Our latest news and insights
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5 min read
Foundations of personalisation
In today's digital landscape, personalisation isn't just a buzzword; it's a strategic imperative.
4 min read
Figma releases new tools at Figma Config APAC in Singapore
The passion and energy were contagious at Figma Config APAC, reminding us of the immense power of design to connect and inspire. As Figma Enterprise clients, Luminary hopes to further build upon the Figma community in Melbourne and Australia.
7 min read
Luminary turns 25
This wasn't a birthday we were going to let pass without a bang! We share a couple of exciting announcements about how we're marking our 25 years, and reminisce about our early days as an emerging digital agency.
Strategy, design & UX
6 min read
How to create a digital strategy roadmap
A good strategic roadmap not only outlines what you want to achieve with your digital strategy, but sets out the detail of how you're going to get there. Here we provide guidance on how to do it, along with a downloadable Digital Roadmap Toolkit.
9 min read
The digital design trends that shaped 2023
Gradients made a comeback, bold typography options never left us, and we all got a little closer to bridging the gap between design and development.
6 min read
Demystifying UX and industry terminology
Too often UX is made to sound overly technical and confusing. This is troubling because UX is about understanding the human experience and making it simpler...
17 min read
The 7 secret ingredients for digital project success
Luminary Digital Strategist Emma Andrews reveals what it takes to really get value out of your investment in digital.
Engaging a digital agency
6 min read
How to brief a digital agency
Whether you’re briefing your existing agency or inviting new agencies to respond to a request for proposal, there are certain ‘rules of the game’ that will help you drive the best possible result. This blog post features a downloadable digital agency briefing template to help you get off on the right foot.
10 min read
How to budget for a large website
What does it take to build a substantial, high-quality website? And how much will you need to spend?
7 min read
How to lay the right foundation for your digital asset
What's the best pathway towards building a website which will appreciate in value over time?
Technology selection
9 min read
Building a martech stack
Selecting a martech stack can be overwhelming. The right mix of products can be the make or break of an organisation’s digital strategy. Here, we share our insights and tips from many years of assisting clients with this daunting task. We also include our downloadable Martech Audit Matrix for you to audit your existing stack.
8 min read
How to choose the right CMS
You’ve decided you need a new Content Management System – but where do you start in deciding which one to go with? Here, we distill our learnings over the past two decades of advising clients on choosing digital platforms. We’ve even included a downloadable comparison matrix for you to rank contending CMS or DXP options.
12 min read
Choosing a DXP: Kentico Xperience or Optimizely
Kentico Xperience and Optimizely Digital Experience Platform are two industry leading .NET-based DXPs with a broad feature set, long history, and strong roadmap. Mid- to large-sized organisations on a Microsoft tech stack will often find themselves researching and potentially trying to decide which platform suits them best. We use our expertise to break down the key differences between these fantastic platforms and help you choose one or the other.
16 min read
Headless v Traditional CMS - which one is right for you?
In March 2023, Luminary hosted an expert panel with representatives from five leading CMS and DXP platforms, discussing the topic of headless CMS, and how organisations can decide whether it is right for them.
Everything you need to know if you're considering migrating your website from a traditional CMS to a headless CMS.
7 min read
Choosing between Kentico Xperience and Kontent.ai
Most CMS or DXP vendors are synonymous with the products they produce, but Kentico Software took on a unique 'dual rail' product strategy, with two distinct flagship products serving different needs. What are the key differences, and when should you be looking at one or the other?
Luminary's blog
News and insights from the Luminary team.
Showing 330 results
5 min read
Foundations of personalisation
In today's digital landscape, personalisation isn't just a buzzword; it's a strategic imperative.
4 min read
Figma releases new tools at Figma Config APAC in Singapore
The passion and energy were contagious at Figma Config APAC, reminding us of the immense power of design to connect and inspire. As Figma Enterprise clients, Luminary hopes to further build upon the Figma community in Melbourne and Australia.
7 min read
Luminary turns 25
This wasn't a birthday we were going to let pass without a bang! We share a couple of exciting announcements about how we're marking our 25 years, and reminisce about our early days as an emerging digital agency.
4 min read
Source control on Umbraco Cloud – are you doing it right?
Umbraco Cloud lets you push your code directly to the repository that Cloud gives you – but just because you can do it, doesn’t necessarily mean you should.
4 min read
20 years of partnership - Fleet Plant Hire and Luminary
Luminary custom developed an application for Fleet that operates their business
2 min read
Luminary Launches BeFit Program
New habits are hard to start and harder to stick with, but what if we could decrease the number of steps between our team and good habits?
6 min read
Empowering enterprises with Sitecore XM Cloud
The desire for increased marketer productivity, seamless omnichannel experiences, and cost optimisation is a constant thread across our client base. Sitecore XM Cloud is a future-proof solution designed to empower enterprises and address these critical needs.
5 min read
Luminary’s Sarah Dam and Grace Purton-Long short-listed for Women Leading Tech Awards
We’re thrilled to announce that not one, but two of our Luminary team members have been short-listed for Women Leading Tech Awards, Sarah Dam and Grace Purton-Long.
6 min read
Regulating the use of generative AI in the workplace
Does your workplace have an AI Policy? If not, it’s time to start thinking about implementing one. Below are some factors you should consider in developing guidelines for the responsible use of AI.
7 min read
Should businesses be in the business of driving social change?
Companies are increasingly being pushed to take a stronger stance on social issues, while at the same time facing pressure to not be 'too political’. Navigating the balance is no easy task.
2 min read
Luminary wins back-to-back Optimizely Partner of the Year award!
Luminary has been named Optimizely’s ANZ Solution Partner of the Year for the second year running.
3 min read
Introducing our new charity program, Luminary Hearts + Hands
While we have always been big supporters of charities and NFPs, this year we decided to formalise our commitment with the launch of our new charity program, Luminary Hearts + Hands.
6 min read
Tracking with consent: what you need to know about cookie pop-ups
Cookie consent pop-ups are fast becoming ubiquitous – even for sites that aren’t technically obliged to carry them. But how do you respect users' right to privacy while still collecting valuable data to improve the customer experience?
9 min read
The digital design trends that shaped 2023
Gradients made a comeback, bold typography options never left us, and we all got a little closer to bridging the gap between design and development.
4 min read
Umbraco Cloud Australian data centre welcomes first commercial customer
Luminary has delivered the first commercial customer to the Umbraco Cloud Australian data centre.
10 min read
Digital predictions for 2024
In our annual meeting of the minds, our industry experts dissect every angle of digital and predict what technologies and trends will shape the year ahead.
4 min read
The moments that shaped our year
From winning the Australian web industry’s most prestigious award, to being named on the Best Workplaces List in Australia, Indonesia and Asia, it’s been a pretty big year for us. Here are some of our highlights.
4 min read
Is open source B.A.D? Reflections inspired by SXSW…
Luminary Technical Director Emmanuel Tissera shares some lessons learned from SXSW Sydney about open source and open innovation.
8 min read
A design perspective on the future of technology
Four Luminary designers attended SXSW Sydney, and countless ideas emerged. Here are some of the key takeaways from the panels, talks and experiences our design team enjoyed.
4 min read
The age of too much information
Have you ever been deprived of something and wanted more? Are you becoming mentally obese? It could be a result of your information diet.
5 min read
Navigating the mind: SXSW insights from non-obvious thinkers
In a world that demands constant adaptation and innovation, two thought leaders, Ray Good and Rohit Bhargava, offered distinct yet interconnected perspectives in their talks.
4 min read
All eyes on AI: what we learnt at SXSW that marketers should consider
SXSW attendees hoping to avoid the topic of AI would be sorely disappointed, as AI was woven into almost all talks and panel discussions from the first day of the festival to the last.
3 min read
UNICEF investing in start-ups
How do you get tech companies to invest in technology to support children in developing countries? Invest in them!
4 min read
Social contracts give everyone a voice
How do you create an environment where people share ideas, ask for help and feel safe to say ‘I don’t know the answer’?
7 min read
Resolving Rich Text in Astro and Next.js
A Headless CMS typically avoids storing your content using HTML. Instead, it uses 'Rich Text', enabling embedded components, and the ability to deliver that content anywhere, including mobile apps and other non-web channels.
4 min read
Next level content delivery with Optimizely Graph
Optimizely introduced a new product called Optimizely Graph earlier this year. We were one of the first partners to adopt this new service in a large-scale web development project. Let’s take a look at what Graph brings to the table and why I call it the next level for content delivery.
4 min read
Putting the AI in Kontent.ai
Why does Kontent.ai literally have AI in its name? The question has now been definitively answered as Kontent.ai has announced that it's the first content management system to feature native generative AI. And I've got early access!
4 min read
Design Fidelity & Prototyping
Throughout design projects the term ‘fidelity’ comes up often, the degree of exactness with which something is reproduced. Most commonly when the term fidelity is used it is to distinguish between ‘low’ and ‘high’ fidelity prototypes.
