ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

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.

Presentation: review of What Would Google Do?

Here is a great review of a must-read book.

What Would Google Do, Book Summary

View more documents from Steven Zwerink.

Normal use at the BBC or 70, 643 visitors?

Just noticed this stat on the bottom of a BBC article (highlighted in yellow).

And then I went back a bit later and found this message on the bottom of a different article . . .

And I then clicked on the link 'traffic to the site etc' and came to this . . .

I like the popularity-o-meter but was totally confused by first getting visitor stats and then a 'normal level' message.

Will the BBC be making its visitor numbers available in real time? I hope so - light, normal and heavy doesn't really tell you anything (feels like a rainfall measure).

A reading list from dconstruct09

Jim has provided a good rundown of key points from the web design and usability conference dconstruct. Throughout the day speakers mentioned books and these are the ones that caught my attention:

Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation by Steve Swink

The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind by Martin Minsky

Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas by Richard Ogle

The Nature of Technology: What it is and How it Evolves by Brian Arthur

And don't miss one of the speakers Nathan Shedroff's teaching materials on web design

If you have a book in you then self-publish

A few months ago I met up with a group of friends. While we caught up Steve told us he had written a book. I nearly fell off my chair.

I was amazed because it was such an achievement. We chatted about how he had managed to find the time to write it, the subject matter etc.

We then talked about how to get it published. At this point I started waxing on about self-publishing. Having read Jeff Jarvis' book What Would Google Do? I felt evangelical about new publishing models and how the barriers to entry had all but disappeared.

So my advice was self-publish. Fast forward a few weeks and I get a message from Steve to say his book had just been published and that it could be bought on Amazon.

The book is Exile in the Promised Land - all about Steve's obsession that is Stoke City and his season following the premiership newbies in their first season in the top flight for 23 years. 

Netiquette (or just email) challenges for employers

Sacked for using upper case in emails. And here I am thinking that employees' use of social media is the challenge for employers. Seems use of email still poses some issues.

Video: three ways the brain creates meaning

Presentation: designing for social traction

Designing For Social Traction

View more documents from Joshua Porter.

Presentation: user design, usability and design thinking

UX design, service design and design thinking

View more documents from Sylvain Cottong.