Jewellery designer Alex Monroe has won the prestigious ‘Jewellery Etailer of the Year’ award for AlexMonroe.com. The trophy was presented at the glittering UK Jewellery Awards ceremony last night.
Judges commented on the intimacy of the site and noted that the blog gave a real sense of the jewellery being handmade to order in the UK. The online shop’s easy-to-use navigation and search facility were also praised and delivery times and customer service were described as ‘exceptional’ by a mystery shopper.
Vanilla Storm’s Richard Hudson had this to say: ‘We’re absolutely thrilled that AlexMonroe.com has won Jewellery Etailer of the Year. This has been a fantastic project and we’re looking forward to collaborating with Alex in the future.”
A big shout out to Alex, Emma, Susie and the team. This is a huge endorsement of their hard work in keeping the site fresh and appealing and in engaging with their customers via the blog.
One of the questions that people ask me, quite a lot in fact, is whether they can use images from the internet on their own websites. The short answer is no. Not without seeking and obtaining permission. The same is true for text, graphics and videos.
Of course some creators are happy for their work to be distributed and shared, perhaps in return for a link back or credit. But how can you be sure that this is the case? Many people are still unclear as to the rules and as a result a not-for-profit organisation in San Fransisco has made a number of licenses available to the public that are free of charge. Creative Commons licenses allow creators to specify which rights they reserve and which are waived.
The following video explains how this works.
Image sharing site Flickr is a great example of Creative Commons in use. At the bottom right of each page is a section called ‘Additional Information’. This states whether the image can be used and if so, how.
Of course some unscrupulous individuals will still upload images that don’t belong to them and pass them off as their own work. Therefore, a degree of common sense is needed.
If you’re in any doubt as to the source of the content, don’t use it. If you’re not sure about rights always seek permission.
“This series of master classes will help you understand what is going on out there and will give you the tools to really help your retail business succeed.” - Mary Portas
Courses cost just £200 + VAT. Find out more and register your interest at www.nsaforretail.com.
Did you know that you can convert scanned text into Google Doc format? This is particularly handy if you have hard copies of old records or documents that need to be in text format. Rather than spending hours typing them out you can scan them into JPEG, GIF, PNG or PDF format and import them into Google Docs. Their OCR technology will do the rest.
The original image is included in the doc to make it easier for you to edit and correct mistakes.
Interestingly, this came about as part of Google’s 20% time. Software Engineer, Jaron Schaeffer was presented with a problem. A colleague’s wife had found a stack of ancient family chronicles in the attic and wanted to continue writing them.
The annual Thinking Digital conference took place at the Sage last month. Two days packed full of innovative talks and great networking opportunities. Seminars covered everything from Creative Commons and citizen journalism to story telling and the impact of sound.
One talk in particular grabbed my attention because it dealt with two subjects close to my heart - websites and books. Professor Luis von Ahn of Carnegie Mellon University took to the stage to talk about reCAPTCHA.
CAPTCHA codes are those pesky codes that you copy when you’re filling in forms online. 200 million of these codes are typed everyday. Their function is to ascertain whether you’re a human being or a bot. Bots and automated programmes can’t read distorted or obscure text. Humans can.
Professor von Ahn worked out that it takes an average of ten seconds to type the codes. Hence around 150,000 hours everyday are spent typing them. It was this colossal perceived ‘waste of time’ that led Professor von Ahn and the team at Carnegie Mellon University to come up with reCAPTCHA.
Each time you type a reCAPTCHA code your are helping to digitize books. Here’s how it works. Books printed before the digital age are scanned and made available in digital format using a scanning technology known as OCR. Unfortunately, for many books the print has either deteriorated or is too obscure to be read by a computer. Each of these illegible words is embedded into an image and used as a CAPTCHA code. Therefore, when you’re copying the words in a reCAPTCHA you’re deciphering them for OCR.
But if the computer can’t read these words, how do they know that you have typed them correctly? Here’s how, explained rather succinctly on the reCAPTCHA website:
‘Each new word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is given to a user in conjunction with another word for which the answer is already known. The user is then asked to read both words. If they solve the one for which the answer is known, the system assumes their answer is correct for the new one. The system then gives the new image to a number of other people to determine, with higher confidence, whether the original answer was correct.’ Accuracy is estimated at .1 / .2 %.
