Blog
News, articles and thoughts
My blog includes news, announcements and thoughts on design, technology and life in general. You'll find the most recent entries on this page whilst you can search the entry archive by keyword, date or by category.
Data design: The genius of Jon Snow
March 23, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I recently finished reading Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, which is an incredible book on the Cholera outbreak in London's Soho district in 1854. One wouldn't naturally associate violent intestinal disease in Victorian London as a great source of design inspiration, but not only did this dark chapter in London's history produce a fantastic data visualisation model, it also changed the model of how all urban environments exist to this day.
- Filed under:
- Code,
- Data,
- Design,
- Inspiration
- Comments are closed
Context is king on mobile devices
February 12, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I was interested to see an article on the Webcredible website this month written by the editorial staff at Mobiles.co.uk about improving mobile internet usability. Being quite interested in this space I was naturally keen to hear what they had to say on a topic that's been widely talked about ever since the Wireless Application Protocol 1.0 was introduced over 10 years ago - a vastly different proposition than today's 3G technology.
- Filed under:
- Data,
- Design,
- Mobile,
- User experience
- Comments are closed
The value of sketching
December 04, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I've noticed a real surge in people advocating the use of simple sketching recently; putting more value on design in the early stages of a project. This is great news for us designers. But I was wondering how this significant change has come about.
- Filed under:
- Design
- Comments are closed
The importance of design metrics
December 03, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Good design is hard to quantify. If design is effective in communicating to its audience it becomes transparent; you simply don't notice it at all. If you don't believe me just stop to think about how you use motorway and road signage. I'd be willing to bet you don't think about its design at all when driving, just the information it communicates. An example of great information design.
- Filed under:
- Design,
- Research,
- User experience
- Comments are closed
User research upon a new product
November 17, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I've been doing a lot of research on a new product of late and one of the crucial phases is gaining that initial user insight. However, with a new product you can't rely on usability tests or observe users by shadowing them in their natural environment because the product doesn't exist yet. So, one of the most important things you can do is talk to people - either by phone or face to face - and use that feedback to model personas. This isn't always as easy at it would seem; especially if the market your after is quite narrow. To that end, I've found the following tips useful in confirming that all important interview.
- Filed under:
- Research,
- User experience
- Comments are closed
Online persuasion techniques
September 23, 2008 at 10:51 am
In an increasingly complex online world of conversion and retention there are a few techniques that are pretty easy to implement - but often overlooked - when persuading people to buy online. It simply comes down to tapping into a little psychology and basic human nature.
- Filed under:
- Data,
- User experience
- Comments are closed
Flickr badge code issues
September 15, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I've been using a Flickr badge on my site for quite some time now to display four thumbnails from my Flickr photostream. However, all of a sudden, without any warning it started to misbehave and I found the badge displaying five thumbnails with the first being an unclickable blank white image.
Aurora interface concept (Part two)
August 07, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Further to my previous post about the Aurora interface concept earlier in the week, Adaptive Path has just released part two. The second part explores the data browsing experience using a mobile device rather than the traditional desktop.
- Filed under:
- Data,
- Design,
- User experience
- Comments are closed
Adaptive Path’s Aurora interface concept unveiled
August 05, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Adaptive Path, the user experience and product development consultancy firm, have just released the first part of a new web interface concept called Aurora, in collaboration with Mozilla. Aurora is their take on how the web browser could evolve and work in the future, by harnessing masses of data within a very fluid and highly interactive user interface.
- Filed under:
- Data,
- Design,
- User experience
- Comments are closed
Former Google staff launch Cuil
July 29, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Cuil (pronounced 'Cool') is the latest search engine designed to challenge Google. The internet is littered with search engines that purport to offer something superior to Google, but none of them never have really gained any momentum and ultimately have sunk without trace. So is Cuil any different?
My new business cards
July 21, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Surprisingly enough, even though I've been working for the thick part of a decade now, I've never actually had my own business cards. I've lost count the amount of occasions I've been out and about in the past year and fumbled around with bits of paper and a pen when exchanging details with people I've met at conferences, or on the tube etc. I made it my mission - along with this site - to get some made up.
Crafting the user experience with personas & scenarios
July 02, 2008 at 3:57 pm
The goal of any web application should always be aligned to the user achieving their objective(s). Users will always have a purpose in using an application, whether that's absorbing the latest news in an RSS aggregator or buying next weeks groceries; users habitually have desires and motivations behind their actions on the web. It therefore naturally makes sense to design web products to satisfy these requirements; personas and scenarios compliment one another and are great tools in the craft of user experience design in helping us develop great user experiences.
- Filed under:
- Design,
- User experience
- Comments are closed
A brand new approach
May 24, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I don't really do new years resolutions. I find that you never write them down and they tend to focus too much on 'not doing' something - all rather negative for me. However, on the eve of 2008 I decided to make one - just for this year - the product of which you are reading and interacting with right this moment. Welcome to my realigned web presence.
- Filed under:
- News
- Comments are closed
