We can never be a normal user of our own services. We can temper that by being self-c0nscious in reflecting on our experiences as users of other people’s. But even that tacitly assumes that we are like normal users other than in our expertise as providers of a particular service. But that assumption may beRead… Read more »
The burial of human remains at sea requires a marine licence. That must be one of the more arresting first lines of any government web page. Its combination of human tragedy and bureaucratic process packs a lot into eleven words. You won’t find that line, or anything else on the subject, at Directgov. That’s neitherRead… Read more »
This blog has not had a substantive post for quite a while. There’s no particular reason for that, other than that I find that the longer I haven’t written something here, the harder it feels to write anything, so the longer the gap keeps growing. So this is to break the cycle and blow theRead… Read more »
It’s not iterative if you only do it once. Paul Hammond Original post
We are not the customers of our own services. And even if we think we are, we are still not: we know too much, we cannot stop thinking as provider or designer. Sometimes we are the customers of other people’s services and that holds up a mirror – sometimes a very distorting mirror – toRead… Read more »
Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web Betagov blues.. « Digital by Default Outside of Hercules House ‘digital by default’ seems a long, long way away and requires making compromises in order just to get some momentum. Small wins are achievable (and you can bet we celebrate each one!) but getting anything largerRead… Read more »
I herby declare, “arguments not aphorisms” to be my new aphorism (not argument). Tom Coates Original post
In the continuing fight for the greater availability of public information, it may seem churlish to observe that sometimes what’s wanted is not more information, but less. The picture above shows a typical display on a Countdown sign at a London bus stop. This particular stop has buses from two routes. At a quick glance,Read… Read more »
When the data seem to point to an unexpected finding, always consider the possibility that the problem is a feature of the data, rather than a feature of the world … When I discover something surprising in data, the most common explanation is that I made a mistake. John Kay Original post
Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web My speech to the IAAC | Ben Hammersley’s Dangerous Precedent In the time of revolution, and believe me this is a revolution – easily on a par with the renaissance, or the Enlightenment – the translator has a very important role to play. The communicator, theRead… Read more »