Riding around British Columbia one can’t help but notice the posters encouraging people to either vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in an upcoming referendum. Being the curious type I have of course asked around and discussed it with a few of the locals we have encountered. As a temporary visitor any opinion I might form on the actual tax is totally irrelevant but what has been...
The lovely people at Google took to the streets with a video camera and asked passers-by three questions: What is a browser? What is the difference between a search engine and a browser? Which browser do you use? Less than 8% of people interviewed on that day knew what a browser was. Less than 8% of people interviewed on that day knew what a browser was. Are you surprised? I wasn’t. These...
I was thinking about that phone I commented on recently and, in that context Inclusive Design and what it means. The reason I struggle with the phone and its intended audience is that it is limiting. When someone arrives in a foreign country where they don’t speak the language we may choose to start them off with some pictures and sign language, maybe an interpreter but ultimately we would...
Was just sent this link to an article about a phone designed for baby boomers. I read the article and the intention seems very noble – designing a phone for technophobes (and possibly the infirm?) – the whole experience of using the phone seems to have been considered with full support from an online interface as well as a call centre. Sounds excellent. Instead of icons or menus, the...
I have often sat in design workshops and user research debriefs with groups of people who can’t help but bring their mother in the equation. Pot kettle and black I hear you say (I quote mine repeatedly) and go as far as having a category for her on this very blog. Below is a picture of a phone from fitage.com. Do you like it? Do you think the 60+ person in your life would like it? I have...
Another day another article on websites not being accessible. Why is it so hard for people to create websites that are accessible? What are the barriers? An accessible website doesn’t have to curb the creative juices in any way – it just requires a little bit of thought. Decent code, decent information structure and some well thought out content and you are mostly there. Why does that...
Ivanka Majic works in technology. She was Head of Design for Ubuntu, service managed Digital Marketplace through to beta, was acting director of digital for the Labour Party. She lives and works in Brighton where she works with the council’s digital first team, does a bit of teaching at Sussex University, and works with her husband on projects like restaurantsbrighton.co.uk and the BRAVOs. She has also started a podcast with her friend Michael which you can listen to at grandpodcast.com.