Over my years of web design, I have used many different tools from pure HTML, CSS and JS to WordPress and even Square Space. When I started looking into Webflow I was a bit apprehensive about another no code web-based designer. After I got started playing around with the designer, I was sold...

If you have a look around our website, you made notice a few slight changes to our site this is because we have finally made the change from WordPress to Webflow. Why we did this is for a few reasons one of the top reasons being speed...

It has been a very weird few years now and a lot has changed. Lockdowns and borders being closed thanks to Covid has changed our little group of islands from an international tourist destination to a place for the locals to wander around...

I have done a bit of web scraping lately both to automate some of the tasks I do regularly and some to get data for projects. I have learned one big thing from doing this it is ok to do something for a one off ... sometimes. There are times when working on scripts...

I have been using python for a while now and have used it for a number of different projects, but this one surprised me. Word clouds are something I have not used before. Then, I had the idea of using it for a project a while ago and struggled with finding a way to...

How to Use Data to Motivate.I have found myself not motivated to get up and out walking for a while now and know I need to do something about it. However,  even with this realization that I have not done anything about it for the last few weeks. So thought I would try...

We use words each day of our lives it is only when we use these same words on a screen that we think about how we display them. The ways you can play with typography are endless. You can go from the simply use of contrasting fonts for the body text and headings to the...

Carrying on from part 1 where I covered how to remove objects from images in multiple ways I am going to cover some more things that can help you out in Photoshop first up is one of the big things in Photoshop, that being masking. The 2 main ways to mask that I use...

Google Analytics I have been using Google Analytics for a while now mostly to look at the traffic on our site. Why I have been doing this is for a few reasons one of which is just to keep the team up-to-date with our top blogs. Why I do this and why it is important...

Much like Illustrator Photoshop is a great tool for design. Photoshop is not just for editing photos, but for working with images to create works of art for whatever project you happen to be working on. There are many great tools in Photoshop to help you in your...

Sometimes the hardest things about design work is not the design itself, but the countless hours where you are trying to think of what to even make. Sometimes it’s easy you sit at your desk and boom you are going. Other days you are sitting there coming up with ideas...

Most Adobe programs have some things that are easy to do once you know how to do them, but if you don’t it’s not very intuitive so I thought I would do a list of things and tell or show you how to do them. Paste in place This is a very easy thing to do and can be very...

Git is an unbelievably useful tool for version control. It is used to keep a backup of your work that you can revert to if needed. Working with git you are able to make branches of your work. A branch is an independent line of development used when working on any new...

I've found that most of the tutorials for python data work are in videos.  While this can be good, it's not as easy to skim through for that one thing you are stuck on. So I thought I would cover some basics: how to read a csv and some simple data visualization. Read...

3 reasons why I enjoy coding with Python, and what I use it for (beginner)   I can’t be called a code monkey when compared to my colleagues, but recently I’ve found Python to be really helpful with some of my work tasks, so I signed up for a Udemy course to learn...

The OptimalBI team loves open source and is also mad about data.  Alison wrote a blog on Open source datasets already, and because there's more options out there, I thought I would give you some more places to get open data from for your various data needs. I have...

When you ventured out to the supermarket during lockdown, I bet you noticed waaaay less traffic on the roads.  I live in the Wellington CBD, and it was really weird walking around with no people, no traffic for weeks. It got me wondering about the data;  Thankfully...

Over the years, we've been building up our comic-style SAS function one-page guides, drip-feeding them to you.  Well, guess what?!  We put them all together and made a book so they're all in the one place, to make referencing them easier for you. Thank you...