How Do You Spell “Home Page?”
October 28, 2009 at 8:06 am
In 1898 someone came up with the idea of putting tea into porous sacks and the “tea bag” was invented. By 1936, the word was being spelled “tea-bag”. In 1977, it was called the “teabag”. I came across this fact in the captivating book by Naomi Baron called “Always On: Language In An Online World” (2008).
We see similar practice with the evolving language of the web – or Computer Mediated Communication. I have always rebelled against e-mail, preferring to use the more (advanced) email. Likewise with online and offline. But strangely, never homepage or insidepage. My proposals are peppered with the original use of the words “home page” and “inside pages” indicating that in this regard I’m back at the very beginning of spelling.
What do you use? Are you consistent? Are you aware?
Tags: online copywriting, Writing for the Web
Irish Web Design On The Global Map
October 27, 2009 at 7:06 am
Ireland is the second country to be profiled by Smashing Magazine in a global review of local market design and designers. Well done to Alan from Spoilt Child , Eoghan McCabe of Contrast, Ray Doyle of The Creative District, and Sabrina Dent who’s so famous she even goes by her own name! I’d be hard pressed to pick my favourite designer out of that bunch; they’re all extremely talented and have their individual styles – both online and in the flesh!
I’m happy too to see some Brightspark projects included in the showcase of beautiful Irish design in this article.
I love Ray Doyle’s answer to whether education is more important than experience when it comes to design:
I personally feel that in the digital media industry experience is more important than education. I often ask myself would I’ve been a better man, designer, drinker if I had chosen the path of the student and not that of bedroom designer/HTML monkey on minimum wage. I like think to not, well, probably a better drinker.
Tags: Irish Web Design, web design ireland
Attempting to show off in the iQ
October 23, 2009 at 7:23 am
This is me trying to show how easy it is to do a 1 point turn in the iQ. Honestly – the car is so small you can usually do a U-y without fuss. This was shot down in Enniscrone on that last sunny weekend of the summer. I’m putting it up here to show that even experienced drivers like myself can cut out when under pressure. Learner drivers take heart and have a good bank holiday weekend y’all!
Tags: Toyota iQ 1 Point Turn
Why Invest In Good Design?
October 22, 2009 at 10:28 am
Before you click on over to look at The Rose Project, read this. Sadly the Rose Project is not showing itself in all its beauty anymore.
Someone broke the design on the Rose Project – a Brightspark website that won an award at the Irish Web Awards only 3 weeks ago. They got a free resource in to update the site and that someone hasn’t a clue. Know that what you’re looking at now is NOT what we designed. It has been damaged.
Exhibit A:
Home page banner featuring white around the logo (which is on grey background), a banner with centred text (should be left aligned, always), and the image doesn’t fill up the black space or at least grade into black. Finished off by the removal of the ‘donate now’ ribbon on top right. Replaced with address details. The primary objective of this site was to encourage donations, not to share telephone and fax numbers.
Exhibit B:
Featuring the chopped up logo on white background again. And the text under ‘help us kit out..’ is actually white text on grey background. It is not your eyesight, and you are not waiting for the page to fully load.
There are probably more examples, but I can’t go on. It makes me so sad to see something so beautiful destroyed overnight.
Tags: Bad Design
Money Saving Websites
October 21, 2009 at 8:23 am
You’d want to be living under a stone not to have noticed the trend for money saving websites. Here are some of my favourites:
They’re only going 10 months and are this week celebrating their 1,000th post. That’s a brilliant achievement. This is a great little site that shares recipes and reviews, and I particularly like the ‘what’s in this week at Aldi and Lidl’ reports. They always have a competition going on and as a result there’s a vibrant community of followers.
Practical ways to save money in the areas of Personal Finance, Family Spending, Lifestyle, Health & Beauty and Technology. Well known Irish journalists do much of the writing, so the feel is rather like one of the weekend magazine supplements – but all about saving cash.
An initiative from Dublin City Council, Dublin Waste is a space where people can advertise items they no longer want and you can get them for free! I remember spotting, a couple of years ago when it first launched, a BMW for swap for something interesting… there are no Beamers on there now but there are plenty of TV’s, items of furniture, baby goods, sporting goods and other random items. To avail of something good on this site, you’ve got to be quick. Arrange transport and soon that item will be yours – for free.
Jumbletown is similar. My only complaint with it (apart from the hideous navigation up top) is the difficulty in removing your item once it’s gone.
Tags: money saving websites
On Days Like This
October 20, 2009 at 9:10 am
I love my Toyota iQ. Wet dark morning in October, I’m on my way out to the gym. It’s grim. Every car is using its lights and windscreen wipers. Inside my little iQ it’s a warm and satisfying bubble! Heated seats – I could get used to this.
What I don’t like about getting started in the MX5 on damp winter mornings:
- It’s cold in the car
- It’s damp and every window is fogged up. Turn the heat on very hot to adjust the windscreen. Open and close the side windows to try to remove some of the excess moisture.
- Turn on the engine, and go. Back window is plastic (car is convertible) so it’s not easy to see through when covered with damp.
