At your service
We love to work with clients who share a passion for success and a desire to stand out from the crowd. Our services include web design, mobile app development, software engineering, digital marketing, and more.
We're proud to have served clients around the world for over 25 years. Our experienced team of digital professionals are passionate about providing innovative solutions and delivering an outstanding customer experience. With Digital Marmalade, you'll get the best in digital services, tailored to your needs.
Software Development
Intuitive, bespoke software solutions that are robust, scalable and secure. Our approach prioritises providing cost-effective solutions with maximum impact. We can assist you every step of the way, from concept to launch, either independently or working alongside your in-house development team.
View related workUI & UX Design
A user centric approach that understands your business and your users. Through active collaboration in the user experience process, we develop solutions to complex challenges. Our software and application design team have extensive experience delivering profitable, accessible interfaces and optimised user journeys, no matter the platform or screen size.
View related workApp Development
Fast loading, stable and secure native apps for iOS and Android. Our app team specialises in crafting elegant native apps that boost customer engagement and loyalty, from planning to deployment. With Flutter, a single codebase builds both iOS and Android apps, resulting in less development, less upkeep, and greater ROI.
View related workOur Approach
So, you've got that winning idea, how do you go about building it? Application development can be complex, time consuming and costly, which means picking the right software developer is essential.
Do you have a winning idea that you want to bring to life? Taking on the complex, time-consuming and often costly task of application development can seem like a daunting prospect. That's why it's essential to choose the right software developer.
For over 25 years, Digital Marmalade has been creating and delivering sophisticated software and application solutions. We have optimised our planning and development process to ensure that projects are completed efficiently, client expectations are exceeded and budgets are managed effectively.
We offer a flexible relationship tailored to your needs, which can include:
Go the Marmalade way
At Digital Marmalade, we have perfected our approach to software development, ensuring projects are completed on time, to a high standard and within budget. Here’s how we do it:
Phase 1
Strategic Briefing. Charting the course.
The initial phase of every project is paramount in ensuring success.
We begin by building a shared understanding of what needs to be achieved, through a series of key stakeholder meetings. Here, we review briefing documents, discuss strategic goals, top level priorities, constraints, motivations and budgets in a collaborative setting. This helps to ensure that the project is set up for success from the very start.
At the end of this phase...
Every project is different and this process helps us shape and agree the best approach to the subsequent Discovery phase, and allows us to identify:
- Project roles
- Team responsibilities
- Required planning meetings
Phase 2
Discovery. Taking off.
The discovery and planning phase gives us the opportunity to review in detail and construct a comprehensive picture of your full requirements. This enables us to make informed decisions based on strategic goals and identified performance indicators.
Research. The world is your oyster.
Digital Marmalade will help devise the most commercially viable approach to uncovering meaningful insights to meet your specific project requirements and budget.
As outlined in the Strategic Briefing phase, we will liaise with key stakeholders, business analysts, your commercial and operational teams, and your customers, in order to gain a thorough understanding of your organisation, your digital assets, and your customers' expectations.
User Experience Design. Pre-flight checks.
Now that we have identified the full scope of the project, the next step is to turn your strategic objectives into a clear, commercially advantageous, digital vision. This is done through a series of collaborative workshops where the whole project team can explore and evaluate the options.
We use our expertise to rapidly create interactive wireframe prototypes to help communicate ideas, which can quickly be reviewed, questioned, and continuously improved during the discovery phase, as well as during an agile development process. Every step of a user journey is considered, as well as the backend management tools that power each process.
By uniting your team's business insights with our technical expertise, we can quickly and cost-effectively bring ideas to life. These prototypes bring clarity and simplicity to this complex process, allowing the stakeholders to assess ideas visually and sign off on the project plans with confidence.
Project Definition. Reaching altitude.
The interactive wireframes will serve as a detailed project blueprint for the designers, developers, and management team to follow. Our project team will work through the research notes and prototypes to identify and set out:
- A minimal viable product
- A short-term tactical feature set
- A long-term strategic feature set
- A prioritized list of deliverables
- The technical architecture
- A Roadmap and rollout strategy
- Pproject timelines
- Cost estimates
- Measurable project KPIs
At the end of this phase...
The end result is a statement of work that clearly outlines the project scope, cost, and expectations of all parties, guaranteeing that everyone is aware of the next steps.
Phase 3
Build. The adventure begins.
Having established the scope and agreed the project plan, we now move into the Build phase. You will be assigned a dedicated project manager who will serve as your primary point of contact throughout. The project manager will organise and facilitate regular steering meetings, oversee production cycles (sprints), coordinate activities between the delivery team, third parties, and your internal team, manage change requests, report progress, and keep track of budgets.
Methodology. Tailored to your needs.
Given the unique nature of each project, we will select a project development methodology that best suits your project requirements, objectives and deadlines. We usually adopt a combination of traditional waterfall and agile development techniques. Although we are capable of working exclusively in either methodology, this rarely meets our clients' needs.
User and interface design. Exploring the sights.
The design process will run parallel to development, in line with the chosen project development methodology. Our design team will take the wireframes and transform each user interface into a responsive design that is in keeping with your brand and provides a consistent user experience across all platforms, be it a desktop computer, smartphone, or tablet.
