News from May 2008
Memories and articles from back in the day
Thinking about going out on your own?
Starting your own web design agency and becoming the Blue Flavor or the Happy Cog of Australia is the dream of so many who come to Web Directions every year I’m sure. Such a big step though, and not a decision to be taken lightly. Knowledge is the … Read more »
Web Directions South 2008 — Student pricing
We appreciate that there are many people for whom the price of admission to Web Directions South 08 must seem extravagent. At the same time we are confident that we make the ticket price as reasonable as we possibly can for such an event.
The addition of the Expo and more … Read more »
Time to stop using images as link anchors
Looks like using images as link anchors is patented.
This madness has got to end sometime soon no?
Top user experience annoyances
- Some years ago I had the privilege to see Sir Tim Berners-lee speak at WWW2005 in Japan. One of the things which stayed with me was his strong emphasis on the word “user” in the term “user agent”. In particular he made mention of pop up ads, and how … Read more »
- record a simple … Read more »
When all else fails, blame the user
I took this photo late last year. I can’t recall exactly which CD it was, or whether it was software or music. I have a feeling it might have been a game for the Wii?
You can tell pretty clearly that the design doesn’t work. So, how … Read more »
Poor form
Today I’ve had need not once but twice to use complex form based interfaces from two enormous multinational companies. Each was a spectacularly frustrating experience, and goes to show just how far we are from designing decent web experiences much of the time. In order to salvage at least some … Read more »
Cubescape — Cameron Adam’s latest masterpiece
Cameron Adams, known worldwide as “the man in blue”, has done it again. His latest masterpiece is cubescape, a javascript tour de force, showing just how rich and interactive javascript based applications can be.
It’s also fun to play with. So go and marvel at what you can do … Read more »
Free Event in melbourne this Thursday — a reminder
Just a reminder of the free event this Thursday in Melbourne, brought to you by Web directions,the Web Standards Group and the W3C Australia Office — featuring Jose Alonso (lead of the W3C’s eGovernment initiative) and Richard Ishida, the W3C’s internationalization guru — and it’s free. Not only that, but … Read more »
Web Directions UX and Government fast approaching
Web Directions User Experience, and Government are now fast approaching — UX kicking off Thursday with workshops by Cameron Adams, and Andy Budd, followed by the conference Friday, and then Government Monday, and workshops Tuesday — so a busy week coming up.
Some places still available for the conferences, and workshops, … Read more »
Upload your city
Here at Web Directions we are big fans of DJ Shadow, one of the world’s great DJ/Producers.
Quite by accident the other day I came across a project he’s doing with Nokia (incidentally this seems like a way better way of spending one’s marketing budget than putting … Read more »
Interesting (South) Night coming up
Via Stephen Collins I’ve just come across a fantastic looking great value evening in Sydney on Monday night (May 12th).
Billed as “an evening of interestingness”, Interesting South is an eclectic assortment of fascinating speakers, covering all manner of stuff — Bus Network design, consciousness in animals, industrial innovation, … Read more »
Job: Webapp developer for Museum Victoria
The State Library of Victoria, well known for their innovative use of the web are looking for a senior web application developer. If that sounds like something you might be interested in, you can find more information at their web site.
Just over a week to go to WDUX and WDGov
Just over a week to go now until Web Directions UX — workshops start tomorrow week, while the conference itself is Friday week. Turnout so far has been fantastic, so thanks to all who’ve signed up so far, and if you don’t want to miss out, you’ve got just … Read more »
Free Web Directions event Melbourne May 15th
Web Directions, along with the Melbourne Web Standards Group, and proudly supported by the W3C Australia office are presenting a great free event in Melbourne on May 15th — the night before Web Directions User Experience.
The event features two wonderful speakers from the W3C — Joe Manuel Alonso, the head … Read more »
It’s Feel Good on Friday time again
And this time feeling doesn’t even have to cost you a cent. All you have to do over at Mission Australia’s House the Homeless site is click a link. Every time someone does this Realesate.com.au donates $1.00 to the cause.
Now if Medecins Sans Frontiers can start doing this, and … Read more »
NSW Government free wifi plan killed off
The NSW government’s ambitious free wifi plan for major CBD areas in the state has just been cancelled.
The overseas experience is that large-scale WiFi projects have proved ineffective in meeting the needs of local businesses and the community,” Mr Roozendaal [Minister for Infrastructure] said.
Most schemes sponsored by overseas governments … Read more »
And lift off…
After a few twitter induced hiccups, we’ve both launched Web Directions South, and managed to reboot the server which didn’t seem to like a rather large spike in traffic after word got out about the launch on Twitter this am.
There’s a lot we could say about the lineup — … Read more »
Oh, hello mob, how are you today?
When anaesthetists from Blakehurst start doing things like this … be afraid.
ACMA — Top six trends in communications technology
ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, has published a detail report entitled “Top Six Trends in Communications and Media Technologies, Applications and Services — Possible Implications”.
Section 5, “Web-based services and the emerging ‘social web’” focusses on where these technologies might be headed. What’s interesting is that their predictions … Read more »
Andy Budd interview at SitePoint
Melbourne Keynote speaker Andy Budd did an in-depth interview with Matt Magain at SitePoint while down south, and it’s now published. Quite an epic it is too, and well worth a read.
Thank you
Thanks to all who helped make both Web Directions UX and Web Directions Government fantastic successes. The turnouts were wonderful, presentations world class, and the vibe at both conferences enthusiastic and excited.
Based on the success of both these events, I’m sure we’ll be seeing them return.
You’ll find slideshows from a … Read more »
Podcasts — help wanted
Wondering if anyone out there might be interested in about a day’s work, some time in the next week, to help us produce the podcasts from Web Directions User Experience and Government. We’re all set up to manage the podcasting itself ourselves, but we need someone who can