When the recent 6 metre tsunami hit the Samoan region, killing 189 people, there unfortunately wasn’t time to warn their people. But there was time to warn their neighbours in the South Pacific. We failed. New Zealand had several hours to crank-up the tsunami warning machine. The police did their best to round up…
A presentation from my archives – many of the points made in these slides are still relevant today. Extracts from a workshop at GOVIS 2007. This one-day intensive workshop taught attendees how to incorporate user goals and agency needs into the web design process. Workshop presenters: Zef Fugaz, Bob Medcalf, Elyssa Timmer. Feedback from the…
A lot of people I’ve been talking to recently are excited by the emergence of NUI (Natural User Interfaces), but are asking “Isn’t this just for gamers?” My immediate answer is “yes”. Gamers have been the first to embrace the technology (the Nintendo Wii remote controller is one example of this). Future gaming consoles are…
Technology Minister Dave Cunlife, says the Government will announce a date for the turn-off of HTML websites by 2010 – or sooner, if uptake of rich media hits 55 per cent of users. He expects there to be a six to ten month transition period before the migration to rich media is completed. New Zealand’s…
Brendon Ford and I have just returned from a miniature junket in Nelson to present the mechanics behind the award-winning intranet we worked on for the Ministry of Transport back in 06/07. Quantum Content During my presentation I briefly tried to compare quantum theory to CMS-metadata-driven content – which for me has its similarities in…
I’ve been hinting for a while that we had big news for 2008 : and now the word is out! Provoke – Project Management, Information Architecture, Implementation, Development. Capiche – Visual Design.From Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, January 7, 2008 10 Best Intranets of 2008 The winners of the award for 10 best-designed intranets for 2008 are:…
Today I co-presented a full day workshop at GOVIS 2007 here in Wellington. I didn’t think I’d make it having spent the last few days in bed with an aggressive case of bacterial sinutus. Over the weekend I’d taken nasty antibiotics (for the first time in living memory), and was feeling a tad strange… My…
If you haven’t heard from me in recent weeks it’s because I’m stupidly busy, and when I get extra busy I often end up in a strange ‘reality distortion field’ where the busier I get the more I suddenly decide to take on. I don’t know if this is a sign of abject stupidity or…
The new few months are going to be busy in Wellington when it comes to conferences and presentations. This time I’m involved in a few myself…
The new version of the New Zealand Government Web Guidelines is out for consultation – get in quick as consultations close on 31 October 2006. The whopping 132-pages of Guidelines have been reviewed and rewritten by a working group of several government agencies, with input by industry accessibility experts and the Usability Professionals Association. The…
A few months ago I kicked up a fuss about the usability and interaction design of the first New Zealand Online Census. Just having completed my own design projects for the SJS registration forms and E-Government compliance for Grants Online, I was surprised at how the Online Census differed so radically from what I considered…
The online census attracted less than half the expected number the Dominion Post reported yesterday. Less than half the expected number of people filled out the new Online Census.The paper reported that Statistics NZ had hoped that 15-20 per cent of the population would complete the census online, based on dry runs conducted last year…
Achieving e-Government compliance for public sector websites will require a makeover that’s greater than skin-deep. Zef Fugaz looks at the realities of putting public service websites on the operating table and making them skip to an e-Government beat. Trevor has spoken. By 2006 all public service websites will have to be well and truly on…
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