7 min read
There's still a place for the all-in-one DXP
The talk of the CMS space in recent years has been all Headless this, and Composable that, and words like 'traditional' and 'monolithic' are being thrown around as almost offensive terms. Yet with the great power and flexibility you get from decoupling your systems, comes increased complexity. For many customers, there's still a very strong case for the (modern) Unified DXP.
6 min read
Promoting an R U OK? Day culture, everyday
R U OK? Day is back for 2023 and this year's theme is 'I'm here to hear'. People & Culture Director, Leah Champion weighs in on how Luminary exemplifies that theme.
7 min read
The power of storytelling in fundraising – our Fred's Big Run journey so far
Marketing manager Tami Iseli takes stock of Luminary’s involvement in charity initiative ‘Fred’s Big Run’ over the past four years, and the role that storytelling has played in rallying our team to get behind the cause.
5 min read
Luminary joins Best Workplaces in Asia list
With over one million employees being surveyed across Asia, Luminary has ranked at No.20 for the Best Workplaces in Asia (following placing No.10 on Best Workplaces Indonesia!). Someone pinch us!
3 min read
Luminary becomes first Umbraco Platinum Partner in Australia
We are excited to announce that we have become the first and only Umbraco Platinum Partner in Australia. In a parallel development, we have also been instrumental in the establishment of an Umbraco hosting region in Australia.
7 min read
Is the home page dead?
The home page as we knew it in the 90s has died, but have we moved on? Uncover the 'why' behind our hesitance and what to do about it in practice.
5 min read
Generative AI: How to prepare for the next evolution in organic search
What is generative AI, how does it impact discoverability in search, and what should you be doing now to prepare for the change?
5 min read
Why conducting a content audit is essential
Performing a content audit is a crucial step in optimising a website's performance. It can help identify outdated or irrelevant content, identify content gaps, improve SEO efforts, enhance user experience, and save time and resources.
4 min read
Luminary set to descend on SXSW Sydney
For the first time in its 37-year history, South By Southwest is making its way to Sydney, and a solid contingent of the Luminary team will be making an appearance at the event. Find out why we’re making the investment to send our team and why we think it’s an unmissable event for leaders in digital.
5 min read
What are Design Tokens and why do you need to know about them?
Design Tokens are the secret to streamlining the design process and maintaining a consistent design language across a project or suite of digital assets. Design Director Thom Bransom explains how Design Tokens work and how they can help you boost your bottom line.
1 min read
Giving First Nations people a voice
We believe that inclusion and reconciliation are essential.
3 min read
UNICEF and Luminary take out top gong at Australian Web Awards
The UNICEF Australia website, designed and built by Luminary, has won the overall site of the year award in the Australian Web Awards.
4 min read
How UNICEF achieved greater speed to market with Kontent.ai
At the recent Kontent Horizons event, Luminary CTO Andy Thompson presented with UNICEF Australia’s Acquisitions Manager Nikola Sarbinowski, and Digital Platforms Strategist Alan Menzies, on how Kontent.ai has helped to transform the organisation’s website.
13 min read
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) vs Universal Analytics (UA): Your questions answered
It’s the changing of the guard that has the marketing industry split. Swapping out Universal Analytics (UA) for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has raised many questions and created some disparity in reporting. Here’s what you need to know as we say goodbye to UA.
12 min read
All you need to know about online A/B testing in 2023
With the sunsetting of Google Optimize, Luminary’s team of digital experts weigh in on what you need to know to run effective A/B tests on your website in 2023.
16 min read
Headless v Traditional CMS - which one is right for you?
In March 2023, Luminary hosted an expert panel with representatives from five leading CMS and DXP platforms, discussing the topic of headless CMS, and how organisations can decide whether it is right for them.
9 min read
Your customers sell your product better than you do!
User-generated content helps people make a decision about whether a product is right for them. Showcasing your customers’ content is a great way to increase engagement and conversion.
2 min read
Optimizely named a leader in the Gartner 2023 Magic Quadrant
The Optimizely DXP and CMP are once again being recognised as leaders in the Magic Quadrant by Gartner.
5 min read
Optimizely as a headless CMS
The Optimizely CMS has always been known as a traditional CMS, but is this still the case? Newly added features are pushing it into headless territory, and they come with some competitive advantages.
8 min read
Sell the story, not the product
People are far more likely to remember stories than product features. The best marketing focuses on storytelling and creating engagement, rather than focusing on the product itself.
3 min read
Celebrating International Women’s Day ‘Luminary-style’
International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to celebrate our female team members. On Friday 4 March, Luminary presented a panel discussion to explore the present-day challenges of women working in tech and the lifestyle considerations that are put on women when considering a career and a family.
5 min read
Upgrading Kentico Xperience to Xperience by Kentico in 2023
Xperience by Kentico, the upcoming next-generation DXP from Kentico, was released in early access via the Xperience Adopter Program (XAP) nine months ago in July 2022. Since then, Kentico has been very busy working on upgrade tools to assist XAP customers in upgrading from older versions to the next-generation platform.
10 min read
How to use Optimizely to personalise your website
Optimizely has many personalisation capabilities, and it can be challenging to understand how they all work. Let's take a look at some of the personalisation solutions and how they operate.
8 min read
What happens to advertising when the cookie crumbles?
With Google phasing out cookies, how will advertisers cope?
7 min read
How to harness AI without being a rocket scientist
Real-world examples of AI can be seen everywhere now, and are making headlines for doing amazing things with text and images that were previously considered to be reserved for talented human minds. But these advances are all coming out of the labs of AI juggernauts such as OpenAI and Google. Can lowly digital marketers like us take advantage of AI today? (Spoiler alert: the answer is 'yes'!)
1 min read
What is MACH? And what does it mean for the future of the CMS?
Luminary Technical Director, Emmanuel Tissera, presented on MACH architecture at the January Umbraco Community Day.
4 min read
What’s next after Google Optimize’s sunsetting?
Google has announced that it is sunsetting the Google Optimize and Optimize 360 services, forcing customers to explore new platforms and invest in transitioning before September 2023.
7 min read
Me, myself and AI: How marketers can embrace an AI future
AI is straight out of a sci-fi novel, but how can we engineer this tool to serve our own business narrative without losing the human touch?
9 min read
Top tech buzzwords to get your head around in 2023
Trying to keep on top of new developments in tech is enough to make the average punter’s head spin. Luckily for you, we’ve distilled the wisdom of a whole team of digital die-hards to help you zero-in on the tech trends you actually need to know about.
8 min read
Why do we buy?
The search for who we are is influenced by what we buy and vice versa. Beliefs about ourselves, our aspirations, and our view of our peer group influence what we buy. Marketers use stories and emotions to connect their brand value to people’s aspirations to support their ability to be the best version of themselves.
9 min read
Digital trends to watch in 2023
Hear what our Luminary leaders have to say about 2023 trends across UX, SEO, design, strategy and the digital landscape.
6 min read
SEO copywriting: How to write for users and not their clicks
Recent algorithm updates show that creating value for your audience will get you further in organic search than being driven by keywords and search volumes. What are you doing to stand out?
1 min read
Luminary wins Optimizely Solution Partner of the Year
We are thrilled to announce that Luminary has been named APAC Solution Partner of the Year at the Optimizely 2022 Partner Awards!
7 min read
How to reduce your website’s carbon footprint
Websites can often be an oversight when calculating a business's carbon footprint, with this always-on asset contributing to global pollution. As our online ecosystem continues to grow, we review the ways we can clean up heavy websites or find ways to carbon offset.
5 min read
Finding relevance for FMCG brands online
The FMCG industry can have a reputation for being far from ‘fast moving’ when it comes to adopting new marketing practices outside of its traditional media playbook. However with competition rife at-shelf, the impetus to move the consumer interaction online is more relevant than ever.
4 min read
Offsetting our carbon footprint in Bali
Luminary has been carbon neutral since 1 July 2018. This year we planted mangroves in Bali to offset our carbon footprint.
1 min read
Optimizely multi-site best practices: a presentation by MVP Ynze Nunnink
A showcase of Optimizely multi-site best practices, featuring Daimler sub-brands Fuso and Freightliner.
4 min read
UX v SEO: Friends or Foes?
User experience (UX) design and search engine optimisation (SEO) have a sibling-like relationship: in years past, they may have conflicted, but as they’ve matured, they realise they have a lot in common.
3 min read
Optimizely names Luminary Senior Developer, Ynze Nunnink, OMVP
Luminary Senior Developer and Optimizely Lead, Ynze Nunnink has secured the coveted position of Optimizely MVP. Earning a Platinum badge for his contribution to the Optimizely and greater CMS community, Ynze will continue to share knowledge and enhance the Optimizely product offering through his work.
6 min read
A multi-brand strategy in Optimizely DXP
The Optimizely Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is ideally suited to digital projects featuring multiple websites or applications. Here, we showcase a multi-brand engagement we are undertaking for Daimler.
