Every now and again, I think… where’s the flippin’ Recycle Bin?! After a bit of searching around, I usually find the control panel which allows me to add the Recycle Bin to the desktop and voila!
…but hold on, didn’t I have a Recycle Bin already? Hmm…Ok, I’ve got bad memory so maybe I never had […]

I’m a big fan of open source software, so it will come as no surprise to hear that I have been using Mozilla’s Thunderbird as my main mail/calendar client for a number of months.
What I particularly like about Thunderbird is the large number of third party add-ons which allow you to adapt the software to […]

This week we have been conducting some user research into a new web project we are developing here at the BBC. As always, its been an incredibly insightful process helping us to focus our product around our audience needs. After all, as my boss says ‘Audience is at the heart of everything we do’ - […]

Picnik - edit photos in your browser

Originally uploaded by badboyuk.

Picnik provides a new convenient way to edit your Flickr photos without re-uploading (i.e. via the Flickr API). Until now Fauxto looked likely to be the clear winner in terms of online image editing, but the Photoshop style interface now feels too advance for the average […]

“The BBC Trust wants your views on whether it should allow the BBC to provide new video on-demand and podcasting services.”
A similar analogy would be if the Ministry of Transport asked road users if they wanted motorways.
Thankfully, the iPlayer has now been approved. Yet for me the whole process it raises concerns about how […]

Last weekend, I found myself in John Lewis (The Mall, Bristol) perusing through their range of Hi-Fis. One of the great things about John Lewis is that you can do just that, i.e. look at the physical device before you buy it. Its one of those things which I used to take for granted, but […]

I found this on Digital Spy this morning. Its really heart warming to see the potential of mobile/home technology finally being realised. Two years ago I recommended a similar device to the BBC when I wrote a research paper on the ‘Future demands of digital radio‘. Its kinda sad to see the BBC being left […]

My first exposure to wikis was through my workplace. Despite reading a number of Wikipedia entries, I’ve never been remotely bothered to contribute to a wiki outside of work and neither it seems, do most users on the Internet.
Wikipedia states that 50% of all edits are made by 0.7% of users and around 1.8% of […]

I’ve just spent the last two days user testing the latest version of our ‘Annotatable Audio’ concept. To find out more about it visit Tom’s blog.
Its been the first time I’ve conducted testing on an RIA. I was slightly concerned that my usual testing methods may not be appropriate for a complex web application. […]

Today, I was lucky enough to view some preliminary branding and wireframes from this high profile project. For those who haven’t heard, the i-player will eventually take over from the Radio Player becoming a unified audio/video offering across all BBC websites.
Red Bee have been tasked with the ‘player’ branding and BBC New Media have been […]