Botty toasting magic in Toyota iQ
- Turn on the engine, turn up the heat. Adjust regulator to make sure it doesn’t get too hot. Within minutes the car is a balmy warm.
- Push botty down into the heated seat. Lean back into the seat to rub back off heated upholstery. Really like that. I feel like a cat.
- Turn on the engine. (It purrs). Back window covered in rain drops? Flick the switch of the back windscreen wiper to ensure clear visiblity as I proceed down my driveway.
It’s a nice way to ease into the day. The interior of the iQ is one of the most marvellous things about it (after the fuel efficiency, and neat storage in the back). It’s the bit I find myself talking about the most when I have passengers. They all marvel at the space in the front. It is deceptive. I get to tell them how Toyota modelled the interior on the high end Avensis model, so it’s executive saloon luxury at small car prices. I also get to tell them how the iQ engineers came up with such a novel way of where to put the air conditioning/heating unit, that in future all Toyota cars will be built this way. (They put it under the floor… look at your car next time and note how much unnecessary space the heating/air takes up in the front).
By the way, I’m filling the car for €28 which to my mind is great value. I’m getting good mileage on that. I still have to play chicken with the fuel guage to work out exactly how many miles/km. But according to Toyota, it should be giving me 4.3litre to the 100km. You can ogle that statistic and more over here.
And now here’s a sexy interior style shot you can enjoy with your cappachino. Keep warm and toasty on this first day of winter. And if you’re driving, be safe on our roads.
Tags: toyota iq interior
Ireland Goes To The Webbys
October 16, 2009 at 6:19 pm
To all of you who made it to the shortlist of the Irish Web Awards – congratulations. Be proud.
Have you considered entering the Webby Awards?
The Webby Awards are the global web awards that have been running for nigh on 14 years now. They celebrate all that is great about online. The Oscars of the Web World. And I think it’s high time that Irish sites got in it.
If you enter before 30 October, it costs $255 to enter a site. That’s €171.
Cars Ireland – you won the Best Practice Award last weekend. Did you know there’s an entire category dedicated to you (Automotive) in the Webbys?
Beaut.ie – you could be adding a hint of a blush if you were representing Ireland in the Webbys in the Best Beauty & Cosmetics Category.
The guys at Look & Taste would cook up a storm in the Food & Bev category. Think of the global exposure to make it to the shortlists guys…
There’s a much wider range of categories than any Irish award ceremony has. I went to the Awards in 2007 and that was the first year that Online Film & Video and Mobile got their own awards night to handle all the various sections within those. We have such cool start-ups located all round this island. I really believe it’s high time we dust off the ‘ah sure we’re Irish we’d never stack up against the Americans’ attitude and give them a run for their money.
Because money is involved.
That’s the main barrier unfortunately, because let’s face it, not many start-ups have a spare €171 lying around. A couple of years ago I had managed to get a large Irish corporate involved in sending the cream of the Irish to the Webbys. We were going to ask you to vote for who you think should represent us in New York, and the mobile phone company was going to pay for it.
Sadly the organisers of the Webbys didn’t like it. No not one bit. They felt that this would put off potential entrants from independently entering. So, they blocked us from running this super promotion and instead have seen dribs and drabs of Irish entrants instead of the huge numbers we would have delivered instead.
That aside, get on there now, dust off your reservations and enter the 14th Webby Awards. If you get shortlisted, I’ll come and cheer you on in NYC!
Tags: Irish Web Awards Winners, Webby Awards, Webbys
Thoughts On Ning
October 14, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I was recently involved in a discussion about Ning. Create-it-yourself social networks. Sounds impressive (you too can build your own Facebook in just a few clicks). Works really well, requires absolutely no technical ability to get a social network set up. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
That’s my conclusion anyway. Now, here’s how I came to that:
Advantages of Ning:
- You can have your own social network up and running in a couple of minutes. You can have video panels, forums, members, chat all going on. And it’s free (if you go for them hosting and having ads on your network). But the key to success on the web is always content. Getting a clear message out to the right people about your service is what you want to do. Ideas and content rule, technology is merely the conduit that facilitates the message.
Disadvantages of Ning:
- Why would you want to create a social network away from Facebook which is where all the people are? Given that the population of Facebook is the size of Brazil, why would you want to restrict your social network to something the size of the Aran Islands? One of the many benefits of Facebook is that when new people join your Fan Page, their friends can see when they do. This can encourage friends to join, which increases your numbers. If your subject matter is interesting enough, this viral effect can spread fast. If your social network is on Ning, you are limited to directly inviting people to join. But there isn’t anything like the numbers browsing Ning like there are on Facebook, so it’s automatically limiting your potential.
- All the elements you get on Ning, you get on Facebook. Only difference is that it’s easy to style Ning to make it look more gorgeous than the corporate blue and white that is FB.
- What if you went ahead with Ning and then found that your members or your audience just aren’t into it? Then you’ll look a bit silly with a Ning network and no-one coming to talk to you. The risk here is that organisations will go out and build wholly inappropriate Ning networks just because someone has made it easy to do so. The social network for consumers of dishwasher powder anyone? No I don’t think so.
