Lesley Hays, Author at Bluewire Media

Lesley Hays is one of Bluewire Media’s web developers and a web strategy advisor. Internally, Lesley drives Bluewire’s ‘service methodology’, utilising her natural project management and communication skills as our customer experience manager.

Lesley’s native genius is ‘organising ideas and planning’ and she can take multi-faceted and -layered needs and ideas, and produce streamlined, workable solutions.

In her spare time Lesley studies horticulture, plays the cello, sings in a choir and enjoys camping. Follow @lesleyhays on Twitter.

Blog posts by Lesley

Posted on Jul 13, 2010 by Lesley Hays

Weekly round-up (Vol. 63)

The Key to Creating Remarkable Things – The 99 Percent
The idea of doing our real work first and “reactive” work second (answering emails, getting resources for colleagues etc.) sounds like common-sense, doesn’t it? But is that really how you function day to day? Or do you spend the morning “getting ready” to knuckle down… then suddenly it’s three o’clock and time for a cup of soup? In this article, Mark McGuinness explains why doing it the right way round is so important and gives a few tips on how to make it work.…

Posted on Jul 5, 2010 by Lesley Hays

Weekly round-up (Vol. 62)

Learn How Google Works: in Gory Detail – PPC Blog
A snazzy infographic that simplifies the Google-machine! It can seem pretty overwhelming to try to understand how Google works, especially if you’ve recently jumped into search engine optimisation yourself, but this diagram breaks everything down from Googlebot crawls to displaying the Adwords next to your search results.

Beyond the Checkin: Where Location-Based Social Networks Should Go Next – Mashable
If you’re a traditional “early-adopter”, you’ve probably got into the location-based trend (think Foursquare, Gowalla etc.). You might have even experienced “checkin fatigue” as you reluctantly get your iPhone out to checkin at your favourite cafe again…

If you’re like me, then you need to see a lot more before you take up these sorts of things!…

Posted on Jun 28, 2010 by Lesley Hays

Weekly round-up (Vol. 61)

Critique me, Please – 50 Weeks of UX
How well can you handle critique of your work? Joshua Brewer talks about how being open to critique leads to “better communication, greater creativity and more transparency”. So should you practice being critiqued?

List of common misconceptions – Wikipedia
If I told you that Napoleon wasn’t unusually short or that the Great Wall of China can’t actually be seen from space, would you believe me? What about that Thomas Edison didn’t invent the lightbulb? If that’s not blowing your mind yet, check out the Wikipedia article on common misconceptions!…

Posted on Jun 21, 2010 by Lesley Hays

Weekly round-up

Harvey Norman takes to Twitter in online backflip – Dynamic Business
10 Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About Google – Mashable
15 Amazing Apps for File Storage in the Cloud – Web.AppStorm
The greatest defunct web sites and dotcom disasters – CNET UK
11 Useful Google Chrome Extensions for Serious SEO Workers – Blog Web Designer
YouTube Launches New Video Editor Tool – Mashable
The Vuvuzela By the Numbers [infographic] – Mashable
Book shelves made from 15,000 pencils – Dyscario

Reminisce on the weekend from a different point of view…

The Telegraph.co.uk puts that margarita under the microscope.…

Posted on Jun 15, 2010 by Lesley Hays

Weekly round-up

“Guitar Hero” Rocks Out on iPhone – Mashable
Inspirational 50 Twitter Backgrounds Showcase – 1st Webdesigner
Starbucks Used Social media to Get One Million to Stores in One Day – Mashable
Is Facebook Getting Bigger Than Google? – Mashable
The Top 8 Free Online Image Editors – Web.AppStorm
5 Gadgets That Will Transform Your Home – Mashable
Successful Strategies For Selling Ad Space On Low-Traffic Websites – Smashing Magazine
Top 30 Failed Technology Predictions – Listverse

…and Twitter goes wild!

The Guardian (UK) is showing instant replays of all the World Cup games… as seen on Twitter.…

Posted on Jun 7, 2010 by Lesley Hays

Weekly round-up

5 Tips to Effectively Promote your Articles – Creative Overflow
25 Awesome Google Search Tips and Tricks – AppStorm
Even Dolphins Love the iPad – Mashable
10 things you didn’t know about Twitter – Telegraph.co.uk
New App Helps You “Game” Foursquare Mayorships – Mashable
Microsoft’s own “Upgrade Your Browser” promo!
How We Improved Our Conversion Rate by 72% – dMix

Proof that everyone Googles themselves…

…

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Lesley Hays

Weekly Round-up

3 Online Tools to Backup Your Twitter Account – Madras Geek
On “Out of office” replies: The Difference Between “Not Here” and “Away” – Pow! Right between the eyes! (Why not take a quick holiday to test out your new techniques?) via @SmashingMag via Fast Company
How To (Further) Engage Your Readers – Noupe
7 Keys to a Successful Design Project – DesignM.ag
Funny Business and the Lack of Humor in Web Design – Design Shack
Bizarre Websites On Which You Can Kill Time With Style – Smashing Magazine

Contribute to Mozilla’s new Open Web Fund and get a T-shirt!…

Posted on Mar 29, 2010 by Lesley Hays

The Northside’s best kept secret lets loose online

March has seen the launch of the brand new online face of St Patrick’s College, Shorncliffe. Last year, the school decided they needed to have a website that reflected their values and the high quality of their education. So, Bluewire Media came in to take them through an internet strategy designed to discover the best way to do just this.

The new website’s “go live” date, St Patrick’s Day, was well publicised in the school’s frequent newsletter, so the launch was a busy day — the stats showed over 300 different people went on to check it out on the 17th alone!…

Posted on Aug 13, 2009 by Lesley Hays

Hitting the Launch button

The “launch” is what a website project is all about. It’s our common goal: the whole project team, the client, third party contributors—everyone!—strives towards making it a reality every day. But for many people, what actually goes into making a website live is a great mystery…

There’s no secret “launch” button.

BoxUK.com have written an amazingly comprehensive “Launch Checklist“. With 58 boxes to tick off between getting approval and moving into the maintenance phase, it’s no wonder this part of the project always seems to take longer than expected.…