ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

Design for Persuasion conference - Brussels

Design for Persuasion Oct 1, 09 Brussels . . . from BJ Fogg on Vimeo.

Am off to this conference on persuasion architecture later this week. Am very excited.

Bicycle friendly Eurostar? You must be joking

I'm off to a conference this Thursday in Brussels. The train leaves at just before 6am and I wanted to take my fold up bike so I could bike to the conference venue. Cue this page on the Eurostar site.

I love the intro - all very welcoming.

We’d love you to take your bike! Keep your carbon emissions to a minimum when you arrive in Europe after travelling with Eurostar and stay fit at the same time!

BUT, then you get to the nitty gritty. If you can take your folding bike apart - wheels, handlebars - and put it in a bag then you can take it on the train. I don't have a bag for my bike and do not want to pay £40 to get one. No other train I travel on requires me to put my bike in a bag.

So, I could take my bike on the train for a fee of £20 each way. So that would be £40 on top of the £59 ticket. Now it's not looking so cheap to go on the train.

Or, I could get it shipped. Hmmm, I don't think so.

OK, I'll leave it at lost luggage - that's only £8 for 24 hours. But no, that opens at 6am - the train leaves just before then.

I can't lock it up at the station as it will get stolen - foldy bikes have too many removable bits.

And I need my bike when I get back to St Pancras so I can get over to Paddington.

Looks like I will have to take my bike up the night before and leave in lost luggage.

There is no secure bike storage at St Pancras.

How rubbish is that for a company that bangs on about being carbon neutral?

Presentation: usability lessons using fail blog images

Lessons In Usability- FailBlog

View more presentations from christinev.

Like the sign-up at Subscriptionsiteinsider

Thanks to Jim Muttram for pointing me to Subscriptionsiteinsider. Potentially useful for me as I work for a paid-for service but also a simple sign-up page. Liking it . . .

Video: Friday and Monday attitudes

Liked this video. Thanks to Team Taskmaster blog.

Social media disasters

Interesting post - and some good lessons.

Video: News search and SEO from Google

Tools: Trends on consumer behaviour and technology from Google

Interesting service from Google providing stats on consumer behaviour.

Twitter used to enhance customer service at Debenhams

Liking this use of Twitter by UK retailer Debenhams.

I'm a Virgo, I'm a perfectionist

I'm not, but the guy doing some gardening work at our house is. We were talking about how he is going to do a particular part of the fence and I explained that we were not bothered at the finish of the job as it was hidden.

His response: 'It's no good telling me that, I'm a Virgo so am a bit of a perfectionist.'

OK, not entirely serious but got me thinking - I have never had someone present their star sign at work as a way of explaining their behaviour. Just imagine if they did . . .  

PS Read your horoscopes here.