1215 AM. Not quarter past midnight, but a radio frequency familiar to generations (although perhaps not any of the younger ones). Today it has stopped broadcasting. As AM radio slowly disappears, a bit of British folklore goes with it. Read full article
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Today marks the 20th anniversary of my first blog post. Blogging is important to me, but it has seen many changes. The online publishing ecosystem is having a moment right now. So what's next? Read full article
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I have complicated feelings about the apparent imminent demise of Twitter in the hands of a reckless owner. Read full article
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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. Read full article
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Yesterday I completed my first 5k run since I broke my ankle exactly one year ago. It was on the first ever Holyrood parkrun. Read full article
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Becoming a parent is a huge privilege. But it’s no secret that it’s also hard work. You don’t plan to break your ankle during the first year of your child’s life. Read full article
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We have a fascinating opportunity for a University of Edinburgh undergraduate student to join our team as an intern this summer. The job has a cool title: nudge intern. Read full article
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What’s most surprising about the metaverse is just how lacking in ambition it is. This is a half-hearted rehash of a 30-year-old idea. Read full article
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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. Read full article
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Many designers talk about user-centred design. But design approaches alone aren’t sufficient to ensure we are human-centred. Design approaches can be used carelessly — or even maliciously — to centre the designer and sideline the user. Read full article
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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. Read full article
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Have you ever been told that by doing human-centred work you're stepping on someone else's toes? I have heard it a number of times. More and more people are exploring the apparent overlaps between human-centred approaches and other disciplines. Read full article
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At the weekend I broke my ankle while playing bubble football on a stag do. Read full article
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Innovation falls flat when it doesn’t respond to a human need. Use human-centred approaches to understand people’s fundamental motivations and needs. These are the stabilising forces for innovation. Read full article
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It is difficult to find a phrase that exactly describes my work and the way I approach it. I’ve started to talk about human-centred approaches. This post explains what I mean by that. Read full article
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...and what I don’t mean by that. Read full article
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Many people are intrigued by content design but unsure if it's the right fit for them. So here is my beginner's guide to being a content designer. Find out why it might be a better fit for you than you might think — and why it might not be. Read full article
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Isobel is our first baby, so it’s difficult to compare having a baby during coronavirus to other times. But it does seem like a strange time to have a baby. There are many disadvantages to the current situation. But there are also some interesting advantages, particularly for me as a father. Read full article
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Two weeks ago our daughter Isobel was born. Read full article
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One year ago today, Alex and I went with our friends Lucy and Richard to a sushi-making class at Yo. Trigger warning: This blog post describes events preceding the coronavirus outbreak. Read full article
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Slides from my UCD Gathering talk on Thursday 15 October 2020, about the work we’ve been doing at the University of Edinburgh to improve the experience of students and staff working with course materials digitally. Read full article
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During our kitchen renovation, we found this under the floorboards. It is a “Boys’ Outfitters” catalogue for James Middlemass & Co. We think it dates from around the 1880s. Read full article
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How a chat at a conference underlined that user experience itself has a user experience problem — and what we can do about it. Read full article
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Radiohead’s Kid A, released 20 years ago today, is my favourite album. There are two reasons why. Read full article
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I’m pleased to be speaking at UCD Gathering, a new virtual conference taking place on 15 and 16 October, about my team’s service design approach to improving the way staff use our virtual learning environment to better meet students’ needs. Read full article
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As lockdown eased slightly during the summer, our flat became busy with our delayed renovation. Read full article
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You may think many things when you hear a track by Autechre. But “I could make a cover version of this” is probably not among them. Read full article
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Jupiter Artland has reopened to local members, so last weekend we visited with our friends Louise, Jamie and Elena. Read full article
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As lockdown eased, small craft projects made way for some much larger home improvement projects. Read full article
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At Service Design in Government, I discovered that service designers see themselves as Mario. But that is an unrealistic model for what service design should be. Read full article
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As the lockdown continues, we’re continuing to find ways to keep ourselves busy. Read full article
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Each weekend during lockdown, we’re trying to make at least one new thing. These are the little projects giving us a reason to get up at the weekends. Read full article
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This week I presented to the UX Glasgow community about our user research into the needs of students and staff working with course materials digitally at the University of Edinburgh. It was my first real experience of presenting to a live audience remotely. Read full article
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One of the (many) strange features of the coronavirus outbreak is that in many ways I feel busier than I have ever been. It is almost three weeks since I was last in my office, yet I haven’t had the time to commit my thoughts to writing. Read full article
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Last week I attended the Service Design in Government conference, held here in Edinburgh. It was a hugely thought-provoking event. Almost every session I attended was excellent, sparking new ideas and thoughts that I am still getting to grips with almost a week on. Read full article
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Sometimes, when I think about my earliest days, I remember Presto. Even as a very young child, in the very early 90s, Presto seemed like a supermarket from a bygone age. Read full article
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After spending a few days in Réunion, the second part of our honeymoon saw us staying in Mauritius. Read full article
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In September, Alex and I had our “big” honeymoon, in Mauritius and Réunion. It was a holiday that perfectly balanced adventure and chill. Read full article
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In my blog post about my first five parkruns, I told the story of how I unexpectedly beat my 5k personal best at Highbury Fields parkrun. This post outlines what happened in my next five parkruns, where I got some unexpected personal bests and lost a whole run. Read full article
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Of the three main teams, two of them have drivers fully committed for the next four seasons. What about Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes? The silence is deafening. Read full article
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The last five years in politics show us you don’t need to gain power to achieve your objectives. Read full article
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Christmas and new year is a time for reflection for most people. It never seems to work that way for me. Read full article
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Town planners in the mid-20th century faced a big problem. The advent of the motor car brought increased congestion and safety risks. Planners wrongly thought that separating pedestrians and vehicles on different levels was the solution. If you know where to look, you can still see remnants of this thinking. Read full article
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I’ve been running on-and-off for about six years. But it was only a year ago that I took part in my first Parkrun. Since then, I have done five different Parkruns in four different locations. My aim was always to run a sub-25 minute 5k. But it somehow always eluded me — until the fifth one. Read full article
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I’ve not had the chance this year to write in-depth explaining which way I’ve voted. But there is one feature of the commentary online this year that has really bugged me, and I need to get if off my chest. Read full article
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The session will outline the comprehensive programme of user research the University of Edinburgh’s User Experience Service conducted on behalf of the Learn Foundations project. It will show how, as the project went along, we adopted a service design approach in order to better meet the needs of both students and staff. Read full article
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Accessibility and aesthetics are not in conflict, despite the claims of some. Read full article
2 commentsThere are lots of things you could say about Clive James, whose death has been announced today. But I was, of course, particularly drawn to his work in Formula 1. Read full article
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I'm not really a hoarder (he said). But people do accumulate things. The slow, dawning realisation is that it's all been pointless. Read full article
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To do good stuff, you have to get out of your comfort zone. 10 years ago, just before I got my first job after graduating, I was a scared person. I still am. Read full article
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