Making good sense of the things that we find

User’s user guide

2009-01-15T17:10:00.003Z

As my little boy keeps growing, I need to lengthen the straps on his pushchair. Where is that user guide? A quick search on the web and I needn’t stress, as a helpful mum has recorded her own guide for the task on ‘You Tube’. Really useful, as it actually shows you how to release that tricky clip that the normal user guide claims is so easy.

Is this the end of the manufacturer's paper user guide?

Apple lift affords trouble

2009-01-06T11:56:00.003Z

The arrival of an iPod nano in Santa’s sack this Christmas meant a trip to the Apple Store, Milton Keynes to buy a nano cover. I’ll say cover, although it could just as easily been a case, pouch, jacket, folio, sleeve, holster, vest, or even an armband. (Surely the nano is also crying out for a gilet – or a body warmer for anybody who was anybody in the early 80s.)

Anyway, it wasn’t the nano couture that confused me and the rest of family Stanton, it was the lift. You see, I was under the impression that Apple are dedicated to making things easier and more fun to use. The store is certainly very smart, but something seemed to go awry when they got to the lift, which you can just about see in the far left corner of this picture.

Firstly, there’s no call button anywhere near the door. Luckily, we’re a bright bunch, and it only took us a minute or two to twig that the two foot long vertical brushed-steel bar on the left of the door is a handle and meant we needed to pull the door open to reveal the lift within. However, despite a festive diet of sprouts and Jerusalem artichokes to build up our strength, no amount of tugging from the four of us could wrench the door open. Suddenly it hit us; the steel bar posing as a door handle required us not to pull but to push instead. Of course, just like the Start button in Windows is where you go to shut down! It must be a door bar for geniuses – or a genius bar as Apple seem to like to call them.

Once inside the vestibule, the lift is reassuringly uncomplicated – it has up and down buttons, slidey doors, and a sign telling you to add up how much you all weigh before you set off. Except that the lift compartment is open so you can see and touch the sides of the lift shaft as the lift compartment goes up. Unfortunately, just like the handle outside ‘demanded’ that I pull it, the affordance of moving walls proved too much temptation for a four-year. She poked out a finger triggering some kind of sensor and the lift stopped.

Under normal circumstances, having this kind of trouble with a lift might have given me cause for concern over the family’s collective problem-solving skills, but the fact that one of the store assistants took the trouble to explain how the lift worked before we began our descent from the first floor back to ground eased my fears. Obviously, it’s not just the Macs they’re used to explaining. They're even pictured here apparently celebrating one man's successful trip.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure that if the lifts at Apple’s HQ are anything like the ones in the Apple Store, MK, that could explain why Steve Jobs is not at Macworld 2009. He’s just got stuck.

VAT vindication

2008-11-23T19:24:00.003Z

I was interested to read today that Mr Darling (of the fearsome eyebrows) may be planning a change to the VAT rate, perhaps a VAT vacation. But the story piqued my interest not because of the impact on my pocket, no matter how substantial. No, I'm afraid my thoughts turned immediately to bill design, which probably says something deeply alarming about my psyche. The truth is that after too many years in this job I fear I've become a secret VAT nerd.

But now, finally, my vindication looms. Many times, we've advised people redesigning their bills to program their VAT rate as variable data that they can change easily, rather than hard-coding it. So for instance we advise them to program a line that says 'VAT at [insert VAT rate]%' rather than 'VAT at 17.5%'. And we've also insisted many times on working through and agreeing a bill presentation that shows multiple VAT rates. It seems simple, but for those clients who've never seen a VAT rate change, or who work in industries like telecoms that don't often use multiple VAT rates, getting this agreed is sometimes a bit of a battle. After all, I barely remember the last VAT rate change myself. But if this VAT holiday goes through, a lot of bills are going to need to show the new rate - and more importantly, they are going to need to show some charges at the old rate, and some at the new rate. So that multiple VAT rate presentation that we insisted on, and which is lurking dustily at the back of the bill design cupboard, will emerge all shiny and sensible to save the day. And the twenty minutes in a bill workshop when a client stared at us in bafflement as we explained that one day, some day, the VAT rate might change will finally be worth it.

So today, for a change, I actually feel ok about being a VAT nerd. I just hope that there aren't any developers out there wishing they'd programmed things differently...

Symbols used to mark references have no name*

2008-10-17T17:58:00.003+01:00

There is absolutely no name** for typographical symbols that are used to mark references in text.

I mean those characters – often they are asterisks, or daggers, or even double daggers – that are used to tell you that not all is as it seems. Or that it's time to read the small print. Or that the 20% discount offer is actually only available during a full moon.

