In May, Nat and I took a drive down to Torquay, Devon for a short sea-side holiday. I hadn’t been on any kind of holiday since Canada in 2005 so, believe me, I was bloody ready! Although it was only a short break, it was excellent. Like I said, we drove down and we actually made really good time; just over 3 hours. Because we knew we were going to be moving shortly after, we decided to make it a cheap one. With that in mind we stayed in the Torquay Travelodge – walking distance from the sea front – for only £32 a night! This left us with way more money to go and see sights, have a nice meal or two out and just be able to enjoy ourselves a lot more.

While on the subject of eating out I actually fulfilled one of my life goals while down there; to eat at a Michelin starred restaurant. On our second night we booked a table at Number 7 Fish Bistro. (Excellent restaurant, terrible website) We knew from the get-go that we wanted to have an exceptionally nice dinner one night but we never imagined it would be Michelin dining! I had fillet of sea bass with seared scallops and Nat had loin of cod with tempura scallops and prawns. We had starters (Grilled garlic mushrooms) and deserts (sticky toffee pudding with local clotted cream) too. best meal I’ve ever eaten. Hands down.

Aside from the excellent food, the rest of the holiday was great too. Relaxing on the beach, eating ice cream by the harbour front and cheesy 2p machines in Paignton. It was a really nice time and we hope to go more often, possibly to Cornwall.

So shortly after we got back from the holiday we found our new home. We decided to do a whole bunch of house viewings in one day and one of the first ones we saw, a 2 bed semi on Broadmeadows, really grabbed us and we decided to go after it straight away. It’s really perfect for us with a nice sized living room, very nice, modern kitchen and two double bedrooms. The garden is a decent size too, perfect for barbecuing.

We had family and friends over for a housewarming party the other week and that was great. As well as getting all the family together, our friends got to see our new house. Even Reedy came down from Sheffield which was ace! I hadn’t seen him in over a year.

At the time of writing this we’ve been in the house a month and it’s working out really well. The big modern kitchen has made me really enjoy cooking again where in the old house the kitchen was really old and small I didn’t want to be in it. In the new place I’d say it’s the place we spend most time. The ultimate bonus, though was the fact that we were allowed to keep our kitteh, Juno. She’s settled into the new neighbourhood with ease and, after coming back with battle scars the first night, has found her place amongst the local cats. Oh yeah! After a few weeks in the house the drama kicked off! just around the corner from us, someone got their house firebombed! See the smoke pictures!

Most recently, then, I went to the JapShow at Santa Pod raceway. It’s been a while since I’ve been there so I jumped at the chance to head down there for a weekend with the boys. We saw some amazing shit while there and I’m tellin ya, there must have been some crazy technological advancements in the last couple of years because the pro cars were achieving times that were unheard of when I was there before. A drag modded Skyline GTST was running quarter miles in the mid 7s at over 170 mph!! The highlight for me though was seeing the brand new Nissan GTR. If you haven’t seen one, check out the photos below. There were two stock ones and then a lightly modded one with a carbon fibre bonnet and they were all stunning. The car, though not called a Skyline, continues the Skyline tradition of insane power and performance for very little money. The new GTR costs £65,000 ish but is easily faster than plenty of cars that come in at twice that price.

Anyway… what else should I talk about..? Oh yeah! The new iPhone! I’ve made my mind up that I will definitely be getting one of these bad boys as soon as my Orange contract is up. I’m not just moving to get the new iPhone either. Orange signal is absolutely terrible in the new house. I get no bars downstairs and only 1 or 2 bars upstairs. Nat, who’s on O2 gets full signal throughout the house. So yeah, roll on iPhone 3G-S

So that’s pretty much everything. I’ll try and stay more current in future so to avoid super long war and peace posts like this. Ta ta!

Having worked in technical support for over 6 years I have gotten to see first hand how people perceive and use the Internet. You’ll get people who understand it, who know what a browser is and what a web site is and maybe, some rudimentary understanding of the way the web works… if you’re lucky, and others who just don’t get it. If you’re reading this then I guess you fall into the first category. Congratulations! You’re easy to make websites for. Your needs are clear and you can accomplish calls to action quickly because you know what you’re doing. It can be safely assumed that you meet the minimum computer/web literacy levels required to make full use of the sites you visit. No such assumption can be made for the latter group.

Designers and developers need to think long and hard about how their site/app will be handled by the kind of people who say things like “Have you got the Internet on your computer?” because you can never know how much they really understand. They’ll probably only know just enough to muddle along, to turn on their computer “Open up the Internet” and go to popular sites like eBay, YouTube and facebook (If they haven’t thrown a massive hissy fit and left upon seeing the new layout). These people’s surfing habits are based on routine. Anything they’re not expecting can be instantly met with confusion and even hostility, neither of which are good for business. The following measures can potentially save you a lot of hassle and make you a lot more money.

