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.

Traditionally, design has had a raw deal in the product lifecycle. Design teams have typically been handed a product to make look good and usable, often near the end of development. This is clearly very primitive, as well as giving the designers next to no bandwidth in which to craft a visual and interaction framework. However, this does seem to be becoming a thing of the past.

I believe the change in the perception of design has been brought about by several factors. Firstly, digital media is maturing at a pretty rapid rate. There are far more choices for digital implementation than there were, say, 5-8 years ago; not only in terms of technology but also the devices that deliver the technology. The saturation point of digital products is now huge. Anybody who's in business is doing their business over the web; for many it's now their primary sales channel. This has resulted in loyalty and retention becoming imperative within organisations web strategies. Brand perception and revenues are being determined largely by the design decisions being made in those organisations. Suddenly, design has got itself a very lofty position at the executive table.

Sketching is clearly an important part of the design process; it's probably the most natural part of it, lending itself well to early collaboration and participation by many. I’ve observed the following philosophies in regards to the sketching process within projects:

• Use quick sketches at the earliest stages of a project
• Create many sketches to explore many ideas
• Discuss and iterate sketches collaboratively, in the project group
• Build consensus and buy-in through the iterative sketching process
• Paper prototype; it’s quick, easy and inexpensive at the conceptual level
• Sketches facilitate critiques; they are inexpensive and easily reproduced
• Sketches explore rather than confirm

Collaborative ideation helps facilitate the joining and bonding of separate project groups; traditionally a tricky interface. Communicating lots of ideas quickly, in an easily adaptable form is a great way of getting different ideas on the table; this ultimately has to be a good thing for any project.

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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.

But design is a very subtle and touchy feely discipline that's hard to quantify on face value alone. We've all received great feedback in the past about how pleasant our designs are, but this doesn't always convince stakeholders the true value of design and that it largely dictates the success of a product. So to help justify the value of our designs we need to take the qualitative discipline of design and turn it into a quantitative one. Put simply, we need to record hard numbers, and ensure we record them at the beginning of a project.

There are several ways of doing this. Producing surveys on the emotional aspect of a design is a good start. Typically this would involve running a design experience past current/potential users, i.e. 'On a scale of 1-5, how easy was it to register your details on the online form (1=hard and 5=easy)'? There are also numbers that can be extracted by timing certain activities, i.e. 'It took 6 minutes for the user to register their details on the form'. You can also sniff around the server activity too, i.e. '50% of users drop out at the second stage of registration' etc.

Measuring this type of activity is fairly straightforward on an existing product, but what happens if the product doesn't exist yet? Well, this is where recording metrics has a two-fold purpose. Not only is recording metrics a great way of base lining an existing product, it also helps in setting quantitative goals for products - both new and existing. For example, if you are designing a registration form for a 'new' product why not look at your competitors? How long does it take to register on their site? Is it acceptable, where can you improve? Can you make it your competitive advantage? You can also run a survey on the relative satisfaction of a competitor's process too. What is their shop conversion rate, etc?

Once you have captured rich quantitative data, you can start to set the goals of the product and understand the targets the product needs to achieve to determine success. These are the very goals in which to measure your designs against. Then, upon the launch of the product, or under test conditions, you can measure its results against the original base lined figures. If you have done a good job with your design, the numbers will surely reflect it. This will ultimately confirm the true value of design to your stakeholders, and hopefully get you some well deserved kudos in the process too.

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Research,

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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.

Explain who you are and what you're doing

It sounds simple enough, but it's sometimes all too easy to be so absorbed in your work that you fail to explain exactly who you are and what you are trying to achieve with your research. People need to understand why you want information from them; adding a little context to a request can also help with rapport, which in turn, can encourage a little curiosity on their part too.