If you can tell me the name of these symbols, I'll post you a box of chocolates.‡

* As far as I know.
** As far as I know.
‡ As long as you live in my road.

Mark

Font of confusion

2008-10-06T13:58:00.004+01:00

I was intrigued to read in this week’s Design Week (2 Oct 2008) that:
“Salisbury Cathedral’s new font, designed by water sculptor William Pye, was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury on Sunday.”

Firstly, I was surprised that Salisbury Cathedral were taking their brand concerns so seriously that they’d chosen to have their own typeface cut. And secondly, I was impressed that the Archbishop had consecrated it. Of course, it turns out that the font is a font font, and not (as I first thought) a font. I hope that’s all clear now.

I’ve tried to excuse my own brief confusion on the grounds that I’m used to constant references in our studio to fonts in the typographical sense. But it all served as a timely reminder that words with multiple meanings need to be used carefully.

Next time I’m wondering why I need to explain a word or phrase that seems obvious to me, maybe I’ll remember how words and phrases can have more than one meaning, and my baptismal blog here.

You can read about Salisbury Cathedral’s new font on their website.
Mark

Lovely grammar quote

2008-03-26T17:19:00.004Z

Found this the other day – pardon the archaic punctuation. I should note that when training, we do emphasise that a lot of supposed grammar 'rules' are not relevant to modern writing (depending on tone of voice rules from brand, where necessary).

"When I read some of the rules for speaking and writing the English language
correctly, -- as that a sentence must never end with a participle, -- and
perceive how implicitly even the learned obey it, I think -- Any fool can make
a rule -- And every fool will mind it."
Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

I'm, like, what's so special about IMing anyway?

2008-02-04T17:41:00.000Z

This article from Discovery News is about some recent research into instant messaging, which has suggested that the language used is closer to spoken language than any other medium (something we commented on in this blog last August).

As well as documenting the similarities between IM chat and speech, the article talks about the 'valley girl speak' construction of I'm like, wow, and he's like, so what. Apparently this combination of the verb to be and like to mean say or think now has its own linguistic label: it's known as the quotative like.

The article is interesting because it points out that this construction is partly responsible for making a lot of IMing 'sound like' speech. Compare (as the article does) I'm, like, wow! with I thought wow!. Or she was like, hi with she said hi. The intonation differences leap out immediately.

Apparently the quotative like is spreading at speed throughout the world, and is particularly on the increase in IMing. It's going to be fascinating to see what other innovations IMing brings, and whether it truly is speeding up language change.

blowin' our own trumpet

2008-02-04T15:37:00.000Z

It's always nice to get a bit of recognition...

Exstream Software are talking about the Customer Journey work we did recently for E.ON Energy (used to be Powergen) that's printed using full colour laser printing – take a look at this case study for their Dialogue software.

And Modern Utility Management website has more information on the same project.

Tubular bells and whistles

2008-01-25T11:32:00.000Z

We're currently looking around for some artwork to jolly up our rather minimalist office walls. All information designers are obsessed by Beck's London tube map – it's practically an interview question: 'how much do you love Beck's tube map?' – and so we've been looking around for alternatives to the ubiquitous Great Bear poster.

While hunting around for tube maps, it's clear that Beck's creation now has its own ever-expanding subculture. I remember looking at Animals on the Underground (where people identify animal shapes from the tube map) a long time ago and there was little there. Now there's rhinos, puppies and seals galore.

This is potentially a more useful variation, if less fun: someone has identified all the tube connections where it's quicker to walk between stations than take the tube, and created a map with walklines. As the guy himself says, it's a little cluttered but a handy reference (similar to this famous book, The Way Out Tube Map, which tells you where to stand on the train to make the quickest possible exit).

The idea of the map as an evolving work of art is so widely recognised that you can even do a quiz to find out which version of the map you are. I'm a Beck classic, which I'm very pleased about.

Here's a lovely idea, which has apparently taken off around the world: this site, Living in a tube map, encourages you to take photos around your local tube station and upload them, where they can be accessed via an interactive map. It means that if you've always wondered what Pimlico looks like, or whether you can see the stadium from Wembley Central, you can take a look.

Once you've started investigating this subculture, it's strangely addictive. I'm blaming hundreds of students, all of whom have had the same bright idea for an assignment. Here's Shakespeare as a tube map, for instance, which I'm sure started off as an undergraduate piece. And this map shows you which tube stations have bloggers nearby – again I'm sure someone had too much time on their hands.

Finally, another nice idea. This map morphs depending on which station you click on to show you how long it takes to get to all the other stations on the map. Have a play: it's a bit like teasing a sea anemone.

