Transformation: making a ruckus
My first visit to motoGP race and Cal Crutchlow #35 was superhuman. Riding from last with a fractured ankle he came 6th and earned applause every time he came around. The photo above is at Stowe corner on the way to Vale.
I will continue to wear his #35 polo with pride!
It’s a whole new way for your organization to learn with video.
MediaCore
I first came across MediaCore at an event in London last year that I was speaking at on the subject of digital media. Naturally this video platform caught my attention and Stuart Bowness, co-founder was in attendance to explain in detail. Fast forward several months and we kicked the tyres of the platform for EdMediaShare.
Stuart and co asked for our thoughts on the version we had and we mostly loved it, the stuff we didn’t? they added to a list for either investigation or for their customer wall of shame haha!
A hot topic on every institution’s lips is that of managing video: Creation, storage, branding, attribution etc. MediaCore quite rightly is going into this space. Quite frankly I hope they can help solve our problems.
It is nice to see the platform improve and grow. I wish the team much success.
Watch the video explaining the platform.
Clap for ’em
After being entertained watching Cal Crutchlow today in the MotoGP race I thought i’d show my support and buy one of his polo shirts from the official seller Clinton Enterprises.
I very quickly hit a snag.
The problem
On the one hand, the folks at Clinton sell clothing in more than one size (yeeeah) but then on the other they FAIL to reference what those sizes are other than the usual “small through large”. This makes buying near impossible for the buyer and a likely large pile of clothing rotting in a warehouse under the end of season sale.
The clothes item page. Missing the point by failing to let the buyer know what size is small etc. Clothing purchases revolve around the buyer who a) chooses the clothes I want for a price I am willing to pay and b) chooses the correct size. Generally I am a “Medium” sized kind of guy. But not always. At this point you just lost another customer.
The small solution to a large problem
I would hazard a guess that adding a simple and clear “sizing guide” would reduce lost sales from folks like me, which would see an increase in (lost) sales and reduce support emails or telephone calls. I emailed them yesterday but with a long weekend due to two bank holidays I expect I’ll be lucky to hear back within 5 days…
Go and see that Howies has a great sizing guide table that also rather cleverly shows you exactly where the measurement should be taken.
Which leads to:
The result of which is that I am now a regular howies online customer as the sizing guide allows me to buy with confidence.
Oh and please don’t make it a PDF, mainly because it is annoying but also you’ll be able to measure traffic to the “sizing guide”. If you want to go even further than Howies, put a link to the sizing guide right up near the sizing list – it may be lost in the footer.
** UPDATE 12th June 2012 **
#1 In the second graphic I questioned why it was labelled a 2011 polo shirt… turns out that this week (racing at his home circuit Silverstone) they have released the 2012 shirt just after my 2011 arrived at home…. why the 2012 shirt has only become available 1/4 through a season I have no clue – not happy to have missed this newer shirt!
#2 They emailed me back and it turns out that I am a ‘small’ size. Great quality shirt.. even if it is a year old!
Whenever I come a cropper using a service I will document the experience. I hope this will be useful to those concerned but also to keep a record of my user experience, as sometimes it will be “it’s me not you”.
One of my web heroes Jonathan Snook has released a great digital book (website, ebook and print versions) about writing better CSS called SMACSS. I have read and re-read this thing several times already:
SMACSS (pronounced “smacks”) is more style guide than rigid framework. There is no library within here for you to download or install. SMACSS is a way to examine your design process and as a way to fit those rigid frameworks into a flexible thought process. It is an attempt to document a consistent approach to site development when using CSS.
Getting Real is now available for free as a PDF book. It has been a few years since I last read it but I remember it fondly:
Want to build a successful web app? Then it’s time to Get Real.
Getting Real is a smaller, faster, better way to build software.
Getting Real is about skipping all the stuff that
represents real (charts, graphs, boxes, arrows, schematics,
wireframes, etc.) and actually building the real thing.
Getting real is less. Less mass, less software, less features,
less paperwork, less of everything that’s not essential (and
most of what you think is essential actually isn’t).
Getting Real is staying small and being agile.
Getting Real starts with the interface, the real screens that
people are going to use. It begins with what the customer
actually experiences and builds backwards from there. This lets
you get the interface right before you get the software wrong.
Getting Real is about iterations and lowering the
cost of change. Getting Real is all about launching,
tweaking, and constantly improving which makes
it a perfect approach for web-based software.
Getting Real delivers just what customers need
and eliminates anything they don’t.
The verge has a fantastic collection of product reviews for dedicated ebook readers on the market. Believe it or not the Amazon Kindle is not the only reader on market. Be sure to make use of the sites ‘filter’ feature which makes comparing products an enjoyable experience.
Craig Mod writes about hacking book covers:
…with the present digital inflection, the role of the cover is changing radically; disappearing in some cases. It doesn’t need to shout anymore because it doesn’t serve the same purpose.
This shift presents a wonderful chance for designers to break from thinking of a cover as an individual asset, and certainly a chance to break from a tight coupling with the marketing department. In a sense, it’s a chance to play again. To hack. And I can’t help but feel that elements of the design of our future digital books should take to heart the craftsmanship and metered rationality embedded in so much Japanese book design.
It is the same with music, I only use the data views within itunes and never the cover flow view.
Tony Bates points to some new work from the University of Leicester that suggests physical books may be better for deep learning:
This excellent article looks at research done at the University of Leicester, and also draws on experience from a number of people, that suggests that ‘physical books are best when you want to study complex ideas and concepts that you wish to integrate deeply into your memory……This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for e-text books or computerized courseware, however. Different media have different strengths.’
Check it out for yourself Do we learn less from e-books?
I have been scooping up ebooks to learning web design related topics very happily, and I don’t make notes in the margins of print books either. Tony comments that some of the problem may be the ‘experience’ of the devices we read on.
I will keep an eye on this.
There is a party and you are not invited!
The currently available Amazon Kindle app for mac doesn’t play nice with 10.5.8 and there doesn’t appear to be a download to previous versions.