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SCRUM was developed in the early 1990s. The philosophy behind it is founded on empiricism and asserts that knowledge comes from experience. It emphasises the ‘see-feel-change’ approach which means that learning goes step-by-step to achieve success. Through lean thinking we can filter and minimise waste so there will be more focus on the essentials.

SCRUM serves as a lightweight framework for self-organising teams to implement projects in a more effective and efficient way. For companies this means that instead of having a distant deadline for finishing a whole project at once with the risk of failing in the end,  in short sprints of 2-4 weeks, a team always delivers a completed part of the total project. You can see it as a continuous and frequent cycle (plan-build-test-review) with feedback on the small feature set at every Sprint Review. These inspections are important because now SCRUM Artefacts (more on that later) can be detected and adapted to make the quality of the work better. This flexible and transparent way of working being used more and more, gives every SCRUM-team the formal opportunity to improve their current results with the final goal of creating a shippable product.

Miles strives for this more dynamic and beneficial strategy because it strengthens our management of different challenges we face. We aim to have an agile way of working. Agile can be defined as a set of values and principles that teams can use to make decisions about how to do the work of developing valuable software. With every new process Miles has, we first want to get comfortable so we can encourage the team to experiment and see what works. By responding to change instead of following a fixed plan, we are contstanting adapting the process to fit the team. And because our highest priority is to satisfy our customers' needs, we prefer customer collaboration and face-to-face conversations to use as our source of inspiration for new ideas.

The waterfall methodology is considered the traditional way to execute tasks that are well understood and documented from the start. It follows a linear top-down approach, so the process goes only one direction with each phase representing a distinct stage that needs to be finished before the next one begins. But these fixed scopes, budgets and timelines made it almost impossible for developers creating a new product to succeed in their work. Because their testing phase only takes place at the end of the development, the risk of bringing the wrong product to market is high, since market command or technology can change while the original plan is being developed. Agile intends to solve these issues of a rigid structured methodology by breaking the project development down into sprints. All these sprints can actually be seen as a collection of various projects on their own, which gives the flexibility to change the test plan at each evaluation. The Agile methodology is the most ideal approach when crucial details are not known yet from the beginning and the project is centred around rapid and continuous delivery.

Why do we use SCRUM & Agile within Miles?

SCRUM and Agile enable us to finish projects with more attention and the deliverables connect more with the actual users. Because we value a cohesive collaboration with intensive communication and adequate productivity, we chose a small team that works together on all projects. We have a clear division of tasks while maintaining our focus on the same end goals. This is not only time- and cost saving, but it also gives us the perfect opportunity to work in an autonomic environment where everyone can work independently. We believe that this is the way to work faster, more motivated and more efficiently to deliver the best quality for our clients.

Agile as a method originally comes from IT. Software developers were not satisfied with the standard working method at the time, which was mainly based on a clear and final design with a detailed planning and procedure. However, this method never matched reality since unforeseen problems were not calculated in the time span and planning became difficult in an increasingly dynamic, complex, volatile and   uncertain (IT) world. In 2001 this led to the Agile Manifesto, which prioritised individuals and collaboration over tools and procedures and a creative mindset responding to change over following a plan.

How can you implement an agile way of working?

At Miles we give the preference to work together in a small and self-managing team. In order to make the SCRUM framework function properly, there are different and clear roles within our team. The three specific responsibilities are the Product Owners, the SCRUM Master and the Development team. They form a cohesive unit of professionals that are all focussing on the same product backlog which has been simplified into specific sprint backlogs.  The product backlog is a mega list of user stories that describe the needs and wishes of the client. The sprint backlog is a more specific and smaller list of user stories that the development team and SCRUM master create based on priorities and can work on during 2-4 week long sprints.

It’s an innovative way of working that helps teams (including us) ship faster with more quality. It allows for more flexibility than traditional methods such as waterfall. The mindset is the most important, tools come last. There are lots of benefits to working in an agile way, which you can implement in small steps by dividing roles and setting clear boundaries for a sprint using the product and sprint backlogs. If you want to learn more about SCRUM and the agile way of working we recommend looking at the 

SCRUM was developed in the early 1990s. The philosophy behind it is founded on empiricism and asserts that knowledge comes from experience.

