Our experience

When you work with Limitless Innovations you're working with either Frank Wales or Paola Kathuria. Find out about their decades of experience and their broad range of skills.

The Guardian

Paola was invited to assess the Jobs To Be Done framework by reviewing all the user research to discover high-level user needs. She wrote a document to help The Guardian identify and select the priority areas for UX focus.

Tell Me When

Tell Me When (TMW) is a free web site service that tells you when something you're interested in is coming up on TV. It is an implementation of an idea pitched at the 2007 BBC Innovation Lab. Paola designed and built is in Drupal using a custom module.

A lot of services in this arena make recommendations based on activity. Instead, you tell TMW what you are interested in, such as:

• a specific programme, series or episode
• programmes that start with certain words (e.g., First Dates)
• a film
• genre
• directors, actors, people
• new series

You can also tell TMW what you don't like, such as genre (sport) or people (e.g., Benny Hill). Your personalised channel won't include anything that matches. Notifications are mailed on a schedule you decide. You also have a personalised page of upcoming films and programmes matching your interests.

Net-a-Porter

Frank worked in various technical management roles at The Net-a-Porter Group (NAP), building and running Agile delivery teams that set the standard for NAP in terms of business engagement, reliability and technical excellence.

• Designed and led the delivery of NAP's pre-order system, real-time fraud rules system, third-party integration system (Mercury), and unified high-performance, high-availability Customer Service (Seaview).
• Ran the teams responsible for the Product Service and NAP's PCI-compliant payment gateway.
• Served as Principal Developer for Commerce, a domain-level technical leadership role with strategic and architectural responsibilities, as well as team-level mentoring.
• Ran six Hack-a-Porter hackathons and edited the NAP Technical Blog.

Ascot Speakers

Paola stated a Toastmaster's public speaking club for her local community. She designed, built and maintained the club web site in Drupal 7. Visitors could look at the meeting diary and agenda. Members could track their progress. Before leaving the club, she recreated a version of the web site in Wordpress so that it could be maintained by other people.

Ascot Speakers (2016, Wayback Machine)

fingers & tongues

Paola ran a successful Kickstarter project to raise funds to edit and print her collection of short stories from 1995. She created a pocket paperback of short stories and a campaign-exclusive A5 hardback with unfinished stories and background notes. Limitless Innovations published the books.

In the process, she learned: Audacity to create edited readings of the stories, iMovie to create the campaign video, Sigil to create ePub e-books, KindleGen to create an e-book for Kindle, and InDesign to create the book manuscripts

KickStarter campaign   fingers & tongues (paolability shop)

hotels.com

Paola was hired by hotels.com (an Expedia company) as an Information Architect from August 2011 to March 2012. Her main focus was to streamline and standardise the user interface across the web site, reducing the workload for designers and developers while improving the overall user experience.

• Conducted a comprehensive audit of the hotels.com user interface, identifying inconsistencies and areas for improvement.
• Organised and categorising UI elements from a user's perspective, creating a more intuitive and user-friendly interface.
• Ran collaborative sessions with user experience designers, creative designers, and UI engineers to discuss each UI category and establish a standardised set of elements and best practices.
• Presented the streamlined UI to Product Managers through a series of briefings, showcasing the benefits of a more consistent and efficient design system.
• Created detailed documentation and guidelines for the implementation of the new UI, ensuring a smooth transition and adoption across the organisation.

Paola's work on the hotels.com user interface optimisation project, dubbed The Big Picture, was the first site-wide initiative of its kind within the company. Her efforts led to a more cohesive and user-centered design, reducing development time and enhancing the overall user experience. The project showcased Paola's strong skills in information architecture, user-centered design, and stakeholder management, as well as her ability to drive large-scale, cross-functional initiatives within a major online travel company.

Digitas

Paola had a one-week contract to meet an end-of-week deadline to rationalise a web site inherited by the agency. The Drupal web site had one two page types but over fifty page templates had been created the previous agency. Paola investigated all the files, reducing the 50+ templates to two and tidied them up before themeing the site. She also wrote a small module for reading and writing session cookies specific to the site.