When constructing user-friendly websites or applications, design is about more than just aesthetics. We will collaborate with you to tailor the information architecture, navigation labels, and content treatment to ensure they offer optimal user journeys and good search engine rankings. It is the details that make systems engaging and enjoyable to use — our designers will add simple interactions and effects to create interest, enhance content, provide feedback, and generally improve the user experience.
Testing and quality assurance. No stone left unturned.
Digital Marmalade has a flexible yet pragmatic approach to testing and Quality Assurance (QA) that is tailored to the needs and budgets of our clients. To reduce the probability of mistakes, we use a combination of automated and manual testing. For some projects, we employ a Test Driven Development process right from the start, with precisely defined test cases and acceptance criteria based on the wireframe prototypes. Continuous integration and regression testing also play an important role in the development cycle.
We are also happy to work, where necessary, with third-party specialists for client acceptance testing, comprehensive security testing, and performance testing. On these occasions, we can suggest suppliers from our network or work with your recommendations.
Hosting. A home for your application.
We do not offer hosting services directly, as we leave that to the professionals in their secure, bomb-proof bunkers! During the Build Phase, we will work with you to identify and set up a hosting solution that meets your project requirements — guaranteeing it provides speed and is robust, secure, and scalable. We will also help to ensure that you get the correct service level agreement from the hosting company, to make sure that backups, security patches, and hosting support are properly covered.
At the end of this phase...
Once you give us the green light for User Acceptance, we'll perform final preparations and work through our launch checklist.
Phase 4
Support Exploring new horizons
Fantastic! We did it! The application has gone live but the work doesn't stop there. We'll tailor a support package that covers general maintenance and caters for the level of optimisation and enhancements that might be needed to help your business grow and evolve.
Maintenance. Keeping things spick and span
Inevitably, immediately following 'go live', there will be a period where bugs are identified and supported. Depending on the complexity of the application this type of support will usually taper out within the first few months. Once the warranty period expires we'll switch to a continuous maintenance mode where we'll fix reported bugs inline with our service level agreement. We use a ticketing system for defect reporting, tracking and bug fixing.
Optimisation Continuous improvement
Websites and applications rarely remain static, they evolve to support your business needs, your customers' expectations and to help you stay ahead of your competitors. By monitoring business critical components we can make informed improvements to ensure your investment is performing optimally against the KPIs and is providing an enjoyable, positive user experience.
Agile Method
Agile is a methodology that is based on iterative development, enabling the requirements and solutions to evolve through collaboration. The aim is to quickly produce a functioning minimum viable product, as determined in the discovery phase, and then to give feedback, iterate, test and enhance it.
Just as with the Waterfall approach, the project is divided into two-week sprints, with the most important tasks given priority. During each sprint, the design and development teams will do their utmost to complete the tasks assigned to them, with the aim of demonstrating the deliverables for feedback or approval. The incremental and iterative nature of the build gives the client clear visibility and control over the building process.
The Agile approach is ideal for complex, pioneering projects where the requirements are not fully defined from the start and are liable to change. For Agile to work, the client must commit their time, as the short timescales necessitate regular meetings, swift feedback, and a strict approach to feature prioritisation.
Techniques to measure and improve performance
There are several established techniques available to help measure and improve the performance of your site, including:
Usability testing and feedback
Applied to key user journeys and tasks.
KPI tracking
Leads to conversion optimisation.
Visitor reports
Help identify key landing pages and drop off screens, as well is feeding into key word analysis and search engine optimisation.
Performance testing
Ensure all elements of the site load quickly and respond instantly across all devices and during busy times.
Multivariant testing
Help qualify incremental refinements, content treatment, messaging and design decisions.
Techniques to measure and improve performance
Competitor Analysis
Reviewing your competitor's online activities, UI, technical approaches, strengths and weaknesses.
Technical Analysis
Understanding the existing systems, processes, data feeds and any third party integration requirements.
Analytic Reports
Analysing any existing web traffic, inventory and performance reports that you might have in place.
Marketing Review
Discussing commercial goals, marketing activities and campaigns and social media.
Content Review
Reviewing existing information architecture, customer journeys and content strategy.
Customer Surveys
Customer feedback through online surveys to help gather, rate and prioritise features.
Customer Interviews
One to one interviews to discuss the customer's needs, opinions, attitudes and perceptions.
Customer Usability Tests
Either face to face or online observations of targeted customers performing specific tasks to help confirm or deny assumptions and identify strengths, weaknesses and potential UX issues. Depending on the requirements, we can take this a step further and go deeper in tracking customer behaviour through heat map analysis and eye tracking studies.
Waterfall Method
The project will be divided into two-week sprints. Before each sprint, we will plan and assign tasks to the designers, front-end developers, and back-end developers, ensuring that any blockers are given priority.
The team will strive to complete these tasks in line with the wireframe prototype blueprint. This strict sprint cycle will be repeated until the application is fully formed and ready for user acceptance testing.
The Waterfall method is advantageous when there is a high degree of assurance that there will be minimal changes to the scope and implementation, as specified in the statement of work and wireframe prototype. It is well-suited to projects that will be launched in a fully developed form, to an agreed deadline.
Case Studies
Discover how our expertise in software development has successfully addressed various challenges, delivering effective solutions and exceeding client expectations.
