Creative web development and design

What this site is for

This site is an attempt to pull together a number of disparate strands, from the web development experiments that don't really fit into my working life, to more nitty-gritty technical issues that have arisen in my work. And, like many people in my trade, I like to sound off about stuff.

About me, me, me

I have been a web designer and developer by trade since the mid-1990s and I am currently happily ensconced working as an online specialist for a large corporate organisation. Mmmmmmm. Suit and tie. Company pension. Branded stationary. Bring it on. After a decade of death-defying survival on freelance income and running a software business it's pretty sweet, all told.

Technically, my home territory is ASP.NET with C# and SQL Server. I'm suspicious of open source (never trust a hippy, etc), have long since got over Microsoft-baiting, think vinyl is the greatest of all music media, never quite got the hang of predictive text and rile somewhat when people call me a "nerd".

Why "Bombay Crow"?

It’s a pretty meaningless name. I once took a nice photo of a crow in Mumbai though couldn't really fit it into this ultra-minimalist page design.

Latest additions

Josef Müller Brockmann - grid-based layout and web design

In recent years there has been a trend towards visual overload in web design. In trying to buck this trend the example of Josef Müller Brockmann is instructive.

Search engine optimisation: Why I don’t trust search engine results

The top ten results in any particular search are not necessarily the most relevant and authoritative sites, but merely the most expertly optimised. Are search engines being undermined by the SEO industry?

Recruitment sites and Web 2.0 - what’s in it for them?

If, like me, you spend a lot of time looking at recruitment web sites, you’ll be disappointed at how little recruiters have genuinely engaged with online.

Who owns your online networking contacts?

A recent judgement in the UK courts has forced a former employee of Hays to hand over details of the business contacts build up through LinkedIn.com.

Web accessibility: The most commonly made mistakes of inaccessible sites

Web accessibility isn't just about meeting a set of guidelines. You need an appreciation of WHY you are making your site accessible, as well as who you are doing it for.

Digital artist: Rafael Rozendaal

Rafael is a Dutch online artist whose playful and highly abstract interctive work shows a sharp intelligence and a great deal of wit.