She was rehired to configure an existing Drupal web site for localisation and set up for localisation for six languages. She also created a custom Drupal module for custom login according to localisation.

BBC

2006 Innovation Lab

Limitless Innovations were was one of ten companies selected from hundreds of applicants to attend the week-long BBC Innovation Lab. During the lab, they developed a concept called BBC Keywords, which aimed to enhance online content discovery and organisation by combining user-generated tags with BBC's professionally maintained controlled vocabularies. Their idea was chosen as one of the few to be taken forward by the BBC.

Key aspects of the BBC Keywords project:

• Enabling content creators to add BBC-maintained tags to their online content, complementing user-generated tags.
• Leveraging the BBC's internal taxonomies and expertise in information organisation to provide a more structured and reliable tagging system.
• Allowing users to mix well-defined, professionally maintained tags with their own personal tags, enhancing content discovery and connection.

2007 Innovation Lab

Limitless Innovations were again selected to participate in the BBC Innovation Lab, where they worked on a project called Tell Me When. The project aimed to create a personalised notification service for users, informing them about content relevant to their interests across various media types.

Key aspects of the Tell Me When project:

• Providing users with timely notifications about new content that matches their interests, such as TV shows, radio programs, articles, or events.
• Allowing users to specify their preferences and interests to receive tailored recommendations and alerts.
• Facilitating content discovery and engagement by proactively delivering relevant information to users through their preferred channels.

Tell Me When (2008)

After the 2007 Innovation Lab, Paola and Frank continued to work with the BBC to refine the Tell Me When concept. They participated in brainstorming sessions and created wireframes for the proposed system with the help of a design consultant.

RSSCatcher (2008)

Frank developed software to archive the BBC's RSS feeds in an XML database, with a web front-end; designed to be portable, robust and scalable to thousands of feeds.

Theme IdeaTorrent (2009)

Paola was asked to theme the IdeaTorrent module to look like the Radio 1 web site. IdeaTorrent was a bug-tracking and ideas system that the BBC wanted to adapt for suggestions. The module was more sophisticated than the requirements - Paola adapted it to simplify the functionality.

TweetStore (2009)

Frank Wales created TweetStore, a Twitter archive for BBC R&D. It is perl software which robustly fetches and archives hundreds of BBC-related twitter accounts into an eXistDB XML database.

the-racehorse.com

Paola and Frank worked on the-racehorse.com, an online racing magazine, in 2006 and 2009. They built the web site using the Drupal content management system and developed custom modules to enhance its functionality.

Web Site Development

In 2006, Paola and Frank built the-racehorse.com web site with Drupal. They developed a custom module to display and maintain three types of articles on two kinds of home pages in a grid format. They also made customisations to the taxonomy, simplenews, and banner modules to improve the site's navigation, newsletter subscription process, and ad management capabilities. The visual design was implemented with style sheets and PHP template modifications.

the-racehorse.com [2006, Wayback Machine]

Stallion Statistics Database

Frank and Paola created a custom database for the-racehorse.com to present tabular and graphical information on thousands of stallions. The database was built using source race results, sales results, and stallion nomination fees. They developed new Drupal modules in PHP to work with MySQL, ensuring fast response times by re-computing commonly-used statistics daily. The graphs were implemented using standard HTML, making them accessible to all users without the need for special software.

Stallion Statistics [2009, Wayback Machine]

Oxford University Press

Paola worked extensively with Oxford University Press (OUP) on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) online project from 1997 to 2005. Her contributions included prototyping features, conducting visual design exploration, designing the tour and help system, and providing long-term consultancy.

OED Online Prototype

Paola led the prototyping efforts for the OED Online, exploring various design options and potential features. She researched existing digital dictionaries and online search engines to identify common features and best practices. Paola then created a functional prototype with a series of linked pages, simulating the search, navigation, and display of dictionary entries. She also helped write the material for focus group testing of the prototype.

