emmaswift.com

Well, it took me some time to get around to this, but I now have a fully functioning Blog, rather than the half-hearted effort that previously adorned these pages... no difference should be seen from your side, but the mechanics behind have changed.

So what does this mean?

Well, hopefully more blog entries on a more timely basis... but then there are always many, many things to do, so possibly not.

So along with the new blog, is the new bike - a nice little number (Giant Hybrid) that has finally made me feel "at one" on 2 wheels. I never learnt to ride until I was embarressing old (okay, perhaps I'd term it young these days - 17), so I have alot to learn. Haven't had too many near accidents yet, and, am actually cycling the 10 mile round journey to work... once a week. I'm loving it though, and it's so nice to use your own steam to get around. The best thing being is my back feels so great - not that it was perceptibly un-great - but the cycling seems to elongate and relax my spine. Altogether I am enjoying this (almost as much as when I discovered running in 2000). Let's hope it lasts longer than the running (hmm, last race was May 2008 for a 5k).

Anyway, I am about to go and watch the Hungarian Grand Prix - I "taped" (or digiboxed) it this afternoon so I can indulge myself this evening...

And one special message to my niece - Hi Holly, I've finally updated my blog!

Finally, after some months in the making the latest website has gone live - a chance for some shameless self-promotion. If you fancy a holiday - go and take a look - My Holiday In Turkey

Labels: holidays, new websites

I got my early bird ticket last month and am beginning to get very excited about being at FOWD again this year. Apparently, there are less than 400 conference passes left so if you want one you had better visit Future of Web Design and get one mighty quick.

Well, I'm a little late in making my post - but I think the best money I have spent this year is going to this. I was a little nervous about (a) plunging so deep to pay for a ticket and (b) wondering if I would enjoy the conference. I need not have worried - and I shall watch out for those early bird tickets next year.
There were some excellent presentations - in fact, all bar one (Mr Aston Martin - you know who you are) were inspirational works of art - I jest not! Heck, even Mr Aston Martin was impressive too, if you like cars and, more specifically, changing colours of cars....
I knew from the opening when Paul Boeg asked if anyone in the audience had trouble pigeon-holing themselves as a designer, developer, marketeer, SEO specialist or accountant, I knew that I was in safe hands with an audience that shares the issues and passions that I do. Every single presentation had some direct relevance for me, and I learnt something from every one.

The presentations were:

• Finding Inspiration for Design by Patrick McNeil


• User Experience vs. Brand Experience by Andy Clarke and Steve Pearce


• The User Experience Curve by Andy Budd


• Adtime(!) - Aston Martin - Microsoft


• Getting Your Designs Approved by Larissa Meek


• Photoshop Battle : Jina Bolton and Hannah Donovan vs Jon Hicks and Elliot Jay Stocks, umpired by Andy Clarke


• Print is the New Web by Elliot Jay Stocks


• From Design to Deployment by Jon Hicks


• Adtime(!) - Flex - Adobe


• Unconventional Ways to Promote Your Site by Paul Farnell


• Iteration and You by Daniel Burka

What glitterati for your money! I was actually a tad embarassed as I got particularly star-struck at one point...
I'd be hard pushed to vote for a favourite - but... Jon Hicks was excellent. I thought I knew all about this but I got some fun ideas to try out next time, and I felt he gave some structure to what can be quite a difficult process. Plus, I am a cheese-maniac so the illustration of the process via a cheesophile website went down very well.....
The least enjoyable was the adverts (as I call them) - Microsoft and Adobe (Adobe faired better on this). I was rather surprised that the sponsors did not seem to be trying to 'draw people in' to talk in the foyer - quite different to a Gartner conference I went to in 2003 - where even breakfast was delivered in the centre of the room surrounded by vendors. But having said that, I don't really like it when it has an "enforced selling" atmosphere - and I was pleasantly surprised as this one made me feel very comfortable.
Any improvements? It would have been nice to see more female presenters - Larissa/Jina/Hannah were good - but it would have been nice to see them take centre stage with a design-inspired talk.
Cheap accommodation offer with the ticket would be good - I kept the cost down by staying with my in-laws the night before. I would have loved to go to the party afterwards - but alas - I had a date with the ticket inspector to get to (don't ask - just don't ever try to travel on the underground with a ticket labelled London TERMINALS)...
Counting down the days until the next one...