How did we implement an Agile way of working?

Last night it happened again. Apple's annual announcement of their new products. What really made us jump out of our seats was the new feature of the iPhone 14 Pro, the Dynamic Island. A unique example of how a well-thought-out UI can solve hardware obstacles.

Nowadays we are so used to working with fixed screen sizes which make designing interfaces as easy as possible. The danger of this is that hardware obstacles are so amplified because the fixed screen sizes see the limitations of the hardware as a hard line. Apple proved us wrong.


By embracing the combination of both hardware and software Apple has created an extension of the user interface, instead of leaving the Island to be dead space. It acts as a one-stop shop for all notifications, ongoing activities and other crucial information ready at a glance. Making it an integral part of the UI acts as a solution to further Apple's goals at blurring the lines between hardware and software.

Apple shows (again) that if we take a step back and look at how we deal with the UX problems (in this case combined with hardware), we can actually work together with hardware instead of drawing direct conclusions based on today's design principles or "why re-invent the wheel".

We do not own any rights to the images shown in this story.

Last night it happened again. Apple's annual announcement of their new products. What really made us jump out of our seats was the new feature of the iPhone 14 Pro, the Dynamic Island.

What we can learn from Apple's Dynamic Island

We are fast, while paying our best attention and giving our full commitment to your project. But what is Miles and why do we and those ‘buzz’ words matter? Why would you work with this group of creatives and forward-thinkers? What follows is a story of where we came from, who we are, and how we work. This is a story with lots of intricacies and learnings along the way, and hopefully with your interest to collaborate, we can together achieve and learn so much more.

It all started with two close friends. We've always had a nick for letting our creative minds flow by producing devised work we love(d). The occasional website, conceptual applications, and even flyers for school parties sparked our fire for design. Slowly but surely, we started to notice something brewing: the concept of helping one another attain their goals, wishes, and vision through a digital canvas.

From that concept, we always wanted to stay true to our way of working, which we like to call 

 , like how the legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis did. It's a term we have held dearly from the beginning. It symbolises flexibility, open mindedness, and making sure you feel comfortable and assured when working with us. Miles, it's a name that embodies our potential for being different and innovative, all while jamming along.

We are a creative studio, and while that's not something out of the ordinary, the fact that we handle your project so carefully definitely is. We play this game with attention from the get-go, giving you a personal experience when creating digital products and experiences with our full-time dedicated Miles team at your disposal. More like a boutique than a full-blown agency.

We are a multidisciplinary team. Ranging from great graphic designers to web developers, we are able to control most aspects of every project within Miles. Next to that, it powers us to collaborate with like minded individuals.

We follow a proven method that always works when we are fabricating the projects for our clients. We work agile first through the discovery, design, and development phases, all while making use of Atom-based design principles. This allows us to be flexible and keep our focus on delivering the attention that's needed to a project, while also aiming to exceed client expectations.

Who’s this group of creatives that call themselves “Miles”?

Each and every person on our team has an affection for and a specialisation with a certain discipline. From designing battle-tested interfaces to writing the cleanest code, this combination of amazing, interesting, and above-all ambitious people on the Miles team would be very keen to meet you:

Miles is absolutely one of my biggest joys in life, with an ever growing team, clientele and amazing projects we get to work on. Making sure everyone within the team is in their power to be as creative as possible is one of the biggest accomplishments so far. And yeah, I really like dinosaurs :P

Hi, I'm Ezra, a creative who especially likes to make other people's concepts come to life. From concept to the visual end product. The hours that I'm not working on that, I spend a lot of time on music and can often be found in a record store.

Someone who likes to face the unknown of tech with an “anything can be done mindset”

We are all a very close team! There is a 'work hard, play hard' mentality that ensures that we want to get the best out of every project together. We work on many different projects, so the work is never boring. Every customer comes with their own challenges, delivering a product that works for customers and users really gives energy!

It's always fun at Miles! Besides that, we also work hard. And play hard! I have been interested in computers from a young age. I like programming, cars and motorcycles, fishing, gym, traveling and having fun with friends and my girlfriend.

