Inside Symbiote

Continuous learning and knowledge sharing are key aspects of day to day life at Symbiote and Insights are an opportunity for us to share that knowledge with the community.

Insights

Designs by Kandice Stern

What does your ideal online dashboard look like?

By Amanda Brown

We build custom dashboards to fit your staff, your decision-makers and even your customers, using all the information you have available to you (plus some you might not have realised you can get).

3 MIN READ

What’s middleware? And what difference does it make?

By Mansi Sheth-Parmar

Middleware is clever code that links complicated backend databases and systems and frontends, so websites run quickly, efficiently and securely. When the hard work of creating middleware is done well, no-one should even know it's there.

2 MIN READ

'Golden nuggets' – our personal approach to usability research comes up with the gold

By Rachel Kelly

‘Golden nuggets’ are the wonderful, valuable comments people share towards the end of a conversation or interview after we’ve built rapport during the user experience (UX) research and testing processes.

3 MIN READ

Protect your passwords (without needing to remember them)

By Mansi Sheth-Parmar

A web developer explains why and how to keep your passwords safe

1 MIN READ

We're now a Sitecore Alliance partner

By Owen Windsor

Transform your website from an online brochure to a digital experience platform (DXP)

1 MIN READ

User feedback throughout the development process = better software

By Kandice Stern

Not only *can* we include user feedback during the software development process – we *should*. Keeping users, particularly users with specific needs, at the centre of our work improves everything we make.

3 MIN READ

Vulnerability, security and compliance – these should all be managed in real-time

By Owen Windsor

It's possible and necessary to actively identify, monitor and respond to security threats across your systems.

2 MIN READ

Why a 4-day work week?

By Owen Windsor

We've moved to a 4-day work week. 80% of each person's time at 100% of the pay. How does this work?

3 MIN READ

Retros – looking back improves our future work

By Justin Matthies

We use retros at Symbiote to look at the past to help us to look ahead

3 MIN READ

Front-end web design is a balancing act

By Chris James

Building the front-end of a website is a balancing act.

2 MIN READ

Investigating bugs with Silverstripe vendor packages

By Chris James

Bug-fixing is satisfying. The process is always different and can result in some unexpected benefits. Follow along with Chris to see where one bug fix led him.

3 MIN

Why including Developers in UX research leads to better outcomes

We included a web developer right from the start in a recent extranet project – here’s what he had to say about the experience.

3 MIN READ

Three useful online co-design activities

By Rachel Kelly

Co-design activities can work really well for geographically dispersed teams and they don’t have to consume a lot of time.

2 MIN

Using co-design to add some creative impetus to Agile squads

By Amanda Brown

Co-design isn’t just for big pre-planned workshops. It can be the great unblocker: this is why we jump into an impromptu codesign session to trigger more creative solutions anytime we need a burst of creative problem solving during our Agile projects.

2 MIN READ

Moving our co-design sessions online during COVID turned to be an advantage

By Rachel Kelly

Online co-design activities can work well for geographically dispersed teams and they don’t have to consume a lot of time.

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