Kyan Interviewed

Recently an admirer from afar, Morocco in fact, got in touch for an interview to publish on their website cssbit.com. We thought it was worth posting the interview here in full english.

Incidently if you have a question you’d like us to answer feel free to get in touch at info@kyanmedia.com.

Who’s Kyan?

Kyan is a medium sized web design & development studio with 14 employees who all love the web. We build websites and web applications, including web based business flow tools with a focus on usability and design. We are all either designers, developers or by circumstance project managers.

What services does Kyan offer?

• Website design
• Web application development
• Interface design
• SEO

Describe your workplace

We have just moved to Guildford High Street in the South of England. We have 2 floors, one acts as the dedicated open plan engine room, where we all code and design together and the other floor dedicated to play. Big kitchen area, customised arcade machine – it still needs a fair bit of work but it’s fun getting there. Check out the Kyan Flickr account for piccies. Most of our production files are based in ‘the cloud’ so most of the infrastructure is based on our broadband connection. There are lots of Macs, a couple of PCs and even the odd Ubuntu desktop.

How do you get the new clients?

All our work comes by referral. It helps that we put our credits on the bottom of all our websites.

Why do you love Ruby?

We love Ruby, beacuse it is fast to develop in, has a strong community and has a buzz about it.

You work with PHP too, but you focus on Ruby.

We also use PHP. We are very much of the mindset that we choose the right tool for the right job. Sometimes PHP fits the bill, especially for smaller website projects.

What is the average time for a project?

Hard to put a time on this as we have some on-going developments over 3 years old, but as a rule for a new web application we like to allow 16 weeks and for a simple website with CMS around 6 weeks.

Do you have any tips for those who wish start a web 2.0 company?

Establish a reputation for quality and then hire people who are better than you. It is all about the people. Oh and have fun doing it.

Describe a typical day at Kyanmedia

Start between 8 or 10, drink some supa-strong coffee, fend some emails, create a playlist on the global company jukebox, shuffle some pixels for a couple of hours before heading off to the pub for lunch, or eating in front of your screen as you look through your Google Reader feeds, all whilst rating the music playing in the studio and slipping in a few retro games on the arcade emulator. Then back to the code and hopefully some doughnuts that one of your colleagues has genourously bought to share. If it’s a Friday we may slip out to the pub at 6 to unwind.

How do you price your services?

If we have a good understanding of the project and the client has provided a clear brief we are happy to quote a fixed cost based on our understanding on how long the project will take. Otherwise we charge an hourly rate and record all the job hours in our custom time recording/intranet system.

Do you use pencil and paper or any other tools?

Wireframing will usually start with a pencil and paper as will initial design investigations.

Is there a risk to work as a web company?

Risks may involve getting tired of keeping ontop of the technology, but that is also what makes it so much fun.

How do you spend your free time at Kyan?

There isn’t much! Although we do mix work and play, playing games, listening to music, Kyan film & curry club.

Do you choose your clients?

Sometimes. It will depend on how booked up we are. The busier we are the choosier we can be. As a company we want to be profitable and this often means taking pragmatic financial decisions.

Do you use Basecamp or any webapp to get projects done?

Yes we use Basecamp for general project management, Trac and Lighthouse for issue tracking and sometimes Mantis. Again the right tool for the right job and a client may even have their own preferences.