As well as a couple of simple steps to take to improve readability of sites (below), this is just a short post to flag up an article I found recently by Gail Diggs at GCD Marketing: When “Bad Writing” is Good. Essentially, the old rules of copy writing are “thrown out the window” because of the way that users read text on screen in short, scanning ways and are often impatient to find the next web page to read. This compared to the paper-based format of ‘leisure reading’.
Web designers need to be more aware of the popularity of netbooks as cheap, low-tech, laptop notebooks. This popularity has suggested that a significant proportion of web users are quite happy with low-power processing (hence longer battery life) in order they can check their email and favourite websites on the move. This has spelt an end, or if not an end then a fork, in the ever increasing screensize theory.
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Radio broadcasting – URY Breakfast
The second of two flagship shows on URY I have been involved with (the first being URY Gold). I have presented Sunday Breakfast (Oct-Dec 2005) and Tuesday Breakfast (Oct 2006 – Jun 2007).
The show normally comprises a mix of the latest chart hits and a couple of 80s/90s oldies. Most of the content comes from the tabloids all too often featuring a strange story about an inept criminal from Germany. Anyway, the show has some other second-rate features but the pace of the show is kept quick, with plenty of music, as there’s only so much you can do on a Breakfast show on your own.
The first regular show I presented on URY which ran from 2004-2005. It originally started at 7.30am until I got lazy in the second term and switched it to 8am. The show had a mix of pop music, laughable features and a small fan base in the electronics department.
Which… Came First?
Two songs by the same artist (or some other relevant link), all that needed to be decided was which one was released first as a single in the UK. Data provided by Guinness Hit Singles & Albums.
I began work on the RSL project at Radio Cabin with my On Air team back in March 2003. I wrote out the application which was rapidly accepted and so lots of money went to the Radio Authority to pay for it all.
Susan Torevell gathered up the sponsorships while James B worked on finding some jingles. The week before we went On Air, I sat at home and in the Cabin studio frantically constructing 15 adverts, hundreds of personalised ID tags and was very grateful for Susan’s friend Kamal’s hidden voice over talents. I want to also thank Matt Curtis of Folkestone who also runs a Hospital Radio Station for his help in getting voiceovers for us. Thanks should go to all the team for their commitment and enthusiasm during the two week broadcast.
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Radio broadcasting – URY Gold
I began presenting URY Gold in October 2005 and over two academic years continued a show steeped in URY tradition. Bringing back old music to the airwaves, the show encompasses great music you know, great music you don’t and not-so-great music you wish you never heard. Song and artist information is provided intermittently from Wikipedia, EveryHit and Songfacts. Not forgetting my unique comments on the tracks.
The show has four inherited features: The RecSegue, Artist of the Week, Three Minute Thrill, Long Player. Other features I threw into the melting pot included The Gold Star Song and Golden Years. More details on these below.
Playlists from this show are also available here.
The highlight of the week just gone was the issuing of 200 banned words by the GLA: BBC News Story, List of Banned Words. This reminded me of the importance of plain english, the sort that the Plain English Campaign hark on about. These people write some very useful guides which help those writing for the web avoid inane jargon and write normally. The principle is straightforward when applying plain English to websites:
See also: Top ten tips on using social networking sites.
You might think I have something against Facebook and the like with this second post on the topic, however this post takes a slightly different slant looking at the way Facebook and other social networking sites are becoming more important to employers. So this post is focused on the users rather than the service itself.
I recently read an article on A List Apart called Fluid Grids. This got me thinking on how many websites use fixed width columns and how many used full window width to display content. Certainly when the web was young, the design of many websites (quite often personal web pages) were full width, expecially with the typical resolutions being 640×480 or 800×600 if you were lucky. The lack of screen space meant that to have any area dedicated to ‘airy’ white space would result in lines of text comprising three words. Since then, we’ve had more screen space to play with and then the dilemma of to fix or not to fix lurks around every corner.
I might not be one of those activists that has completely deactivate their Facebook profile or those lucky enough to actually have their profile deleted by the powers that be, but I’m getting a little annoyed about the whole terms and conditions saga. It’s been well documented in the news and on networks that Facebook’s attitude to privacy, ownership and rights is somewhat lacking in user-focus. Their change of heart over a section of the terms and conditions which granted Facebook rights to do whatever they wanted with user information, data or files, seemed obviously reactive. What I mean by that is that they appeared to be expecting to get away with it.