I read this in today’s Metro. Made me laugh, that’s all. So, if you want to come into our studio and let us thrash you at giant wall-projected Wii Mario Kart, we regret that we will have to search you for bananas and/or mushrooms on your way in.

We are proud to announce that our latest website www.sportsister.com has gone live this morning. Sportsister is an online sports magazine for women, with interviews, kit reviews, events and more!

This was spotted by my Dad last week in a certain North Devon newspaper: The two headlines on this page could possibly have benefited from a quick check before going to print.

As a Web Designer turned Information Architect I appreciate good usability, and accessibility. So coming across the ubiquitous ‘click here’ as much as I do does tend to get the heckles up! And think of people who rely on screen readers - hearing those two words time after time must be more than just a mild annoyance?

So, to this end, I thought some opinionated suggestion wouldn’t hurt!

It doesn’t take a particularly seismic shift in content authoring to contextualise link copy. Simply describing what will happen or where the user will end up is an easy habit to adopt. And when you consider that a well designed style sheet will quickly highlight a link at a glance, then why not take advantage with link text that is unique as well as useful. A page full of ‘click here’ does not inspire the reader.

And you don’t have to take my word for it, as Mr. Jakob Nielsen agrees in his Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 (see section 2).

Further resources:
So, don’t click here, instead…

Find out more about how to use descriptive link text on www.universalusability.com and how this will also lead to Increased usability as shown on www.webcredible.co.uk

The same website also contains more information on Improving usability for screen reader users

I hope this has been useful? If you’ve any comments to add, please use the appropriately described links below..!

Often at home I use different devices and media to get different info at different times. Some examples:

I cycle to the train station as part of my commute so I often want to check the weather. I may either look on my imac downstairs before bed in the evening or sometimes I may have forgotten and so I use the mobile BBC weather site on my Sony Ericsson k800i if I am upstairs already.

I often listen to music in different parts of the home as well. In the kitchen we use the iMac, in the lounge I plug my iPod into the surround sound system and elsewhere in the house I use the iPod with a set of portable battery powered speakers. (I have thought about wireless speakers but never found the reason compelling enough to justify the financial outlay).

Now there are gaps in my consumption of media. How to get a decent weather forecast wherever I am without having to boot up the iMac? How to have an alarm clock that plays more than just radio or “beep-beep”?

So along comes chumby! I will leave you to go and look at the site for more info but it is basically a clever little blob thing that does loads of stuff like show photos and get info from the Internet and play music etc. On the surface it may be a bit scary - a Linux mini computer. Not the best spec for normal people to latch onto. However, if you think of it as a media device in the home then it feels very different. Also they have done a clever thing in the aesthetic design in that it is like a little beanbag. This probably helps for all the times you will drop it but it also makes it look nice in the home - very important to my wife this bit. I can imagine it looking nice on my bedside table as it wakes me up with some rocky music and then shows me the weather report for today. I can equally imagine it in the kitchen with some recipes widget, or on top of the TV in the lounge to play music and show photos.

The other point is the price - a device like this has to be cheap otherwise you might as well buy a laptop or a big iPod.
It costs $179.95 which is great as that is only £90 by current exchange rates!!! This is less expensive than the posh remote from Logitech! What a bargain. Let’s just hope the interface isn’t horrendous!

I will leave it there but I would be interested what other people think of it. Add your comments below.

Blackle - Energy Saving SearchInteresting - a Google clone, whose screen deliberately uses as much black as possible - which apparently saves energy. The actual energy saved must be negligible, but I suppose it’s all the little changes that count, isn’t it? It’s a shame we designers are so fond of lovely white space… 

Hi guys

I bought my husband the iPod touch for his birthday and this is the most amazing piece of technology I have seen with my own eyes. Most of us here at the agency are Apple fanatics, but this device shows you again how technology can be presented in a beautiful shape and made so easy to use that even a 5 year old could figure out how it works!!

I am always amazed about the way people apply for jobs. We receive a fair number of job applications and it is quite shocking the quality of them. Now I am not judging the people here but just the way they apply for a job.

Here are some pointers when applying for a job at a design agency:

1. Go for initial impressions: at first glance, your CV and email/letter must give a strong impression of your core skills. If you are a designer then make sure the CV looks great and that it is clear and shows creative flair without being OTT and hard to read.
2. Prove your skills: You must give examples of your work. Designers and developers should have an online portfolio that demonstrates their best work and ideally a diversity of work to show you are not a one-trick-pony.
3. Clarity is everything: People like me want to be able to glance at a CV or similar and know straight away what that candidate is good at, what experience they have, what they are like, and where they live. If you are claiming to be a great usability guru then make sure your CV is really usable! If you are claiming to be a high level developer then list your skills and what you have done with them. If you are a junior designer then show a willingness to learn and a passion for moving up the ladder.

Ok I will stop the soapbox now. Apologies if I offended anyone. Also please note these are my opinions and other ‘recruiters’ may disagree. I just know what I look for.

Cheers.

If you are selling something online make sure that you are an expert in that product or service. It is very frustrating and trust destroying to a customer if you discover that the person at the end of a phone line or email conversation knows absolutely nothing about what they are selling.

I recently purchased a 1961 classic Vespa scooter that has been restored to its original glory. I bought it from vespaclassics.com which is a company run by a guy called Sam. Now Sam is a great example of knowing and loving your product. When I first emailed Vespa Classics I got a reply with loads of advice and helpful points including lots of questions I needed to answer.

Several weeks down the line I now have my custom restored 1961 Vespa and I am loving it. Part of the reason is probably down to the whole purchase experience. Every step of the way Sam has comunicated with me to inform me of progress as well as to confirm my exact requirements. To be honest I have no idea which type of “carb” I would like but because of the communication with Sam I am confident to trust his judgement in the more technical decisions.

And this is the key - TRUST. Because Sam has demonstrated his knowledge and passion for his product I have been able to trust a complete stranger with a few thousand pounds of my money and be confident that I will receive something great for it.

I can whole-heartedly recommend Vespa Classics not just because of the end product I received (though that is quite amazing), but because of the level of service you receive from them.

end of lesson 2: be an expert in your product or service.

In case you haven’t seen it, they have now unveilied the new London 2012 logo. To say it has caused a stir would be an understatement.

As of this morning there were 66 Facebook groups setup to oppose the logo.

The BBC poll for people’s opinion on the logo had 54% saying it won a wooden spoon instead of a gold medal.

There is also a petition which you can sign and join over 14,000 other people so far.

There are numerous competitions to come up with other logos which are producing some great looking results.

Our opinion on this logo is not really important. However, what is a shame is that this was a great opportunity to have a nationwide competition to design the logo. Firstly this would have demonstrated the wealth of design talent within Britain. Secondly it would have cost significantly less than the reported bill of £400k.