3 min read
Two agencies, one wager and $15,737 raised for Fred Hollows
In August 2022, we took on competitor digital agency Revium in a quest to see who could cover the most ground for Fred Hollows' annual fundraiser, Fred's Big Run. Only one agency could emerge victorious but the real winners were the 633 people who can now have their sight restored as a result of the agencies' combined efforts.
4 min read
Patagonia goes public for purpose and the planet
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard has announced that he and his family are giving the entire company shares (worth around AUD$4.5 billion) into a trust to fight climate change.
7 min read
Mentoring the next wave of female developers
This article is an adaptation of a DDD by Night presentation from September 2022 about what we can do to support and encourage female developers to thrive in the Australian tech industry.
7 min read
.NET Core 3.1 approaches end of life
Microsoft will cease to support and maintain .NET Core 3.1 by 13 December 2022. Beyond this date .NET core 3.1 will no longer receive security patches or bug fixes. All websites and custom applications written on this technology will be vulnerable to security and performance issues if not updated to the latest LTS Release .NET 6.
4 min read
Get yourname.au by 20 September
Time is running out to use your priority allocation to register yourname.au. Direct registration without the .com is the biggest evolution of the Australian domain name space in nearly 30 years.
6 min read
AI-powered content recommendations with a headless CMS
While your headless CMS might not come with all the bells and whistles of a full-featured Digital Experience Platform (DXP), thanks to its API-first nature, it's relatively straightforward to integrate with the most powerful AI-powered content recommendations available on the market. We did just that with our own website, Kontent.ai, and Recombee.
8 min read
How to choose the right CMS
You’ve decided you need a new Content Management System – but where do you start in deciding which one to go with? Here, we distill our learnings over the past two decades of advising clients on choosing digital platforms. We’ve even included a downloadable comparison matrix for you to rank contending CMS or DXP options.
8 min read
How Fred’s Big Run changed my life
Luminary’s resident Forrest Gump – Tony ‘Running Man’ Duan – talks to our Marketing Manager about how our Fred’s Big Run campaign in 2020 set him on a path to a healthier lifestyle and sparked an as-yet unbroken daily habit.
5 min read
The Xperience Adopter Program (XAP) has arrived
Kentico's next-generation of their flagship Xperience DXP has been released in early access.
7 min read
We rebuilt our website on the Jamstack (without changing CMS)
You may not notice just by looking at it, but a few weeks ago we launched a completely rebuilt front end (or 'head') for our website. The new Jamstack tech is great, but the coolest part of all is that there was zero downtime, no content freeze, and no SEO impact (except positive!), as our existing headless CMS remained unchanged behind the scenes.
2 min read
Experiencing a week in the life of Luminary
Year 10 student Lachlan Newman got a taste of life as a developer with his week of work experience at Luminary. At the end, he took away lots of valuable learnings and a real-life, playable computer game that he created himself! Here’s his account of the week.
5 min read
Umbraco cDXP targets enterprise market
At Codegarden 2022, Umbraco HQ revealed ambitious plans to market Umbraco cDXP (composable Digital Experience Platform) to lower enterprise and upper midmarket company segments. As an attendee of the Umbraco Gold Partner Summit and Developer conference, Emmanuel Tissera shares some of his insights.
6 min read
Umbraco introduces composable DXP offering
Umbraco’s Composable DXP makes integrations simpler, easier and more intuitive.
7 min read
Choosing between Kentico Xperience and Kontent.ai
Most CMS or DXP vendors are synonymous with the products they produce, but Kentico Software took on a unique 'dual rail' product strategy, with two distinct flagship products serving different needs. What are the key differences, and when should you be looking at one or the other?
4 min read
Why you should upgrade to Optimizely CMS 12
Upgrading to a new version of the Optimizely CMS can seem daunting. It starts making a lot more sense once you open the black box and see that the benefits can outweigh the development effort.
2 min read
Two Luminary developers awarded title of Umbraco MVP
Luminary is proud to announce that our Technical Director Emmanuel Tissera and Solutions Architect Mario Lopez have renewed their Umbraco MVP titles for 2022.
6 min read
Xperience by Kentico technology highlights
Kentico's next generation of their flagship DXP is just around the corner, and it will bring with it a huge suite of technology improvements. Let's dive in!
7 min read
Where is my data anyway? Data sovereignty challenges in a world of SaaS and Cloud
'Where is my data?' is a tricky question to answer succinctly in a modern world dominated by cloud services, APIs and globally distributed Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). In the good old days when you just stored everything in your monolithic CMS and hosted it yourself, it was easy to answer. Nowadays, we may need to rephrase the question, or ask different questions entirely.
5 min read
How do you handle online forms with Kontent.ai?
There are a few questions we regularly field when introducing the concept of a Content as a Service to people. After explaining the terms 'headless' and 'microservices', we invariably hit the topic of online forms - a staple feature of any traditional web CMS, but curiously absent from the feature list of your modern-day headless CMS.
7 min read
How to lay the right foundation for your digital asset
What's the best pathway towards building a website which will appreciate in value over time?
10 min read
How to budget for a large website
What does it take to build a substantial, high-quality website? And how much will you need to spend?
12 min read
Behavioural design – An NFP case study
We’re not all as rational as we like to think we are. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But, what if it was getting in the way of our goals? Like say, raising money for charity. Wouldn’t we want a way to solve this problem?
5 min read
Four common risks to SEO during migrations – and how to mitigate them
One of the most common concerns clients have during website replatforming and migrations is what impact the project could have on their hard-earned SEO authority and traffic. Thankfully, with careful planning, it’s not as scary as you’d think.
4 min read
The next generation of Xperience by Kentico is coming
At the Kentico Xperience Connection 2022 conference, we got an early look at the next generation of the Xperience platform coming out of Kentico's R&D labs.
10 min read
Hot tips for upgrading to Kentico Xperience 13
Solutions Architect Thai Tran offers some helpful tips to help you succeed in your upgrade to Kentico 13.
7 min read
What is a composable DXP?
As enterprises increasingly look to adopt Headless CMS, best-of-breed SaaS services, and API-first microservices architectures, the role of the traditional monolithic Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is gradually being reduced in many cases. Yet the requirement for a full suite of complementary digital marketing and experience management services remains. Enter: the composable DXP.
7 min read
Elise Sutherland is the Luminary Tech Visionary Award Winner for 2022
Luminary is the proud sponsor of the Victorian Young Achiever Awards in the Tech Visionary category. Our winner this year is Stelect founder, Elise Sutherland.
8 min read
Why you should be modelling content
Content modelling is a critical part of setting a headless CMS up for success. Technical Director Emmanuel Tissera takes a deep dive into how it works.
4 min read
Our new social contract
We updated our social contract in March 2022 to guide how we work together.
7 min read
What you need to know about moving from Google’s Universal Analytics to GA4
As of July next year, Universal Analytics – the Google Analytics product many of us have come to depend on over the last 10 years – will be replaced by GA4. Here’s what you can expect and how to prepare for the change.
9 min read
Building a martech stack
Selecting a martech stack can be overwhelming. The right mix of products can be the make or break of an organisation’s digital strategy. Here, we share our insights and tips from many years of assisting clients with this daunting task. We also include our downloadable Martech Audit Matrix for you to audit your existing stack.
6 min read
Accessibility design in practice
Designing for accessibility means creating a satisfying and enjoyable experience for all users. But the expectations are raised sky-high when the client is Vision Australia and the brief is to make sure its major fundraising event, Carols by Candlelight, is a beautiful and accessible experience for everyone.
6 min read
Luminary celebrates one year as a B Corp
Twelve months on from becoming a Certified B Corp, we take a look at some of the things we've achieved in this space so far...
4 min read
Is this digital agency right for me?
It can be hard to understand the digital agency landscape as an outsider. Things can look the same but there are BIG differences. Here is an insider’s guide to the Australian market.
5 min read
What is the role of the Product Owner in Agile?
The Product Owner performs a critical function in an Agile delivery team. So how do you find the right person for the job, and how can you maximise the value of this role to produce the best possible outcomes?
6 min read
What is the point of buying an NFT?
NFTs have become very popular collectibles and are often dismissed because it is so easy to use Google to see a duplicate of the digital item. So why do people buy them?
3 min read
Luminary officially accredited to provide Agile certifications
Luminary has been accredited by the International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile) to certify clients and staff in Agile Fundamentals (ICP).
7 min read
Six steps to a successful client-agency relationship
A successful client-agency relationship is one characterised by positivity, productivity and exceptional project outcomes. Here’s how to get there.
9 min read
What happens when a digital agency and a university partner up?
Over the past year, Luminary’s Directors of Design, UX and Strategy – Thom Bransom, Josh Smith and Emma Andrews – have been working to establish a university partnership to give the next generation of specialists a window into their future careers.
5 min read
.com.au is about to become .au
Soon you will be able to register yourname.au. Direct registration without the .com is the evolution of the Australian domain name space after nearly 30 years.
