On last Tuesday (15th Dec) the Australian government elected to move forward and implement a filter on the Internet.
We are very concerned about this. For the first time 15 years the very nature of the freedom of the Internet is being threatened.
You will hear in the press and from the government that this is mainly to protect the Australian people from the evils of the Internet.
Just think about that for a minute, we have not had any protection for the last 15 years that the Internet has been in commercial operation. Why do we need it now?
Today the 3rd of December is International Day of People with Disability. This is to celebrate the worldwide recognition of the achievements and contributions of people with disabilities.
I know there was big breakfast at Burswood today celebrating this day. However beyond the breakfasts, picnics and the like, what are you really doing for people with disabilities.
It’s interesting to look on how professional web designers and developers have worked on the web in the past, and the way they work now; as I did in my presentation at the Edge of the Web conference in Perth.
On the web we have moved from a very inflexible approach, that was seemingly dictated by the old school ways of the information industry at the time to the flexible business and customer focus of an agile rapid development methodology.
Today 12th November 2009 is World Usability Day. The theme for this year is designing for a sustainable world. Something we often don’t think about with web design.
“So what”, I hear you say. “What does usability and sustainability have to do with me?” Often in our efforts to make things more usable we end up with a finished product that is not sustainable. One that just ends up contributing to our increasingly throwaway society. It’s about designing so we don’t use resources that are not renewable.
In these lean times there is often a temptation to ignore issues such as web accessibility, especially when the budget is tight. Let’s be honest here even with a holistic approach making a web site fully accessible can be a costly exercise, often way outside the budget of medium to small business. This is particularly true if you are considering a few rounds of accessibility testing as well.
So what can you do. As you know it is a legislative requirement all over the western world to adhere to a degree of accessibility for a web site. Sure you can go through the usual checklist of accessibility issues, work out the ones that are within your budget and leave it at that. Yes you will have ticked that box off. However in some cases your web site may still not be accessible despite your limited, but best intentions.
The Norgifieds is an interesting project as it not generally the type of site that people think they would need an information architect for.
You may or may not have heard of the term User Experience. I bet you are thinking – what is this User Experience and how does it relate to my web site.
Remember when you used to go to your favourate cafe, they would remember your name, the barista would even know your coffee order, and would often make it up for you with just a nod. The wait staff would chat away and even tell you of exclusive specials that were not on the boards or menu. You would swear the servings you got were bigger too. Over all you’re not just visiting a cafe, you were visiting old friends. It’s just a pleasant experience, somewhere you would recommend to others.
Options21 are share and options trading education specialists; they have a unique aspect to their business in that it is totally online. Every aspect of their business reflects a very modern viewpoint of the information age. They have embraced and have taken into account the dramatic cost savings of operating their business online from accounts, crm and service delivery. This has allowed them to increase their customer service delivery to a highly personalised level.
West Coast Tafe approached us with a series of issues on where to place the content, and the navigation of their upcoming new web site. The major requirement was for the content to be findable by current and prospect students, however all this had to be delivered in a shorter than usual timeframe.
The previous Challenger Tafe web site was couched in a legacy web site. With a site structure and navigation that was making it impossible for even the incumbent staff to find any information concerned, let alone the audience.
We knew time was short, so looking into our bag of designer tricks, we decide to use a rapid design and development process.
