beatnic - just wondering

Good news if you do online banking with several different banks.

You only need one card-reader.

The card-readers are all the same bar the branding.

So if you bank with Barclays, NatWest, Nationwide, RBS and no doubt others too, you can get away with only carrying one card-reader around with you.

I’ve tried it with a couple of the major banks and building societies and I can confirm that all cards and card readers are compatible.

They’re using the APAC - UK payments association - standard. There’s some background on this slightly out of date page on the APACs website

It’s still a pain to have to carry one around though. Puts a terrible bulge in the pocket!

Make someone’s day!

Tell them they can use the Tab key on their keyboard to move through a web-page.

To those who already know, it seems obvious, taken for granted.

But if you’ve ever watched people filling out boxes on forms on banking websites or when setting up an account on a website using the mouse to move from one input box to the next, you can imagine their relief on learning about the Tab key.

The Tab key “focuses” on links and form elements, such as boxes you need to fill details in, moving from one to the next.

And Shift+Tab does the same thing in reverse.

Of course, this assumes the web-page has been well-designed. You should be able to Tab through the screen in a logical order. This order can be easily specified by the web designer, and is particularly important when it comes to accessibility, so there’s no excuse for not doing it.

We’ve been running some design research sessions which involve several scenarios, each of which uses a slightly different design version for a website.

Each scenario has its own starting page, each of which we put in a different tab in Firefox.

This means setting up all the tabs and start pages for each research session.

To save time, we set these up once.

We then select Bookmarks > Bookmark All Tabs… > {name the folder}. [Keyboard shortcut for this is Ctrl+Shift+D]

These are then all available for each session via Bookmarks > {folder name} > Open All in Tabs.

Handy.

If you’re using tabs in Internet Explorer, the same functionality is available via Favorites > Add Tab Group to Favorites > {name the tab group}

The Tab Groups are then available via the “Favorites Center” [Alt+C on the keyboard].

TED Talk: Tod Machover & Dan Ellsey: Releasing the music in your head

Via Joe Lazarus via Scobleizer on Twitter.

According to Bruce Lawson, a web accessibility expert working in the legal sector, Sharepoint fails to meet one of the priority 1 requirements (which must be met), and breaks some priority two requirements (which should be met).

See Bruce Lawson’s personal site : SharePoint and Web Accessibility.

A good reason not to move entirely to virtual money…

I thought the six coins could make up a shield by arranging the coins both horizontally, as with the landscape idea, as well as vertically, in a sort of jigsaw style. I liked the idea and symbolism of using the Royal Arms, where individually the coins could focus on specific elements and when placed together they reveal the complete Royal Arms.

I found the idea that members of the public could interact with the coins the most exciting aspect of this concept. It’s easy to imagine the coins pushed around a school classroom table or fumbled around with on a bar - being pieced together as a jigsaw and just having fun with them.

Mathew Dent, winning designer of the new Royal Mint coins, explaining his brilliant thinking.

SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model.

It’s a widely adopted and internationally recognised standard for tracking progress in online learning. It was first developed by ADL in the United States in 1999. The current release is SCORM 2004, though most large LMS vendors currently conform for to SCORM 1.2.

At the BBC, back in 2003, we developed our LMS, which was based on our philosophy of “learner-centred design”, to conform with SCORM.

For SCORM to work you need two components:

1. A SCORM-conformant learning management system (LMS)
2. SCORM-conformant content (based on sharable content objects, or SCOs) such as an online course or quiz

The term “conformant” is used instead of “compliance” for pragmatic reasons.

SCORM uses XML and a javascript wrapper (or API) to let the learning content communicate with the LMS.

Depending on the instructional design of your learning content, typically you might want to log certain information including:

• the completion of a section, page, video or simulation - this can then be used if the learner resumes at a later date to avoid having to re-start from the beginning
• a score that the learner has achieved, and the answers submitted in a quiz

A few sites and resources I’ve found useful on my e-learning travels:

• The SCORM homepage on ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning), includes all the specs and a downloadable conformance test suite
• SCORM definition on Wikipedia
• Rustici (pronounce the ending like the ending of “ecstasy”) Software - a really useful set of SCORM primers
• Rustici Test Track - a free web service to which you can upload and run your learning content to test it’s SCORM-conformance
• Popular sites bookmarked in delicious tagged “SCORM”
• YouTube video: The essence of SCORM in 30 seconds - you have to read this quite quickly