7 min read
Tips for choosing a digital agency
Choosing the right digital agency to work with can be a time-consuming process. However, finding the best match is critical to getting the outcome you want. If you’re looking for a new digital agency, we’d like to help make the search easier with these easy tips and a downloadable agency scorecard template to help you make the right selection.
6 min read
The fundamentals of designing for accessibility
Designing for accessibility is about making the digital world brighter and more inclusive for all people. Here are the key ideas and guiding principles for accessible design.
15 min read
Choosing a DXP: Kentico Xperience or Sitecore
Kentico Xperience and Sitecore Experience Platform are two industry leading .NET-based DXPs with a broad feature set, long history, and strong roadmap. Mid- to large-sized organisations on a Microsoft tech stack will often find themselves researching and potentially trying to decide which platform suits them best. We use our expertise to break down the key differences between these fantastic platforms and help you choose one or the other.
1 min read
CMS technology trends
Luminary MD Adam Griffith recently participated in a panel discussion on trends in CMS technology. In case you missed it, here's a video recording of the session.
3 min read
Luminary achieves Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner status
Luminary has achieved Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner status, highlighting our capability to deliver cloud applications and services on Microsoft Azure.
12 min read
Choosing a DXP: Kentico Xperience or Optimizely
Kentico Xperience and Optimizely Digital Experience Platform are two industry leading .NET-based DXPs with a broad feature set, long history, and strong roadmap. Mid- to large-sized organisations on a Microsoft tech stack will often find themselves researching and potentially trying to decide which platform suits them best. We use our expertise to break down the key differences between these fantastic platforms and help you choose one or the other.
8 min read
UX: The art and science of problem solving
User Experience is brought to life by an interface. But the core of UX has less to do with pixels and more to do with finding and solving a human problem.
4 min read
What does .NET Core mean for me and my DXP?
Digital Experience Platforms (or DXPs) all have regular upgrades or refreshes available to keep up with the latest technologies. Sometimes the benefits are clear to business users, other times they're more 'under the hood' upgrades targeted more at development teams. One major feature that all of the leading .NET DXPs are adopting right now is .NET Core support, and it turns out there are significant benefits for all involved.
7 min read
Choosing a DXP: Kentico Xperience or Umbraco CMS
Kentico Xperience and Umbraco are both very popular .NET DXP or CMS platforms. They bear many similarities, to the point that many digital agencies specialise in both platforms due to the similar skillsets required for implementation and support. Here's our in-depth comparison and guide to why you might choose one or the other for your project.
2 min read
Clipsal app receives prestigious design award
Clipsal by Schneider Electric and Luminary are celebrating yet another design award win for the Clipspec Design Application.
6 min read
Demystifying UX and industry terminology
Too often UX is made to sound overly technical and confusing. This is troubling because UX is about understanding the human experience and making it simpler...
9 min read
How should I upgrade Kentico Xperience?
Xperience by Kentico, their flagship DXP, is currently at version 13, with a long roadmap ahead. Over the years, the underlying technology and feature set have changed and will continue to do so. How can you get the best return on your investment in the Xperience platform, considering where you are on its roadmap?
3 min read
Service is purpose – Our day at Foodbank
On Tuesday 21 September, a group of 10 Luminary team members volunteered their time at hunger relief charity Foodbank Victoria. Here's what Account Director Gemma Hinds had to say about it.
4 min read
Umbraco releases v9
The 28th of September was marked with a big red cross on every Umbraco fan’s calendar out there. The much anticipated Umbraco version 9 was released yesterday, moving the Umbraco CMS to the modern .NET 5/ASP.NET Core stack. Let’s explore what all the fuss was about.
2 min read
Paid Volunteer Leave: Supporting our team to support others
We are proud to announce that Luminary now has a formal policy to support our team members in taking a day of leave each year to engage in volunteer work.
2 min read
Luminary attains Umbraco Gold Partner status
Luminary has become one of just four digital agencies in Australia to be recognised as an Umbraco Gold Partner.
4 min read
Luminary turns 22!
Luminary began 22 years ago when the internet was in its infancy. Websites were basically brochures and product catalogues. The internet has evolved to become a personalised experience that focuses on the user’s needs, wants and aspirations.
6 min read
Luminary is increasing its offering in Strategy, UX and Human Centred Design
We have been steadily building up our team and capabilities to expand our capacity to offer a holistic and integrated approach to delivering unique, powerful and category-leading digital experiences.
6 min read
The State of the Jamstack in 2021
For the second year running, Luminary has partnered with Kentico Kontent to produce The State of the Jamstack report. Here are our thoughts one year on.
6 min read
How understanding human mental models drives better UX design
Josh Smith, UX Director at Luminary, explains why the user experience is different for every person and how understanding mental models dramatically improves UX design.
8 min read
The B Corp revolution is here
As consumers demand more from companies, many organisations are seeking to have a positive impact on their clients, their staff and society as a whole, and are discovering B Corp accreditation.
8 min read
Configuring Web Spotlight in Kontent for any scenario
Web Spotlight for Kontent adds hierarchical page structure or navigation to the headless CMS - usually only seen in traditional Web Content Management Systems (WCMS). But if Kontent is headless, how can you configure it to match the way your website is designed and built?
2 min read
Kontent Audit Log feature released
It may not be the sexiest feature Kontent by Kentico has ever released, but its new Audit Log is still going to be very attractive to any enterprise customer or administrator looking for a full history of all changes within their cloud-based headless CMS.
2 min read
Announcing the Luminary Tech Visionary Award Winner for 2021
Bree-Anne Pagonis is the winner of this year’s Luminary Tech Visionary award, which recognises young people demonstrating creative thinking and making a significant contribution and social impact through the use of digital.
6 min read
Luminary Tech Visionary Finalist: Bree-Anne Pagonis, co-founder of WIRL
Luminary is proud to be sponsoring the Victorian Young Achiever Awards. In the second of a series on the Luminary Tech Visionary Award finalists for 2021, we profile Bree-Anne Pagonis, co-founder of WIRL.
7 min read
Luminary Tech Visionary Finalist: Joe Sinclair, founder of Sprout
Luminary is proud to be sponsoring the Victorian Young Achiever Awards. In the first of a series on the Luminary Tech Visionary Award finalists for 2021, we profile Joe Sinclair, founder of Sprout.
7 min read
Luminary Tech Visionary Finalist: Maurice Schill, founder of JuJu
Luminary is proud to be sponsoring the Victorian Young Achiever Awards. In the third of a series on the Luminary Tech Visionary Award finalists, we profile Maurice Schill, creator of JuJu.
3 min read
Luminary achieves international recognition as a Great Place to Work
Luminary has been certified as a Great Place to Work for the first time in Indonesia and for the sixth consecutive year in Australia.
7 min read
Rallying for the kids
In March 2021, Luminary sponsored a little old VW called 'Jessica' in a race around the outback of New South Wales to raise money for children’s charity Country Hope.
4 min read
Luminary joins global B Corp movement
Over the last few years, a powerful social movement has been gaining momentum. We’re super excited to announce that we’re now a part of that movement.
2 min read
Striving for balance combats biases and creates opportunities
Luminary CEO Marty Drill shares his thoughts on International Women's Day and the challenge of achieving gender balance in the digital space.
6 min read
How to create an ergonomic home office set-up
Looking to avoid ‘scroll-iosis’ in the home office? Making your home office as productive and ergonomic as your workplace setup is easily achievable. Here are some of the ways it can be done.
6 min read
What will happen to your search engine ranking if Google stops providing search in Australia?
With Google threatening to withdraw search in Australia, many businesses are understandably concerned about the impact this may have on their website's search rankings. Here's what you can do to mitigate the risk.
9 min read
The power of user stories
Have you ever described what you want a piece of software to do and ended up with something different? User stories provide a powerful way to communicate your needs and those of your users. Humans relate to stories which have them engage rather than requirements that have them comply.
5 min read
Using AI to power smart content recommendations for your headless CMS
A powerful but less-known feature of Kontent is its AI-powered Smart Recommendations API.
1 min read
A/B testing, personalisation and marketing automation with Umbraco 8
A/B testing, personalisation and marketing automation with Umbraco 8 were the main highlights at the February Australian Umbraco Meetup.
4 min read
Agile ways of working with distributed teams
The pandemic has drastically changed the way we work as teams. Working from home is here to stay and teams have adapted to not working and collaborating from the same room. As offices open up in 2021, the tools and approaches used to support distributed teams in 2020 will need to be relied upon as people work from the office part time.
8 min read
The QR code finally has its time to shine
The use of QR codes as a way to check in to a venue for contact tracing has elevated this technology to new heights. So will QR codes fade back into obscurity once the pandemic is over, or have they just opened up an enormous world of future potential for marketers?
1 min read
A true partnership: Luminary + Cancer Council Australia
When Cancer Council Australia (CCA) decided to rebuild its website, it wanted a tech partner that could mentor and guide it, not just execute and deliver a product. It found that partner in Luminary. Here’s a video and summary of the presentation CCA and Luminary CTO Andy Thompson gave at the 2020 Kontent Horizons conference.