1. Make the user feel secure and at ease. – Internet users these days are paranoid about security because the media and IE bombard them with security warnings and scare tactics. Unfortunately these users don’t understand enough to know what’s trustworthy and what isn’t. Be as brief and concise as you can in your copy and use nice calming colours like light blues and greens to make the user feel at ease. Do not, however, try to incorporate whale song or any sounds, for that matter. They’ll just piss people off.
2. Make it easy for them to find out their password. – People forget passwords, as sure as death and taxes. Make sure you provide them a very obvious means of getting hold of their password should this happen. If the user has to think about how to get their password back, chances are they won’t bother. They’ll leave and never come back.
3. Don’t surprise them. – As I mentioned above, people’s browsing habits are based on routine. If your site has an unorthodox navigation or even scrolls sideways instead of up and down, bang! You just lost a chunk of potential users. I’m not saying don’t push the boundaries, just know when not to. If your site will be used by the general (non-tech) public, stick to the time honoured easily recognisable layouts and navigation.  This means sticking to a width that doesn’t exceed about 980px for those 1024×768 resolution users. Case in point: Look how many people got pissed off with the new Facebook layout… Come on, you know one of them!
4. Hold their hand if they want it. – If a user doesn’t understand what to do next they might just leave the site, there’s no real way around that. You can give yourself a fighting chance, however, by providing clear, obvious links to some help. If a form they filled in doesn’t validate, make sure it’s clear why this is the case and offer a bit of assistance in the form of a “What’s this?” link to some help text. Careful though, make sure this isn’t visible all the time as it may be seen as patronising to more web-literate users. Something like ClueTip can provide this functionality and also look awesome!
5. Make sure they see the call to action immediately. – This one kind of goes without saying but it’s amazing how many sites there are out there that are trying to sell something but don’t make it clear right off the bat what they’re actually selling, or how to buy it. Make your call to action stand right out and shout “This is what we’re offering and this is how you get it!” As a rule I like to make sure that no scrolling is required for the call to action to be visible. Check out Silverback to see this done very well indeed.
6. Provide a version that works in IE6 *takes cover*. – There is still a large user-base for that god-awful browser and as much as it pains me to say it I think we still do need to provide at least limited support for it. It tends to be the non-techies and corporate network PCs that are still using IE6 which, puts them smack bang in the middle of the user group I’m talking about here. Remember: This version can be lo-fi. There’s no problem with it looking less pretty, it just has to work the same. Massive banners that say “YOU’RE USING AN OLD BROWSER. UPGRADE NOW” help no one and may just put people off because it’s starting their experience on a negative.

All of these things will contribute to users, not only completing a call to action, but to them wanting to come back and do it all over again. Happy users = Happy client = Happy bank manager = Happy you.

One area where these guidelines will really pay off is when you are constructing a corporate intranet. People’s jobs may require them to use the site so getting fed up and leaving isn’t an option for them. More to the point, if they complain to their superiors that the site sucks you’re a lot more likely to get it in the neck, not something you want to have to deal with.

Of course this is only the start. You can follow all these guidelines to the best of your ability and still come a cropper. For this reason it is crucial to invest some time in usability testing. You can do this in a way that costs nothing (observing friends and family using the site) or in a way that costs a fortune (hiring a usability testing company such as ClearLeft) but, no matter what, do it and make sure your client knows you’re doing it.

Have you designed a site where you’ve come up against an unusual usability hurdle? have you built a site for users with an extremely low level of computer literacy? I’d love to hear your side of this so be sure to drop a comment.

Dan

In the blog post he proposed that the solution to “The war on photography” was to sue and/or press charges on anyone who gave you a hard time. He said that posting on forums and facebook groups would be simply falling on deaf ears and this kind of action was the way to go…. woah… hold on a minute there, Scotty! I don’t think you’ve thought that one through. Let’s imagine that all photographers did as he suggested. Would it stop the occasional high-and-mighty security guard or police officer with ideas above his station if he thought he could lose his job or even face criminal charges? Maybe… in fact probably. But what would it do for the reputation of the photography profession/pastime as a whole?

Can you remember the kid at school who, when someone pissed him off, even a little bit, would go crying to his parents and even though the transgression was really, really minor the person responsible would get in a world of trouble because the school had to be seen to take drastic action in view of the parents? That’s what photographers would become! No one would mess with them but at the same time, no one would have any kind of respect for them. They’d just be the people that sued everyone!

The article referencing the UK mentioned two cases where professional photographers were harassed or detained by police officers and I am inclined to agree that these particular cases are shocking and are, indeed the kind of case that should be followed up to make sure the officers responsible are reprimanded. That said, I am almost certain that these cases are exceptions to the rule in the most extreme way. For those two photographers who did run into trouble, imagine how many thousands carried out their job without a problem and received the utmost respect from police and security personnel.

The article also talks about new laws, introduced this month under the counter-terrorism act that make it legal for people who are suspected of taking photos to aid in an act of terrorism to be arrested. This includes, but is not limited to, taking photos of police. This is where the concept of mutual respect is hugely important. If photographers got the reputation of being over-the-top crybabies who pressed charges on anyone who got in their way then police are going to be way more likely to exercise their new rights to stop them taking pictures of any kind. Trust me people, the paparazzi have done the photography profession enough of an injustice without the rest of the community becoming whiny, lawyer-happy brats.