• Using Plone Signup Sheet to Manage Event Registration — Plone CMS: Open Source Content Management
  (tags: eventregistration)
• Idealware: A Few Good Event Registration Tools
  (tags: eventregistration online tools events)
• SignMeUp.com | Event Registration, Event Management, Event Planning, Online Tickets
  (tags: eventregistration events online tools)

• SourceWire | Press Releases - 1000 Delegates from over 200 of World’s Leading Corporates to ‘Attend’ Unique Global First
  Press release for IBF 24 - a big online conference about intranet innovation taking place on June 18th - which I’m involved in organising.
  (tags: IBF IBF24 pressrelease pr)

This year on Sunday 13th April, my Dad is running in the London Marathon.

He’s a London Marathon veteran, but this is his first since breaking a bone in his neck two years ago in a near fatal fall while walking in the Swiss Alps.

This year he’s raising money for the cancer charity Myeloma UK. Myeloma is a form of bone marrow cancer, which my Mum was diagnosed with four years ago.

You can donate securely online right now via his Just Giving web page.

• London is Free - Your online guide to free events in our expensive capital.
  Good idea this. Does what it says on the tin. [HT to my Dad]
  (tags: London free entertainment exhibitions museums events listings)

• Convocation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  “A Convocation (Latin ‘calling together’, translating the Greek ecclesia) is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose.”

  It is also a collective noun for eagles.

  (tags: definition convocation wikipedia callingtogether)

Generally I like the new look BBC homepage which officially went live last week after a couple of months in “beta”.

It’s got most of what I want: news, weather, listings - the iplayer link could be more visible.

Redesigns are rarely straightforward to get right. I’ve overseen a few in my time. You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t - as they say.

It looks like the feedback from people who’ve commented on the BBC’s internet blog has been mainly positive.

One recurring theme in the feedback, however, and the one thing I would like to see changed, is the use of colour change when different “tabs” are selected.

It goes against human nature and breaks the Gestalt principle of grouping objects by similarity.

Below are four thumbnail images from today’s BBC homepage to illustrate. Click on the thumbnail to see the full size image.

When I click on a coloured tab, key elements around the page change colour, using the tab colour as their base.

Sub-consciously I infer a relationship between everything which switches to the new colour-scheme, when in fact there is no relationship.

• The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors - New York Times
  “Closing a door on an option is experienced as a loss, and people are willing to pay a price to avoid the emotion of loss”
  (tags: psychology behaviour choice)

• Adobe Integrated Runtime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Adobe Integrated Runtime, also known as Adobe AIR, codenamed and originally called Apollo,[1] is a cross-operating system runtime environment for building rich Internet applications, using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML and Ajax, that can be deployed as a
  (tags: adobe air flash flex ria web internet wikipedia)
• Microsoft Silverlight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Microsoft Silverlight is a browser plugin that allows web applications to be developed with features like animation, vector graphics, and audio-video playback - features that characterize a rich internet application.
  (tags: ria web internet wikipedia microsoft silverlight)
• Google Gears - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Google Gears is beta software offered by Google to enable off-line access to services that normally only are available on-line. It installs a database engine, based on SQLite, on the client system to locally cache the data.
  (tags: ria google gears web internet wikipedia)

• Wikipatterns - Wiki Patterns
  Are you a maintainer, patron, bamraising, bully, overorganizer, troll or vandal? Useful collection of “patterns” of what works and what doesn’t if you want a wiki.
  (tags: wikipatterns atlassian wikis patterns)

The following from my Dad made me chuckle, especially the inscription:

As we were approaching Tate Modern from Southwark Street a couple of weeks ago we came across a curious statue in Sumner Street.

The larger than life-size grey figure wears clothes that flutter in the wind and is mounted on a plinth bearing no name but a very hard to read Latin inscription which reads: “Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur”.

Intrigued I did some researching on the internet.

The statue turns out to be animatronic. It reacts to and imitates the people around it and will create its own poses if left alone.

The inscription, as Latin scholars will already have worked out, means “Anything said in Latin sounds profound”.

Further information about the statue here

• CSS Reference
  Sitepoint’s CSS Reference is now up and running and open to the public and it looks like a must-have for web-design folk.
  (tags: webdesign design css sitepoint reference)
• Konigi | Knowledge Sharing & Competitive Research for User Experience Design
  Interesting collection of user experience design stuff from around the web.
  (tags: design web webdesign userexperience ux)
• Dragons’ Den Usability
  David Travis on how the dragons are asking the same types of questions as we do in usability field studies.
  (tags: usability design)
• See it Right accessible website - benefits for users
  Useful summary from the RNIB of how to ensure your website is as accessible - and therefore usable - as possible to as many people as possible.
  (tags: RNIB accessibility webdesign)

One of the things I find tricky with blogs is remembering to go back and check whether anyone’s followed up on any comments I’ve made.