3 min read
Packages in Umbraco 8
The December 2020 Melbourne Umbraco meetup was all about packages in Umbraco 8. Authors of different packages such as uSync, Plumber and a few others gave lightning demos/talks on their plugins.
2 min read
Nominations are open for the Luminary Tech Visionary Award for 2021!
Know a young Victorian doing amazing things with digital? Encourage them to get the recognition they deserve through the Luminary Tech Visionary category of the 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards.
4 min read
Keeping connected while keeping apart
Our Office Manager, Mike Trueman, has been an integral part of keeping us all connected while we worked from home. Here, he shares his perspective on some of the things that made it all work.
3 min read
Luminary welcomes renowned design duo
In response to growing demand for our UX Design services, we have appointed highly regarded designers Thom Bransom and Josh Smith to our team.
8 min read
Is a headless CMS good or bad for SEO?
Using a headless CMS for a website isn't going to hurt your SEO. It sure doesn't guarantee good results, but when implemented properly, it can be unbeatable.
1 min read
Heart Foundation website in the spotlight
At Kentico Xperience Connection 2020, Luminary CTO Andy Thompson presented with the Heart Foundation’s Troy Muir and Matt Dickson on bringing the Foundation’s new website to life. Here’s a round-up of what was covered, along with the presentation video.
5 min read
Kentico Xperience 13 released
Kentico have just released the latest major version of their flagship Digital Experience Platform – Kentico Xperience 13.
9 min read
Best practices for peak traffic
Luminary supports many organisations that experience significant volumes of peak traffic, particularly during campaigns. This article talks to the periodic spikes experienced by our charitable clients, and what you can do to prepare yourself to ensure you don’t miss the big opportunity when it comes knocking.
1 min read
GILT or GUILT – Localisation crimes
Want to learn about globalisation and localisation? I was fortunate to speak about this recently at the Dutch Festival 2020 (DF20). This is a recording from that session, along with the Q&A.
3 min read
Bringing our Biggest Morning Tea online
The annual Biggest Morning Tea bake-off is quite an anticipated event in the Luminary social calendar, but this year we had to approach it a little differently.
2 min read
Luminary Tech Visionary Award recognises rising stars in digital
Alexandra Irwin Liu has been named the 2020 Luminary Tech Visionary Award recipient! Read more about her winning project and watch the video of the announcement, presented by Luminary CEO Marty Drill in an online awards ceremony on 18 September.
14 min read
How to become carbon neutral
Becoming carbon neutral is not as simple as paying a fee. It is quite an involved process, though one that is worth it. Here are some of the lessons we've learned along the way.
2 min read
PGH Bricks Visualiser scoops prestigious Good Design Award
The Bricks Visualiser we created for PGH Bricks & Pavers™ has received a Good Design Award in recognition of outstanding design and innovation in the category of Digital Design.
4 min read
Web Spotlight - visual page editing in Kontent (in less than a day)
Web Spotlight is a brand new add-on for Kontent by Kentico that brings many of the features marketers miss from traditional web content management systems into their pure headless CaaS platform, including a tree-based navigation structure, real-time preview and in-context editing of pages. And the good news is, it is super easy to set up, regardless of what language you used to implement your website.
6 min read
Tour de Vic – Luminary's Big Run for Fred Hollows
Throughout the month of August, the Luminary team have been pounding the pavement from Docklands to Denpasar in support of the Fred Hollows Foundation.
5 min read
Luminary Tech Visionary Finalist: Catherine Allingham – Fertility Preservation Decision Aid
Luminary is proud to be sponsoring the Victorian Young Achiever Awards. In the fourth of a series on the Luminary Tech Visionary Award finalists, we profile Catherine Allingham, pioneer of The Fertility Preservation Decision Aid.
5 min read
Luminary Tech Visionary Finalist: Alex Irwin Liu – Accessibly.com.au
Luminary is proud to be sponsoring the Victorian Young Achiever Awards. In the third of a series on the Luminary Tech Visionary Award finalists, we profile Alexandra Irwin Liu, founder of Accessibly.com.au.
6 min read
Luminary Tech Visionary Finalist: Zoë Condliffe – She's A Crowd
Luminary is proud to be sponsoring the Victorian Young Achiever Awards. In the second of a series on the Luminary Tech Visionary Award finalists, we profile Zoë Condliffe, founder of She’s A Crowd.
4 min read
Creating effective teams
Luminary CEO Marty Drill shares some techniques for building a high performing team.
6 min read
Luminary Tech Visionary Finalist: Morgan Coleman – Vets On Call
Luminary is proud to be sponsoring the Victorian Young Achiever Awards. In the first of a series on the Luminary Tech Visionary Award finalists, we profile Morgan Coleman, founder of Vets On Call.
8 min read
Using Zoom Breakout Rooms for training and workshops
Have you found yourself leading your teams through discussions on Zoom a lot these days? If you haven’t made use of Breakout Rooms yet, this article explains what they are and how they can help with ideation and connection.
2 min read
Causes for Celebration campaign raises over $11,000 for charities
1 July 2020 was our 21st birthday. To celebrate, we traded canapés for a campaign to support our charity clients.
6 min read
APRA CPS234: The pathway to compliance
A practical overview on what it takes to prepare for and become compliant with the APRA prudential standard for information security.
3 min read
Reducing your carbon footprint in the home office
While the global response to the pandemic may have resulted in a temporary win for the environment, that doesn’t mean we should let our guards down while working from home.
6 min read
Why Design QA should not be an afterthought
Senior Designer Kate Gordes demystifies Design QA and explains why it deserves a seat at the product development table.
5 min read
A Bali-Australian legacy that connects
The Bali bombing of 2002 was a near miss for one of our team members. Years later we connected with a children’s shelter that was established in honour of one of the victims of that tragedy.
5 min read
Working from anywhere
From 1 July 2020, Luminary team members can elect to work from any suitable place at any time – a distributed team working from any location that allows them to be their best.
2 min read
Why it’s time for the Jamstack to shine – the technology perspective
Javascript, APIs and Markup (HTML) have been around for literally decades. So why the sudden wave of enthusiasm for Jamstack as an enterprise web development platform?
10 min read
The long, slow death of the WYSIWYG editor
Content management systems have evolved over the last couple of decades to be extremely powerful and indispensable tools for marketers worldwide. The tools we use have become more and more advanced and user-friendly, yet one lone feature from the 90s just keeps holding on. It's time to embrace the future of omnichannel digital content, and leave the "MS Word-style editor" behind.
5 min read
What is Kentico Xperience and where should I start?
Kentico Xperience – formerly Kentico EMS – can be a powerful extension to your marketing arsenal but knowing where to start can be tricky.
1 min read
Emmanuel Tissera named Umbraco MVP
Luminary's Emmanuel Tissera has been awarded the prestigious title of Umbraco MVP.
3 min read
Xperience by Kentico - a new name for an established Digital Experience Platform
For a few years now, Kentico Software has had two flagship products. Their cloud-based Content as a Service offering got the full rebrand in 2019, and now it's their all-in-one DXP's turn. It's time to say goodbye to Kentico EMS, and hello to Xperience by Kentico.
4 min read
Reopening our offices – Our COVIDSafe Plan
As restrictions begin to ease, we have put a lot of thought into how to implement a successful return to the office for our team members.
5 min read
How to give and receive feedback
Feedback can be an uncomfortable thing to give and to receive. Here are some tips that can make it a little less painful.
9 min read
Benefits of the Jamstack – from buzzword to business ready
The Jamstack is a modern approach to building fast, secure, and cost-effective websites and apps. In this article Luminary MD Adam Griffith explains the six 'Ss' of the Jamstack – Speed, Stability, Scalability, Security, Serviceability and Simplicity – to show why this movement is now business ready.
1 min read
Webby Honours for legalsuper
The legalsuper website has been recognised as an Official Honoree in the prestigious Webby Awards.
1 min read
Luminary announced as Kentico Kontent Premium Partner
Luminary has become the fourth agency worldwide to be afforded Kentico Kontent Premium Partner status.
5 min read
Helping your team beat the 'iso blues'
Once the novelty of working from home starts to fade, there is a very real possibility that working remotely may take its toll on your team members. Here's what you can do about it.
1 min read
E-Commerce in Umbraco 8
The March 2020 Melbourne Umbraco meetup was all about E-commerce packages in Umbraco 8. Ucommerce and Vendr spoke about their offerings and gave us practical demos.
3 min read
Sitecore Marketers Meetup: Taming Content
Originally intended to be an in-person event, the recent Sitecore Marketers' Meetup was swiftly re-platformed as a webinar in light of social distancing concerns. The upside? You can now watch the recording here.
3 min read
How we're maintaining morale with a remote workforce
We’re no strangers to working remotely – but the *whole team* working off-site at once? Now that’s another thing altogether! Here are some of the things we’re doing to keep our team feeling connected.
