For World Usability Day, November 14 2019, I’m excited to announce the first in a series of Effortmark stickers and posters. ‘Listen First, Ask Second’ is the result of a collaboration with award-winning illustrator Julia Allum. Good design starts withContinue reading… Listen First Ask Second
Category: Design
Readability Formulas: seven reasons to avoid them and what to do instead
I had the honour of working with Ginny Redish on this article on readability formulas for the July 2019 edition of UXmatters. Ginny is a leading authority on writing, accessibility, and content design and usability. I’ve lost count of theContinue reading… Readability Formulas: seven reasons to avoid them and what to do instead
Discussing a topic map for how to design a better form
If you’re working on improving a form, especially a government one, what advice do you need? In April 2019, I discussed a topic map that might help to answer that question in a webinar for Digital.GOV. To find out moreContinue reading… Discussing a topic map for how to design a better form
Draft curriculum for ‘How to Design a Form’
In March 2019, I started working mostly with the NHS digital standards and redesign teams on their advice about patterns. This post: gives the background to the work, explains about the draft curriculum for advice about ‘how to design aContinue reading… Draft curriculum for ‘How to Design a Form’
Endnote at the 2018 Service Design in Government Conference
I was delighted to be asked to do the Endnote at this year’s Service Design in Government Conference, held in Edinburgh 7-9 March. I’d attended the first three #SDinGov events and was disappointed to miss last year’s conference because ofContinue reading… Endnote at the 2018 Service Design in Government Conference
Forms, surveys and the need to be brave: UX Insider interview
I’ve always really enjoyed reading the ‘UX Insider’ interviews conducted by Damian Rees of experienceux. The one with Tara Land about her work at GDS is a particular favourite. So I felt very honoured when Damian contacted me to allow me toContinue reading… Forms, surveys and the need to be brave: UX Insider interview
“Interfaces include people” at SACon 16
Interfaces have always been areas of peril in software development. In this presentation to the 2016 O’Reilly Software Architecture Conference in London, I wanted to challenge teams to include interfaces with people – and maybe even with paper – in their notions of whereContinue reading… “Interfaces include people” at SACon 16
Government services are for people, not for the government
During my recent visit to the Czech Republic, Běla Beránková interviewed me on behalf of Lupa.cz – the country’s internet host. For the original Czech: Aby bylo jasno. Úředníci tu nejsou pro vládu, ale pro lidi My thanks to Lupa for permission toContinue reading… Government services are for people, not for the government
Honoured by the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian
Back in 2012, a Kickstarter launched to create a series of ‘Field Guides for Voter Intent’, some little books to help election officials to create better ballots. Ever since the 2000 ‘Butterfly Ballot’ controversy, this has been a cause I supported soContinue reading… Honoured by the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian
An app that reads alt-text from pptx
We think that it’s really important to make PowerPoint presentations accessible. And that means: writing alt-text for all the images. The Accessible-Powerpoint app by Joe Lanman is a handy little tool that reads a file in .pptx format, extracts all the alt-text, andContinue reading… An app that reads alt-text from pptx