Make them feel valuable

Don't be afraid to use a little psychology on people when asking for help. Humans are naturally cautious when strangers ask for their help, so it's sometimes useful to emphasise how crucial they are to your research and that by taking part in your study they will have a direct influence on the direction of your new product. Massage their ego a little bit; I've found people to be far more receptive if you indulge in a little social foreplay, so to speak.

Incentivise with a fat juicy carrot

Time is precious to all of us, right? People should be suitably compensated for their expertise, thoughts and time. However, some people are more useful than others; I've found it useful to have a reward structure in place before you even contact anyone, such as: 15 minutes gets free T-Shirt, 30 minutes gets a goodie box, 60 minutes gets a £100 Amazon voucher etc. Having a structured incentive scheme in place also has the added benefit of making it fair to everybody.

State how much time you will require

This is a crucial one. People are busy. You will increase your chances of getting their time by setting the expectations, up front, of exactly how much of their time you will take up. If you approach a person and simply ask them for a chat in a weeks time they will be quite resistant in making time for it. However, if you ask them for a chat that will take no longer than 30 minutes, on a given day, they are far more likely to cross check their calendar and work it around their busy day.

Explain upfront the format of the interview

A lot of people are naturally apprehensive and sometimes a little fearful of the unknown. Most people will not have participated in a research interview before, so naturally people can be nervous. However, these fears can be simply put to bed by simply outlining the structure of the interview before it happens.

Be polite and punctual

Pretty obvious really, but hugely important. Remember, the very early interactions you have with a prospective customer are a direct extension of the product you are trying to create. Being polite and punctual simply means being professional and showing the interviewee you mean business.

Conclusion

It can sometimes be a very frustrating process trying to get people to spend time talking with you about a new product; especially if the product doesn't exist yet. However, by employing these types of tips, and by displaying a little bit of perseverance, you shouldn't have any problem in acquiring that all important user centered insight.

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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.

Social proofing

Okay, lets first look at a technique called social proofing. When people are unsure about something they very often look for reassurance from others and often make decisions based upon what others are doing; it's likened to a pack mentality culture. But how can we use this to our advantage when selling online? Well, one of the biggest exponents of this technique is Amazon. They often display the most popular items, Customers who bought this also bought that, in selling their products, as well as offering customer testimonials.

User generated reviews

Another technique that is very effective is displaying User generated reviews. In the growth of social networking this is an essential weapon in eCommerce and selling online. Their benefit is two fold. Firstly they add content to your site, which is always a good thing - we all know how Google loves content, right? However, and perhaps more telling, is the fact that the content is independent. Web users are far more inclined to read independent reviews than a standard marketing statement from an organisation. There are even applications out there that will sit within the existing architecture of a site to achieve this, such as Reevoo.

There is, of course, a flip side to user generated reviews. Inevitably there is a certain propensity to have negative reviews on your site. However, it is important to not be scared by these. All comments should be open an unmoderated; the essence is freedom of speech and if it's censored users will find out, to the detriment of the credibility of a site. All feedback, negative or positive is a gift, or so the saying goes. So turn a negative review to your advantage and act upon it.

Timely offers

Another old trick in social psychology that works really well online is adding time to the equation. Users naturally want what they think they won't be able to get after a certain period of time. Loss, it would appear, is a more powerful emotion than gain. People hate the thought of missing out on something they are interested in. Again, this is a very simple technique to implement. For example, on any product line you could add Only 4 items in stock, or include count down timers, such as Offer ends in: 1 day, 4 hours, 3 mins and 8 seconds. You often see this technique in the big online retailers and also training courses and conferences; it is hugely effective.

Cross-sell & up-sell

Cross-sell and up-sell is absolutely crucial in the online purchasing process. One of the most difficult things to do is getting people to that moment of purchase. Research shows that once that barrier has been broken users are very much willing to ride a wave, as it were, and purchase more goods, while they are about it. This technique has been used in physical stores for years. I wonder how many times have people bought boot polish at the counter when purchasing a pair of nice shiny shoes?