Want more? This guy's blog has a much better list than this, including a map that shows where all the toilets are. But beware if you're tempted to keep searching for more: like the underground itself, it's sometimes hard to know where to get off...

and/or/if takes the plane/boat/train

2007-12-07T17:00:00.000Z

The fear of missing out on crisp frosts and cosy winter fires saw the faces of Simon, Mark and Abi drain. So I've stepped up for our next challenge. I'm off to look for examples of how the other side of the world deals with good, bad and ugly information. I'll keep you posted with what I find (technology permitting). Or maybe I'll just have a well-earned break!

To start… Santa in shorts… it's wrong, isnt it?

It used to be so much easier...

2007-10-01T16:21:00.000+01:00

This is a lovely story from the bbc. There's a new edition of the Highway Code out, so they've excavated the original version from 1931.

Suffice to say clear instructions were not deemed necessary for the (presumably limited, and wealthy) readership of the day. I'm particularly fond of this advice: 'Never take a risk in the hope or expectation that everyone else will do what is necessary to avoid the consequences of your rashness'. I can't help feeling that our clarion imperatives ('THINK!') lose a little eloquence in comparison, even if they are more effective.

Here's the article.

Reading makes you cross-eyed

2007-09-10T16:30:00.000+01:00

It's official: for some of the time while we read, we're actually reading cross-eyed. Astonishingly, each of our eyes can focus on a different letter of a word, and our brain makes up the whole picture. Sometimes both eyes focus on the same letter - but only for about half the time. For the rest of the time, each eye looks at a different letters. Previously scientists thought our brain was favouring the image from one eye over the other.
Here's the article.

Info design in The West Wing

2007-08-28T09:34:00.001+01:00

I'm currently revisiting an old series of the West Wing, and found a nice reference to the power of information design - or at least map design.

It's this episode, Somebody's going to emergency, somebody's going to jail. The (geeky) Organisation of Cartographers for Social Equality turn up at the White House, much to the derision of all. But when they put forward their case for using the Gall-Peters projection of the world in schools, rather than the Mercator projection, the cynical White House staff are astonished - and not a little freaked out. There's a nice discussion of the issue on the wikipedia entry.

According to the wikipedia site (referencing the fan site), sales for the Gall-Peters projection went up from 3 per day to 120 per day following the episode.

Smoking in style

2007-08-24T17:20:00.001+01:00

Our thanks to our friend Cara for these wonderful posters from Japan - how to smoke politely. I'm particularly fond of the 'cigarette as love affaire' one.
Lots and lots more posters here

Out of... patience

2007-08-17T13:40:00.000+01:00

You may have seen this little gem on the bbc website - apparently more of us are screening emails by putting our out of office notification up.
The bbc story

This doesn't work too well for me with one of my friends. As soon as she gets an 'out of office' she sends a barrage of emails asking me where I am, whether I'm really on holiday, and whether I got any of her previous emails.

It does remind me of many conversations we've had about the status of email in terms of authority and formality. We always used to rank communications in the order
speech - email - fax - letter
with speech being the least formal, and letter being the most. But I suspect that the advent of instant messaging is pushing email even nearer to speech.

(There's a lovely bit of research for someone there about how people change their language between writing emails and writing instant messages - and why, when emails are just as 'instant'.)

A poster for our office?

2007-08-16T10:56:00.000+01:00

Mark spotted this recently - potential artwork for our rather bare office walls?

If you like it too, you can buy it here.

Entering the blogosphere

2007-08-15T10:34:00.000+01:00

Welcome to and/or/if's very own blog.

The four of us have been pinging emails between each other for more time than we care to remember. Some of which are unrepeatable, but a good number of which may be of interest to other people interested in all things info design-y. So we'll be trying to remember to post all kinds of interesting stuff and nonsense here.
Here's a little starter for ten: we've all been eagerly anticipating the launch of the iPhone over here (of course we'll all need one for important professional reasons). But folks in the States, who can already get their sticky fingers on them, are beginning to wish they'd switched off their itemisations:
iPhone bill: the movie
Another cross blog
And another

You've got to ask: who at AT&T failed to spot what was going on? Didn't someone in the enveloping site, watching box after box of 300-page bills thunk squarely onto the straining floor, at some point ask the question? We know of similar things happening over here with BlackBerry billing, but the crazy bills were spotted and solved quicksmart.

PS credit for our blog title goes to Mark by the way. He was very keen for it to be our company strapline, but we wussed out. But our blog seemed like a good place to embrace our inner Wombles.