Tomorrow’s World is Back!
August 29, 2007 at 1:16 pm
At the recent TweetUp in Dublin, one of the topics that came up in conversation was a re-run of old episodes of “Tomorrow’s World”. It would be so funny to watch the predictions for the future of technology from the Commodore 64 years. Not only that, but the haircuts and clothes would have been a hoot too.
Well it turns out that BBC is planning to relaunch the programme - not as a humourous retro show but to “offer in-depth analysis on technology stories on TV, radio and the web”. And it’s going to have one of the original presenters too - Maggie Philbin. Read more at the Beeb site.
So a whole new generation can now aspire to having their product or service on Tomorrow’s World.
Find out how many seconds people spend on your home page
August 21, 2007 at 11:46 am
In response to yesterday’s post, where I posed the question about the real amount of time visitors spend on our home pages, Gordon Murray of eWrite has come forward with a script he’s written to measure just that.
Please Take Part in Some Irish Research
Let’s establish how long visitors take before they leave Irish home pages. So what if this information exists for US, UK, etc. What I’d like to know are the results for Irish sites. If you would too, then read on….
I’m writing to all of Brightspark’s clients today to ask them to take part in this research. All we need to do is add a little piece of code to their sites and soon we’ll start seeing how long each visitor spends on their home pages. Results will be shared in the next edition of Walking the Talk. Subscribe here.
Why is this important?
If you know how long you’ve got, you can tailor your content to your audience.
Interestingly enough, I had thought that landing times would have sped up in this post-Google age, but a quick look at my site’s stats from yesterday show an average of 40 seconds. So I have 40 seconds to make my pitch that my site is worth staying on and browsing. That’s quite a long time actually, so I can probably get away with more text.
If you find that your site visitors spend 10 seconds, then I’d be going straight to the buy line, big buttons, no messing around.
If you want to know how long visitors spend on your home page, contact us and we will get you started.
(This is not a fancy sales technique to hook you in! It’s just out of interest)
3 Things I’d Like to Know
August 20, 2007 at 9:34 am
- In this Googlised age, how many seconds do we really have to convince people to stay on our home page once they land there? Conventional research says anything between 6-13 seconds. I think it might be more like 3. But does anyone know?
- Has there been any more recent large scale eye tracking done in recent times? Stanford Poyntor and Jared Spool are the ones I always refer to but they were done in the last century!
- Statistics abound on the many millions of blogs out there, numbers of blog entries, etc. What I’d like to know - in a graph preferably - is whether the number of posts has dipped since the rise of Microblogging?
These are just some random thoughts that occurred to me on a long drive over the weekend. If you have the answers (or an opinion), please be generous and share.
Calmness for end of week
August 17, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Check this out. And don’t forget to move your mouse around!
1st Dublin Tweetup
August 17, 2007 at 9:28 am
Today is the morning after the first Dublin Tweetup and I have a sore head. It was really nice to meet Ellybabes, (who seemed to have a little trouble getting home), Lexia, Eamon, Eoghan, Olivier and the rest in the flesh, shoot the breeze and drink copious amounts of wine. Chat was stimulating and included just the right amount of gossip that you wouldn’t get online. Thanks for Olivier for oganising. And to Italy for producing such fine wine and cheese!
Couture Client
August 16, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Just back from the launch of Jennifer Rothwell’s amazing autumn/winter collection in BT’s. Jen is a dynamo - an amazing designer who has worked with names we’d all know like DKNY in New York, but also with names most of us would not know - couture designers who Jennifer has obviously learned loads from. If you’re into amazing fabrics, tailoring that makes your body look like a supermodel’s, and awesome creative design, then get your ass into Brown Thomas Dublin from now until 26th August and check out her work.
Jennifer Rothwell, Tim Ryan, and Vivienne Walsh won a competition at last year’s Dublin Fashion Week to show their A/W collections at BT’s. If they go well, who knows? Maybe they’ll be kept on. So go in there and buy up large.
You might notice too that the Jennifer Rothwell site is rather stylish also [ahem!]. An absolute pleasure to create a blog site for her, complete with Flickr feed so Jen can easily update the site with photos of her work - and encourage comments from a worldwide audience who find her on Flickr. View Jennifer Rothwell Fashion Designer site here.
Happy Independence Day India!
August 14, 2007 at 7:05 pm
To all my Indian and Pakistani buddies, co-workers, and friends - Happy Independence Day!!
I remember celebrating 50 years of independence with a small group of friends at Talvin Singh in London. If you’d told me then that India would be the tech powerhouse that it is today I wouldn’t have believed you. Now, I spend more of my time on skype and email to Mumbai and Hyderabad than I do to Galway or Limerick!
Vote for Me - in the IIA
August 3, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I’m running as a candidate in the IIA elections which take place in the next 2 weeks.
Why am I doing this?
Because I’ve stood on the sidelines for too long now, complaining that the IIA, our industry body doesn’t do enough for us who are in the field. While it has really come on since Fergal O’Byrne took over as MD, it is still very ‘client focused’ in my opinion. There are lots of events on about ‘how to get a website for your business’ or ‘marketing your business online’, these are great for people starting out, but they are not of any use to people like me (or you) who are out there every day designing, developing and creating great sites.
There is no official forum in Ireland for web designers to get together and talk shop. The Irish Graphic Design Association (IGDA) is just that - graphic design, not web design. And the IIA ignores us. Yet there are regular meet ups of webby people at the Open Coffees, BarCamps and other loose gatherings around the country. So there is an appetite.
And apart from all that, there are far too many men in suits on that Board, I think it’s time to shake it up!
So, if you’re a member of the IIA please vote for me. I will get things done. And if you’d like to add some comments below about just what those things should be, please do.
