Aphorism 53
If it needs a sign, it’s badly designed. Don Norman (prompted by Michele Ide-Smith mentioning him and Catherine Howe giving an outing to the wonderful word “affordance”) Original post
Posts By Stefan Czerniawski
Aphorism 52
That’s the problem with being trained to see both sides of an argument, you can see both sides of the argument. Penny Neu Original post
Civility in service
It really is quite simple. If you wouldn’t have said it before there were social media, don’t say it now just because there are. If you work for an organisation, don’t be rude about its leaders, products or policies in public. Don’t imagine that online anonymity is an invisibility cloak. If you work in theRead… Read more »
Interesting elsewhere – 3 June 2011
Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web How Alphagov might change UK government for the better – The Dextrous Web Addressing 80% of users’ needs compellingly and ignoring the rest is a sound principle of design, but government can’t do that. So, if we’re to use Apha.gov for the 80% –which we shouldRead… Read more »
Saying goodbye
Many years ago, I used to work with somebody who in a previous life had been a restaurant manager. One of the lessons she had taken from that experience was how to say goodbye. At the beginning of a restaurant meal, people are where they want to be. They are there for an experience, andRead… Read more »
On track to nowhere
There has been a lot of work in recent years on ways of improving the process of public consultation. It’s not something about which I have any great expertise or direct involvement, but I am conscious of great efforts to produce consultation material in forms which are not just useful and accessible themselves, but whichRead… Read more »
Alpha gorilla
Everybody who has had much to do with the development of government web services knows that there have been failures of imagination, failures of bravery, failures of technique and failures to seize opportunities – as well as successes in the teeth of opposition and incomprehension. Few have had the opportunity to start from scratch (thoughRead… Read more »
Interesting elsewhere – alpha gov special edition – 16 May 2011
Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web, rather a lot of them from the Alpha.gov.uk blog. This is only the second time ever that one of these posts has been so skewed to a single source (and is just as unintended and emergent as the first time). So the Alpha team get oneRead… Read more »
Alpha conversation
This is how conversations work, or rather how one conversation played out on twitter this morning. Tricky subject, no right answer, constructive discussion.* But perhaps most important of all, those issues are being discussed in public for a government proof of concept which hasn’t yet even been launched. It is that which is more radicalRead… Read more »
Interesting elsewhere – 6 May 2011
Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web If you started today, you would never build what we’ve got. You would build Alphagov. A few design rules for alpha.gov.uk | Alpha.gov.uk – team blog Back in February when we were kicking off the alpha project, we spent the first couple of weeks scouring searchRead… Read more »