There’s a system called coComment which is designed to help with this, but for some reason it feels like too much effort - or at least it did when I tried it - so I’ve given up with it.

For Wordpress blogs - this blog uses Wordpress - you can also subscribe to comments using an RSS reader. But again that can be a bit of a hassle to set up.

So I’ve just installed a plug-in for this blog which means that if you leave a comment you can ask to have all the following comments on that post emailed to you. Details on the plug-in are available on the Wordpress website.

I’ve seen this on one or two other blogging platforms. I think this should be available as a standard feature across all of them.

[Update: I've now tested this and it works a treat.]

Wearing my IBF hat, I’m involved in setting up and running a 24 hour online event in June this year.

It’s called IBF 24 and is being designed as an online conference focusing on intranet innovation.

Starting at 11am GMT on June 18th, the plan is to follow the sun, so there are three consecutive zones each with an eight hour timetable. This means wherever attendees are in the world they should be able to choose a zone that doesn’t require getting up in the middle of the night, unless they want to of course.

There will be live intranet demos from companies who’ve cracked people-finding and established social computing as part of their working environment. Keynote speakers will cover subjects including innovation, search, design and the future of work.

For IBF member organisations, there are 10 places available as part of the annual membership. Non-members need to pay to register.

We’re setting up a site to support the event, more on that soon.

Also we’re looking for ideas to share about how people are using the day to promote their intranet, or some aspect of it, within their company.

If you work on your company intranet this day might provide a good focus for raising awareness within your company of the intranet itself. You could host an intranet day within your company, with awards handed out for the most usable service or site.

I’ve got that song by Martha and the Vandellas in my head now. “Nowhere to run to baby, nowehere to hide…”

When I left the institution four months ago it was with the intention of “setting up on my own” as I put it. And thankfully things have got off to a very positive start, with some very interesting work and some great people.

As a friend recently put it, “You no longer belong to the organisation, you belong to the network!”

One of the things I’ve noticed pretty quickly is that when you work for yourself you simply cannot hide.

I’m not suggesting that I hid a lot when I was an employee, but there are ways of avoiding spending too long in the spotlight. And large organisations by their very nature allow layers of hierarchy and bureacracy to protect - and also hinder - their employees.

Out here you are your work. That’s it. What they see is what they get.

Oh the irony… I’ve been so busy doing things since I wrote my last post a fortnight ago I haven’t had a moment to write anything here.

I must also send belated birthday wishes to this blog which was 3 years old 2 days ago.

My grandmother once gave my father a plate. It was called a round tuit.

I was reminded of it today as I found myself running out of ways to procrastinate.

Using twitter to announce my predicament I quickly received what I needed from @shbib. A link to an article titled “Structured Procrastination” written and published by John Perry in 1995.

Excitedly I clicked on the link and was faced with a several hundred word article. The only thing for it was to go and make a cup of tea.

On my way back in to my home office I noticed several things I’d been meaning to do. Shelves to tidy. Things to move from my desk to a shelf. A pile of papers to straighten. Ways to organise things on shelves.

Eventually, having fired up Sigur Ros on itunes, I did read the article and I can thoroughly recommend everyone adds reading it to their to-do list. To quote:

One needs to be able to recognize and commit oneself to tasks with inflated importance and unreal deadlines, while making oneself feel that they are important and urgent. This is not a problem, because virtually all procrastinators have excellent self-deceptive skills also.

Today was my getting stuff done day. I’ve got a list. Invoices to write, research to plan, people to contact, filing, researching various financial products for the self-employed, reading the next bit of Getting Things Done. I’d set the day aside for these. The reality is most of them probably won’t take very long. But I keep putting them off.

One day I’m sure I’ll get a round tuit too.

A take on the blogging CEO PR stunt…

Waitrose head honcho Mark Price (no relation) wants to drop a couple of trouser sizes in three months and is using a blog called Not so chubby on the Waitrose website to record his experience - including his food diary and how many column inches he’s picking up for himself and the gastromarket. Comments from “Experts” and “Customers” is a little us and them. Food for thought.