We like to put our thinking into your vision. From websites to apps, brand identities to platforms, and anything and everything in between, we apply our special Miles touch that we find very exciting. You can always be sure that you belong to the Miles community of amazing and interesting people. We'd love to know what you're thinking about and what we can do to help you work towards fulfilling your vision.

Keep an eye on our website and Instagram channel for that we are expanding our community by reaching out with editorial and informative content such as customer cases, thoughts and podcasts.

We are fast, while paying our best attention and giving our full commitment to your project. But what is Miles and why do we and those ‘buzz’ words matter?

Make miles in weeks, not months

It still feels a bit surreal to us looking out of the window of our new office. While the paint is still drying we wanted to share some stories on how and why this happened.

In early 2021 we decided to move our office from Leiden to The Hague to be closer to our community and explore what the city of The Hague had to offer to us. We immediately felt at home within the community at The Hague Tech and had an amazing time growing Miles from there.

After working at The Hague Tech for a year we came across an amazing opportunity for us to take the next step to dive deeper into the ecosystem of The Hague by moving to Tournooiveld 4. 

Shooting competitions were held on the Tournooiveld in the 14th and 15th centuries between two different archers' guilds from The Hague. The Tournooiveld used to be on the edge of the city, just outside the city gate, which was demolished in the first half of the 17th century. In 1650 a house was built on this location, the current Tournooiveld 4. The special facade at the front was placed at the beginning of the 19th century. This location has the current status of a national monument and therefore forms a protected cityscape of The Hague Center.

DEN HAAG Hotel Du Vieux Doelen - Desguerrois & Co / CCA Last - ca. 1848 (AI improved)

Den Haag Hotel Du Vieux Doelen, Tournooiveld (AI improved)

With this new location the feeling of connection to the city has never been greater. The environment around the office is inspiring to say the least and sparks innovation.

Feel free to come say hi anytime and grab a coffee with us!

We are so excited to announce that we are moving to one of the most amazing parts of The Hague!

Miles is moving to the city center of The Hague!

Today, a good user experience on all devices is a must. All digital products are a lot more complex than they were a few years ago and to bring unity and structure to this, we use Atomic design in our process. This is a story about why.

In 2014 Brad Frost introduced the concept of Atomic design. Inspired by his highschool chemistry classes, he came up with the idea of dividing his designs into atoms, molecules and organisms. If a digital design were also constructed this way, any complex design could be reduced to the smallest components: the atoms.

Atoms are the fundamental parts of a design system. Colours, typography, but also buttons, the input field, labels, check boxes and paragraphs are examples of this. Individually, the atoms aren’t as useful, but can be seen as the building blocks that comprise the UI’s. By slicing it becomes immediately visible in a library whether the atoms fit together in style.

But a label, input field and buttons do not amount to much by themselves, but combining the atoms gives it a valuable meaning. For example, hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms together form water molecules. By combining the unique properties of atoms, molecules are more tangible and operational. By bringing smaller components together, they suddenly become recognizable in things like the search field. Now we’ve come to the more complex section of the design system, namely the organisms. They are assemblies of molecules that can be put together in a broader context. The ‘header’ organism can consist of the logo, navigation and search form and can thus be reused more easily in several places.

The next step in the development of an Atomic design are the templates. These consist of grouped organisms that collectively begin to form a page. These organisms are placed in a layout at the page level to articulate the underlying content structure of the design. In essence, these are the wireframes: the blueprint of a digital product.

The highest level in this development process is the final page. This is like a template, but then filled with representative content. This allows the page to be tested with different types of content. What if the content is twice as long as usual? What does this do to the design?

Atomic Design is becoming more and more popular in the digital world and this way of creative thinking is not going to disappear anytime soon if it is up to the designers. Instead of visualising the complete end result, Brad Frost uses a chemical equation to show the precise ‘ingredients’ of the total product. This experience shows a shift in the perspective of website design from statistical page templates to a dynamic system of customizable components.

This approach makes it possible to make complex UIs concrete and structured from scratch. This makes it easier to keep an overview and to keep future developments of digital products consistent. The time spent on further developments will definitely be a lot shorter because designers work with an existing system.

