About Boomworks

We are a Sydney based agency who specialise in online strategy, user-centred design and development.

Boomworks is a uniquely positioned internet agency, offering end-to-end web-based solutions that are developed through our user-centred design methodology.

Boomworks has an innovative approach to information architecture, interaction design and visual design. We have replaced the traditional approach of developing static wireframes and then passing these to the creative team to apply a visual design, with a more iterative approach.

At Boomworks, the development of the visual design is tightly coupled with the development of the user experience. We recognise that the user experience results from the response to the design, the layout and functionality of the site. Early involvement of the creative team in the design process ensures the vision for the site incorporates all elements that will impact the users' onsite interactions.

Our interface development team create high-fidelity functional prototypes that fully represent the proposed site experience, which we test with actual users, allowing us to gather detailed feedback on all aspects of the design. We utilise the user feedback to refine the site and then retest it through subsequent rounds to further improve the experience.

The final piece of the puzzle is provided by our highly skilled application developers, who take the fully refined solutions and deliver them via the Ektron CMS solution (or another ASP.NET (C#), ColdFusion, PHP or Ruby on Rails solution of your choice).

Beyond the work delivered for clients, Boomworks follows a number of work practices to support the broader community and our employees. For the past three years, Boomworks has engaged Carbon Planet to conduct a comprehensive audit of the company's greenhouse gas emissions establishing our carbon footprint. This footprint has then been offset through the purchase of carbon credits from the NSW Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme (GGRS). Boomworks continue to take steps to minimise our carbon footprint through a number of internal recycling and energy policies.

As importantly, Boomworks are the proud Zoo Parents of the pygmy hippos at Taronga Zoo. The small but perfectly formed pygmy hippos’ grumpy disposition quite inexplicably brings happiness to Boomworks staff and clients. With the arrival of a new baby to our pygmy hippo herd, we now feel more like zoo grandparents.

Our History

Boomworks was established in 2004 by Fred Randell and Grant Klein, its two founders and sole shareholders. Boomworks have a single location in Sydney with 27 permanent staff. From this office, we successfully deliver projects for clients based in a variety of locations around Australia as well as working with other development teams based around Australia and India. Approximately 70% of income is generated by projects initiated outside of Sydney.

Boomworks has a history of delivering high-quality strategic solutions for a range of clients from large corporate organisations through to smaller groups resulting in an excellent reputation among web services companies in Australia.

The strength and duration of our relationships with our key clients – many of whom have been with us since our inception - is testimony to the success of our methods. We see each project as being unique and requiring a handcrafted approach. We work with our clients to develop project plans that fit within their time and budget constraints, utilising where appropriate well proven methods and leading edge research practices.

Boomworks senior staff have an average of more than 10 years experience working in the interactive space and all have worked on numerous high profile corporate design, interface and development projects whilst at Boomworks or before. Our team have been significantly involved in projects for clients including BigPond, Telstra, ING Australia, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Sydney Opera House, MBF and Qantas. Boomworks won the 2009 AIMIA award for Best News Media or Reference category for the work we undertook with Wotnews and received a finalist nomination for the TaLe site in 2011. In the current AIMIA awards Boomworks has finalist nominations for Best Financial Service for the RAMS website and Best Tourism or Travel for the YHA Facebook and mobile booking sites.

Our staff members are avid contributors to the design and developer communities in Sydney and are regular attendees of Web Standards Group and Sydney IA Peers gatherings thus ensuring Boomworks remains an up-to-date and vocal advocate of industry trends and community sentiment.

Our Office

We our home-away-from-home.

Our Office is eco-friendly.

Hands up if you have worked in one of those offices where you are freezing in summer and boiling in winter? Many and various of us at Boomworks certainly have, so during our office fit-out when the conversation turned to air-conditioning we had plenty to say. The design scheme called for the main office work area to be upstairs, which also meant the majority of the people and equipment would be closer to the tin roof. It doesn't take too many stinky armpits to tell you that meant things were going to get hot up there.

Our architects Haughton Design recommended we engage a dedicated Ecologically Sustainable Design (ESD) firm to assist with the passive cooling and related air-conditioning requirements. This would ensure the overall design scheme for the office could be enhanced where required to optimise natural ventilation and ensure resource efficiency in terms of energy, water and materials.

With the ESD firm Cundall appointed, we quickly got them up to speed with the Boomworks way of thinking. What followed was an amount of air flow modelling, site inspections and numerous ideas and drawings that would define the ESD strategy for the office.

These initiatives included:

Upgrade of the basic roof insulation
Internal ceiling panels incorporating roof vents
Skylight windows that can be opened
Ceiling fans
Natural ventilation via numerous window systems and the famous indoor garden

So how does it all work? Essentially, within our warehouse space we have created an outdoor area and a larger indoor area. The outdoor area is created by having two large vergolas in the roof above our garden and also by restoring two external windows to the original heritage facade of the building. The indoor area is a large, two storey timber and glass office box that sits within the envelope of the original space, essentially surrounded by the "outside" air.

With the vergolas and external windows open, air is drawn in and around the interior box. As much of the glass components of the box are louvers or sliding panels, it is possible to open the office area. With the skylights above the work area also open, the fresh air is effectively drawn in and through, cooling the space as it does. According to the modelling, this should keep us in our target temperature range between 75%-85% of the time, without the need for air-conditioning.

Enough said. View our album on Flickr