design: February 2008 Archives
I signed up for a StumbleUpon account nearly 3 years ago. Of course I lost the login details and ended up creating another account last year, which I then forgot about. Bernie was inviting people to connect with him earlier this evening, so I dugout the original emails...
While I can appreciate that StumbleUpon is free and useful it's got some really annoying UI / "user experience" glitches.
Why does the main page invite me to "join" when I'm already logged in?
Why does the "invite friends" screen insist on sending emails to people instead of actually searching for them? There is an option to find people via their email address, but it's well and truly buried.
The invite friends email isn't particularly well crafted either. Instead of sending you to a page to join OR login it forces you to signup, so Bernie's emails earlier this evening will probably have frustrated a load of other people (unintentionally on his part).
Jaiku has been offline for most of today, which is a pity. It looks like they're having hardware or database issues again. Pity, as its interface is so much nicer to use than Twitter.
Travian UK have restarted server 1, so hopefully I'll fare a bit better. I'm currently being slaughtered on the speed server :(
While I can appreciate that StumbleUpon is free and useful it's got some really annoying UI / "user experience" glitches.
Why does the main page invite me to "join" when I'm already logged in?
Why does the "invite friends" screen insist on sending emails to people instead of actually searching for them? There is an option to find people via their email address, but it's well and truly buried.
The invite friends email isn't particularly well crafted either. Instead of sending you to a page to join OR login it forces you to signup, so Bernie's emails earlier this evening will probably have frustrated a load of other people (unintentionally on his part).
Jaiku has been offline for most of today, which is a pity. It looks like they're having hardware or database issues again. Pity, as its interface is so much nicer to use than Twitter.
Travian UK have restarted server 1, so hopefully I'll fare a bit better. I'm currently being slaughtered on the speed server :(
Apple's latest bit of hardware, The Time Capsule, sounds like an interesting concept.
It's a combination of wireless backup unit for Mac clients and also acts as a wireless base station.
Two versions are available:
It might prove attractive for some people, though I'll probably discover that there are cheaper alternatives out there without the Apple logo :)
It's a combination of wireless backup unit for Mac clients and also acts as a wireless base station.
Two versions are available:
- 500 Gb
- 1 Terrabyte
It might prove attractive for some people, though I'll probably discover that there are cheaper alternatives out there without the Apple logo :)
Much to my amazement not only was this blog shortlisted for the awards under "Best Technology Blog", but the company blog was shortlisted under the "Best Business Blog" category.
Best of luck to all the nominees and maybe I'll see you on the night - if not I'm sure someone from the Blacknight crew will be in attendance....
The person who deserves all the credit, however, is Mr Mulley himself. I honestly don't know how he finds the time or the energy to get involved with so many things!
On a slight aside, Eoghan did an interesting analysis of the slightly longer list of nominees comparing page "weight". It makes for interesting reading, especially if you're in a country with not so impressive broadband coverage (ie. Ireland - in case that was too subtle!).
Of course the problem is trying to strike the balance.
Images and other multimedia can brighten up a site (or blog) quite a bit.
I've been using images in my posts here more and more over the last year or so and the company blog gets an interesting (IMHO) variety of stock photos added to most of the posts. The problem is when the extras start to detract from the user experience. Javascript maybe enabled by most people, but do you have to have THAT much scripting to render a simple page with a bit of text? Probably not...
Best of luck to all the nominees and maybe I'll see you on the night - if not I'm sure someone from the Blacknight crew will be in attendance....
The person who deserves all the credit, however, is Mr Mulley himself. I honestly don't know how he finds the time or the energy to get involved with so many things!
On a slight aside, Eoghan did an interesting analysis of the slightly longer list of nominees comparing page "weight". It makes for interesting reading, especially if you're in a country with not so impressive broadband coverage (ie. Ireland - in case that was too subtle!).
Of course the problem is trying to strike the balance.
Images and other multimedia can brighten up a site (or blog) quite a bit.
I've been using images in my posts here more and more over the last year or so and the company blog gets an interesting (IMHO) variety of stock photos added to most of the posts. The problem is when the extras start to detract from the user experience. Javascript maybe enabled by most people, but do you have to have THAT much scripting to render a simple page with a bit of text? Probably not...