10 min read
Running remote workshops with distributed teams
As the world scrambles to adapt to the new reality of social distancing and restrictions on in-person gatherings, Emma Andrews shares some tips on facilitating workshops with remote participants.
4 min read
Preparing for business *not* as usual
Our approach to the COVID-19 outbreak and how we will support our clients, team and community throughout this difficult period.
6 min read
Active Listening: The art of not ‘just hearing’
Most people, most of the time, are not truly listening. But there are some very simple techniques you can put into practice to make sure you are actively listening rather than just ‘hearing’.
17 min read
The 7 secret ingredients for digital project success
Luminary Digital Strategist Emma Andrews reveals what it takes to really get value out of your investment in digital.
4 min read
Sitecore personalisation – where to start
Half the battle with website personalisation is simply getting it off the ground, says Sitecore Strategy MVP Greg Baxter. Greg's downloadable Personalisation Checklist will help you work out where to start, to make sure your project is a success.
2 min read
Luminary secures MVP trifecta
In an unprecedented industry coup, Luminary has had three of its team members awarded MVP status across three different digital experience platforms – Kentico EMS, Sitecore and Episerver.
6 min read
What you need to know about personas
Personas are a must-have for any digital strategy. Learn what value personas bring to your business and how to get started.
1 min read
Luminary developer named Episerver MVP
Luminary Tech Lead Darren Stahlhut has been awarded Episerver Most Valued Professional status.
3 min read
Andy Thompson named a Kentico MVP for 2020
Our CTO, Andy Thompson, has been named as a Kentico MVP for the sixth consecutive year.
5 min read
The (free) content planning tools I can’t live without
As Luminary’s Marketing Manager, I am responsible for planning out our content. Here's how I go about it, and the sanity-saving tools I use to make it happen.
3 min read
Our social contract
To create a social contract, all we had to do was distill the essence of 60+ individual views across 15+ cultural backgrounds, four time zones and two continents… simple, right?!
4 min read
Providing a platform for our platforms
As the year draws to a close, we take a look back over some of the industry events that we got involved with in 2019.
4 min read
We baked, we laughed, we ran – all in the name of charity
From morning teas to international virtual relays, we reflect on a year of fun-filled charity initiatives.
6 min read
Umbraco Heartcore launch
Umbraco Heartcore (formerly Umbraco Headless) was announced for public beta in February 2018 at the Umbraco Down Under Festival held on the Gold Coast in Australia. Fast forward to December 2019 for the commercial launch and learn more about what Umbraco Heartcore has to offer.
4 min read
Is the internet evil?
Webby Awards Executive Director Claire Graves recently presented to the Luminary team as part of the 2019 Webby Talks world tour. The subject up for discussion was 'how the internet exploits our thirst for a good fight and leaves us wanting more’.
4 min read
Internationalisation and localisation tips
Globalisation, internationalisation, localisation and translation (GILT) are not just buzzwords. Six billion (80%) of the world's population and nearly one million (3.5%) of Australia's population find English a barrier.
8 min read
Agile ways of working: Continuous improvement through retrospectives
Popularised by agile methodology, sprint retrospectives provide a way for a team to ensure that they have a regular opportunity to acknowledge what the team did well and where it can improve.
5 min read
Why data is your friend for email marketing
Get the response you are looking for from your email marketing by following these simple tips from guest contributor, Ash Salleh.
7 min read
Kentico Connection 2019 in a nutshell
Kontent, Content as a Service, Phoenix, .NET Core, AI and Machine Learning, Content Modelling, Reusable Structured Content, no I'm not just randomly listing tech buzzwords. This was quite a Kentico Connection! 😜
7 min read
Social contracts: Working out how to work together
Popularised by agile methodology, a social contract provides a way for a team to decide what is acceptable behaviour to ensure everyone gets what they need.
4 min read
Serving content to IoT devices with a headless CMS
Need a way to serve the same content to a growing range of platforms? Headless content management systems are your answer.
1 min read
Luminary is proud to sponsor the 2020 Victorian Young Achiever Awards
Do you know a tech savvy young Victorian who deserves to have their name up in lights? Get them to nominate for the Luminary Tech Visionary Award!
4 min read
Goodbye Kentico Cloud, hello Kontent!
Kentico Cloud has undergone a rebrand, and is now called Kontent. In my opinion, it was long overdue! You might have seen the marketing from Kentico about the new name and image, but here are my thoughts on the transformation from the agency side.
5 min read
If technical debt is a disease, SXA is the cure
Every project attracts technical debt. Like death and taxes, it's impossible to avoid.
5 min read
Top tech trends revealed
The 2019 Top Tech Trends Debate saw four future-focused tech gurus battle it out for visionary supremacy – covering everything from commercialisation of space to synthetic biology.
4 min read
Sitecore personalisation from Day One
Stop waiting for that mythical ‘Phase Two’ to arrive before you really take advantage of the power of Sitecore, says CX Director Greg Baxter.
4 min read
VR: gimmick or game changer?
Virtual reality (VR) has been a hot buzzword for a while now, but does it really have the potential to change the world we live in? Luminary CEO Marty Drill says ‘yes’.
11 min read
Getting your head around headless content management
On Wednesday 31 July 2019 we hosted an expert panel discussion at Luminary, featuring representatives from leading Headless CMS vendors. By popular demand, here is the video! And as an added bonus, I reached out to the panelists for their thoughts on the remaining audience questions we didn't have time for. Enjoy!
1 min read
The heads up on headless - slides from DDD Melbourne 2019
I had the honour of presenting a session on Headless CMS and Content as a Service (CaaS) at DDD Melbourne 2019 at the Melbourne Convention Centre. As promised, here are my slides from the event. I hope you enjoyed it!
2 min read
Planting for a better future
Luminary team members and their families recently gathered together for a tree-planting day in celebration of Luminary's 20th birthday.
5 min read
To feed nine billion people, something has to change
In the next 20 years the planet will reach nine billion people. At up to 27 billion meals per day, we will need a new approach to food production.
1 min read
Infographic: Australia’s Digital Carbon Footprint
In July 2019, Luminary was certified carbon neutral. This infographic highlights why we decided to offset our carbon impact.
9 min read
20 years of digital evolution
We round up some of the trends that have changed the web over the past two decades and moulded digital as we know it.
4 min read
Luminary goes carbon neutral
As participants in the information economy, we can no longer hide behind the idea that our environmental impact is minimal. So here’s what we’re doing about it...
5 min read
Empowering Team Luminary through coaching
Performance Coach Lisa Hough talks about why she loves working as a coach at Luminary and what it’s meant for our team.
6 min read
The future of food delivery
Food delivery services are currently redefining the restaurant industry. Liam Thomas looks at how restaurants can ride the wave of disruption.
15 min read
Long-termer Hall of Fame
As we approach 20 years in operation, we tap into the memories and motivations of those team members who've been with us for a decade or more.
4 min read
Web design trends for 2019: Part III – Interface smarts
In the final instalment of our three-part series on design and UX trends, Luminary Design Director Tess French explores what to look for behind the scenes when considering interface design.
10 min read
Will conversational interfaces sound the death knell for websites?
There's little doubt that conversational interfaces will become an important communication channel for Australian brands – but is it really time for the ravens to descend on websites?
5 min read
7 digital marketing metrics every marketer should be measuring
If you're stuck in a rut of measuring the same old metrics, it might be time to review what you're monitoring, says guest contributor Jericho Gonzales.
5 min read
Stop trying to be all things to all people
Delivering great customer experiences is the key to staying in business, but you don’t need to deliver great experiences to everyone, says Luminary CEO Marty Drill.
4 min read
Bose releases sunglasses with inbuilt speakers
Fresh from his trip to SXSW in the US, Luminary CEO Marty Drill reports on the latest contribution to wearable tech from high-end headphone manufacturer, Bose.
5 min read
Web design trends for 2019: Part II – Bold visual styling
In the second instalment of a three-part series on design and UX trends, we're looking at the move away from established patterns in colour, layout and typography.
5 min read
Will self-driving cars cause traffic armageddon?
Self-driving cars have been hailed as the answer to road safety, time efficiency and a whole host of modern malaises. But could they open us up to a world of total traffic turmoil? Luminary CEO Marty Drill ponders the question following a presentation at SXSW.
7 min read
7 tips for a successful digital roadmap
In this post, Digital Strategist Emma Andrews breaks down the elements that make up a successful digital roadmap.
4 min read
Web design trends for 2019: Part I – Purposeful motion
In this three-part series on design and UX trends, Luminary Design Director Tess French weighs in with some thoughts on the web design elements we’re likely to see more of in 2019.
6 min read
How to create a digital strategy roadmap
A good strategic roadmap not only outlines what you want to achieve with your digital strategy, but sets out the detail of how you're going to get there. Here we provide guidance on how to do it, along with a downloadable Digital Roadmap Toolkit.