But ultimately a digital product is intended to be experienced by the end user. Atomic design is user-friendly because certain patterns, buttons and layouts of the digital products are known to users, which makes navigation and interaction with the UIs faster and easier to learn.

Today, a good user experience on all devices is a must. All digital products are a lot more complex than they were a few years ago and to bring unity and structure to this, we use Atomic design in our process. 

Atomic Design: The building blocks of digital design

Nick

Kiki

Ezra

Matthew

Block33

BLOCK33 is a community hub located in Moerwijk, The Hague, that caters to the needs of young adults and teenagers. The project was initiated by ANNA Vastgoed and The Municipality of The Hague as a way to create new life in a rigid area of the city. The team acquired an old bike repair shop on a 10-year lease and transformed it into a vibrant and creative space for the community.

Miles was asked to create a series of workshops that would inspire the community and help grow the hub. The workshops were designed to encourage creative thinking, build teamwork skills, and teach young people how to manage clients and pitch their ideas. In addition, we got the task worked with the community to develop a unique identity for BLOCK33. To make sure they would feel like the identity is theirs we decided to do the whole creation process together with the community instead of making decisions by ourselves.

Create shared ownership by letting the community create the concept

With hubs like these we felt like the community should feel connected with the identity as close as possible. This is the reason why we decided to create the identity together with the community based on a concept that was created by the community itself. 

One of the workshops we facilitated was specifically focussed on creating a concept for the hub. After collectifly voting on the best concept BLOCK33 and the team who came up with the idea got selected. We worked closely with this group during the design process. Choices like colors, style and visuals where all decided by the group, but created and made into a professional brand by Miles. We truly think this way we identity feels like theirs own creation.

After finishing creating the brand identity we made sure to celebrate the succes with the team by organising a grand opening event at BLOCK33. People from the neighbourhood, aldermen from the Municipality of The Hague and students all showed up for this event. We also made sure to create merch for the team members who worked on the concept.

Staying involved by creating more opportunities for the community

After launching the brand and opening the hub we are still closely involved with the programming and community of BLOCK33. There are multiple projects we have started since with local Universities, the Municipality of The Hague and startups to make sure the hub keeps growing.  

How we created a series of workshops, build a community and a brand identity to represent the new hub for young adults in Moerwijk.

A hub for young adults in Moerwijk

After 5 years, Toko Lekki is a Thai takeaway restaurant that can certainly be called a household name in Oegstgeest and its surroundings. In addition to the standard delicacies with daily fresh vegetables and herbs, Martin and Lekki also provide a Thai special every week. The passion that is put into the food will definitely taste again, we are fans, most definetly!

Toko Lekki has a special place in our hearts, because it was Miles' very first customer! The great success of Toko Lekki ensures many new customers. Martin and Lekki believed that the menu could use an improvement, that it should become clearer to customers what the different options are per available dish. The temporary specials also deserve a place on the website, it would be a shame to miss them!

In the end we updated the entire toko lekki website with special attention to the dishes. The menu now has all the necessary information about the dishes and the specials and popular dishes have also gained prominence.

New menu with all the information you need

The menu has had a makeover. Within each dish you can choose different ingredients, something that was not known to everyone in the past. With the new menu cards you can see at a glance which choices you have.

The spiciness indicator is also not a luxury. Us dutchies are not all up to the task of Thai herbs, so now you will no longer be surprised by a dish that is too hot.

For vegetarian customers you can now also find all options with one click by clicking on the 'vegetarian' tab, or you can scan based on the label that is visible within the vegetarian dishes.

The dishes can now also contain a 'tip from the chef'. For example, Lekki can indicate that another dish goes well with the dish you want to order or that a dish gets most of its flavour out with noodles instead of rice.

Toko Lekki has a number of dishes that appeal to everyone, we have featured these popular dishes on both the homepage and the menu. As a new customer you will now be better helped when putting together your order, because you can't go wrong with any one of these dishes.

We have given Lekki's specials a prominent place on the website. The dish is immediately visible on the homepage as well as the menu. The regular customers know what their favorite dishes are after a few times and check the menu less often than new customers, so the temporary dish can now be found easily.

