Category: Web
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Busi-ness and blogging in 2024
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A busier life, and recent events on the internet, mean a new direction for my blog.
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12 years in higher education web and user experience management
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Today I have started a new job. But while I’m looking forward, I have also been reflecting, as this moment marks my first real move away from higher education. Despite the differing natures of the three organisations I worked for, there were many parallels across them.
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Access for all — my final plea for human-centred design — Lizzie Cass-Maran — Website and Communications Blog
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Last month our brilliant colleague Lizzie Cass-Maran left our team after more than 10 years. In her final blog post for our team’s blog, she has written this plea to keep humans at the centre of all our decision-making. For the past few years I’ve been working with Lizzie, I’ve always been impressed at the […]
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Consider the tomato — Eric Bailey — Thoughtbot
Tomatoes are a bit of an ontological mess. Why information architecture is difficult, explained by tomatoes — and not just the fruit/vegetable thing you might already be thinking.
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It’s nice to see that Google’s new Web Creators initiative has an RSS feed. Now maybe they could work on a product that helps people subscribe to those RSS feeds to foster this community of web creators…
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It’s nice to see that Google’s new Web Creators initiative has an RSS feed. Now maybe they could work on a product that helps people subscribe to those RSS feeds to foster this community of web creators…
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When you browse Instagram and find former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott’s passport number — Alex Hope — The Mango Zone
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A highly entertaining read about how someone used a photo of a boarding pass posted by Tony Abbott on his own Instagram account to find out the former Australian prime minister’s personal details including his passport and phone number. Alex Hope embarks on an adventure to find out whether he broke the law, figure out […]
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We’re hiring a Senior Content Designer — Website and Communications Blog
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The University of Edinburgh Website and Communications team is hiring a Senior Content Designer. Come and join my team! If you’re passionate about using evidence-based approaches to create great content that meets users’ needs, we want to hear from you. Read the blog post to learn more about the position and how to apply.
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HTML: The Inaccessible Parts — Dave Rupert
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Following on from Gov.UK’s revelation about <input type=”number”>, Dave Rupert has compiled a list of other bits of HTML that can cause inadvertent accessibility issues. There are some cases where even using plain ol’ HTML causes accessibility problems. I get frustrated and want to quit web development whenever I read about these types of issues. […]
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Why the Gov.UK Design System team changed the input type for numbers — Hanna Laakso — Technology in government
The Gov.UK Design System team have discovered that using the HTML element <input type=”number”> creates some surprising problems in certain environments. Some of the limitations in assistive technologies such as Dragon Naturally Speaking are disappointing but unsurprising. But Chrome deciding to convert large numbers to exponential notation is rather more eyebrow-raising. Then there is Safari […]
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Coding is for everyone — as long as you speak English — Gretchen McCulloch — Wired
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This year marks the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web, so there’s been a lot of pixels spilled on “the initial promises of the web”—one of which was the idea that you could select “view source” on any page and easily teach yourself what went into making it display like that. This article makes […]
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Join our team as a Content Designer — Website and Communications Blog
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Come and work with our team! We are looking for three experienced Content Designers to join the University of Edinburgh’s Website and Communications team as we embark on major projects to launch our new web publishing platform and services. If you’re passionate about using evidence-based approaches to create great content that meets users’ needs, we […]
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Opera: Phantom of the Turnaround — Hindenburg Research
If you still have the Opera web browser installed anywhere, now might be the time to stop. With its browser business in decline, cash flow deteriorating (and balance sheet cash finding its way into management’s hands…), Opera has decided to embark on a dramatic business pivot: predatory short-term lending in Africa and Asia. The article […]
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Dark mode favicons — Chris Coyier — CSS-Tricks
This is pretty cool. Google Chrome will begin supporting SVG favicons. And because you can embed CSS within SVG, you can use media queries to create dark mode favicons. Smart! Via Stéphanie Walter
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We’re looking for a PhD student intern to work with us next year. This is an exciting time to join our team, and an opportunity to help us improve high-profile web services like MyEd and the University website.
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We’re looking for a University of Edinburgh PhD student intern to work with us next year. This is an exciting time to join the Website and Communications team, and an opportunity to help us improve high-profile web services like MyEd and the University website. Take a look!
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The handy list of human words — Deanna Horton — Curiosity by Design
Useful for those who like to write in plain language.
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The term “responsive web design” has failed — Frances Berriman
Those words (originally from a slide by Alex Russell) may seem rather provocative. But it is a fair reminder that design isn’t just about how it looks. In this case, most people (including, at times, myself) have fallen foul of the trap described here. That of thinking that setting a few breakpoints for smaller screens […]
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Why much of the internet is closed off to blind people — James Jeffrey — BBC News
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The most notable thing about this article is the sorry list of weak excuses offered up by businesses who can’t be bothered to make their websites accessible. “…a blind person can always ring Domino’s toll-free number and order that way…” Why should they have to? “…there is no clear objective guidance on what constitutes an […]
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I have now implemented a dark mode for this website
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I have now implemented a dark mode for this website. Many operating systems are now offering dark mode as a preference. If you have dark mode switched on, this website now displays in a fetching darker colour scheme. Media queries to the rescue!
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Is there a way to force all mobile apps to open web URLs in my actual browser of choice, instead of the crappy WebView they make you use?
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Is there a way to force all mobile apps to open web URLs in my actual browser of choice, instead of the crappy WebView they make you use? This is one thing I am truly fed up with now.