All of this leads me nicely on to:
My Top 5 Tips For Getting Started With Social Networking
- Start off with a device for getting your key messages out - a blog can work extremely well. Or perhaps your message is better communicated through video? In which case, you can easily set up a channel on Youtube and use that to publish your messages. A content plan is key. Whether you’re blogging or youtubing, it’s a good idea to work out who your audiences are, then consider what your main themes are. Then sit down with a calendar and fill in what you’re going to say and when, then stick to it. Here’s a whole post on blog content planning.
- Then get to work. Write your blog regularly. Read other’s blogs. Comment. Take part in the conversation, because you can’t really expect people to want to talk to you if you’re not talking to them, now can you?
- When you’ve got some momentum in your messages (and even some alliteration!), then look at how you’re going to re-package that content and get it out on the social networks. You can include your blog feed in Facebook and LinkedIn so once you’re regularly blogging, you can be sure that your message is getting republished out there. Consider Twitter as a way of alerting people that you’ve just done a blog post.
- Don’t fall into the trap of using Twitter merely as a place to post your links. While research has found that men are more likely to post links then women (who are more likely to write emotively… yes I know Laura, I absolutely love love love it as well… ), organisations that use Twitter as another form of RSS are failing! Twitter is conversation. If you’re going to be on it, get chatting. Follow people. Take part. If someone asks a question and you have an answer – be helpful, share your knowledge. If someone makes a comment about how much they like Wispa’s, and you do too, then say it. That kind of thing builds rapport. And the charming thing about Twitter is that it celebrates humanity. So what if relationships are being formed about 1980’s chocolate bars on an online space?
- Remember that all of these things require a mindset switch to get it right. It doesn’t work when you allocate a half hour to Twitter and the first Friday of every month to write your blogs. Taking part in the conversation online is an ongoing thing and must be regarded as a organisation-wide change in how we do things around here. There’s no point in having a summer intern do your Twitter for you only to walk away and leave it to languish. A lot of people I hear have fears about the amount of time it’s going to take. If you do it right, it shouldn’t be something that you quantify. It’s just an extension of how you work.
What do you think? You can post your comment here. Or you can go off and set up a Ning social network to do the same thing – but all alone, somewhere else…. !
Tags: Ning, Social Networks, Tips on Social Networks
Most Accessible Website Award
October 12, 2009 at 8:49 am
Last week was a brilliant one. It began with a win on Monday for an amount of money that I’d been waiting for since July 2008. Quite a hefty sum too, nice to receive it in time for me to hand it straight over to the Revenue.
On Wednesday, a new maternity hospital opened in Malawi. This was the result of five years of hard work on the part of The Rose Project. That Irish charity fundraised and built a maternity hospital to help a country that is on its knees with some basic healthcare. It’s definitely something that we Irish can be proud of as The Rose Project is a small charity set up and run by Irishwoman Mary Donohue. It’s not in the media everyday. But it works hard and does great things. The hospital was opened by another Irishwoman we can be proud of – Dr Mary Robinson.
To cap it all off, on Saturday night at the Irish Web Awards, The Rose Project website won the award for Most Accessible Website in Ireland. This is the second year in a row that a site by Brightspark has won such a prestigious and coveted award. We’re delighted that our work is being recognised by the judges of the Web Awards and really pleased too that it brings further coverage to The Rose Project. Congratulations to The Rose Project on the win.
It’s notable that out of 22 awards handed out on the night, 9 were won by what I would deem to be ’small’ organisations who obviously chose well in how to spend their limited budgets. The other 13 were won by well-funded organisations or semi-state bodies – the likes of The Irish Times, RTE, IDA. I’m delighted to see that publicly funded websites in Ireland have improved so much. At the same time, I’m really proud for the people behind the following sites who really are living the ethos of today – to get more with less:
- Best Site in Irish Language – Nos Magazine
- Best Social Media Campaign - Count Me Out
- Most Beautiful Website in Ireland – Organic Supermarket
- Best Ecommerce - Curious Wines
- Most Innovative – Decisions for Heroes
- Best New Web App – Kildare Street
- Best Music – Nialler9
- Best Videocaster – Look & Taste
- Best Podcaster – The Persuaders
With the global web awards, the Webby Awards early closing date of 30 October 2009, I would strongly urge all the winners and indeed the shortlisters at Saturday night’s awards to enter the Webby Awards. Put Ireland on the global web awards map. Enter here.
Tags: Irish Web Awards 2009, Most Accessible Website in Ireland, Webby Awards
Usability Design For Print
October 1, 2009 at 2:59 pm
A tale from my usability heroes iA about their recent pitch to redesign the Swiss newspaper, Tages Anzeiger. I’d love to read a newspaper designed like that; in fact it might even encourage me to start buying paper again!
Read the post and see their work here.
But sadly they didn’t win the pitch. They were the only usability designers on the pitch and the work went to someone else.
If you have a pitch coming up soon, you’d do well to check out their presentation included at the end of the post. It’s rather cool.