Labels: fowd, fowdlondon08, future of web design, london

My Yellow Pages arrived last week and I remarked to my husband that this must be being delivered more frequently, as it seemed only a few months since the last one. He laughed, and reminded me that it is just the passing of time getting quicker and quicker as I grow older - thanks!!
But it got me thinking (no, not about my age) that perhaps the humble Yellow Pages days are numbered. Yellow Pages has it's online equivalent Yell.com so who needs a paper version? Well, of course I think the older generation probably still want a paper copy. So how about allowing you to opt-out of the yellow book delivery? To me, it would make good business sense - since less deliveries should mean less cost. But would people want to advertise there still if they knew it was going out to less people? Possibly, but inclusion in the online version as well as the paper copy probably mans exposure is more. Plus they have the brand recognition to fall back on. Come on Yellow Pages - think of the good publicity it would bring - you would be environmentally friendly!
Two other points of note - www.hollandandbarrett.com - get your website sorted - I could have run a mile in the time it took for a page to upload - and when I click on a label to view (which is an idea I liked) I don't expect it to be 1.6Mb big.... optimisation required, me thinks???
Which made me think my internet speed must have been playing up as the site was so slow... but I then went onto www.beautyzone.tv (the passing of time obviously requires halting) and discovered it was fine. All the high-res clips were beautifully executed and took no time to load. The only irritation with that one was the ad breaks.... ah well, can't have everything but I learnt some great eyeliner tips!

Labels: bad, beautyzone tv, good, holland and barrett, vanity., websites, yellow pages

I was reading today about IE8 and all the controversy about the default mode which will make it behave as IE7 unless you activate the "non-default" options.
Life always seems to be like this - you want to automatically "opt-out" as the default for marketing purposes but some companies still, unfortunately, think it's a god given right for you to be "opted-in". Similarly, I had a right nightmare with my web hosting/WHO.IS to get my details removed - which, happily, has been sorted out.
Why is it that so commonly the wrong "default" option is chosen? I can't see why Microsoft have gone down this route - it is hard enough to believe that they left such a gap between IE6 and IE7 but to redevelop IE8 but effectively "switch it off" seems unbelievably silly.
I'm hopeful that they will see sense - but until then, I guess at least we know how to turn the new functionality on! Goodness knows why people bother with IE at all - give me Firefox every time.

Labels: IE7, IE8, Microsoft

I was really excited when Facebook landed on the scene last year. I thought, wow, here is a useful social networking tool. How wrong was I?
Since signing up last year, I've seen my email rocket by 50% and I seem to miss any important communications from friends, as they seem to assume that now I am a Facebooker, my old email address is actually irrelevant.
I'm fed up of being poked, asked quizzes, comparing friends, gathering an entourage, growing a garden, testing my IQ and being tagged in lots of photos... ok, I don't hate all of them, but, it can be a significant "time bastard" when you are trying to get things done.
So, why don't I delete my account - well, apart from the fact Facebook makes sure you can't remove your information from their grubby little hands - I remain fearful I might miss out... sad, but true.
Oddly the web development group I joined hardly does anything.... which leads me to conclude that you can't beat good old fashioned conversation....
Which nicely brings me around to my next subject - some firms are apparently have "no email" days - what a great idea! One thing I hate about working in the IT industry is the habit of emailing rather than talking (phone or face-to-face). Sometimes, it is unavoidable or encouraged (for example we have a ticket system to deal with helpdesk calls and their resolution - invariably this means you email what you would say on the phone, so you can copy and paste it into the software that keeps track of the original call). But it would be nice to go back to - I'll pop over in 10 minutes, and then you could just click on "case closed" thereafter. I hope this "no email day" initiative grows in popularity... it seems a novel approach.

Labels: Facebook, social networking