OED Marketing Web site

Paola worked closely with the graphic designers at Denison Design to create the OED marketing web site. She was responsible for implementing the design and developing features such as the Word of the Day, which displayed a different OED entry each day. Paola also created a web-based administration tool to manage the content on the development and live sites.

Oxford English Dictionary [2000, Wayback Machine]

OED Online Tour

Paola designed and built the OED Online Tour, an interactive guide to help users understand the features and functionality of the online dictionary. She conducted user research, developed the tour structure, and created prototypes for the page layout, content, and visual design. The final tour was integrated seamlessly with the OED Online site and received positive user feedback.

Dictionary Tour [2001, Wayback Machine]

OED Online Help Redesign

Paola redesigned the Help section of the OED Online, making it more user-friendly and accessible. She restructured the content, improved the navigation, and applied a consistent visual style using CSS. Paola also created a printable version of the Help pages and developed a template for future content updates.

OED Online Redesign Consultancy

Paola provided ongoing consultancy to the OED Online team, advising them on user-interface design and usability issues. In 2003, she led the redesign of the public web site area, improving the site's organisation, navigation, and aesthetics. Paola conducted workshops with stakeholders, developed the new site structure, and collaborated with the graphic designer to create a fresh, user-centered design.

Oxford English Dictionary [2003, Wayback Machine]

Berry Bros. & Rudd

Paola and Frank developed some of the first e-commerce sites for Berry Bros. & Rudd, a prestigious wine merchant, between 1995 and 2003. Their work helped the company expand its global reach and improve online sales.

Web site (1995)

Paola and Frank developed one of the first online ordering systems for Berry Bros. & Rudd. They created a system that could generate wine lists and detail pages dynamically, and they implemented a session management system using unique identifiers in the URL. Paola worked on the design, scanned wine labels, and contributed to the HTML and coding. Frank wrote the software for the shopping cart functionality using a combination of Unix scripting languages and C.

Berry Bros. & Rudd [1996, Wayback Machine]

Cutty Sark Scots Whisky (1996)

Paola worked with Denison Design to create the official web site for Cutty Sark Scots Whiskey, a Berry Bros. & Rudd company.

Cutty Sark Scots Whisky (1997, Wayback Machine)

Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Races (1996)

Paola worked with Denison Design to create the official web site for the Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Races, a Berry Bros. & Rudd company.

Cutty Sark Scots Whisky (1997, Wayback Machine)

Web site Redesign (1998)

Paola ran a planning meeting with Berry Bros. & Rudd to discuss their short-term and long-term goals for the web site. She helped identify visitor types, discussed the concept of a Shop Manager, and documented the required content and functionality. After the meeting, Paola created a detailed requirements document, including the proposed site structure and page descriptions.

Wedding Registry (2003)

Paola developed ideas for new functionality and conducted research on online wine-selling trends. She created a report detailing her findings and recommendations, which led to the development of new features such as the Wedding List Service. Paola also provided advice on improving the web site's usability and increasing online sales.

totallyessential.com

Frank designed the architecture for an online art store supporting member registration, secure ordering, and the ability to create custom sites for artists and galleries. The platform was tied into a single relational database, with day-to-day administration and maintenance handled by the client. Frank worked with Denison Design for the graphic design and collaborated with Limitless on the database and software development.

RCL 20 book

RCL 20: People, Dreams & HP Calculators is a book co-edited by Frank, designed by Paola and produced by Limitless Innovations. The book celebrates 20 years of HPCC, the Handheld and Portable Computer Club (formerly PPC-UK), and was produced in time for the HPCC twentieth anniversary conference in September 2002.

RCL 20 (paolability shop)

Cardata

Frank and Paola developed Java, Oracle, and XML-based solutions for Cardata's internal and public-facing projects. In 2003, they prototyped page templates with stylesheets for the internal maintenance system. Frank provided technical expertise, while Paola focused on the design aspects of the projects.