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Khoi Vinh on how his blog amplified his work and career — Own Your Content
An interview with Khoi Vinh on the benefits of blogging. Blogging has always been pivotal to my career. When I was offered my first ‘proper’ job as a web editor at the University of St Andrews, I only really had my blog to speak for. Yet it was enough to get my name out there, and […]
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Encouraging self-service through improving content at the University of Edinburgh — Lauren Tormey — GatherContent
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My awesome colleague Lauren Tormey wrote this blog post about a brilliant project she’s been involved in. She has been collaborating with our Information Services Helpline to reduce unnecessary support calls by iteratively improving content with a regular cycle of usability testing. Over two summers, we had done work to improve content related to getting […]
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UI vs UX — Xkcd
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Xkcd’s take on this perennial debate. I guess it had to happen sometime. 🙈 Nine years ago, soon after I started working on a university website, Xkcd published the classic comic called University Website.
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The web we broke — Ethan Marcotte
A sobering summary of WebAIM’s accessibility analysis of the top 1 million homepages. In short, the picture is much worse than we might have hoped or expected. …we’ve created a web that’s actively excluding people, and at a vast, terrible scale. We need to meditate on that.
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30 years of the world wide web
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Today the world marks the 30th birthday of the web. I could have said ‘celebrates’ instead of ‘marks’. But despite — or perhaps because of — the fact that it’s the most revolutionary advance in communications of our lifetime, the mood seems reflective rather than celebratory.
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A more complicated web — Christian Heilmann
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A more complicated web — Christian Heilmann A useful explanation as to why we can’t return to “a simpler web” that enabled anyone to easily become a publisher. What we consider a way to express ourselves on the web – our personal web site – is a welcome opportunity for attackers… [I]t can be recruited […]
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Automated front-end development: A critique — Paul Robert Lloyd
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Automated front-end development: A critique — Paul Robert Lloyd A compelling 120-word critique regarding automated front-end development, as provided by a class attribute inside this simple Squarespace template… It could almost be a dada poem.
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No, we don’t really care about your privacy
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No, we don’t really care about your privacy “We value your privacy” have been the hollowest words of 2018. I am instantly suspicious of any website that displays a flashy pop-up about privacy. Like a small man with a fancy car, it looks like they’re compensating for something. It’s what happens when you want to […]
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The hurricane web
The hurricane web This post really underlines how media companies have taken the web in totally the wrong direction. It shows how media organisations like CNN and NPR brought out lightweight “text only” versions of their websites to help hurricane-stricken areas with low bandwidth. …in some aspects, they are actually better than the original. Most […]
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Why makers write
Why makers write This is a bit of a sales pitch, but it is a good piece on the importance of writing regularly. Deep understanding is necessary for makers. Understanding develops the perspective and conviction needed for bringing products to market. This is why blog-first startups are viable. Writing forces a maker to deeply understand […]
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Keeping it weird
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Keeping it weird Or, more accurately, stopping it being weird. This refers to the problem that most psychology research is conducted on people that are western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. Tim Kadlec considers the implication this has on our understanding of how people use the web. We’ve known for a while that the worldwide […]
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A farewell from BadgerGP.com
A farewell from BadgerGP.com After a decade (yes, a decade!) of BadgerGP.com we’re closing down after the 2018 season. One of the first — and best — Formula 1 blogs is closing its doors. In 2010, I was honoured to be asked if I would like to contribute an article to BadgerGP. The outcome was, […]
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Shifting focus
When it came to blogging, the tail was wagging the dog. So I have changed my routine.
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The FAQ as advice column
The FAQ as advice column FAQ sections are derided by most content designers, myself included. But (as usual) it is not necessarily the format itself that’s the problem. Normally, the real problem is bad implementation. This piece by Caroline Roberts makes a provocative case in favour of FAQs, by comparing them with advice columns. The […]
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URLs aren’t good enough
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I am a web enthusiast, but I think we need to find a better way to navigate the web than URLs.
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The web I want
The web I want Why developers’ obsession with using complicated JavaScript to deliver some text to users needs to stop. I made my first website about 20 years ago and it delivered as much content as most websites today. It was more accessible, ran faster and easier to develop then 90% of the stuff you’ll […]
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The future of SEO has never been clearer (nor more ignored)
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The future of SEO has never been clearer (nor more ignored) I don’t always pay attention to SEO stuff, but I found this analysis of trends in search interesting. It seems that search engines are sending less and less traffic to websites. It’s interesting to compare this trend to the original Google ethos, which was […]
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Are we designers shamelessly good at self promotion?
Are we designers shamelessly good at self promotion? An analysis of content about design — why people write it, how they look for it, and why it needs to be better. Last year, we published and shared 4,302 articles and links with the community … That’s a lot of links. Most of them 5-minute Medium articles. […]
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“Google was not a normal place”: Brin, Page, and Mayer on the accidental birth of the company that changed everything
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“Google was not a normal place”: Brin, Page, and Mayer on the accidental birth of the company that changed everything Fascinating article about the early days of Google. One eye-popping section recalls how they originally tried to sell their technology to other search engines, only to be knocked back. I remember going to this one […]
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Why content should be published in HTML and not PDF
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Why Gov.uk content should be published in HTML and not PDF How to give up PDFs and improve your higher education website’s user experience The crusade against PDFs has been one of my constant hobby-horses over the years. It has also led to some of my toughest battles in my work. Users hate PDFs, because […]
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It’s no wonder newspaper websites are in trouble
It’s no wonder newspaper websites are in trouble. Their latest scheme is to “lock” content by turning it into squiggles unless you watch at least 6 seconds of an advert. Needless to say, this is a horrible experience, and only makes it all the more likely that I’ll turn away from certain websites. I’m afraid […]
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Four modes of seeking information and how to design for them
Four modes of seeking information and how to design for them This is an old article, but some good brain food for those information architects out there. A good primer on some different ways people try to find content. In my work on intranets and complex websites, I noticed a range of situations where people […]
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The web’s bloated middle
Website publishers have been incentivised to do exactly the opposite of what could have made the web so great.