ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

Design for persuasion slideshows

Last year I attended a great conference on design for persuasion. I meant to load the presentations but note I didn't do it - so here they are.

I particularly like Amy Shuen's focus on the ROI curve (slide 6 onwards).

Brussels Design For Persuasion Web 2.0 Talk

View more presentations from Amy Shuen.

Picture: Igloo in the making

Video: Chris Brogan talks Square, Twitter and real time search

Parkatmyhouse.com - what a great idea

Had to mention this as I thought it was such a good idea. Parkatmyhouse enables people with car space and those who need it to get in touch and book car parking.

It works because parking in certain busy locations can be so tricky and those that have unused parking spaces are now easily able to offer their 'space' to needy drivers.

So simple, but so clever. The site looks simple and easy to use. And those offering spaces are also providing add-ons such as drinks, car wash etc.

The site takes a 10% cut of the parking fees.

If you have the space and drivers have the need, then get on there now.

Note of caution: I hope people do not start paving over front gardens in order to make some parking cash. We need to save our front gardens!

Building audience with social media tools

Great post here including a case study of a small arts organisation. Step-by-step guide which gives a falvour of the simple steps you can take to build engagement.

Hyperlocal blogs - what am I (we) waiting for?

Thanks to @adders for pointing to this. Ex Birmingham Post editor Marc Reeves has set up a community blog for Harborne - I lived near there once - in Birmingham. 

Marc says he has been thinking of setting up such a blog for a while and it is something I have thought about lots. Having three young children and working away from home is too much of an obstacle at the moment but it is great to see Marc's project get off the ground.

Such blogs should surely be on the radar for journalists on local papers/websites. As Marc says, all you need is a netbook, web connection and a little technical knowledge (which cab be learned).

Good luck with it, Marc.

What I learned about online shopping this Christmas

A few thoughts as I did more shopping online this Christmas than I have done in previous years.

1 Read (and act on) the product reviews - I bought a laptop bag that I had to return due to the fact that it had six holes (a design feature, not damage) in one of the compartments. This snippet of information was in the reviews. I should have read and thought before I purchased.

2 Amazon has a neat returns system. The said bag (point 1) had to go back and Amazon makes it easy by providing the labels. All I had to do was queue for ages in the Post Office (arguably the weak link in the internet shopping supply chain).

3 You can get bargains on ebay just before Christmas. Maybe it was the fact the items would not get to me until after Christmas, but I managed to pick up some antique crockery my wife is collecting for the initial bid. Amazing. Maybe it is a good time to buy - you won't get it before Christmas but it will be bought before unwanted presents hit the site. And no, I wasn't being scrooge - the crockery was not a Christmas present.

4 The Argos 'store reserve' feature enabled us to buy a present we forgot to take with us on our Christmas break to London. That made one little boy very happy. It also ensured we did not have a wasted Christmas Eve visit to the shop.

5 Finding cheap holidays for a family that are not packages is difficult. Hours casting around websites was pretty fruitless. I did get some help from Twitterers though. Still have not sorted the holiday.