Sysao

Paola managed the project to redesign the Sysao web site. She ran a two-day planning workshop, following up with the requirements docuument and site structure. She worked with Denison Design to produce a site style and section-specific themeing. The deliverables were page templates, graphics, style sheet and a maintenance manual.

One World Telecom

Paola ran a one-day workshop at One World Telecom to discuss their web site requirements; a week later they received a written requirements document which they then used to get comparison quotes. Given their large number of services and two distinct types of customer, she proposed a goal-driven site content structure, such as "I want to make money", "I want to increase efficiency" and "I want to improve my image".

SilverPlatter

Paola designed and built a 150-page web site for SilverPlatter's Health & Safety Publishing division. She incorporated an interactive product finder, a searchable article index, and online forms. Paola also created a 92-page style guide and maintenance manual, enabling SilverPlatter to update and expand the site independently.

Moorfields Eye Hospital

Paola designed, built, and maintained the hospital's web site for three years. Starting with a small budget and a few pages, she expanded the site to over 100 pages, incorporating a content management system for easy updates. Paola also led the redesign process in 1999, working with Denison Design to create a new visual identity and information architecture.

Institute of Physics

The Institute of Physics Publishing hired Limitless to write the software behind an online bookstore that they had already designed and specified. This ultimately involved the development of over 20,000 lines of perl and SQL, and the design and implementation of a web-based administration system to manage the site.

The online bookstore at the Institute of Physics sells the institute's publications. IoP wanted a store with functionality such as topic-based browsing, customer reviews and e-mail alerting in addition to the usual searching and secure shopping features. They created a detailed design document, and hired Limitless to write the software to make it all work.

Frank wrote the software behind the site, in the client's choice of perl on Solaris, with a database based on Illustra, and also designed the web-based administration system used internally to manage the site, ultimately ending up with about 20,000 lines of code. He also wrote extensive web-based documentation of the software to allow IoP to take over its maintenance.

Global TeleSystems

In 1998, Paola and Frank conducted two comprehensive surveys of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the UK and central Europe for Global TeleSystems (GTS), a telecommunications company considering investments in the region.

UK ISP Survey

Paola and Frank started with a list of approximately 400 UK internet access providers, narrowing it down to 20 companies that met GTS's core criteria. They gathered information from various sources, including company brochures, Dun & Bradstreet reports, and recommendations from industry figures. The team also conducted a telephone survey to collect in-depth data on the shortlisted ISPs.

The resulting 80-page report included an overview, a one-page analysis, company summaries, comparison tables, detailed company profiles, and supporting materials. Paola and Frank created a UK ISP Company League Table, ranking the ISPs based on a scoring system that considered GTS's key priorities. Following the initial report, they provided two additional in-depth reports on specific UK companies, focusing on factors such as sales and marketing skills.

Central European ISP Survey

For the central European market, Paola and Frank conducted a web-based survey of ISPs in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. They contacted 129 companies via e-mail, requesting the participation of owners, general managers, or senior executives. The survey achieved a 56% response rate, with respondents primarily being company owners, directors, or senior managers.

The survey included a unique Business Principles section, allowing companies to make statements about their ethos and strategy without the risk of being perceived as judgmental or threatening. Paola and Frank analysed the data using Excel and Omnis3, presenting the findings in a visually appealing 145-page report. The report featured an overview, comparison tables, individual company details, and supporting materials.

Key Achievements:

• Developed a comprehensive methodology for identifying, contacting, and surveying ISPs in multiple countries.
• Created detailed reports that provided valuable insights into the UK and central European ISP markets, enabling GTS to make informed investment decisions.
• Achieved high response rates through carefully crafted survey invitations and follow-up communication.
• Provided additional in-depth reports on specific companies to support GTS's due diligence process.
• Completed both surveys within a five-week timeframe, demonstrating their ability to deliver high-quality results under tight deadlines.

