Linknote — — 130 words

Accessibility — Technology

Talking to Léonie Watson about computer vision and blindness

Peter Gasston interviewed Léonie Watson, an accessibility consultant who is blind. In this extract, they discuss computer vision — technologies that can extract information from photos and videos using machine learning. It sounds like massively promising technology.

I was sitting in a hotel having breakfast not long ago and just held up my phone and took a quick snapshot and it told me I was sitting opposite a window, and told me what it could see out the window; and that’s just information I would never have had unless I’d happened to sort of ask whoever I was with to describe it to me. But having that ability to just do that independently is really quite remarkable.

Note — — 32 words

Personal

Happy Christmas. I am planning on doing as little as possible over this break. Alex and I will be spending a few days in Fife before returning to Edinburgh. Enjoy your holiday!

Linknote — — 65 words

Technology

Facebook’s algorithm hijacked this $8 billion company to sell cat blindfolds

Online retailer Wish was developing a cult following for its incredibly bizarre Facebook ads. Among the products displayed to users: cat blindfolds, cocaine sweatshirts and “plastic tongue things”.

It’s yet another unforseen consequence of algorithms driving everything, and yet another indication that companies desperately need to stop giving so much weight to clicks alone.

Linknote — — 119 words

Technology

This changes everything: Gutenberg is good now

I have only been keeping half an eye on the controversy surrounding the project to re-work the WordPress post editing experience, Gutenberg. Early versions of the new design were widely panned by the WordPress community. But according to this article, Gutenberg has turned a corner.

Having been a WordPress user since 2004, I am probably not the target audience for the change, and nor are most of the people complaining. WordPress’s challenge is to reach the people who are currently looking to Squarespace or Wix.

Given that WordPress powers 28% of all websites, I’m interested to find out how such a fundamental change is going to be communicated to its huge number of users.

Linknote — — 81 words

Culture — Digital

I made my shed the top rated restaurant on TripAdvisor

Brilliantly entertaining article by someone who managed to game TripAdvisor into ranking his fake establishment as the number one restaurant in London.

When he staged a deliberately-awful opening night, some of the patrons asked to come again.

The Shed at Dulwich has suddenly become appealing. How?

I realise what it is: the appointments, lack of address and general exclusivity of this place is so alluring that people can’t see sense.

Linknote — — 34 words

Business

[23 workplace horror stories that’ll make you say “WTAF?”](https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelwmiller/best-ask-a-manager-columns?utm_term=.jaewOp7Qpj#.wyrXz96Y95)

Set aside an hour or two to read some of these jaw-dropping workplace issues.

Linknote — — 117 words

Culture

How the sandwich consumed Britain

An absolutely fascinating long read about sandwiches. It finds dozens of angles on the topic, and they all prove to be fascinating.

I hadn’t realised that packaged sandwiches were such a recent invention. This article outlines the way M&S’s innovation has transformed people’s behaviour and expectations.

[M&S sandwich boss Richard Whiteside] confronted the lunchtime queue in Boots and asked people why they weren’t coming to his store. “They said: ‘Well, I am not crossing the road’,” he recalled.

I still treat buying a sandwich as a bit of a luxury. I make sandwiches for me and Alex the night before work, thinking of the money it’s saving.

Linknote — — 83 words

Business — Service design — User experience

[What product managers can learn from teachers about running great workshops](https://medium.com/@philippa.peasland_69295/what-product-managers-can-learn-from-teachers-about-running-great-workshops-73f235e61cd3)

As it happens, I was recently talking to a colleague about the links between teaching and running workshops. I have come to appreciate the similarities this year. A couple of my colleagues used to be teachers, and working with them has made the parallels become clear.

This article contains some great tips on how to improve your workshops with techniques used by teachers.

Linknote — — 160 words

Human-centred approaches — Media — Technology

The media perspective on burger emoji: An unexpected analysis

The burger emoji: A first-hand analysis of the media coverage

Media analyst Thomas Baekdal unexpectedly went viral last month when he tweeted about the inconsistencies between the burger emojis for Apple and Google. He has published two articles about it. The first examines why his tweet went viral. The second investigates how the media reacted.

The analysis paints a rather negative picture of the media.

…look at the very familiar pattern of the stories posted by the media. They are all focusing on Google’s CEO saying he will do something.

Think about all the other stories that journalists cover on a regular basis. How many of those have the same inherent problem of being antagonistically focused, with a scandal-first lens regardless if the underlying topic is politics, business, or general human interest?

For what it’s worth, of course the cheese should be on top.

(I have written before about ambiguous emojis.)