Authority

Authority and legitimacy are hugely important when asking people to part with their hard earned cash. Looking professional and an expert makes you far more attractive and a safe bet to the alternative. For example, you probably wouldn't take advice from your window cleaner on your golf swing, but you probably would from Tiger Woods. In eCommerce, where trust is hugely important it is imperative to look and act as professional as possible. This means: demonstrating you're an expert; using 3rd party links to back up your credibility, using the Veritas padlocks for security.

In conclusion, being effective at persuasion online is about taking down the barriers, facilitating trust and giving users the information they need to make an informed choice in the online purchasing process.

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Data,

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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.

I was scratching my head for quite sometime about this problem. I hadn't changed the code on my page so something was definitely amiss. But surely Flickr wouldn't change the baseline code without at least informing people, right? Well, apparently, yes they would!

Upon running the script it appeared Flickr had suddenly embedded a nasty 1x1 spacer gif to the code (check it out - http://geo.yahoo.com/p?s=79260010). Because I use custom CSS styling for the width, height and styling of my thumbnails this spacer gif was being resized to the same dimensions as my thumbnail images - hence the fifth blank white image.

This definitely meant that the Flickr badge script had been updated by the Flickr developers; some new feature they are working on to be added at a later date more than likely. However, it is very surprising they have added it without any warning or thought to the implications it may have on their user's websites. What probably should have happened was that Flickr released an update to the badge that people could migrate to. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

So, to the fix

However, I have managed to implement a patch of sorts. The fix is pretty simple and works with the latest browsers. I simply added the following code to my stylesheet to hide the offending 'geo' spacer image:

#flickr img[src*="http://geo.yahoo.com"] { display:none }

I'm not sure about how far back the legacy browsers support this method - IE 6 in particular - but the beauty is that I just needed to add one line of code that doesn't really infringe on my CSS. It is more than likely Flickr will make another change to fix this oversight in the near future - when this happens all I have to do is remove this line from my CSS file.

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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.

A couple on vacation are the central figures in this second installment and use a mobile browsing device to see what events are on in their area. The use of the mobile device featured clearly takes advantage of GPS to determine their physical positioning and it also enables them to flag relevant events they may be interested in attending. The video presentation also plays on the collaboration in the first video by giving the couple the ability to share events with their social network - all on the move. Oddly enough, this concept presentation actually serves as a closer representation of what we have today than the first part when you look at the capability of the iPhone and the Google Android OS (the latter launching later this year).

However, although this is engaging stuff, it raises several interesting challenges for me. Firstly, the mobile device featured simulates the desktop experience almost identically in its interface approach - it is simply a smaller representation. This is fine in theory, however due to the compact nature of the device it would seem to require a certain degree of dexterity. Therin lies the problem. Some users still find it difficult to manipulate small 'tactile' buttons on their mobile devices today, let alone small icons to be invoked and manipulated on a touchsreen interface. In this particular scenario the mobile device is also quite small and some of the data items displayed look pretty difficult to manipulate. Clearly a cause for concern.

Secondly, there are huge accessibility issues that clearly haven't been addressed in this scenario - which is a big oversight in my opinion. How would the visually impaired or disabled user use such a device that relies heavily on visual and physical manipulation? This would be a big barrier to entry for some if such a device was marketed; there doesn't seem to be any alternative but to have nimble fingers and a good pair of lamps!

Finally, as touchscreen interfaces are becoming the norm in today’s mobile market it will be interesting to see how standards in invoking tasks on screen will mature. Will we be in a position where, depending on the device, a scroll or zoom feature are invoked by different actions, depending on the device and/or manufacturer? This clearly would be a problem for users and without doubt inhibit the advancement of the touchscreen interface as we currently know it.

Clearly mobile applications and touch screen interfaces will become more complex over time and interaction designers are going to face some big decisions on how their applications are to be invoked and manipulated - many standards are going to have to be agreed upon to render the advancing technology usable. It is an important time to be involved in interaction design and user experience. This interface concept series alone has highlighted the big challenges designers face in ensuring the huge advances in technology are made usable.

