cklavery

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... and it's going to https://www.xing.com/events/ia-cocktail-hour-berlin-633038

 

 

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... according to the people at http://www.stickwithmebaby.com (via @dtelaar)

 

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"Social AutoShare" - will make a note of that for the next round of bullshit bingo...

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Wanting to start with a blank canvas after recently updating to iOS4 I wasn't sure whether the GTD App "Things" was already on my phone or not. With no clear indication after having found it via the App Store Search I decided to dish out for it anyway and went through the usual process only to be greeted by this screen:

Good news - but why does this information appear after I have actively chosen to buy the app?  A clearer wording or information upfront would do a lot to improve usability and conversion here, as I was hesitant at first to dish out for "Things" and only decided to do so because I really wanted it. In any other case I probably would have never known..

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Sparked by Paul Boag's recent tweet I am just waiting for a new time consuming debate on time managent techniques.

Paul suggested checking out the Pomodoro technique which has an uber-agile approach (25 minute sprints for a task) and a pretty website which also offers a free download of the book (nice). Compared to David Allen's classic book "Getting Things Done" and the accompanying website which has a very corporate feel to it I do find the Pomodoro approach likeable.

Not too sure myself if Promodoro would work for me, though. At first glance this method seems very distracting once in the flow of things such as wireframing, photoshopping or creating copy.
If in a procrastinatious mood however this might work as a kick up the backside.

Oh and as for "Getting Things Done" - still haven't finished that yet - just haven't had time.

Meanwhile:

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Nice detailed summary (Achtung Baby: only in German) of the new YouTube mobile site over at uxzentrisch

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Business cards made of meat - say no more.

http://www.meatcards.com/

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... according to this opinion

<p>Robert Hoekman, Jr. | The Myth of Usability Testing from PechaKucha PHX on Vimeo.</p>

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A bunch of over 1000 nice people like myself  who draw grey boxes for a living have gathered to celebrate the fine art of wireframing. Anyone wearing the hat of an Information Architect, User Experience Designer, Call-It-What-You-Like-Interacton-Service Design-Architect worth their salt should check out the flickr group over at http://www.flickr.com/groups/ilovewireframes

 

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A little bit of ipsum after just having imported my old wordpress blog content.

 

 

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Whilst preparing for my upcoming trip to God's Own County I was curious to see if Hull Paragon station caters for the needs of the left luggage community. On checking this out via the National Rail website I came across this rather confusing iconography:

I'll take that as a "No" then, shall I? (reminds me of this inspiring piece of apparel: YEAH BUT NO Apron)

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1024 x 768 * (* please excuse this lame pun but visting relatives abroad, a new job and looking for a new flat is currently keeping me from updating on a regular basis)

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Webmontag Köln aus der zu spät zugeschalteten Perspektive (Flickr) Originally uploaded by halfman.halfpixel.

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The winners of the above mentioned competition were announced on Jakob Nielsen's website today. Being used to some terrible user interfaces from work I found most of the winners really well designed, with a contemporary feel & clever concept to them. What usability sifu Nielsen did not include are the direct URLs for the winners (as he for some reason tends not to do quite often- except for links to his reports which you have to pay for that is...) Ah well, it's a dirty job but someone has to do it... So here goes, as far as I am concerned in no particular order other than alphabetical: Campaign Monitor CMS Box FotoFlexer Océ PRISMAprepare SQL Diagnostic Manager SugarSync (My personal favourite) SuperSaas Wufoo Xero Actually that's a top 9, I didn't list the Magellan Network's Seating Management up there as I found their website rather disappointing and not very informative.

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Matt Balara has asked some of the "top faces" in webdesign to come up with clever answers to the question "What's design mean to you?" Below please find what Andy Budd has to say - I find it remarkable and somewhat re-assuring that he is stressing design to be first and foremost about problem solving which is exactly what was rammed down my throat during my degree and emphasized in Bob Gill's lecture in Leeds quite some time ago.

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"Is it time to take mashups and use them to solve real issues?" asks Christian Heilmann on his blog today and imho hits the nail on the head more than once:

Far too many people just create mashups for the sake of putting some information together or prove a technical concept but I just couldn’t see the use of what was produced

I was also bored with the accessibility movement on the web. Instead of concentrating on solutions for people we ran in circles demanding technical solutions or implementation of standards that don’t make much sense in the real world. It was much more important to be compliant with something than to really deliver for the people who needed us to remove barriers for them.

As someone with an interest in accessibility and a marginal understanding of/yet interest in uber-geekiness I also feel both movements (if you want to call them that) tend to get carried away either with a very rigid view on standards/legislation on one hand or technical wizzardry just for the sake of it on the other. See Christian's presentation/proposal on how to make use of mashups for accessibility etc. held at the recent BarCamp in London on slideshare below: [slideshare id=439746&doc=accessihackinghowigotmymashupgrooveback-1212276867383408-8&w=425]

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Downtime/Being over capacity seems to be an ongoing real issue for Twitter which can be quite annoying. At least they have the decency of providing pretty illustrations with their error messages...

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Following the positive news today that the UK and other nations intend to ban cluster bombs I checked out the website of the Cluster Muntions Coalition to get some more background information on this topic. What caught my attention right away was the neat design/layout of the website and it soon became clear it is made by kite.

As I tried to point out in my recent dissertation "Making Web Accessibility Sexy", web accessibility can and should be seen as part of a bigger picture and therein lies a big chance in making it a more "sexy" topic. Kite's mission statement just seems to second my thoughts:

Kite is an internet development consultancy. It was born out of our desire to do good work for good people in an environment that encourages free thinking and novel solutions.

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