What gives with the DMAâs new website?

As some of you may know, we’ve been toiling away for the past few months forging a new DMA website out of cutting-edge web technologies and the tears of developers. Testing emails have gone out, feedback has been gratefully received, and we are slowly honing in on a finished product.

But why are we doing this? For what purpose are we keeping a bunch of nerds locked in a basement with only Monster Energy drinks and Sainsbury’s Basics noodles for sustenance?

In case it wasn’t patently obvious, it’s partly for our own sadistic pleasure, but mostly for the benefit of you, the DMA members. We’ve been working – and hard – on creating a website that puts you firmly in the driver’s seat.

Here’s what you can expect:

Super-powered search
You’ll always find exactly what you’re looking for (and a whole lot of stuff you didn’t know you wanted), with the new super-smart search

Turbo tools
Customise your own personal content feed, clip articles to read later and connect directly to the people that matter. Submit the content you want to see and add to other people’s work.

Rough and ready responsive layout
Want to browse on an iPhone 5c? No problem. Samsung Galaxy? We’ve got you covered. Obscure space-age technology not yet discovered? Yep, the site will still look brilliant on that too.

And much, much more besides.

The whole thing has been built using masonry.js, with a suite of proprietary, custom-built technologies just for us and, by extension, you, because we’re all special. Once it’s up and running on our dedicated servers (and you better believe we’ve got a load balancer in there), the whole thing will be lightning fast. I’m talking roadrunner fast. Somewhere between Superman and the Flash kind of fast. That’s the good news.

But these things, much like a new series of Game of Thrones or my mum’s famous shredded-chicken lasagne, take time. “But we’ve already been waiting ages!” I hear you say, much to my surprise as this is a blog and we’re not actually having a two-way conversation while I type this.
We know. We understand.

And you’re not getting the site until it’s perfect. No, more than that; until it’s ruddy-bloody amazing.

So bear with us; watch your inbox for test emails (you lucky few), and feel free to ask questions. We’re nothing if not good listeners – tell us what you’d like to see on the site, what you’d find useful, and how amazing the season finale of GoT was. Am I right?! I can’t believe they brought that guy back from the dead! Twist!

By Mark Thomas, Digital Production Executive, The DMA