So please, don’t listen to Scott Bourne on this one. I know he’s a very talented photographer and media professional on the whole but these over-defensive, militant ideas will do nothing but tarnish the reputation of photographers. Hobbyists; If a police officer doesn’t want their picture taken, respect that, the same as you would for anyone else. Find another cop who isn’t so camera shy. And professionals; If you’re asked about what you’re shooting, co-operate! Chances are these people are just doing what they believe to be their job and once you show them that you’re being responsible and not doing anything illegal, you’ll be left alone. If not, and you continue to be harrased by one or more individuals, then perhaps you could take matters further.

Of course it’s not as simple as I just put it but the more and more I look at it, the more I see that it is in fact a lot easier than getting an existing theme and tweaking it… and a hell of a lot more flexible. I should have some screen shots to give you in the coming weeks but below you can take a look a part of the re-design flashing some cheeky ankle… suits you sir . I won’t be radically changing the general layout of the site, It’ll still have the sidebar on the right with my latest twitter update and links to my archives and other sweet blogs and the main content area will still contain the latest post in full and the start of the previous four with “more” links. I’m just giving everything a fresh new, more bespoke look. Personally I’m stoked because this isn’t just a chance to get my blog lookin fresh, it’s one hell of a learning experience because every time I build something in WordPress from scratch it gives me a better insight into it’s inner workings. What this means is that I’ll be able to build any kind of site I like using WordPress like a CMS and produce blogs and portfolio sites to other people’s specifications. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to do it too so if you want anything like that doing, get in touch.

So what else have I been up to recently…. hmmmm well, it was recently my boy Brahn’s birthday so we went out for dinner at Le Bistrot Pierre in Derby… it was real good. Before that, though, we took a trip up to the peak district and took some photos which I’ll get up on flickr soon for your viewing pleasure. For his birthday, Brahn got a remote trigger for his EOS 400D which we discovered also worked with Nat’s 350D so we were able to set up a couple of different angles and trigger the shot on both cameras simultaneously. Managed to get some nice shots with that. What we were planning on doing in the near future too is setting up a camera on a tripod and doing some long exposure night shots so keep your eyes peeled for those. While on the subject of flickr, I need to buy my pro account which they only sell in USD for $24.99 or something like that. Problem is I don’t know if my bank will charge me anything for the currency conversion if I pay on my debit card. If anyone knows the answer to this I’d love it if you shared the knowledge.

Oh yeah… on the iPhone front, I’ve pretty much decided to not bother with one unless O2 can match, exactly, my current plan with Orange. Something funny I’ve seen this week though, is how the Apple-loving twitterverse has been talking about the launch. Hard-core iPhone lover Graham Gilbert was one of the greatest, actually tweeting while standing in a queue outside the phone shop waiting for it to open! It’s nuts! Other reactions to Apple’s latest object of desire have been less than gleaming, however. Gav Strange (Jam Factory) lovingly had the following to say….

JamFactory just learnt that the iPhone Apps DONT work on “old” iPhones? What a crock of shit, Apple you are starting to try my patience!

So looks like, following O2′s epic fail last week with the pre-order/upgrade site falling over under the workload that they didn’t expect (yeah right!) the actual device is starting to show cracks. Other tweets point to some of the phone’s apps dramatically killing the battery and as I type this Graham Gilbert has tweeted about the phone getting seriously hot when running any third party app! Not good. So yeah.. if this continues no amount of bending over backwards on O2′s part will make me get one.

Well, that about wraps it up. Until next time sports fans!

Looking online briefly it seemed that the one people were talking about at the moment was the ixus 80IS which came in at about £169. Not too bad I thought, so I began reading reviews and what soon became clear was that this camera was good but not significantly better than it’s predecessors the ixus 70 and the ixus 75. So I looked at them because, hey, I like saving cash where I can. The ixus 75, despite having a larger LCD screen looked flimsy and a bit tacky to me. The ixus 70 on the other hand, looked like a little gem! sleek, robust looking and packing a more-than-adequate 7.1 mega pixels it seemed like the one to go for. Looking around revealed some bargains; Amazon had the camera listed at £113 delivered, a bargain… even more of a bargain when my mum revealed that it was being bought for me out of my step dad’s recent compensation claim for an accident he had at work!

On Friday last week, it arrived in all it’s brushed aluminium glory and I started snapping away like a man possessed. What instantly stood out about this camera was that, like the ixus 50 I’d used previously, it had an exceptional macro mode allowing me to take intriguing, vivid close-ups of things like flowers and leaves that you’d need a very expensive lens to replicate with an SLR. Other sweet features include face detection which can detect and track up to nine faces per frame and automatically adjust shutter speed, ISO settings and various other aspects to get the best shot.

So now I’m set. Expect some photoriffic blogs coming your way soon. In the mean time however, here are some shots I’ve taken since I got the camera… just a few tests, I’m not 100% down with all the features just yet.

Till next time…

Dan