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Thanks to everyone who helped me raise a total of £530.04 for Unicef!

Natasha — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:00:02 +0000

This morning at 8am I grabbed my gear and running shoes and headed for Green Park. It was a great day, clear sky, cool breeze, perfect conditions for a long distance run. I met my friend who has also taken part in the Royal Park Half Marathon, we planned to run this thing together. We both completed the race in 2h 8minutes, running past the most historic places. Some of the busiest roads in London we’re closed especially for this race, it felt very special to be running past Big Ben on the road that would always be jammed with cars.

For the past month I have raise a total of £530.04 for Unicef with a huge help from my colleagues at Snow Valley, all my friends and family who have been very supportive.

Here are some snapshots from the day, many of which were taken by my friend Kieran while I was running.

Above photo credit www.royalparkshalf.com

My first Half Marathon

Natasha — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:22:18 +0000

Running a full marathon is one of those things I said I’ll definitely do one day while watching other people on TV running the London marathon year after year. So, finally I registered! I’m starting with small steps; my first Half Marathon on 9th of October.

As part of the marathon I have chosen to raise £550 for Unicef; a charity who aims to save, protect and improve children’s lives around the world.

I’ve been keeping a diary of my training and progress online at www.numberonepixel.com/marathon if you would like to sponsor me then please go to my donation page.

Any fund raising ideas and marathon training tips would be appreciated, please leave a comments as this would be a greatly encouraging! Thank you :-)

Snow Valley at Micros communication day

Natasha — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:46:56 +0000

This year Snow Valley was acquired by Micros Systems Inc. bringing many positive changes to the company such as holding an annual event where all the employees meet and get to now each-other. Last Friday the entire Snow Valley workforce went to Windsor to participate in team building activities together with other Micros employees. This was also a good opportunity to meet some of our colleagues who work outside of London.

Here is a photo diary of the day’s events.

First thing in the morning we embarked a short train journey to Windsor; fresh faced with a good dose of coffee ready to take on the challenge!

The day began with a welcome meeting which included breakfast tea and biscuits. We heard inspirational speeches from our colleagues and managers about the company’s future plans and latest news.

We had a delicious BBQ lunch with our new teams accompanied by fantastic weather.

The activities involved jumping through loopes, bouncing on inflatable structures while carrying water and running around as fast as you can! My favourite was probably the penguin run!

My team (the best team) came second in the finals but that is only because I was half participating while taking photos, otherwise I’m sure we would have won the trophy :-)

Mina’s leaving day :-(

Natasha — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:58:46 +0000

Another sad day at Snow Valley; our second most loved intern is leaving us and she will be gretly missed. Mina has worked at Snow Valley for over a year and she has definitelly made our working environment 100% more cute and entertaining, we had some great memories and her last day Snow Valley definitelly sums up our time together :-)

Goodbye to our interns at Snow Valley

Natasha — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:29:16 +0000

Lats Friday was a big leaving day at Snow Valley, all our interns have completed their one year work experience and have gone on their summer holiday before going back to university.

The tradition at Snow Valley is to throw a leaving party for all our loved colleagues who have to depart, you can expect plenty of booze, snacks, hugs, many goodbye messages and parting gift such as chocolate, books, personalised t-shirts and a block of cheese!

This is just a little bit of what makes this a great place to work!

Lunch at Le Pain Quotidien

Natasha — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:39:56 +0000

This week I met a friend for a wonderful lunch at Le Pain Quotidien in Tottenham Court Road. I had a delicious tuna salad served with freshly baked bread. They source organic ingredients bake fresh pastries and make their own jams and chocolate spreads.

Our latest project at Snow Valley; quick and straight forward online currency exchange!

Natasha — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:09:49 +0000

Last week, Snow Valley completed the design and build of the Travel Money website. Our team has worked very hard for the past few months to create a better solution for our client, from planning user journeys to inventing new web applications; we aimed to create a great user experience.

Travel Money is part of the Moneycorp group. The website was designed to function similarly to an application rather than a website making currency exchange online a straight forward and quick process for anyone. The aesthetic resembles mobile phone applications with large buttons and clearly labeled navigation through the different stages of purchasing.

Unlike other currency website Snow Valley have built various useful functions into this such as the instant currency conversion; users can type in the amount they want to ‘Buy’ or ‘Receive’ and the website will calculate and round up the totals appropriately.

Customers can find the required currency through various methods, they can choose a flag from one of the most commonly traveled countries but they can also browse a graphic map of the world to find the appropriate currency for the country they are traveling to.

You can view the live website at www.travelmoney.moneycorp.com.

Way finding system at the London Collage of Communications

Natasha — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:44:11 +0000

This Saturday I went to my old university; London College of Communications in Elephant and Castle to use the library and noticed the building has a new way finding system, it uses a stencil font printed directly on the building walls, it’s instantly striking and really compliments the existing angles of the building. Here are a few photos I took too give you an idea.

Great online merchandising idea from Burton

Natasha — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 22:17:53 +0000

I have always loved the Burton website for its clean user friendly design and interactive features like board finder and product videos, it has definitely set the standard for e-commerce websites.

Recently it has implemented another smart feature – a weather feed that allows users to see what Burton recommends based on the weather in their city.

We almost always buy clothes to wear straight away, and burton is making the most of this buy helping the user decide their next outfit depending on the weather. This concept works for Burton as their products are mainly for the outdoors.

This is a great way to capture user attention on the home page; the content is instantly more relevant to the customer and links them directly to a product.

The website automatically recognises the city you live in and shows a three day forecast. The location can be changed by clicking on the information icon on the large panel which reveals weather options.

The panels display products and a couple of videos, unfortunately the videos don’t change depending on location but would be nice to see more custom contentent in the future.

Raising Money for Japanese Tsunami

Natasha — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:31:04 +0000

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi site has affected most of the world. This week, Mina Nishimura my colleagues and good friend here at Snow Valley has started to raise money for those affected by the devastating earthquake. She has provided a very cute money box which is just asking to be filled :-) and she will also be making sushi for everyone next week. The donations will be given directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society . The website is probably one of the better and more direct ways to donate to the cause.

I will be updating this post during the week to let you know how good the sushi was and how much money she has raised! I hope this inspires you to do the same at your workplace and please let me know if you already are and tweet me your money raising ideas.

Update:
This week Mina made some very tasty sushi as promised, four different types; Chicken katsu, tuna, vegetarian and Eel! They were so delicious and were eaten in record time!