The Upward Path

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tech

Why web designers suck (and how to spot good ones)

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When I talk to people about their websites, it’s surprising how often they have a story of a poor experience with their web designer.

Surprised at screen graphicSome of them feel unsatisfied with the results, or bruised by the process, but powerless to do anything about it. Granted, those stories may have another side that I don’t hear.

But there are certainly all too many examples of sites that have a design company’s name at the bottom but are doing a poor job for their owners. (Who may not even realise it, assuming the designer has done it the best way.)

It singes my stoat to see good messages getting short-changed. So this post is to help people understand the territory better, hopefully leading to better working relationships and increasingly fab message channels.   [Read more…] about Why web designers suck (and how to spot good ones)

Do you have Tech Fear?

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Tech fear graphic

A lot of people are uncomfortable with – or even scared of – anything involving computers. Which, like it or not, communication stuff does.

So communication – building a website, blogging, social media, creating downloads and ebooks – can look like a bigger obstacle because it has this layer of stuff-I-don’t-want-to-deal-with on top.

In this post I’m going to look at what that does to you, where it might be coming from, some practical suggestions, and some tips for when you work with more tech-oriented people.

You don’t have to like computers or be good at using them. Everybody’s different. But understanding your reactions and approaching it consciously may free you to find ways to do more with less stress.  [Read more…] about Do you have Tech Fear?

Design in the mobile age

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Over the last few years, computing has been moving from “What machines can we give people?” to “What do people want to be able to do?”

The number one answer to that has been mobility. If computers can do cool things for us, we want to access those wherever we are, not just at our desks.

The number two answer has been that people don’t care about hardware and software, but about the media and information that catch their interest in the moment. Listening to music, watching videos, getting information about the weather or local cinema times…

Here’s a canter through how the technology has changed, and a starter for thinking about what it means for designing your documents.

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Review: Kindle Keyboard

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The Kindle KeyboardThis is a slightly edited version of a post I published elsewhere in October 2011.

Once in a while I’ll talk about gadgets here, and I recently acquired a Kindle, to take on a few days’ holiday rather than a brace of paperbacks.

Two days later Amazon announced the new Kindle models. Thanks guys. The model I got is being kept on, in the UK at least, as the ‘Kindle keyboard wifi’ (I didn’t pay the extra for 3G), alongside the new, cheaper, keyboardless model. I gather the screen’s the same in the new one, perhaps slightly improved, page turns are a bit faster but storage capacity and battery life are less. So if you want a similar experience for cheaper it might be worth a look.

The Kindle is probably the leading dedicated e-book reader at the moment. It’s Amazon’s best-selling product [now outstripped by the Kindle Fire colour tablet in the USA], and a key part of the company’s strategy, enabling book sales in e-book format, which has now outstripped sales of physical books.

So, what’s it like for convenience and readability?

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