Category Archives: articles

Re-cycling difficulties in London

Serco staff struggle to cope with the overflow bike parking near Waterloo Station by London’s South Bank. They were having to free up some docking stations so people could check their bikes in. The surplus bikes are then loaded on … Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Don’t let distance get in the way of your user research

There’s an advertising campaign at the moment for Blackberry, the smartphone company, using the tag line “Closeness has nothing to do with distance.” These days we can all carry our loved ones around in our pocket or handbag using the … Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Traffic lights and inclusive design

Why are there three separate lights in the standard traffic light setup? Why are they vertically arranged? In a nutshell: don’t rely on colour alone to convey meaning in your information design. Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

What is a hashtag?

[Encouraged by a friend after I wrote this explanation in Facebook, I'm posting it here and planning to start writing more than 140 characters again every so often] A hashtag is a type of label (or metadata) that you can … Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How would a butterfly inspire your next design?

That’s the question currently on the homepage of Ask Nature, a new web-based resource which catalogues the many ways we can learn from nature when we’re trying to solve problems. The project is run by the Biomimicry Institute. The site … Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Enterprising times – a case for search best bets

Reading the e-Consultancy interview with Lou Rosenfeld on the importance of site search analytics, I was reminded of when I was product manager of intranet (or enterprise) search at the BBC. It was back in 2002. People complained that search … Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Keeping up to date with East Dulwich on the internet: Part 4 – Delicious RSS feeds

This series of short articles explains some simple and free ways to use the internet to keep tabs on the subjects you’re interested in. I’m using East Dulwich as the example subject. Previously: Part 1 – Google Alerts, Part 2 … Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Keeping up to date with East Dulwich on the internet: Part 3 – Twitter tracking

In this series of short articles, I’m looking at different ways of subject-tracking on the internet. Previous articles covered Google Alerts and Technorati Watchlists. This article is about Twitter and its tracking feature, using East Dulwich as the example subject. … Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Keeping up to date with East Dulwich on the internet: Part 2 – Technorati Watchlists

How do you keep on top of everything everyone’s saying about East Dulwich, or any other subject, online? In this series of short articles I’m going to run through a few things you can set up quickly and for free … Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Keeping up to date with East Dulwich on the internet: Part 1 – Google Alerts

How do you keep on top of everything everyone’s saying about East Dulwich, or any other subject, online? In this series of short articles I’m going to run through a few things you can set up quickly and for free … Continue reading

Posted in articles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment