December 2011

In early December we launched a directory of post offices owned by and operated for communities across the UK.  Consumer Focus commissioned the Plunkett Foundation and Social Enterprise Coalition to compile the data which CF Labs then presented through this site.

The site allows users to search for community post offices in their area, find out where they are located and see what services they provide.  The site also provides some statistics on core activities and the data is exposed in JSON format.

A few days later we launched a service to publish ratings of how energy companies handle complaints.  We’d worked closely with our colleagues in the Energy team at Consumer Focus to design and develop a meaningful way of showing this data.  We produced a number of prototypes which were refined through several stages to a shortlist of 3 possible options.  These were then independently tested by TNS-BMRB in September which helped us to pick the final option.

The system ranks each of the ‘Big Six’ energy suppliers using stars – 0 for the worst performing companies, 5 for the best.  The site publishes a snapshot of the data (the last quarter) and also a more detailed historical view.  All the data is also published using JSON and CSV formats.

October 2010

In October we completed the second phase of the new Consumer Focus website.  Earlier in the year we made the move from an external proprietary content management system to a WordPress system managed in house by CF Labs.  The second phase of work involved a complete restructure of the content and a refreshed website template.

As with the new CF Labs in September, we used WordPress 3.0 and built new templates for each of the Consumer Focus Nations (GB, Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland).  New areas were created for advice, policy work and publications.

We launched the site just in time to hear rumours that Consumer Focus was to be abolished in the Government’s “bonfire of the quangos”.  It turned out that the rumours were true.  The intention is to transfer some of our functions to Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland.  Even now, 4 months later, we still don’t know exactly when or how this transfer will happen.

November 2010

November was a quiet month – mostly spent finalising work on three projects that were due to launch before the year came to a close.

At the end of the month we launched the second phase of the Consumer Focus Energy Price Comparison (EPC) Service.  The EPC acts as a mini-price comparison system and gives you a rough idea of the price to expect when shopping around for an energy supplier.  Consumer Focus inherited this system from our predecessor Energywatch.  Earlier in 2010 we’d shifted the system to a new data supplier and rebuilt it so we could manage it in house to save money.

The second phase of development involved producing a brand new front end to make the system easier to use.  We gave it the CF Labs treatment and integrated it with the Consumer Focus website design.  We cleaned up the code, added a bunch of features and created bookmarkable URLs for every search.

Coming up…

• Community post offices
• Rating energy suppliers

As this recap covers such a long period of time, I’ve split it across several posts. First up is July, August & September.

July 2010

Throughout July I spent time working on the recently launched StayPrivate.org website.  As users sent in feedback we evaluated and tweaked the interface to reduce problems.

August 2010

As with July, plenty of time was spent evaluating and implementing changes to StayPrivate.org following user feedback.  Late in the month we blogged about some of the issues users were having and the reasons behind them.  We also launched a revamped FAQ to answer as many of the common questions as possible.

A large number of other projects also took up time during August –all of which launched before the end of 2010.

September 2010

In early September we launched a new website for CF Labs to showcase our work and host our blog.  The existing website included a heavy focus on ideas for potential future projects but we decided to change the focus to projects that had already been completed.

As the CF Labs site was built using WordPress, we developed a new template to take advantage of all the new features added into WordPress 3.0.  We used Custom Post Types to provide a page for each of our projects which includes an introduction to the work and associated images. We also used tags to show the latest three blog posts related to each project.

Also in September I stumbled across a fantastic open-source tool (Tweet Nest) for creating a searchable archive of a user’s tweets.  In the past, I’d used various methods to create such an archive but none of them worked as well as this.  You can see a working example using my tweets at http://tweetnest.daibach.co.uk.

I’m considering using this tool to create an archive of tweets from the various Consumer Focus twitter accounts.

Coming up…

• Launch of new Consumer Focus website
• Consumer Focus is abolished
• Comprehensive Spending Review
• Comparing energy prices

Karoo disconnects file sharers
Hull’s only internet provider – Karoo – has been disconnecting people accused of file sharing without the right to appeal. Although they’ve now changed their policy, as a monopoly provider, they have a greater responsibility to provide connections to all residents of hull.
Source: BBC News

Government departments are sticking with IE6
Aside from the fact that web developers (myself included) hate IE6 because of its complete lack of standards support, there are big concerns over its security. IE6 is over 8 years old and has been superseded by not 1, but 2 versions. Despite this, a number of Government departments/agencies (including MoD, DCSF and others) have no plans to upgrade to newer browsers.
Source: Kable

London – Swansea to be electrified
The train line between London and Swansea is to be electrified at last. Fantastic news for South Wales and about time it happened.
Source: BBC News

Publicising product recalls
Consumer Focus Labs has launched its first project (and several major revisions since). You can now sign up to receive notifications by email and RSS for product recalls from the EU.
Source: CF Labs Blog 1, CF Labs Blog 2

In typical fashion, I’m over a week behind in this obligatory post marking the start of the new year. In fairness, I had the notes written on New Year’s eve, but for one reason or another, didn’t actually write it up until today.

