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This website is in need of a good update, please bear with me, it's on its way!

This is the website of Ben Ellis, a freelance Information Architect (IA), Web Developer and Interface Designer based in North Essex in the South East of England.

I am Director of Hungry Browser Limited, a User Experience Consultancy that works with a range of clients across the UK. I am also a dedicated surfer, qualified BSA Level 1 Surf Instructor and RLSS Beach Lifeguard.

Check out my services, business values and philosophy, view the projects I have been involved with and read my blog for some stories (mostly about surfing - no surprises there!).

Downloads

If you have a project you would like to engage me on please complete the RFP document or download my credentials below.

Availability

I am available for new opportunities as of Mid-April 2010. If you would like to contact me then please email me (using the contact form) and I will respond as soon as possible.

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Latest project

Hungry Browser OS X Widget

September 15th, 2009

Following on from my tinkering with Dashcode at the weekend I thought I would try my hand at developing a simple widget for OS X dashboard. The widget simply takes the most recent posts from my website and feeds an excerpt in via RSS. Users can adjust the length of each article. Clicking on a headline takes the user to the respective article on my website.

Download the widget (you will need to be running a Mac with OS X 10.4.3 or higher).

Front view of widget Back view of widget

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Sony Ericsson website information architecture

September 13th, 2009

Whilst working at Dare Digital this summer I was involved with the redevelopment of the user experience for the forthcoming global website relaunch. I worked alongside the in-house IA, design and account teams to develop the documentation for the site (Wireframes, Sitemaps etc.). I also attended internal and external meetings and conference calls with the client.

Sony Ericsson

Deliverables

  • Sitemap
  • Wireframes

Client goals

To redevelop the entire Sony Ericsson website user experience and position Sony Ericsson products at the centre of this experience.

Challenges overcome

As I joined the project three months after the launch date there was a lot of catching up to do. This took time and effort, but eventually I was comfortable leading internal meetings and making decisions that effected the direction of the IA and design.

On a slightly less serious point, the entire project documentation was produced using Visio. This was a real pain in the a**e as I am a Mac person and have a strong belief in making anything look as good as possible. This simply can’t be done efficiently and without a lot of headaches in Visio. Needless to say I wasn’t a happy bunny for the 4 or 5 weeks that I was involved with this project, but sometimes you have to bite your tongue and get on with it.

The new website is due to go live some time later on this year.

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Hungry Browser iPhone Web App

September 12th, 2009

I was tinkering around with the Apple iPhone SDK this morning and after a few hours of fiddling I decided to use Dashcode to create a little iPhone Web App. The app simply delivers the most recent 10 posts from this website and formats them into a list. Clicking on an item previews the post. Subsequently clicking on the “read more” button sends the user to the respective post (in full) on www.hungrybrowser.co.uk.

It isn’t going to set the world alight, but it is a start. If you have an iphone and want to follow the content on this site (and don’t want to keep on loading the full site), then simply click on the icon below to go to the iphone Web App version at: www.hungrybrowser.co.uk/benellis/iphone/

Enjoy!

iphone screen

Hungry Browser iPhone Web App

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