Thinking Orange

BBC's new site

Claire — 7th April 2008 7:38PM

by Claire

www.bbc.co.uk as just launched there new site design . Who say big companies cant dance on the web ? umMM ?

Big ticks for -

"customise your homepage"
"Set your location"
"pda/mobile"
"+/- options"
font/size consistence
being able to "edit your weather" ......

For a bit of background ....

http://www.tomski.com/archive/new_archive/000063.html "The BBC’s Fifteen Web Principles" is a great blog entry about the whole BBC project . Its full of gems you can bring out in that heated web arguement. "Let people paste your content on the walls of their virtual homes" and I particularly like "Treat the entire web as a creative canvas:"

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/bbcs-new-site/

Some food for thought

Claire — 7th April 2008 7:06PM

by Claire

Sorry I have been busy with one of those wonderful vender tender processes ...

But I noted these presentations from Web Directions South last year, when I was wandering around the web.

http://www.slideshare.net/gleddy/is-seo-evil-web-directions-2007/ - Great intro into SEO, its full of the terms that you need to explain to your boss!
http://www.slideshare.net/rashmi/perils-of-popularity-webdirections-keynote/ - Abit of summary of whats happening out in the social web and I really this quote .... "make systems personally useful" , this is so true :)

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/some-food-for-thought/

Web Stock 08

Claire — 26th February 2008 6:45PM

by Claire

I went to WebStock 08 in Wellington afew weeks ago . It was a hugh gathering of New Zealand webby brains and some brains from further aboard.

What was good ?

Michael Lopp - what a star ! I went to both of Michael sessions, he is a project manager from Apple. I was really surprised how Micheal could related to the NZ audience which was fulled with more small businesses or smaller budget punters (aka not the same size has Apples budget ! ) . I really enjoyed his simple tips on handling bossess wants, handling new ideas impacting on the project scope and what makes a good small team.

Peter Morville author of Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become , gave a wondering session remindering all that websites SHOULD allow users to find the information they are seeking, have users more than one o two ways to find what they are seeking. Also,we were jogging on the user diagram called "Facets of the User Experience", which is the great to help explain to middle mngt or your boss to get extra budget why made your site usabllity and findability .....

Nat Torkington gave a really interesting talk about the future looking at trends ..... Has we all thought

being mobile is going to be key on the future . People are just to busy ....
sharing information , thinking about sharing autherication
or services
being found is key ....

and Dan Cederholm just mading sense with his stand that all design should be simple and for the user ....

In summary =

Open ID (sharing the user autherication, only having one login )
Design is still not good on the web. We should look at the actual content and users - just not shoehorning content into into handy CMS template ....
Thinking about sharing data/services on your site ... what about using mircoformats ?
Websites are not the product (please somebody tell marketing dept ?) .... its only a means to service the user , other way to get information. Think wider - what is the information you are providing and how ? (by text or email or ? )
keep a watching briefing on sites like flickr, twitter and what goolge is doing with its personalisation search and all that data they are collecting ?

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/web-stock-08/

helpful web design tools

Claire — 6th February 2008 9:08AM

by Claire

Want some design ideas - check out www.netcocktail.com
Like the colors on a particular website ? You wouldnt mine using them in your own design ? - check out http://redalt.com/Tools/I+Like+Your+Colors
Choosen the colors you like and want to try them out on screen ? - check out - http://www.colorcombos.com/
Having problems matching names to colours ? or wondering what a partcular color looks like on screen . Check out this tool. http://chir.ag/phernalia/name-that-color/
Interesting tool ..... usage heat map of your site http://www.feng-gui.com/Default.aspx
Wondering if your is working nagivation or your planning to create a new I-A ? - check out a NZ build online cardsort tool - http://www.optimalsort.com/pages/default.html

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/help-web-design-tools/

first impressions

claire — 2nd February 2008 6:53AM

by claire

I started a new job last week and I got reminded about "first impressions"
and how important they are. I think humans have a 10 sec timeframe before they
tight casting you into a box.

But for a website homepage, its around 3 secs for it’s first impression. Really in that 3 secs you should have got across to your user - what your site is about - why they should stay ....and all this is without body language or verbal handrails (with your user potentially having another language as there first language or they could have a disabilities that impairs thier web experience anyways) So you don't limited yourself, my advice :

SPELT IT OUT - What is the purpose of site ? Put the keyword
in the URL, in the graphic and in the text intro … be obvious.

KISSED - Keep it simple stupid especially with design - don’t be too
clever with your design

So if you're creating a homepage think about how you handle your
first impressions ...

A bit more reading .....

A blog by Amit Gupta short and sweet ....
by Miraz I couldnt an agree more ... "Website visitors make very quick judgements ..."

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/first-impressions/

Go to Hell

Claire — 27th January 2008 7:36AM

by Claire

Another video adventure where me and Dave tested hell's pizza website ordering . We were very lucky and did the test in Optimal Usablity's user testing lab. The "test" was to order the hottest pizza on the site, then buy it and plan to pick it up from a local branch.

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/go-to-hell/

Schmap Wellington Fourth Edition: Photo Inclusion

Claire — 27th January 2008 7:24AM

by Claire

I am pretty happy that one of my photos got used on Schmap -

Look at the Somes Island entry

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/schmap-wellington-fourth-edition-photo-inclusion/

Sharing my car

Claire — 26th January 2008 5:19PM

by Claire

An interview I did the founder of carshare (sharing transport around NZ) last year . A really interesting site with eco passion and drive, also the spin of having a ride with strangers ..society barriers.... all good stuff

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/sharing-my-car/

Thinking on video

Claire — 26th January 2008 5:17PM

by Claire

My friend Steve had this great idea to made me a NZ video blog personality.
This is my first time on camera at "Mini Webstock" which was in Wellington, maybe in March/April 07. I talked to Peter from Auckland Uni who had some great thoughts around copyright .... and Josephine Hall who's a modern day diva of the web.

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/thinking-on-video/

online networks ... go bad

Claire — 26th January 2008 5:04PM

by Claire

Read - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4373818a11.html ...
"'Toxic' sites in web suicide link"

Demands are growing for tough measures to combat "toxic" content on social networking websites after a Bebo site was linked to a string of suicides.....

This really scares me . I was teased at high school and it was limited to a sub set of my year. But now a teenager is faced with more than just there own sub set of bullies at school, but this wider set of online bullies or peer pressure from the "cool" kids.

Also my other thought is - what about adults ? Is this happening with adults ?

http://thinkingorange.com/posts/online-networks-go-bad/