6 min read
Kentico 12 is here, OMG
It is the most wonderful time of the year... no, not Christmas, the release of a new major Kentico version! Kentico 12 - aka The Raptor - is set to be unleashed on the public on 27 November. And oh boy, is this release a big one.
2 min read
The Mo-files
You may have noticed the menfolk of Luminary looking a little hairier than usual this month. That's because they've relinquished their razors in the name of fundraising – for men's health initiative Movember. Here, we profile the members of Team LuMOnary.
2 min read
Customising Episerver Forms
Episerver Forms has a lot of built-in functionality, but in some cases it is necessary to extend that functionality, which can be a tricky thing to do. This post contains information about rendering, overriding and problem solving custom Episerver form functionality.
5 min read
Agile is not a process
We often hear terms like 'agile methodology', 'agile process', 'hybrid agile', and – God forbid – 'wagile' or 'agfall'. But I’m here to set the record straight: Agile is not a process; it’s a mindset.
5 min read
Episerver Personalization with persistent anonymous profiles
Episerver Personalization is a powerful feature to ensure your website displays relevant content to your visitors. At Luminary we needed a way to persist an anonymous visitor's personalisation profile across sessions without using Episerver Insight or custom cookies. Here's how we did it...
2 min read
A tutorial on building a .NET Core website with Umbraco Headless
Want to build a .NET Core MVC website using Umbraco Headless? Follow this tutorial from Luminary Technical Lead Emmanuel Tissera...
5 min read
Doubling pay frequency = double rainbows and double happiness
If payday is a happy day for most people, then 52 happy days are better than 26...
6 min read
Kentico now recommends the MVC development model - what does this mean?
Developers around the world rejoiced to hear that MVC, while having already been an option for Kentico development for years, is now officially the recommended development model as of K12. Marketers around the world smiled and nodded and clinked glasses with the devs, while secretly thinking "what's an MVC?"
3 min read
Luminary crowned one of Australia’s Top 20 places to work
Luminary has officially been recognised as a great place to work in the 2018 Best Places to Work Study.
4 min read
Managers want butler monkeys … and other off-the-wall findings from our on-the-wall survey
A recent social experiment had Luminary CEO Marty Drill questioning whether the modern infatuation with big data has obscured our focus on the humans behind the numbers.
6 min read
GDPR is here, but what does that mean for us Aussies?
The European Union recently introduced the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. This huge update to data privacy regulations finally brings them into the 21st century in terms of online data protection. Australia, however, is still livin' in the 80s. So what does GDPR mean for us?
4 min read
Generating image metadata and SVG thumbnails with Episerver DXC Azure Blob storage
Episerver has an ImageData base class that natively supports images. But we needed to extend it to provide metadata fields and display SVG thumbnails. Here's how we did it...
3 min read
Aaand that's a wrap!
Twenty-one days, three staff events, two client events, two award nights, one developer meetup, an adtech seminar, a soccer match, and countless sore heads later, our transition to Luminary is complete...
10 min read
We built our new site using Kentico Cloud (and a few other microservices)
We've been preaching the benefits of headless CMS and microservices architecture to our clients for a couple of years now. So I decided it was time to put my money where my mouth is!
1 min read
Australian Apprenticeships Pathways receives Webby honours
The Australian Apprenticeships Pathways site has been recognised in the prestigious Webby Awards.
2 min read
Rebrand Q&A
On 6 July 2018, Get Started became Luminary. Here's a Q&A about our rebrand and the reasons behind it.
2 min read
Welcome to Luminary
Trying to find a name that would capture the essence of nearly 20 years of history was no easy feat.
4 min read
What's in a name?
The challenge of choosing a new name for an established company can make it hard to see the forest for the trees.
5 min read
2018's top tech buzzwords unravelled
Love it or loathe it, techspeak is an unavoidable aspect of existence in the modern world. But don’t worry, help is at hand – from blockchain to JAMstack, we’ve got your back...
5 min read
How to perform a website audit
Conducting a website audit sounds like a really big, scary, time-consuming chore, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve simplified the task for you with six key areas to assess – along with a downloadable checklist full of useful questions, tips and tools.
7 min read
Should we fear Artificial Intelligence?
In a lot of ways, AI is an enormous leap into the unknown. Reflecting on warnings from Elon Musk at the recent SXSW Conference, Marty Drill ponders the question of whether computers will end up being smarter than humans... And what if they do?
2 min read
Melbourne Airport site wins Kentico Best Integration Award
Luminary has emerged victorious in the Best Integration category of the 2017 Kentico Site of the Year Awards, edging out tough international competition.
9 min read
A future without screens
Fresh from this year’s SXSW Conference, Marty Drill shares some insights into what you need to be focusing on with your digital strategy in 2018.
1 min read
Luminary wins Episerver Partner Award
Luminary has been recognised as Episerver's most valuable new partner in the Asia Pacific region.
6 min read
Why upgrading to Kentico 11 is a no-brainer
Should you upgrade to the latest version of Kentico? Of course! It’s a no-brainer to get your car serviced regularly, and we believe the same goes for your Kentico website. Andy shares why in this article following the launch of Kentico 11.
5 min read
Why it’s time to change your thinking on Amazon’s arrival in Australia
Amazon doesn't have to be the enemy of Australian retail, says Marty Drill.
5 min read
The future of web is voice: Are you listening?
Voice-led technology is the way of the future and there’s still time to cash in on the early mover advantage, says Luminary CEO Marty Drill.
4 min read
7 reasons why content calendars fail
A content calendar can be an extremely powerful tool – if well set-up and maintained. Content Strategist Tami Iseli outlines some of the factors that can reduce the chances of abandonment, along with a downloadable content calendar spreadsheet that automatically syncs your content ideas to a Google calendar.
4 min read
Kentico Cloud 9 Months Later
Kentico Cloud was officially launched at the 404 Conference in Las Vegas in November 2016, and I was lucky enough to be there. It’s amazing to think that was just over nine months ago! Development has continued since then at break-neck pace, and the product is already streaks ahead of that nine month mark (when it was born... there I’ve made the joke!).
1 min read
Luminary dominates Design Awards
Luminary has brought home six trophies in the 2017 Melbourne and Sydney Design Awards.
3 min read
Supporting the Jodie O'Shea House
It's smiles all round when our Bali team goes to visit the kids at Jodie O'Shea House in Denpasar.
8 min read
Lose talent or open in Bali: why we chose the latter
It's been just over a year since we opened up an office in Bali, inspired by a job candidate who blew us away...
4 min read
Digital has grown up – and so have we
As we celebrate our ‘coming of age’, we take a look at how digital has evolved over the past 18 years.
8 min read
Upgrading v rebuilding your Kentico website
Making a decision about whether to upgrade or rebuild your website is a lot like weighing up whether to renovate or rebuild a house. There are pros and cons both ways.
1 min read
Dogs in the Office Day
On Friday 7 April, around eight furry friends of Luminary team members padded their way into our Melbourne HQ for a day in the office.
6 min read
Digital disruption – are you ready?
Nimble start-ups and global juggernauts tend to dominate the digital disruption landscape. But there are plenty of things you can do to create disruption if you’re somewhere in between.
9 min read
Email Marketing in Kentico - FAQs
Your Kentico Email Marketing questions answered – including best practices for setting up emails, using email feeds, managing recipients and A/B testing.
2 min read
Kentico sneaky feature: diff your CI XML files with Git
Kentico’s Continuous Integration module is extremely powerful and makes development teams’ lives much easier. But the popular version control system Git presents some issues we need to work around.
6 min read
How to brief a digital agency
Whether you’re briefing your existing agency or inviting new agencies to respond to a request for proposal, there are certain ‘rules of the game’ that will help you drive the best possible result. This blog post features a downloadable digital agency briefing template to help you get off on the right foot.
6 min read
Contact Management in Kentico - FAQs
Contact Management is the foundation of online marketing in Kentico – enabling powerful features like automation and personalisation. Here's what you need to know about it.
6 min read
Kentico 10 – Should you upgrade?
Kentico 10 has just been released and we've already upgraded our site. Luminary CTO Andy Thompson shares some of the things he's most excited about in K10.
8 min read
What is Kentico Kontent? And why should I care?
Rather than being a new version of Kentico CMS or EMS, Kentico Kontent is an entirely new product from Kentico. As such, it requires a little explanation!
2 min read
We did it in a dress!
Digital Producer and One Girl Ambassador Aymee Cornish reflects on a campaign that saw Luminary raise more than $10,000 to help educate girls in Africa.
7 min read
5 content-related ‘crimes’ against accessibility
Content Strategist Tami Iseli exposes some of the most common accessibility mistakes that content creators make – and how to avoid them.
6 min read
Why UX is not optional
UX isn’t just about how things look, it’s about how end users think and engage with a digital experience. Even a modest investment in UX will pay dividends in terms of usability, engagement and performance.
6 min read
Debunking the myths of remote work
The biggest barrier to remote work is the myths that surround it, writes Adam Griffith.
1 min read
Luminary launches in Sydney
We have officially landed in the harbourside city with the opening of our new Sydney CBD office.