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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.

The Aurora concept video, designed by Jesse James Garrett (he of AJAX fame), demonstrates new ways people could be collaborating over the web, and although the demonstration video is pretty cheesy (mainly due to the shocking acting), the concepts and capability of the browser being proposed here is pretty breathtaking in comparison to what we have in place today.

For example, people, places and items are represented by objects in a three dimensional spatial view and are invoked by a users intuitive gestures. The scenario used illustrates the sharing of data as intrinsic to people's everyday lives, within the context of real time collaboration with other users.

Obviously Aurora isn't being physically built or put into production; Adaptive Path have just given themselves the remit of creating a great browsing experience by stitching together valuable data and entwining it with people's networks. It's being billed as an open conversation on how to evolve the web browser and as part of an ongoing initiative by Adaptive Path and Mozilla to encourage designers and developers to contribute their own visions of the future of the browser. I think everyone would agree the concept and function of the browser could certainly do with some help and this is a step in the right direction.

I'm a big fan of Adaptive Path and the work they do. I think it's great that people are addressing these interface challenges that we currently have and putting them into a future context. Adaptive Path's interface concept video is actually the first part in a four part series of videos demonstrating the potential a browser like Aurora could offer. I'm personally looking forward to understanding a bit more about the thought processes and methodologies that went into creating the Aurora interface concept in the fothcoming installments of this intriguing project. So watch this space.

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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?

The interesting thing about Cuil is that it was founded by several lead engineers from Google, including Anna Patterson, chief architect of the company's TeraGoogle search index. This must surely help, right? Cuil also claims its search algorithm scans 120 billion web pages - three times the number that Google sifts through.

Cuil's philosophy is also slightly different too. They claim that they search and rank pages based upon their content and relevance and not just popularity, which means just because a piece of data isn't that popular it doesn't mean it is of any less value to user.

Another interesting point to note is Cuil's stance on privacy and browsing habits. They firmly state that they are focused upon analysing the web and its data and not the people searching that data. They apparently collect no data about a person and their habits when searching for information.

This last point for me is most interesting of all. It's certainly an admirable and refreshing approach in times of advanced analytics and tailored advertising models. However, although Cuil has raised $33million it is difficult to imagine Cuil being anything more than a cult search engine for a niche market unless they can successfully develop an advanced and sustainable advertising platform. And if they did develop a successful ad platform, surely it would be impossible to achieve without gathering vast sums of data about its users, which goes against a key philosophy of keeping searching habits private.

Of course, the site only launched yesterday, so it's far too early to tell how effective the search engine is in terms of performance. I'd imagine it will take several months before the application is run in and working anywhere near its potential. However, it will certainly be interesting watching it develop and evolve over the next year.

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Google,

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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.

Business cards are pretty simple to create really and ever so handy to have on your person. I just had a few basic pre-requisites with mine: I wanted to make sure the cards I produced clearly stated what I did; contained my contact details; reflected a little bit of my personality and also integrated nicely with the branding I had created for this site. All pretty straightforward really.

It was definitely an advantage already having the design of the site in place in terms of the assets, colours and typography. The design process consisted of threading all of these the creative elements together in Adobe Illustrator; it probably took me less than 3 hours from paper to the finished vector drawings - front and back! As I said, the design was the easy bit.

We're generally spoiled when producing work digitally for the web. Sure, we have lots of cross-browser compatibility issues to deal with but ultimately we have a pretty good idea of how our work will look on screen, because it's been specifically designed for screen. However, when it comes to designing for print there is always a leap of faith associated with it in terms of the reproduction of colour from screen media to printed media - unless you can have a few tests printed off, which is expensive. So the biggest challenge I faced was choosing a reliable company to actually print my newly designed business cards with.

