experienced developer and delivers robust, working software using agile methods. Adrian’s core skills are in developing bullet-proof applications which sit at the heart of organisations – everything from e-commerce systems to bespoke content management tools. Adrian previously worked for a large e-commerce company, and developed many of their core systems. Adrian loves object oriented Perl.
David has a fascination with user centred design and web standards. He gets his motivation from watching his mum trying to surf the internets. David has a first class honours in interactive design and cut his teeth working in a digital advertising agency for 2 years.
Charlie Neely breaks all employment laws
If design and development are the slices of bread in a build sandwich, Charlie is the filling. He binds raw functionality to the visual composition to produce the site you see online. His substantial experience ensures that sites go live with clean, standards-compliant code; can be accessed across a range of browsers and devices; and that everything reflects the design vision.
Chris has a background in branding and print design, but his main passion is creating beautiful but functional online experiences. He has a degree in Design for Visual Communication and a certificate in Cycling Proficiency.
Jordan Moore enjoying dinner with the rest of the team
Jordan is a talented young designer with a passion for clean, sensible design and web standards. He's also our go-to guy for post-project support, helping clients maintain their own sites and giving advice on how to use their CMS effectively. When they forget how to add that content or find that file, Jordan's there in their moment of need.
Simon Alman at work in the studio
Simon makes sure that once a site goes live it stays live. This means keeping systems lean and clean, and constantly monitoring and updating servers and hosts to keep them on point and running smoothly. He's a Systems Manager, Linux Sysadmin and open source enthusiast with 11 years' experience working with systems of all sizes. He's also recently optimised our KVM environments to improve efficiency. He loves Gentoo, KDE and Konsole. Yes, Simon is a hardcore nerd.
Shann McNicholl at work in the studio
Shann uses his experience as a software engineer to architect and implement scalable, future proof solutions for our clients. He likes Expression Engine, JQuery, the Symfony MVC framework and programming design patterns.
Alistair Brown testing work on a touch screen
Alistair hates white space, and his degree in software engineering has left him with a mean appetite for PHP development (with a serving of Javascript on the side). He loves converting ideas into code and watching them run to ease life's really important problems (like the handy script he wrote to keep track of his favourite TV shows). He also has a love affair with Japan and all things Star Wars, so see him if you sense wasabi in the Force.
Aaron Falloon at work in the studio
PHP was Aaron’s first love, but it turns out he's just too much man for one language. These days he's cavorting round the office with JavaScript, experimenting with what it can do in browsers and on servers (ooh err missus). Aaron is obsessed with making his code self-explanatory and easy to understand, and we're pretty sure he gets his super scripting powers from the strands of hair he hypnotically fiddles with while working. When not neck deep in work for his Master's in Computer Science, you'll probably find him listening to some rootin tootin country tunes.
Ursula Wlodarczyk at work in the studio
Ursula is the worst user ever, but that's her job. As our tester, she basically spends her days trying to break the sites we build – viewing them on every device and browser possible (including the hopelessly outdated ones) and pushing them hard. If our sites still perform as they should after she's done with them, we know we're in good shape. Ursula trained as an architect. That attention to detail first honed in the design, engineering and mathematics of architecture is what makes her a first rate testing geek and a real asset.
Thinking of starting a web project?
If you're reviewing the effectiveness of your existing web presence, or thinking about starting something new,
FRONT, Alexander House, 17a Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, N.Ireland, BT2 8HD • 028 9032 0970
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