The ISP surveys conducted by Paola and Frank for GTS showcased their expertise in market research, data analysis, and report creation. Their work directly contributed to GTS's successful acquisition of ISPs in the UK and central Europe, and the company's subsequent growth in the region.

CyberSport

Frank worked with CyberSport on two projects between 1996 and 1998, developing innovative online fitness gaming platforms that linked exercise equipment to personal computers for virtual races.

Proof-of-Concept System

Frank designed and built a proof-of-concept system that demonstrated the feasibility of connecting fitness equipment, such as rowing machines, to personal computers for online multiplayer gaming.

• Designed the communication protocol to enable low-latency, real-time data exchange between the fitness equipment, client PCs, and a central server over dial-up internet connections.
• Developed the graphical Windows client software in C++ to transmit individual participant data and display real-time positions of all participants in a virtual race.
• Created the central server software in C on Unix to coordinate and synchronise race data from multiple participants.

NetTrainer

Building upon the success of the proof-of-concept system, Frank led the development of the production version called NetTrainer.

• Refined the communication protocol based on lessons learned from the proof-of-concept system, which formed the basis for a successful patent application by CyberSport.
• Designed and implementing the race server software on Unix, ensuring compatibility with the Windows-based web server and client software.
• Defined the data exchange interface for the Windows client, which was developed by a third-party software house based on Frank's specifications.
• Optimised the code for improved performance and reducing memory usage, allowing the product to run efficiently on the limited hardware available at the time.
• Designed and building a web-based race booking system using an Oracle database to store member and race information.

Frank's expertise in low-level programming, protocol design, and cross-platform development was instrumental in the success of CyberSport's innovative online fitness gaming platform. The NetTrainer system showcased his ability to create efficient, scalable, and user-friendly solutions that pushed the boundaries of what was possible with the internet technologies of the time.

New Millennium Experience

In 1997, Limitess formed a consortium with lontitude0 and Denison Design to design and build the official web site for the New Millennium Experience at the new Millennium dome. Paola co-wrote the proposal, created the site structure, advised on navigation design, and helped select the final design.

Paola's contributions to the project included:

• Developing the site structure that was chosen for the launch of the web site.
• Advising Denison Design on navigation design by providing guidelines to maximise user experience and wayfinding.
• Assisting in the selection of the final design, which featured colour-coded sections and unique graphics for each main section and sub-section.
• Writing specifications and estimates for the project and managing updates in collaboration with the other consortium members.
• Designing and building an early version of the web site, which included an interactive game where users had to answer themed questions to reveal an animated image.

The Millennium Experience [1998, Wayback Machine]

Reuters Insurance Information

Paola and Frank, working with Denison Design, built a web site to promote Reuters' insurance news products, conveying timeliness, depth, and quality. They created a site specification document, designed templates, and developed data files and scripts for online forms. The site's success led to an extended lifespan of two years, and the team later worked with Reuters on other projects, such as a frames-based web interface for Reuters Business Briefing.

Carsource

Carsource was a web site which combined magazine content with car listings.

Paola's contributions included:

• a competitor review followed by a written report
• site navigation design
• requirements document
• page prototype - a series of linked pages to show page layouts with dummy copy but no visual design
• template pages based on the prototype
• copy-writing, including the help text
• liaising with Denison Design on the visual design

Carsource [1996, Wayback Machine]

Ace Records

Paola ran a half-day meeting at Ace Records with their web developer present to discuss - and then document - their database and web site requirements. The document included various technical approaches, each with a discussion of the pros and cons. It also included a database design which would allow flexibility in searching (e.g., list available versions of a given song) with the minimum of maintenance.

Embassy of Japan

Paola managed the project to design and build the embassy's first web site. She invited a developer familiar with Japanese design to meet with the graphic design compamy to discuss themes and imagery that could be used on the web site. Paola created the site structure, the page structure, and created all the web pages, and maintainted the site.

