Google

Article — 9 November 2021 — 1,032 words

Be usable, not consistent, not uniform

Consistency is often seen as a slam-dunk argument in favour of an initiative. But if you don’t know what you want to a design to be consistent with — and why — then consistency risks confusing your users.

Article — 27 September 2021 — 86 words

List of things Google Assistant thinks I want to do instead of make oat milk

Technology

Occasionally I make my own oat milk. When I run out of oat milk, I ask Google Assistant to remind me later in the day to make oat milk. It normally misunderstands me. Interestingly, it misunderstands me in a variety of different ways.

Article — 30 August 2019 — 669 words

BBC not so sound

Media — Technology

Radio broadcasters are battling each other to be the Netflix of radio. None of them seem to have asked themselves why any of their listeners would want that.

Article — 4 November 2018 — 391 words

Why Google’s feed succeeds when Facebook’s fails

Current affairs — Technology

With Google adding its Discover feed to its famously minimalist homepage, what will stop them repeating Facebook’s mistakes?

Article — 1 November 2018 — 466 words

So it happened — Flickr has got rid of almost-unlimited storage

Photography — Technology

This week, Flickr announced that free accounts will be limited to only 1,000 photos. It’s another warning that we can’t rely on externally-run content silos.

Article — 29 March 2018 — 1,984 words

The media also has lessons to learn from the latest Facebook furore

Media — Politics — Technology

I am no fan of Facebook. But I am less than impressed with the media’s coverage of Facebook as well.

Article — 1 March 2018 — 2,087 words

Media dinosaurs have the wrong scapegoat in Facebook

Media — Technology

Anyone who reads this blog will know by now that I am no fan of Facebook. But I will defend them on this. The newspaper industry’s attempt to pin the blame of their woes on Facebook is wrong.

Article — 6 October 2017 — 1,664 words

Why the cruel culture of coding is damaging society

Digital — Technology — Work

When a former Google engineer’s ill-informed anti-diversity essay became news during the summer, it shone a light on problems with the the tech industry’s makeup. The diversity issue is the tip of the iceberg. A host of cultural problems face the tech scene.

Article — 22 September 2016 — 1,950 words