http://www.thelongdog.co.uk Web, digital and communications blather Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:00:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Any fool can wireframe ... getting it right is the trick. A while back I wrote WTF is UXD in an attempt to explain what user experience design is, as response to bewildered looks from clients, colleagues and most of my friends and family. There’s still ambiguity around job titles, blurring ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=848 I heard on the radio this morning that “billions have been lost over the last year through people updating their statuses rather than working”. I’ve heard similar things before and frankly I don’t agree. A couple of years ago I was asked by Melcrum Publishing to write something about the use ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=842 In which the Long Dog praises the extinction of animated webpages, only to find there are still monsters in the deep. In the beginning there was black courier on a grey screen. Then came JavaScript and Flash and the grey wastes of the internet burst into moving colourful landscapes. Unusable, inaccessible ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=828 It is very difficult to say the phrase “Have you seen anyone in an orange hat” without sounding like you’re either drunk or undergoing elocution lessons. The orange hats idea was something I came up with in university, where between the two options above it was unlikely I was undertaking ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=807 Internet banking - when good experience goes bad. “Improvement means deterioration" - Hutber's law This is supposed to be a case study, but as I’ve been a customer of this bank for some years, a certain amount of disappointment is bound to creep in. So, before I begin the rant, the main ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=801 I firmly believe the true user’s / customer’s / audience’s / whatever’s experience is that of ‘the big picture’ – or at least that the big picture has a direct impact on a user’s experience. Just because it’s a Norwegian Blue with beautiful plumage doesn’t make up for the fact ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=789 Make it easy on yourself, save time and show the client something inexpensive. Sound good? Then lo-fi prototyping is the way to go. To be honest, “lo-fi prototyping” is a very fancy way of saying start with rough sketches before putting effort and client’s expense into beautiful high quality prototypes ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=774 Part 1: In which a snowy day and poor mobile website usability result in near truancy. Following 6th January ‘s closure of my five year old son’s school because of bad weather, the next morning, as instructed, I checked the website of WessexFM, our local radio station, to see if the ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=741 “Expert opinion comes highly priced and chiefly ignored” – The Long Dog 2009 On and off, I’ve been freelancing for a decade. In that time I’ve had some great clients and recruiters ... and some not so great. So here are some observations and tips from my world. Getting the gig – ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=729 From the fairy tales of our earliest years to the soap operas, newspapers and box office hits of our maturity, we humans love stories. But it's not just about adventure and a happy ending. Stories are a medium through which we communicate and mentally store information in a handy recall ... http://www.thelongdog.co.uk/?p=682