We’re recruiting again! We’re looking for another PHP Developer to join our team of front and back end developers. Vanilla Storm is a small web design company based in Heaton Chapel, which is just 10 mins by train from Manchester Piccadilly and Stockport. The role is varied and interesting with the opportunity to work on some high profile sites and learn new technologies.
The successful candidate will work on the following:
creating, documenting, maintaining, testing and debugging systems developed in PHP versions 4 and 5
building secure e-commerce sites using Vanilla Storm developed applications
development of HTML / XHTML and CSS websites, working to W3C and WCAG standards
uploading websites and applications to the server
researching and building sites using existing software and building bespoke applications and modules as required
research and implementation of new technologies
Knowledge of Drupal and open source platforms would be an advantage.
Is this you? If so, we would love to hear from you. Please email jobs@vanillastorm.co.uk in the first instance and we will forward a full job description.
Salary: £22,000 to £28,000 depending on skills and experience
Strictly no agencies, consultants or jobs banks – please do not phone or email.
Last night Richard Hudson was voted onto Manchester Digital council for the fourth year running.
Over the last few years Richard has been actively involved in developing the MD events programme and preparing for the rebuild of the MD website into an open, comprehensive and widely used resource connecting with all parts of our community.
Of his re-election Richard said, “It’s always an honour to be selected by members of the local digital community to represent them on the Manchester Digital council, and there are exciting times ahead.
However, there are many challenges facing the digital industry and we need to work together to raise the profile of our sector to put it more firmly under the spotlight. Last night’s AGM confirmed there is much willingness for people to get more involved in driving Manchester Digital forward, which is fantastic, as there is much work to be done. Being volunteer driven at the moment, we need as many people as possible to contribute to Manchester Digital to drive it to the next stage. With the BBC move North, continuing issues with standards/rogue traders and the skills shortage our industry faces, mainly caused by the lack of suitably qualified staff coming out of our colleges and universities, we can really make a difference by working together as one.”
Recently Richard was voted onto the board by other members of the council. The board is for people who are able to contribute more time to the running and direction of MD.
Manchester Digital is the independent trade association for the digital sector in the North West of England. Their vision is simple, ‘that by working together we can make Manchester and the North West an even better place for Digital Business’.
Their events programme brings members together to learn, network and share best practice. Manchester Digital’s annual Big Chip Awards celebrates the best digital companies and projects in the region.
Membership starts from just £25 per year for individuals and £50 for small businesses and is completely free for students learning to join the digital sector.
My View of London launches today through the Evening Standard and through their website www.myviewoflondon.org.uk.
Eye research charity, Fight for Sight has joined forces with the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel to launch a photography competition with the chance to win a 3-night stay in their penthouse suite. The winner and a friend will also enjoy dinner for two and two 60-minute spa treatments.
Well the day has finally arrived. It’s election day here in the UK and possibly (barring a hung parliament) an end to the campaigning that has dominated the media for the past few weeks. I don’t blog about politics and I’m not going to start now. Nor am I about to share any political views. What I will share is my opinion on the main party websites.
With the live debates and coverage across the internet, I’ve found this campaign to be quite exciting. The opportunity to interact with and question candidates has increased significantly and brought about a sense of openness that we haven’t seen before. This can only be a good thing.
After all the campaigning I returned to the three main party websites to make my final decision. It’s interesting to see how they present themselves and how they interact with the public.
Labour
The Labour Party website I found to be the least user friendly. The initial splash page gets in the way of locating information. You are presented with only a few options and have to hunt around for the link to proceed to the main site. This is not very helpful if you’re looking for something specific like policies on education or small businesses.
[Note: since starting to write this post three shortcut links have appeared at the top of the page. This helps a little but I still feel that the splash screen is intrusive and should be removed altogether.]
The internal pages are also a little confusing. I like the idea of the changing panels at the top of the page. However, the initial banner for ