Jobs I’ve had: Car auction driver By Nic Price on 17 October 2011 — 2 mins read [Like many, I’m a firm believer that we learn by doing, and the benefit we gain from the variety of our experiences – both positive and negative – we bring to every new situation. So I thought I’d write about a few of the many different jobs I’ve done since my first in the mid... More
Arts spaces as workplaces – London’s Royal Festival Hall By Nic Price on 20 July 2011 — 3 mins read Since I went freelance nearly four years ago, I’ve spent a lot of time working in – and a lot of time talking about – The Royal Festival Hall in London’s South Bank Centre. Today is the last day I’ll cycle up here from home in London. Next week we’re moving to Bristol, and really... More
The web – integration not destination By Nic Price on 6 December 2010 — 1 min read If we really want to help people connect with each other, get stuff done, solve problems and make things, then the web is not the destination. We need to work harder to integrate the web in to people’s lives, when and how they want and need it. The web can be the fabric. It can be... More
Find, Understand, Share, Extend By Nic Price on 11 November 2010 — 1 min read Today is World Usability Day. The theme this year is communication. I’ve chosen to write about something which I find helps teams I work with communicate and explore what we design and put on the web. Back in 2005, Yahoo! Search announced a “vision statement”. Enable people to find, use, share and expand all human knowledge. Somewhat ambitious, sure. A little... More
Don’t let distance get in the way of your user research By Nic Price on 1 July 2010 — 1 min read There’s an advertising campaign at the moment for Blackberry, the smartphone company, using the tag line “Closeness has nothing to do with distance.” These days we can all carry our loved ones around in our pocket or handbag using the various social networking features of the Blackberry – including using it as a phone, presumably.... More
Traffic lights and inclusive design By Nic Price on 10 June 2010 — 3 mins read Why are there three separate lights in the standard traffic light setup? Why are they vertically arranged? In a nutshell: don't rely on colour alone to convey meaning in your information design. More
Social networking on intranets – have a problem to solve, and expect it to take time, says Jakob Nielsen By Nic Price on 4 August 2009 — 1 min read Here are the findings from usability “guru” Jakob Nielsen’s report on Social Networking on Intranets… Underground efforts yield big results. Companies are turning a blind eye to underground social software efforts until they prove their worth, and then sanctioning them within the enterprise. Frontline workers are driving the vision. Often, senior managers aren’t open... More
Be careful, sometimes the writing really is on the wall By Nic Price on 8 July 2009 — 1 min read Imagine my surprise the other day when I walked past a meeting room and read the words: “How to tell the team the bad news“ Alright, that’s made up. But I have seen several rather over-revealing meeting titles on my way down various corridors recently. Technology for setting up meetings is getting pretty sophisticated these... More
Communities – start simple, don’t over-design By Nic Price on 1 April 2009 — 1 min read Social notworking In 2002 we built something on the BBC’s intranet called “Learning Online”. I was working with an amazing team of forward-thinking and innovative people. We designed Learning Online to be the intranet home for BBC employees to manage their personal development, training and career development. Alongside e-learning, personal development planning and a personalised... More
To do: switch on Labs features in Google Apps By Nic Price on 9 December 2008 — 1 min read I recently switched over from standard google mail, calendar etc. to make more use of and get my head round Google Apps. The first thing I noticed was that I’d lost some features I’d enabled on the standard gmail. I’d been using: Settings > General > Browser Connection > Always use https (for tighter security)... More