I often feel that I am in a constant battle to persuade people that User Research is a good thing. There is this resistance. Why spend all that money when we can just make it and see if it works? How about this? You are lucky enough to have won a pot of cash and you decide you want to build yourself the perfect house. You go to the architect. “Not to worry” – says the architect...
I attended the NMK Beers and Innovation event last night. There was some quite lively debate, a few interesting bits and pieces and an opportunity for some thought. The headline was “Do agencies innovate” but most of the discussion was around what makes it hard to innovate. There were various thoughts; here are mine. Ingredients: Knowledge – in order to innovate one needs...
The Voice and I have just returned from a little over 2 weeks in India. We had a great time. What struck me – again – is how much we like to think that with the ubiquitousness of the Internet we can design for a global market. Can we though? My own mental model of what is and isn’t allowed in a bank doesn’t stretch to a Kirpan but then I hadn’t ever been to India...
I like Line Rider. It reminds me a bit of a cartoon called La Linea (or Bajum Bajum!) that I used to watch when I was little. Now, thanks to Ajax web 2.0 wizadry we can make our own. Hurrah! It’s a long way from the Dragon 32 that I had when I was 8 and watching the afore mentioned cartoon. I could play chess, space invaders (not sure how the parents let the space invaders slip through but...
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...
I got to play with one of the early versions of The Venice Project, had a few hassles running later versions, and now I have a shiny new version that I can talk about. Hurrah! It’s quite cool actually. I’m going to start small as I am not entirely clear what I am and am not allowed to talk about but I’m sure Simon will tell me. To be honest, the content isn’t quite up my...
The Voice of BBC Long Melford has had some post. A letter from Standard Life telling him that his shares are doing well. Very nice. They go on to tell him that they would like to communicate by email. Under the heading ” A responsible approach to business” they ask for an email address so they can save money and trees. For each new email they receive they will plant a new seedling...
There I was looking at my email and wondering which of a few ideas floating around I should blog about and in what order when the Voice of BBC Long Melford insisted that I look up iCount. “Google it!”. So, I did. iCount.org.uk I have already mentioned that the environment is one of the things I care about. I cycle, I put on an extra jumper, unplug my mobile phone charger, turn down...
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...
My mother was very pleased to announce to me that her Skype ‘hearing aid’ had arrived. It is too easy to forget that the terminology we [people that ‘work with computers’] use all the time just isn’t used or understood by others. I had a moment with a client the other day – “why don’t you ask them [the participants] if they have narrowband or...
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.