Category: Communications
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Advertising an illusion
A new advert for Honda exploits many classic visual optical illusions very effectively. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UelJZG_bF98[/youtube] From mashable.com/2013/10/22/honda-uk-ad/
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Plain English for international readers
The team developing the visit visa service at gov.uk recently blogged about some testing with international users over a screencast which gave them some great insights from the kind of cultures and language challenges the service faced. Something that stood out for me was this paragraph: Unsurprisingly, language proved one of the biggest areas for feedback.…
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TechCrunch assesses the future of the local library
MG Siegler, a general partner at Google Ventures, has written a piece for TechCruch considering the viable future of the local library, a subject which can polarise opinions. It came about from another article on Wired.com – The Abomination of Ebooks: They Price People Out of Reading which reports on the ebook pricing and distribution…
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There’s no such thing as future-proof
Brad Frost is a web designer from Pittsburgh who recently spoke at web design dayon the topic “For a Future-Friendly Web“. His presentation is below, and his blog covers the detail and also has a video. Some highlights are: There’s no such thing as future-proof, but we can take steps to be more future-friendly. Content…
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Speaking to be understood
I had a discussion with a colleague today about plain English, and by coincidence, saw this blog post from Ben Terrett titled “Please, speak as you might to a young child, or a golden retriever”, a quote from the film Margin Call. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmHl7hKlVj4[/youtube] Ben adds some good commentary: “They’re using those terms because that’s what…
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Making Things People Want beats Making People Want Things
John V Willshire the founder of Smithery has written a setup piece for his talk next week at AdTech 2013 which looks at the relationship between communications and marketing with product and service development. Here’s a few highlights: “Yet something bothered me… …the things that marketing clients had to ask agencies to try and sell…
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“Why we fail”, or “getting the design right and getting the right design.”
Victor Lombard writes about the downfall of Google Wave… I think of it this way: if we only test bottle openers, we may never realize customers prefer screw-top bottles. That’s what Buxton means by getting the right design. A classic interface design guideline is that any object that looks familiar should behave in a familiar…