PublicPolicy.ie
January 9, 2012 at 11:54 pm
It’s great when a project comes along that combines a worthy cause, the smartest minds, and a blank white page to begin from.
I’ve been working with the Irish Fiscal Policy Research Centre to create a website that will house the research and thinking that is sure to become the ‘goto’ place for Irish people when they want to get information. There is a lot of noise around the key economic and political issues of the day – that affect all of us. And it’s so important that we get accurate information if we are to understand and make our own opinions.
Perhaps the best explanation of what this is all about comes from the Chairman himself, Prof. Frank Convery.
In Ibsen’s A Doll’s House , Nora says: “I can’t be satisfied any longer with what most people say, and with what’s in books. I must think out things for myself and try to understand them.”
Our job at publicpolicy.ie is to make “thinking things out” as easy as possible.
Read the Irish Times article about publicpolicy.ie.
Sign up to receive an email alert when the site launches.
Tags: publicpolicy.ie
The Internet of Things
July 18, 2011 at 8:42 am
This is a really cool infographic posted by @jangles on Twitter (where all good things come from!) that reminds me of the kind of thing I’m studying in IADT as part of my Cyberpsychology Masters. Fascinating!
International Women’s Day is for life… not just today
March 8, 2011 at 6:04 pm
Happy international women’s day to one and all. I’m delighted to be a part of “100 Voices in Business” put together by @KrishnaDe. She asked put the word out there through her AMAZING online network to ask women in business what tip they’d give in 140 characters or less. There are some great ones in here – take the time to read every one.
Or if you could just skip to tip 94 where my one is!
Decembeard
December 8, 2010 at 10:25 am
Because Movember is so last month! Check out this fun little app from IdeaWorks in Australia: Decembeard. And for every beardy pic created, they donate $5 to charity.
Here’s me:
Tags: decembeard
United We Save
December 7, 2010 at 8:31 am
On this dark day of Budget 2011, I came across this very interesting (and rather cute) little site: United We Save.
Set up by Dubliner, David Slattery, it’s a group buying scheme for households. Much has been talked about and written lately about the rise of group buying schemes in Ireland. United We Save seems to be a slightly different take. Instead of the site only offering deals, we the people can pitch the kind of deals we want and the site will go off and negotiate discounted prices for us. I like the idea, particularly as I got stung with a rather large home heating bill last week! Even 5% discount would = significant savings.
Visit the site today and support another new indigenous Irish business. Sign up (it’s free and easy). Join a group based on what you need to buy. Let them get you a good price. Then save.
Note: while this blog post might sound rather gushy, I have nothing to do with United We Save, they are not a client… and I have to commend their designer as it’s very cute!
Tags: group buying schemes
Best 404 Page
November 16, 2010 at 7:54 am
Came out of the recent 24theweb challenge in which groups of intrepid designers, developers, ux people got together to create great websites for charities in 24 hours… this from the winning team, I love it. View it live, it’s cute.
Tags: 24theweb
What Political Websites Say About Their Owners
November 1, 2010 at 7:28 am
Now that we’ve done designs for the Labour Party’, I wonder who’d win the competition for best website? If you compare our own sweet Joan’s site with some of the others, she wins hands down by a long shot. Begs the question of what does your website say about you?
1. Joan Burton.ie - Bold Beautiful… and a little sassy!
2. Richard Bruton - from the men in grey suits, we present… grey & blue. Nothing striking and a little dreary.
3. Leo Varadkar – screaming for your attention, but not making it easy to take it all in.
4. My Personal Favourite Worst Website – Dan Boyle, sporting a peaceful agrarian theme (to divert us from what’s really going on?)
I used to use Dan Boyle’s previous site as an example of how not to do things in my famous Write for Web training course, so I know that site we can see now is only about 2 years old. He still hasn’t learned about how to present ideas in a reader-friendly fashion online. I think a more honest and realistic pic for that site would be:
Edvard Munch, Skrik, "The Scream", 1893
Tags: dan boyle website, irish td websites, joan burton website, leo varadkar website, political websites ireland, richard bruton website
That thing you always mean to do…
October 14, 2010 at 1:29 pm
I just did something that I’ve been meaning to do for – oh – about 3 years now! Have you ever been running to a city centre meeting, find a car park space, and have your stress levels rise a little due to trying to find a nearby parking machine AND having change to put in the machine? Or you’re in a meeting somewhere around Merrion Square where the parking police are nazis, and the meeting is dragging on and on. You know you’re paid up to 4.57pm, it’s now 5.36pm and you’re wondering whether you’ve got clamped or not?
If you answered yes, then you, like me, have probably glanced at the ad for mobile phone paid parking on the back of the parking ticket and think ‘what a good idea, I must sign up for that’.
Three years on, I’ve just done it. And what a pleasure it was too. Much has been written about some of the awful car fee related sites in this country. The ParkingTag.ie site is easy to use once you get past the fact that the main call to action on the home page that looks like a link is in fact an image (the click here):
It’s a smart service that will save me money. Now I will only pay for parking used. When the parking fairies are fluttering away on their gossamer wings having found me a space, I will take out my mobile phone, text a number, and go on my way. No more clicking in high heels down uneven Georgian pavements to find a meter. No more jangling of loose change.
If there’s one thing you to do make your life easier today, sign up for Parking Tag.
Tags: mobile car parking payments, parking tag
Gorgeous Little Spending App
May 13, 2010 at 9:18 am
Well done to iQ Content who created this tidy little personal budgeting app that makes coming to terms with your spending habits actually kind of fun. It hits the right notes design wise and of course it works well. I was thinking mid way through it ‘hmm how much more?’… all I had to do was glance up and I could track my progress.
Here’s a post about the thinking that went into it.
And here’s the Spendometer app.
Tags: spendometer app
WordPress Person Of The Day
March 19, 2010 at 10:54 am
is Me! Yes I’m extremely honoured and delighted to be number 23 person of the day.
