New direction for blog
A selection of content from this blog will now be updated and published on You the User, my new updated hosted WordPress blog and home to all my online activities. This WordPress.com blog will remain but I will no longer be publishing here so if you are interested in anything I have to say please keep run along to You the User
Thanks for reading
Advertising Faces – a photo set on Flickr
New idea. Series of close ups of faces that appear on any form of advertising. Efforts will be made to geotag each one (though obviously most types of advertising change) in the effort to build a record across (mainly) Greater London.
All photos will be delivered to this set on Flickr. (You can follow it on RSS.) many will be posted on Twitter with this tag: #advertfaces.
Here’s a selection of where I’m up to so far (new ones every day):
London IA November 11 IA Mini
More details
Max Gadney is a Commissioning Executive in the BBC Vision Multi-Platform team. Prior to that he was Head of Design and Audience Insight at the BBC News website during which time he oversaw several major launches and introduced the Net Promoter audience metric to the BBC. In his spare time Max writes and illustrates information graphics on military technology for WWII Magazine in the US.
Richard Sedley is Director of the cScape Customer Engagement Unit (CEU), a collective of online specialists drawn from multiple companies and offering clients a single source for the best in online marketing.
Jason Mesut is Experience Director at The Team
Oliver Reichenstein runs Information Architects in Tokyo
Links, bookmarks, finds early October
50 years of space exploration by Steve Bissonnette
Merin Mann’s empire of stuff including Inbox Zero and 43folders
QLOCKTWO iPhone app (and make your own)
Good books want to be reread (blog post from Information Architects from 2006)
Misha Glenny investigates global crime networks (Ted)
Graphic Presentation by Willard Cope Brinton
Autodesk’ SketchBook Mobile app
Andrew Weatherall’s new album A Pox on the Pioneers
Good IxDers borrow, great ones steal
Discovering magic (online identities)
Noam Chomsky on health care reforms
Best in class data delivery Nirvana
London IA in a Pub
Back to The Island Queen in Islington and the plan this time is to take the top room and put on some quick and dirty presentations and workshops between trips to the bar.
Stuart Cruickshank – The UX of search (CANCELLED)
Leisa Reichelt – What I’ve learned about UX freelancing
Boon Chew – The goodness of diary studies
Joe Lanman – The power of text interfaces; text interfaces for mainstream users
Francis Storr – Intranets
Martin Belam – UX of baby
Cara Dewsnip – Getting started in UX – my quest for answers
Nicky Smyth – UX Glass Ceiling
Evening kindly sponsored by Lab49 who will provide projector
MAX CAPACITY OF UPSTAIRS ROOM: 50
(room in downstairs pub though)
Download presentation
Download presentation
Brunel’s Tunnel
This weekend saw the launch of the Geek Atlas, a book by John Graham-Cumming at the Brunel Museum which also marked the occasion by opening up the grand entrance hall to the Thames Tunnel.
An impressive place and with a title like ‘the birth of the tube’ (worldwide) and modern tunnelling methods etc associated with it – it certainly felt like an important place to stand for a moment and reflect on a Saturday afternoon.
To quote The Geek Atlas (in a nutshell):
“In 1843, the first tunnel passing under a body of water opened beneath the Thames River, between Rotherhithe and Wapping in London. The tunnel was built by Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened as a pedestrian tunnel featuring underground shops and entertainment, but within 30 years it had been purchased by a railway company and to this day is used to run trains.”
Here’s a (v brief) calendar of the more interesting events (to know more stroll along the river and visit yourself – the book is only a fiver):
1825: Brick tower is sunk below the ground (Marc Brunel innovates the concept of building above ground and then sinking the construction) and boring begins
1827: Early example of public relations – a celebration banquet is held in the tunnel and they sing Rule Britannia and See the Conquering Hero Comes while the uniformed Coldstream Guards deafen everyone.
1828: Illness, death and then tunnel bricked up due to end of funding.
1834: Funding secured
1835: Tunnelling restarts
1838: Fifth major flood
1841: Tunnel reaches Wapping
1843: Thames Tunnel opened to pedestrian traffic and shops
1852: (financiers looking for more return on their buck) first fancy fair opens
1865: Tunnel handed over to East London Railway
1869: First passenger train travels through the tunnel
Children’s Menu
Great children’s menu from Ask restaurants. Interactive (paper based), colourful (add your own), pictures (what does the food look like, inviting. I don’t mind if more menus were like this for everyone.
Conference feedback (big and small, it effects us all)
My feedback and stuff to learn regarding recent conferences I have attended and assisted putting on (including London IA and dConstruct):
Sketchbooks
My preferred list of sketchbooks readily available. There are many others but these are the ones I choose. Some better than others in terms of paper thickness, how they cope with ink, watercolour, glue, Selulotape, 2B pencil etc
Try a few out – you really can’t have enough sketchbooks, in fact I’ve started collecting them.
Seawhite of Brighton renowned for their well made hard backed sketchbooks – readily available
(Pity about their appalling website.)
A post like this obviously couldn’t possibly be complete without mention of Konigi’s Wireframe Sketchbook
Quite a bit of sketchbook porn at Fabriano
I can vouch for the quality – maybe something for the weekend 
Muji is always reliable in offering affordable and plenty of choice.
teNeues Slim Journals are a pleasant edition to the Moleskine-type notebook – cheaper too, if you can find them. (I got mine in a bookshop in Crystal Palace.)
Pencils Sketchbook from We Are Family is very sweet – I got mine at the ICA in the Mall
I also have a fondness for Chartwell Survey Stationary. Great for organising your boxes and arrows in all weathers. Available here
Action Book from Behance Outfiltter. Plenty of other stuff to choose from.
Rhodia offer good selection. I like the rise and fall variety.
Loads to choose from at the Design Museum Shop (and a good place to get your ODW (see below).
Other worthy mentions include this pocket calendar sketchbook and these two blog posts Sketching Tools and Piggyback Post: Sketching Tools
and no post on the subject of sketchbooks would be complete without mention of the Original Designers Workbook (ODW) – a great way to start any new project – and of course the Moleskine range
Call to action to the UX community
New post over at You the User about the need for experienced UX professionals to help the more junior and less experienced members of the UX community with work opportunities:
“There is no doubt that it serves us all if the UX community goes from strength to strength but if we don’t help the more junior and less experienced/inexperienced members with work and learning opportunities a large divide between the experienced and the inexperienced is likely to open up and this isn’t going to help anyone.”
Read the full post at You the User – peer-to-peer UX recruitment
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