Embassy of Japan [1996, Wayback Machine]

Barclays Bank BarclayNet

In 1996, Limitless worked with Denison Design to design and build BarclayNet, a large-scale web site for personal and business customers. The project involved innovative design and development techniques, such as separating content from design and using goal-driven content grouping.

Paola and Frank's contributions:

• Collaborated with the marketing company to create a list of personal banking goals and ensure that every banking product was included in at least one goal-driven content group.
• Designed the page-naming scheme and created style files, footer, and header templates.
• Marked up the content using meta‑HTML, a custom markup language that allowed for the separation of content and design.
• Worked on the site's visual design with Denison Design, ensuring consistency across page elements such as backgrounds, list bullets, section graphics, and navigation buttons.
• Developed the software to generate web pages by combining the page headers, footers, and content files based on a page database stored in a CSV file.
• Created the software to handle form responses on the web site.
• Contributed to the development of the meta‑HTML system, which allowed for the separation of content and design.

The BarclayNet project demonstrated Paola and Frank's expertise in creating large-scale, user-focused web sites that could be easily maintained and updated by the client. Their innovative approach to content organisation and design laid the groundwork for future projects and established best practices in the early days of web development.

Sainsbury's Wine Direct

Paola and Frank rapidly developed one of the UK's first online wine ordering systems for Sainsbury's, called Wine Direct. Built in just two weeks, the system featured dynamically generated wine lists and product pages, along with a robust session management system. The platform's success led to multiple design iterations over a two-year period.

Hewlett‑Packard

Frank worked as a member of Hewlett‑Packard's Professional Services Organisation (PSO) from 1995 to 1996, providing technical consulting services to HP's major account customers.

Glaxo Wellcome

• Designed, implemented, and documented a solution for remotely managing legacy production systems using HP Operations Center and custom software to monitor equipment via RS-232.
• Performed business analysis and prepared a report on re-implementing Glaxo's existing production batch archiving systems.
• Conducted a full technical performance and security review of the existing operational systems, and wrote a comprehensive plan for the next stage of the operational systems development.
• Worked with the HP project manager on the initial phase of integrating Wellcome's IBM-based IT infrastructure into the new Glaxo structure.

Assessment and training

• Successfully passed a day-long assessment by HP to join the Associate Programme, which included technical and initiative tests, group exercises, and delivering a business-level presentation.
• Conducted technical tests for a group of candidates in March 1995 and successfully ran the entire assessment course for another group in June 1995.

Throughout his time as a consultant at Hewlett‑Packard, Frank demonstrated his technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and ability to communicate effectively with clients and colleagues. His contributions to the GlaxoWellcome Jet project and his involvement in the Associate Programme assessment and training process showcased his versatility and leadership abilities in a high-profile consulting role.

Psychology of Programming Interest Group

Paola managed the web site for the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG) for nearly eight years. During this time, she redesigned the site three times, finally rebuilding it in Drupal in 2015 to add hundreds of papers from workshops. Her work included improving navigation, and creating a consistent style guide.

1996 redesign 1997, WayBack Machine
2002 redesign 2006, WayBack Machine
2015 Drupal redesign 2015, WayBack Machine

Disney

Frank was responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Sun and HP Unix-based servers that ran Buena Vista Home Video national sales and marketing systems in seven countries. He also continued development work on the Discovery application hosted by these computers, provided software and communications consultancy to other projects within Buena Vista, and internet consultancy to the networking group.

Seagram Distillers

Paola worked on two projects for Seagram between 1993 and 1994, focusing on developing innovative reporting solutions using Omnis and Sybase databases.

Graphical Reporting System

Paola developed a unique solution for generating coloured charts in Omnis, at a time when no native tools were available for creating graphical reports.

• Created a set of templates using drawing objects in Omnis, leveraging the software's Notation feature, which allowed access to individual elements within a file.
• Developed procedures to gather data from a Sybase database, open the template, and adjust the attributes of the template elements based on the data.
• Created a library of general-purpose database access procedures to streamline the development process for the project team.