1 min read
Bringing home the bling!
Our work for Brown Brothers, QSR and the Australian Seniors Insurance Agency has been recognised in the 2016 Communicator Awards.
2 min read
Colourful Conversations makes its mark on the Webbys
Our campaign site for Brown Brothers continues its winning streak with an acknowledgment in the prestigious Webby Awards.
2 min read
Are you ready for website personalisation?
Website personalisation can be incredibly powerful but there’s a certain amount of groundwork that needs to be laid before you can really get the most out of it.
9 min read
Dealing with 404s in your Kentico Event Log
You have too many 404 “Page Not Found” warnings in your Kentico event log. You gave up reviewing them long ago. Fear not, there is help out there! The first step is admitting you have a problem...
3 min read
Kentico Request Filtering Module
I’ve just released a new module on the Kentico Marketplace that we’ve been quietly wishing existed for quite some time, so I went ahead and built it, then released it hoping it might solve similar issues for others out there!
6 min read
5 personalised websites that prove you don’t have to be Amazon to do it
Website personalisation is no longer confined to the realms of mega-budget multinationals. If your website is still a one-size-fits-all proposition, now is the time to think about getting personal.
6 min read
Is your website a bad customer servant?
There’s no excuse for substandard online customer service these days. We now have the technology to deliver something much more in line with what we’ve come to expect from face-to-face interaction.
6 min read
Upgrading to Kentico 9
Now that the dust has settled following the release of a brand new version of Kentico, we've finally had time to get our hands dirty and do some upgrading to Kentico 9 on our own site!
1 min read
Evolution of the Digital Marketer
The rapid transformation of digital marketing was the theme of a November panel event held at Luminary.
9 min read
7 digital marketing trends that will shape the future
Digital marketing is evolving at the speed of light, leaving marketers grappling to keep up. So what are the trends you really need to know about? We spoke with two experts to find out.
6 min read
Kentico Connection 2015 Melbourne Highlights
Kentico Draft, Integrated Campaign Management, Continuous Integration and improved MVP support were just some of the big topics at Kentico Connection Down Under.
3 min read
Doin' it in a dress
We like a good party here at Luminary, but usually it’s the girls who don the frocks and frills...
1 min read
Luminary cleans up at W³ Awards
Our work for Metricon, CGU, Brown Brothers and Snooze has been honoured in the 2015 W³ Awards
7 min read
Speeding up Kentico Websites with Rackspace CDN and Origin Pull
How to selectively apply a special type of "origin pull" CDN in order to get the performance benefits of a traditional CDN, while still retaining all the advantages of the highly dynamic and flexible Kentico platform
5 min read
How not to be shy on stage: Fixing a Kentico 'Gotcha'
Using the Kentico API to insert media files into a Media Library, and a solution to when those items do not appear in the Kentico Staging queue.
2 min read
Kentico recognises Luminary as a world leader with Partner Quality Audit
Luminary has become one of only two agencies worldwide to receive Kentico's highest certification
6 min read
Kentico Website Speed Optimisation Basics
A fast website is no longer a "nice to have", but it's not hard to get Kentico optimised.
4 min read
Kentico Event Log Digest
How to build a Kentico event log digest, that gives you a periodic summary or report of warnings and errors occurring in your site.
5 min read
Dynamic robots.txt files in Kentico
This quick guide will show you how to set up automatic publishing of appropriate robots.txt contents for your Kentico site.
1 min read
Metricon Homes honoured in 19th Annual Webby Awards
We are very excited to share the news that Metricon Homes has been selected as an Official Honoree in the 19th Annual Webby Awards.
1 min read
Kentico Site of the Year Awards announced with two wins for Luminary
Metricon Homes and Deakin University Student Association win best Kentico sites
12 min read
Team Development + Continuous Integration in Kentico
How do we get the the changes we’ve been working on for months integrated smoothly into our live site without breaking it?
5 min read
Kentico MVP Awarded to Luminary CTO, Andy Thompson
We are proud to have the only Kentico MVP in Australia leading our team
5 min read
Top Level Domain / .Melbourne | .Sydney
New branded top level domain names
2 min read
Xero & Salesforce API Integration for CGU Insurance
Open data, new opportunities
2 min read
Luminary secure move to historic Georges on Collins
A new year brings a new beginning for our agency.
4 min read
Responsive Images Best Practice
The art of delivering perfect images for every screen
2 min read
Award-winning digital experiences
Melbourne Design Awards + Australian Web Award winners!
9 min read
Kentico 8 - Our Experience So Far
Luminary has been building sites on the Kentico CMS platform since 2008, on version 3. In that time, it’s fair to say the CMS has come a long way!
3 min read
Snooze gains customer insight with Kentico EMS & A/B testing
Learn how Snooze is utilising Kentico EMS and A/B testing to better understand and engage its customers.
3 min read
Accessibility Best Practice in Responsive Design
A great website doesn't just look good, it's also accessible to as many people as possible – aiming to offer the best user experience to all visitors regardless of who they are and how they interact with your website.
5 min read
Designing Navigation for Responsive Websites
There's little point in attracting visitors to your website if they can't find what they're looking for. Intuitive and effective navigation is a crucial component of responsive design to ensure your business website delivers results.
3 min read
Why is context important in Responsive Design?
Responsive design means responding to the needs of your visitors, not just the needs of their devices. A context-aware website takes into account where your visitors are located and what they're most likely looking for right now.
4 min read
How Much Does a Responsive Web Design Cost?
Responsive Design isn't always the cheapest way to build a website, but building a single site which offers the optimal user experience to every visitor offers businesses a much better Return on Investment.
4 min read
Benefits of Responsive Design
There's more than one way to build a website, so what are the benefits of Responsive Design for your business? It's all about building your site once and building it right, delivering the best possible experience to every visitor.
3 min read
Celebrating 15 Years
Luminary celebrates its 15th birthday by reflecting on the growth of the digital industry in Australia.
5 min read
What is Responsive Design?
Ensuring your business website looks great on any device is the aim of Responsive Design, but exactly what does it mean?
6 min read
Mobile Strategy Options
What's the right mobile strategy for you? Mobile options explained.
10 min read
Browser Support - Mission Impossible?
Tackling the Prodigious and Near-Impossible Challenge of Cross-Browser and Cross-Platform Testing and Quality Assurance
3 min read
Luminary launches 150th Website on the Kentico CMS platform
We are proud to announce the launch of Luminary's 150th website on our preferred CMS – Kentico. We are thrilled that www.onejustworld.org.au was the website that allowed us to reach the significant milestone of 150 Kentico websites. Effectively, we have produced a website developed in Kentico every week for 3 years. Kentico has allowed us to increase the quality of the websites we produce and the service we offer. We enjoy the relationship with Kentico and we love building sites in the Kentico CMS.
1 min read
Luminary Sponsors 2011 Idea Pitch for Student Entrepreneurs
We recently had the pleasure of sponsoring The 2011 Idea Pitch where student entrepreneurs were able to present their elevator pitch about their big idea. Over two months, entrants underwent an intensive program to formulate, plan and communicate their business/project idea. Entrants could work together in groups of up to four people.
4 min read
Amazon Cloudfront vs Cachefly in Australia - CDN Comparison
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are a great idea for your website if you get lots of traffic, or if that traffic is located all over the world. A CDN can seriously boost your website & loading speed, and potentially save you a lot of money on your hosting. But not all CDNs are equal. A range of factors such as pricing, ease of access, speed, latency and node locations make your decision of which CDN to use an important one, especially for Australian businesses.
2 min read
How we helped Kidspot sell for $10 million more than Myspace
Way back in 2005, two enterprising women came to Luminary with a great idea. It was called Kidspot - an online products and services directory aimed at parents of young kids in Australia. The Internet was a wild and exciting place in 2005 - YouTube was a brand new Internet startup being eyed off by Google, IE6 was Microsoft's latest and greatest browser, and Facebook accounts weren't yet available to the public. Fast-forward 6 years and Kidspot has now been sold to News Corp for a reported $45 million!
5 min read
Luminary Launches the Final Victorian Bushfires Report
The 2009 Victorian Bushfires were the worst bushfires in Australian history, as now published accounts like these attest. Luminary is truly honoured and proud to announce our involvement in developing the website for The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission's final report.
2 min read
Fixing bugs, Planting trees...
Kentico planted a tree for one of our developers, Michael Jenkinson, as thanks for finding a rare bug in their CMS. It's all part of a program to keep the Kentico CMS ahead of the game.
2 min read
2009 Year in Review
2009 proved to be the most productive in our 10 year history. Perhaps we are similar to a fine wine or, maybe we're doing something right... We'll happily take the wine reference thank you!
1 min read
Our 10 year anniversary!
It's 10th birthday, so we're celebrating - cheers!
4 min read
Tips for recycling old computer equipment
A quick look at the benefits of recycling your old computer equipment. Including a list of Melbourne computer recycling services.
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