Toko Lekki has a special place in our hearts, because it was Miles' very first customer! 

Reimagine the way to decide what to order

Since 1971, Bertus has become a market leader in the production, sales and distribution of Vinyl and CDs. They put a lot of time and energy into achieving their goal: providing music lovers with the widest possible assortment, in every genre, in every physically available format.

During the first workshop with the Bertus team, we were asked to improve the website so that it can better serve the multiple target groups, and contribute to the growth that Bertus wants to make in the coming years.

We have created a design system based on the Bertus logo. This contains all important elements such as colours, typography, buttons and more in order to establish a consistent branding for them.

The renewed website will ensure that there is more attention for potentially working at Bertus. The passion that the team has for their work and the industry is inspiring and has therefore been given a lot of space. No one can tell you what it's like to work at Bertus better than the people themselves. That is why we have chosen to share their experiences on the website. On the homepage you can now quickly see if there are any vacancies: given any of their experiences ignited some energy inside of you.

Bertus serves both production and sales of Vinyl from CDs, the website now gives these two target groups a clear picture of what Bertus has to offer, and the opportunity to join Bertus and grow with them!

A well established player in the music industry, re-branded to attract new hires.

Redesign one of Europe's largest music distributors

When we got together with Crossing Border, we were tasked with conveying the culture and experience of the festival itself into a useful website that showcases the more than 100 artists and musicians present at the festival, provides interesting and up-to-date information about the schedule, and allows visitors to purchase tickets easily and hassle-free. The new website would provide more user-interaction, a consistent brand image, and most importantly bestow Crossing Border’s intangible cultural impact to tens of thousands of curious visitors from around the world.

In the end we delivered a website for Crossing Border that helped the festival to be much more interactive. With features such as custom interactive timetables, an animated homegrid and even built in livestreaming Crossing Border can be experienced digitally the way it was intended.

We created an active timetable that visitors can use to find out what is happening where. It also features a time indicator so the user is sure what is happening at the current moment.

The interactive homegrid was made to support custom animations and showcase the artists and events in a customizable way. This grid is fully responsive and the team can easily manage and update it.

With multiple days of artists and events, it was important to easily find a specific artist or event you were looking for. We created a day by day view, which included filters for days, types of events and even an extremely accurate search bar.

How we created a new digital home for one of the biggest literature festivals in The Netherlands.

A new digital realm for Crossing Border.

Uitgeverij de Harmonie, the Dutch publisher of Harry Potter, commissioned us to create an interactive website that brings the magical world of Harry Potter to life. We worked closely with the client to digitalize their events, books, workshops, and magical recipes as well as create a bio about JK Rowling. Ultimately, our goal was to increase the franchise's online presence and connect with its audience in a more meaningful way.

The end result is an immersive and interactive website that transports both new and old fans to the magical world of Harry Potter. We collaborated closely with the original book cover designer to ensure that the website's design complemented the aesthetic of the Harry Potter series. Key features of the website include an events calendar, a digital bookstore, a section for workshops and magical recipes, and a short bio about JK Rowling.

Maintaining the overall brand of Harry Potter while creating a unique and engaging website experience was one of the key challenges of the project. Our team collaborated with the original book cover designer to ensure that the website design complemented the aesthetic of the Harry Potter series and maintained brand consistency throughout.

One great feature on the website that many people may not notice is the changing of the seasons. In collaboration with the original book cover designer, we created four different works of art for the homepage that change depending on the season.

We ensured that fans could interact with the website in several ways. From booking events, workshops and magical recipes, to exploring JK Rowling's bio. The website we created allowed uitgeverij de Harmonie to better connect with its audience and increase their online presence.

We created a 3D bookshelf that displays the books in the Harry Potter and Magical world series. The bookshelf was designed to be interactive and allows users to click on a book to learn more about it. The books were rendered in stunning detail, giving fans a taste of the magic and wonder that lies within the pages of the Harry Potter series.

