Mid-Ocean News - May 8, 2009
By Alex Scrymgeour
CREATING a distinctive web presence for your company can be a laborious task unless you hire the right personnel to create it for you.
Bridget Figur, the website development manager for emedia, is a person whose experience, creativity and dedication can help you to achieve your goal and make your mark on the internet.
The American-born web developer just celebrated her one-year anniversary with emedia and since her arrival she has made a positive impression on the company and its clients.
"At college I majored in math and computer science and I minored in studio art," said Ms Figur. "There were no web design classes at my college and I taught myself HTML - the code that is written to create web pages.
"On graduating I became a software developer for a New York hedge fund and I also was a freelance website developer.
"At emedia I'll meet with a client to figure out what is best for them and the game plan for the website. From there we quote. Phil Trott, the web designer here at emedia, designs and hands back to me and I do all the code for the website."
In the past year Ms. Figur said he has worked on a number of websites for a wide variety of clients.
"Working with the Bermuda International Business Association (BIBA) was as unforgettable an experience as I've had since I've been here," she said. It was a high-profile project for us and for for Bermuda. When I came in the website was a real mess...I was able to fix it and enhance it.
"I also loved working on The Bermuda Sloop Foundation website. I loved the end product of that project. It has tons of interactive stuff where the homepage is always changing with new pictures and articles on the Spirit of Bermuda.
"I am also working on a website right now for Designer Flowers. That's real fun because I can, given the nature of the business, get creative with the design as well as provide good functionality."
Ms Figur said when it comes to creating a website that will generate both hits and business, clients have to do some serious prep work.
"Make sure you have the purpose of your website down and a clear vision of what you need and can spend," she said. "There are so many different things you can do with a website, you need to prioritise according to your needs and budget."