Ad-Hoc Reporting System

Paola designed and built an ad-hoc reporting system using the existing Marketing Planning System, which was built with Omnis and Sybase. The system enabled users to create custom reports by selecting criteria, generating a CSV file, and automatically opening it in Excel for further analysis.

Key features:

• The ability to display three-dimensional data (product, time, geography, and a stored value) as a series of two-dimensional tables.
• Real-time preview of the report layout, allowing users to swap the positions of time, geography, and product dimensions.
• Options to add totals to rows or columns, remove detail rows, and include trend rows.
• Automatic adaptation to changes in the underlying database structure, eliminating the need for manual reprogramming when database fields were modified.

Paola's innovative solutions for Seagram demonstrated her expertise in database management, data visualisation, and user-centric design. Her ability to create flexible, adaptable, and user-friendly reporting tools helped improve decision-making and data analysis processes within the organisation.

Nat West Markets

NatWest Markets was the part of NatWest bank that handled trading in shares, equities and gilts in the City of London. Frank worked as one of two Unix consultants to the global technical support group, and was responsible for the smooth functioning of the bank's gilts, equities and settlement systems. Along with one project manager and one DBA, Frank was part of a 'skunkworks' ream responsible for planning and executing the successful move of equities service from Edinburgh to London without interruption of service to the business. He provided round-the-clock support to the operations team, and also consulted on global derivatives and world-wide security projects.

Consensus Information Technology

Paola worked on a product targeted at sales and marketing departments. Consensus had developed a base product using an Omnis database - they customised the product for each client. She was solely responsible for designing and implementing a suite of utilities which would allow the product to work off existing client databases on different server types without changing the code.

Paola first performed a review of the product and then re-organised the database procedures so that future development time would be reduced. Most of her time was spent customising the base system to work off a client's existing Informix database. Paola assisted with testing and installation, and produced a programmer's guide to the utilities and conversion process.

JP Morgan

Paola worked with other staff on a client information system for Exchange Traded Products. Besides developing the front-end with Omnis and Transact SQL stored procedures, she was responsible for defining and specifying the underlying structures of the system including customisable settings, generic windows and the user-interface standards.

Paola was solely responsible for developing several Omnis/Sybase utilities:

• a code management utility that allowed Sybase objects to be created and maintained in Omnis then downloaded to Sybase as required
• a set-up utility that was used to create Omnis files of the same structure as Sybase tables, checking table and attribute name lengths against corporate standards and allowing test data to be stored and downloaded

She developed Unix shell scripts to load and unload test data, to create test tables, and to run Transact SQL scripts against the Sybase database.

Charity Commission

The Charity Commission is the UK government agency with responsibility for regulating charities in England and Wales. Between 1991 and 1993, Frank worked with them, helping to manage their computer networks and support their development team. As a senior Unix system administrator on the Commission's computer management team, Frank was responsible for the day-to-day operation of all of the Charity Commission's production and development systems, a mixture of HP, Sun, Data General and other systems.

Frank set up systems, procedures and tools to allow the Commission's inexperienced Unix staff to manage and operate their diverse Unix network, and trained staff as appropriate. He also designed, and led the implementation of, a network job-management system for overnight and batch processing. Finally, he also provided Unix technical support to their internal software development team.

Orbitel Mobile Communications

Frank wrote GSM base-station communication software while serving a three-month stint at Orbitel Mobile Communications.

HP-41 emulator

Frank led the design and implementation of the HP-41CV Emulator for the HP-48SX, a project commissioned by Hewlett‑Packard's calculator division. The emulator allowed users of the older HP-41 platform to transition smoothly to the new HP-48 device, which had a different architecture, programming language, and user interface.

Key Contributions:

• Designed the overall architecture of the emulator, ensuring compatibility with existing HP-41 software and peripherals.
• Implemented core features, including the execution engine, program and data parser, and low-level functions critical to performance and stability.
• Developed an efficient data exchange interface that allowed HP-41 programs to call HP-48 programs and vice versa, facilitating a gradual migration of software between the two platforms.
• Optimised code for speed and size, reducing memory usage by 20% and doubling execution speed through custom compilation techniques and assembly code.
• Collaborated with a technical writer to create a comprehensive user manual, which became a key reference for advanced HP-41 development.