Our team aimed to support the franchise by exciting children in the Netherlands to read more and engage with the wizarding world beyond the books. We understood that the Harry Potter franchise is not only a series of books but a whole universe of magic and wonder that captivates the imagination of children and adults alike. Therefore, we worked closely with Uitgeverij de Harmonie to create an online space that would offer more than just books, but also digital events, workshops, magical recipes, and a bio about JK Rowling.

We created an immersive and interactive website for Uitgeverij de Harmonie that brings the magical world of Harry Potter to life.

Bringing the magic of Harry Potter to life

The Five family asked us to translate their amazing restaurant experience to a digital product. To make sure we made the website as close to the restaurants. We even sampled the paint used for the walls as the main color scheme.

The result is a interactive home for Five Brothers Fat. We made sure all locations are highlighted on the homepage and you can book a table directly by hovering over it. To make it as easy as possible to maintain an alive feel on the website we implemented the Instagram feed of their popular account on the website.

As every restaurant the menu of Five Brothers Fat changes troughout the year. Where in summer and spring fresher and lighter tones are the main focus, in winter and authum the warmer and cosier tones take over. To make sure the user has the most up to date experiece we made it possible to change the whole visual of the website in just one click, yes one little switch changes the whole visual identity.

Five Brothers Fat is a fast growing chain, this is why the website supports the francising by making custom landing pages for all locations.

But to make sure the end user does not get confused by the many locations Five has, we designed a location picker on the homepage which makes it easy to switch and book a table at the location you desire without losing overview.

Succes can only be measured by results, thats why we are thrilled to say that the Five Brothers Fat website has over 100.000 unique visitors from 50 different countries over the last year. 

The Five family asked us to translate their amazing restaurant experience to a digital product.

The new home for the Five family.

With a lot of experience in the field, Import4You was created with the aim of arranging the entire import and export process for its customers. They offer services in the field of air and sea freight in combination with storage options for your goods.

We were asked to improve the user experience of the platform. Import4You wants to grow considerably in the near future and wanted to have a well-functioning basis for further development. A design would ensure more coherence, breaking up the different user flows for a smoother process, the dashboard would display relevant data about bookings and added invoices so that it’s easily accessible within the platform. All this to provide users with the right information as quickly as possible so that they can spend more time running their business!

Uiteindelijk hebben we een platform opgeleverd voor import4you die ervoor zorgt dat gebruikers gemakkelijk hun boekingen kunnen beheren en nieuwe boekingen kunnen aanmaken. Door ontbrekende features zoals facturen betalen en updates van levertijden toe te voegen en bestaande features te verbeteren hebben we de gebruikers verder kunnen ontzorgen.

We made sure every step of paying and managing invoices is possible straight from the platform.

Creating a booking has never been so easy

We made sure to make bookings done in a few easy steps while keeping a clear overview of the process of the bookings.

We were asked to improve the user experience of the platform from the ground up.

A fully user centered logistics platform

Hackathon for Good

We decided to join the Hackathon for Good organisation because we wanted to contribute to something good with a potential to make global impact. Our job was to create the brand and digital products for the global and The Hague part of Hackathon for Good

After being involved with the Hackathon for Good team for more then 3 years we have worked on various parts of the organisation like the brand, website, community and communication. 

Creating a brand that is focused on shared ownership and creating a global community was the thought behind the design we made. It had to be easy to create sublabels without too much hassle.

As part of the communication strategy, we created a new website for Hackathon for Good from scratch, which fully leverages the latest in web technologies. It is also a safe space for everything the team wants to share with the community.

To make sure we can support global organisations organise their own Hackathon for Good we made the brand as accessible as possible to make your own. By adding sublabels with unique colors and automatically generated pages, creating a brand, landingpage and event for a new Hackathon for Good is done in minutes.

To make sure hackers get motivated to tackle a challenge we made the challenge page centered on visual and personal messaging. By introducing the challenge owner with a 1 minute pitch and personal message hackers will get a direct introduction to the challenge and challenge owner.

There is a lot happing in the for Good community. To make sure people get triggered to join these events we created a centralized event calendar that can be managed by the team. Events can be linked to specific cities or hackathons to get the right audience interested.

Our job was to create the brand and digital products for the global and The Hague part of Hackathon for Good.

Work

Let's talk about your ideas, answer your questions and start a project