I decided the best way of choosing was through natural advocacy. If people have good experiences with companies they tend to talk about them. So I did a search on business cards in Flickr to see where other people were getting theirs printed from; sure enough it didn't take long to find some urls and recommendations.

The company I eventually chose was Print100. The quality looked good (on screen admittedly) and people were raving about them; they seemed fast and reasonably priced. Upon closer inspection they also supported: Spot UV varnishing; hot stamping; rounded corners, diecutting etc.

They certainly didn't disappoint. They have a very quick turn around time and their prices are indeed very reasonable - they also have free delivery on all their products right now! The whole process from the upload of my original vector art work to the business cards being delivered to my front door was less than 9 days - this is hugely impressive. If you haven't got one get in touch and I'll get you one.

For those interested: paper weight is 230 gsm with matt lamination and spot UV filtering applied (for the shiny bits).

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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.

So what exactly are personas?

Personas are essentially a documented set of people that help turn the generic labeling of users into identifiable human beings that share similar behaviors and goals. The differences between one persona to another would be based around what people do by their actions and why they do them, in terms of their goals and motivations.

In creating a persona a designer would typically find a set of common behaviors and motivations through ethnographical research; typically carried out through interviewing, contextual enquiry etc. These shared motivations and behaviors derived from these types of activities would be the basis of one single persona. This fledgling persona would then be given a name, a picture and have a little demographic data attached o make the persona seem like a real person. It is always important that personas seem like credible, real people.

To give an example, imagine a web application that provided a flight booking service. A design team could identify 3 typical behaviors in air travel from their research findings: the business flyer; a flyer taking air travel occasionally for pleasure and a flyer who travels back home at the same time annually. These behaviors, although similar, have very different goals and motivations associated with them: Robert, the frequent flying businessman; Lindsay, the holidaymaker and Michelle, the snowbird, who travels annually to see her folks, for example. Thus, these different motivations would be the foundation for three separate personas.

To augment each persona I personally find adding quotes to the persona documents are a nice touch, such as (in the aforementioned example) "I fly at least once a week". As well as quotations it is also good practice to title each persona, such as "The frequent Flyer". Adding quotes and titles to the documentation also aids in distinguishing and identifying a selection of personas quickly. Fundamentally, the documents that knit the persona together should clearly detail the behaviors, motivations and goals that differentiate one persona from another. In the above example Robert really cares about making sure he gets to his business appointment on time, while Lindsay could be more relaxed about what happens after she's made her flight.

So how many personas should you create?

In the majority of cases very few personas are actually required: anywhere between one to seven would be adequate, depending on the project. After about seven it becomes difficult to remember and distinguish between them all. Further more, if you you’ve too many personas it becomes very difficult to design with them all in mind. A good rule of thumb is that if a project is deemed to require more than seven personas the application probably isn't focused enough on the core behaviors it needs to support.

However, that said, personas on their own are pretty useless; they only really come alive when they are used in conjunction with scenarios.

So what are scenarios?

Scenarios are stories about what it would be like to use an application once it has been built - they are prototypes built with words, if you like. By using a scenario a designer can place their personas within a context and bring them to life by running through a scenario with each personas created. This is where they become invaluable and can help uncover exactly what will need to be included in the final application. The following is a ficticious example scenario for an online grocery store:

David goes to his bookmarks and points his browser to his 'OnlineGroceries' account. He pulls up his order from last week and wants to use it again but wants to pull three items off the list. The total cost is adjusted. He now has all his items for this weeks order and wants it delivered this Saturday in the afternoon. He picks an appropriate delivery slot and hits the 'Deliver' button. He chooses the saved payment card from a list and then confirms the payment. A confirmation page outlines the order and expected delivery time. He then closes the browser window.

Now, if you imagine running two different personas through this scenario, each with different behaviors and motivations, you can then start to understand and pinpoint the types of activities the application will need to support. This method is also terrific at communicating design solutions to key stakeholders and business owners. Personas and scenarios used together with things like storyboards are very useful in illustrating the story of a product and empowering in justifying why designs decisions were made - which can be crucial in getting your design ideas across successfully.

