nova-consulting.co.uk

WordPress 2.6 and McCoy Tyner

admin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:56:16 +0000

Apologies if many of these posts are about the upgrade to this website but it’s either that or talk about the barbeque that I should be preparing for.

So, my WordPress 2.6 upgrade is complete, thanks to those lovely guys rkeithdsouza and ronalfy who are responsible for the WordPress Automatic Upgrade widget. The upgrade was so simple even I could do it, just click and wait, click and wait.

WordPress 2.6 is codenamed “Tyner” after Jazz pianist McCoy Tyner. As I’m a great fan I have no complaints and I guess I’ll spend some time this afternoon cookin’ BBQ chicken and listening to Jazz. Sounds like a great recipe for a Saturday afternoon. Now, where did I put that copy of “Love Samba”?

Nope, can’t find it. Instead I did find The Man From Tanganyika. That’s a great place to start listening.

The benefits of paper prototyping - a timely reminder

admin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:58:10 +0000

Just stumbled across this post on the importance of paper prototyping written by the designers of this WordPress theme. The post also recommends a number of articles on the subject. If you’re new to the idea they’re all worth a read.

Also worth reading is Carolyn Snyder’s book; “Paper Prototyping - the fast and easy way to design and refine user interfaces”. This truly is an excellent book and I still recommend it to anyone about to start work on an application.

A new look for the website

admin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:40:54 +0000

They say that the shoemaker’s children are the ones with the unmended shoes because the shoemaker is always too busy fixing other peoples’ footwear. I guess the same thing happens with web designers and consultants.

My website has been truly awful at times, to the point where I’ve been reluctant to tell people about it. Like many people I have tons of great content, but not on my site and to be honest putting it there has often been the last thing on my mind, especially since most of my work is now in project risk management, rather than management of website development and usability testing.

But not any more! I’ve finally gotten around to installing WordPress on this site and now I have no more excuses for not adding content. I’ve also spent a chunk of time looking for the right theme and I think I’ve now found what I’ve been looking for: two column, left hand menu with large, easy to read text and compatibility with CSS and XHTML. In plain English, a website that is simple, easy to navigate and easy to use.

I’ve also added a few really great WordPress Plugins which make WordPress even better. I’ll say more about these as I start using them.

An absolutely awesome bootcamp!

admin — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:23:07 +0000

So the summer appears to have come and gone and all in one glorious weekend. So how come I managed to miss it? I spent the hottest weekend of the year in a sweltering room but I didn’t mind because I was at Frank Furness’ speaker boot camp.

Frank is a master speaker. He has spoken in nearly 50 countries and is rated amongst the best in the world. This boot camp was his last in the UK. So having a chance to hone my speaking skills with someone like Frank is a form of continuing professional development. It’s also a great opportunity to meet and work with other great speakers.

I’ll be posting further on hints, tips and techniques I learned at Frank’s seminar. I’ll also report back on some of the tips I passed on to the other delegates about web design, usability and on tools that I use to help my clients - I sometimes forget that the information that I take for granted is often unknown to others.