Usability

What Should I Do, Sky?

Last night I put off going to bed so I could watch the Women’s Skeleton in the Winter Olympics.  There was a chance of Britain picking up an unlikely gold medal (we did!).  As the night hours turn into the morning hours, and the skeleton enters its final runs, my Sky+ HD receiver decided to […]

Newspaper Website Interface Review

I’ve been working on a WordPress theme for a while that’s geared towards high-content sites – sites that produce a lot of content on a regular basis.  Whilst I had a general idea of what I wanted to aim for, I thought some research was in order.  I wanted to see how high-content, high-traffic sites […]

Thoughts on an Apple Tablet

It seems almost inevitable.  The room’s been booked, the invitations have been sent out and the flights are scheduled.  Apple must be revealing a Tablet on the 27th.  There remains, however, many questions surrounding exactly what form the device will take. I have a particular interest in the tablet’s user interface.  Interfaces are something that […]

A New Look for a New year

To reflect a change in focus and a change in my interests I’ve redesigned this blog. In this post I discuss the main reasons for doing this, the process I followed and some of my goals. I also briefly discuss some of the tools and techniques I used in the redesign and where the blog is heading.

MasterCard InsecureCode and Unverified by Visa – A Disaster Waiting to Happen

There’s a plague of ill-conceived security initiatives currently infecting the internet.   At the spearhead of this plague we find the world’s two biggest card operators, Visa and MasterCard.   Within the last couple of years both have introduced new measures to verify the identity of people making online purchases.   These were supposed to […]

BBC Weather gets updated, but is it any good?

Of all the weeks for the BBC to relaunch the weather section of their website, perhaps this wasn’t the best. A quick search of Twitter for the hashtag #uksnow will reveal the fact that there’s been a touch of snow falling in the UK this week. A quick search of any number of news sources […]

Help Shape the Future of WordPress

WordPress, the number one blogging platform on the Internet, is undergoing another fairly major change for version 2.7.   Amongst the changes is a restructuring of the Administration menus, which have only recently been redesigned.   If you happen to be a WordPress user, either self hosting or on WordPress.com, you can take part in […]

5 Sure Fire Ways to Break Your Site in iPhone's Mobile Safari

Apple promises the full Internet on the iPhone. Not a cut down, mobile version like on other devices. It’s a bold statement, one that has already got them in hot water with the British ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). As a heavy user of the iPhone, I’d say that Apple comes as close to offering the […]

How Poor Usability Can Irrevocably Damage A Brand

Natuba launched a new iPhone focused social photo sharing site. They were fortunate to get coverage on TechCrunch, a leading blog, but the initial post pointed out functionality the site didn’t appear to have. Although it actually did. So how much did this usability failing hurt Natuba?

WordPress 2.5 – Usability Oddities

The new WordPress 2.5 admin interface has been completely revamped with a focus on usability. But what slipped through the cracks? What can be improved on?

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