Furthermore, personas and scenarios are not only useful for new applications. They can be used to benchmark the effectiveness of existing applications, pages or indeed individual sections. Any insight gained from the users of your products can only be a positive thing in providing better experiences. I thoroughly recommend their use.

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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.

As a designer I've naturally had a number of homes on the web over the past few years, but recently I had unintentionally (but ashamedly) neglected it. One of the more poignant factors was that I had subconsciously become a little bit disillusioned with the content I was producing. I found myself writing about stuff that really wasn't that interesting - I was almost putting stuff up there just for the sake of it. The site had definitely lost its purpose.

However, the past 18 months have seen big changes in both my professional and personal life so it seemed a good time to start clean and start writing again. Stuff I was passionate about. Stuff that I was excited about. Relevant content, once more.

I therefore had two options. I could tweak what I already had or rip it all up and start again - I opted for the latter. I wanted this site to be a new approach, a new philosophy, a brand new start.

So what's new?

To initiate this change I firstly decided to change the primary domain from milesdowsett.co.uk to milesdowsett.com. Not a massive change I hear you say, but an important symbolic change in starting afresh.

Secondly, the content management system had to go. I have always been an advocate of MovableType, but I'd got a little tired of having to do new builds every time I published a bit of content and the Spam filter was becoming a pain in the back side. I decided to make the switch to the much revered Expression Engine platform. I contemplated using Nucleus, Text Pattern - amongst others - but I'd heard such great things about Expression Engine that I was genuinely excited about learning it from scratch. It's early days, but I've only got good things to say about it, thus far.

I also create a lot of social content these days and I wanted my new site to acknowledge this. The site now pulls in feeds from Twitter, del.icio.us and also Flickr. I like the live quality it lends to the site. I also plan to expand on these over the coming months by manipulating a whole host of other APIs - so watch this space!

The design has obviously changed completely. This was naturally an important step in the journey. I wanted the new design to be totally typographic in style and challenged myself in terms of allowing myself the use of just one single typeface throughout the entire design of the site. The idea behind this discipline was essentially to make the content the design. I'm not sure if I have achieved this yet but it is something that I'll be striving for as I improve the design over the coming weeks and months.

I've also moved to a brand new hosting company. The site is now hosted by MediaLayer who I can't recommend highly enough! What attracted me to them was their committment to zero overselling on their shared plans which has plagued the web hosting industry for years. MediaLayer also use LiteSpeed web servers which are frighteningly fast compared to the more primitive shared hosting servers you tend to see out there. If you're running any type of CMS or web application that requires speedy response times you could do a lot worse than MediaLayer. Their support - in many respects as important as the hardware - is also first class with a very diligent customer service policy.

Finally the content on the blog will see a dramatic shift in focus. It will mainly revolve around the key topics and issues facing the web today. That's not to say it won't have snippets of personal and off the wall stuff on there as well, but I want the primary focus to be on new and exciting things happening within the industry. What's more, my professional life has seen a dramatic shift in terms of designing the experience of web applications a lot more and I have a deep interest in interaction architecture and the principles and methodologies that sit behind it. I simply want the content to reflect this a lot more.

So what's next?

It is fair to say this is work in progress. I guess it always will be given the nature of the medium. I certainly have some new ideas up my sleeve that I want to roll out in the coming months that I simply haven't had time to implement yet. Am I 100% happy with it? Probably not, but as a designer are you ever happy? There are also naturally a couple of bugs that I need to iron out and I'm sure a few more will come to light too over the coming weeks and months.

In the meantime I plan to post some (hopefully) relevant and (hopefully) insightful content over the coming weeks that will (hopefully) be of use to a few of you out there. If you have any questions, thoughts, or indeed experience any bugs, please don't hesitate to let me know. Otherwise, enjoy!

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