So, here we are, a brand new year. What have I got planned for the next 12 months?

My first big aim is to complete a number of personal projects that have been pretty much on hold for the last 6 months. The most important of which is a completely revamped Govilon village website. By the end of February I intend to launch a redesigned site, complete with updated content, improved functionality for the history site, and a new community blog. We’ve hopefully got a few influential people in the village lined up to contribute to a news-style blog about things happening in the village.

My second aim is to blog more regularly. I’ve set myself a target of at least one entry a week this year. These entries are not going to be your typical ‘this is what I’ve been up to’ posts, but more focused towards web design and development. Coincidentially, it turns out that a few of my friends (Tobeon, Shepherdnick, Jonhurlock, saya) and my brother have also settled on the same resolution.

Another resolution is to be more active in the web design / development community. Part of this will be achieved through more regular blogging and better use of twitter. However I also intend to start attending industry events such as the Future of Web Apps in Dublin & Future of Web Design in London conferences this year. I’ll also be going along to a number of events run by Cardiff Web Scene.

My other resolutions revolve around my work life balance. I’m hoping to begin working from home at least one day a week, which should give me some more free time. I’m also going to force myself to make better use of my gym membership over the next year.

So, there we go. New resolutions for a new year, lets hope I can stick to them!

Normal service should resume this week with the first of my blog-a-week articles.

I always have high hopes for the evenings – maybe go to the gym (and make use of the membership that is dutifully being taken out of my bank account every month), maybe finally get around to doing the blogs I keep meaning to write, maybe getting the Govilon history website finished.  However, by the time I get home, I’m always so tired, these things rarely happen.

I think part of the problem is the commute – an hour and a half each way.  If the traffic is good, I can do the journey to Cardiff in just over 45 minutes, but at peak times it takes up to an hour and a half.  The train is just as bad – always overcrowded and now that we’re well into winter it is frequently late.

Just before I went away on holiday, I worked some extra hours to cover for a workmate on paternity leave.  This meant I was getting into work an hour earlier than usual, and leaving an hour later.  The difference in the traffic was amazing.  I could leave the house at half 6 and be in the office for 7.  Leave the office at half 6 and be at home by 7.30.  Just the half hour difference in the morning gave me a whole extra hour at work.

When my colleague is back in the office, I’m going to try and move my hours so I start earlier and leave earlier.  Maybe then I might be able to get through some of the things I want to do in the evenings.

Just over a week ago I was given the result of all this hard work – a Master of Engineering in Computing with Upper Second Class Honours (a 2:1).  I’m absolutely amazed that I manged to get a 2:1, especially when you consider all the additional extra-curricular activities I’ve undertaken during the last few years (my freelance work, the waterfront, etc.).  Its been a really difficult 4 years, and I’m glad its finally finished, but it was definitely worth it!

Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m a graduate – for that I’ll have to wait for my degree ceremony on July 18th!

Since getting my results, we’ve all packed up and moved back to our respective homes.  I’ve spent the last few days helping everyone clear up the house to make room for the huge amount of stuff I’ve accumulated while living in Swansea (its amazing really how much stuff I have).

Today was the last day of freedom – tomorrow I start my job as a full time developer at a web design company in Cardiff.

Now that my time in education is finally over (and partially because we found this while tidying up the study at home), I thought it would be nice to look back at when I started school for the first time.  Below is a scan of the front cover of my very first school report from June 1991 (when I was just 4 years old).  Even back then I obviously knew that I wanted to work in IT!

I’ve removed the daily digest of twitter entries from the homepage, archive pages and RSS feed. I decided they were cluttering things up a bit too much. You can still follow my twitter messages though at twitter.com/dafyddbach or keep up with the daily digest in the ‘tweets‘ category.

So, here is a quick – and completely uninteresting – update:

July
- Attended Charlie’s graduation and graduation ball
- Went to an extremely wet Global Gathering in Stratford-upon-Avon
- Worked full time at a web development company in Cardiff as I have for every summer since Y10

August
- More working at said web development company

September
- Charlie & I spent a few days in Paris
- I moved into my new place in Swansea
- Charlie moved into her new place in Cardiff
- Discovered that the university had pretty much forgotten about our course and we had to organise it all

October
- Finished organising the course – although many important details still haven’t been sorted out
- Lots of boring university work
- Lots of web development work

November
- Even more boring university work
- Lots more web development work

So, as you can see, it’s been a pretty boring few months with lots of work but nothing particularly interesting happening. Never the less, I am intending to get back into the habit of blogging regularly.

Hopefully my next blog entry should be a bit more interesting.

Bring on next time!