Technical Achievements:

• Designed a custom memory management system that enabled the emulator to run within the 32K memory limit while maintaining compatibility with the HP-41's architecture.
• Created a VT-100 compatible terminal interface, RS-232 and modem support, and built-in diagnostic capabilities in less than 4,000 bytes of hand-optimised assembly code.
• Developed an efficient parsing system that could read and translate HP-41 programs and data beamed over from an HP-41 via its infrared printer module.
• Implemented a compatible keyboard and display emulation that mimicked the HP-41's behavior while allowing users to access the advanced features of the HP-48.

Impact and Reception:

The HP-41CV Emulator for the HP-48SX was a commercial success, with the initial production run selling out and prompting HP to order additional units. The emulator received positive reviews from the HP calculator community, with users praising its functionality, performance, and ease of use. The product's success demonstrated Frank's expertise in low-level programming, optimisation, and cross-platform development, as well as his ability to deliver a high-quality, user-focused solution that met the needs of both HP and its customers.

paolability.com

Paola's personal web site has gone through many iterations since first launching in 1995. In 2019, she relaunched a new site built from scratch using Drupal 7, PHP and MySQL. She merged my Wordpress blogs into the site, wrote case studies for work projects and added her favourite photos from Flickr. At launch, the site contained over 800 web pages. She later added a shop to sell her jewellery.

original site (1997, Wayback Machine)
rebuilt in LML (2006, Wayback Machine)
paolability.com

Limitless

Paola designed and built the Limitless web site using LML (Limitless Mark-up Language) developers by co-founder, Julian Perry.

Limitless [1996, Wayback Machine]

Gratis work

Paola has consistently demonstrated her commitment to using their skills and expertise to support charitable causes and non-profit organisations. She has provided pro-bono services to several projects, including the Windsor Half Marathon, Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG), Construction and Property Industry Charity for the Homeless (CRASH), and the InetUK Usenet FAQ.

Breast Cancer Care

Paola mined the Breast Cancer Care database of 45,000 registered users to discover types of users and their behaviour to inform persona design for a forum redesign. She used her knowledge of SQL and Excel to query the database and perform analysis. She created graphs and wrote a report to document her findings.

CRASH

Paola designed and developed an innovative, data-driven web site for the Construction and Property Industry Charity for the Homeless (CRASH). She handled the entire project pro-bono, from requirements gathering and design to the development of the website's unique data-driven features. Paola's work made it easy for the charity to maintain and update content, streamlining their online presence.

Windsor Half Marathon

Paola designed, built, and maintained the event web site pro-bono for five years. She was responsible for all aspects of the website, including content creation, online registration forms, and ongoing maintenance. Paola also led the requirements definition phase for a relaunch of the site in 2001, conducting a full-day workshop with stakeholders and documenting the new site's requirements and structure.

InetUK Usenet FAQ

Paola maintained the InetUK Usenet FAQ, a comprehensive directory of UK and Irish ISPs and web companies, from 1993 to 2000. She took over the maintenance and posting of the summary and long ISP directories in June 1993 and continued to update and expand the list, which grew from 12 companies in 1992 to over 1,000 by the end of her tenure. Paola's work on the InetUK FAQ made it a valuable resource for the internet community during a period of rapid growth and change.

Other Pro-Bono Work

In addition to these projects, Paola has provided web site design and development services to several other organisations and individuals as favours.

These include:

• Designing an alternative page layout for photographer John Paul Caponigro's web site in 2004.
• Creating a more professional design and stylesheet for Design Jewel in 2002.
• Developing page templates with a consistent colour scheme for the Virtual Memorial Garden in 2001.
• Redesigning the Global Information Highway web site for Olivier MJ Crépin‑Leblond in 1997.