Two stories. 1) A former colleague of mine did a research project for a power company on one of those machines you have in your house that goes red if you are consuming lots of electricity. One participant started boiling water on the gas hob when she was making tea because that way she could keep the thing from going past amber. 2) A different colleague of mine uses an iPhone app which is...
My mother is off to travel the world. She has retired from the sometimes rewarding often frustrating world of teaching in a modern world, her children can take care of themselves so she has packed her bag and is leaving us! As one of the results of her life’s work to date, it is my job to ensure we all get to find out what she is up to. So here goes: 1) The first 6 months of her journey...
I’ve noticed this new thing I do. Once upon a time if I was struggling with something tech-like I would go to Google and either find something useful or not. Alternatively I would open my msn or maybe my mobile and try and match a person to the problem. These days I Twitter and, as if by magic, the answer appears! And I find myself answering questions too, it’s not all take. So, here...
I spend a lot of my time watching people. Mostly I do this as part of some user research piece or the other but often it is because I am just nosy and like to see how people go about doing things. I also eavesdrop. Apologies to all but in my defence, I do pick up on the odd interesting tit-bit of information or the occasionaly interesting anecdote. I was visiting my mother recently and she wanted...
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.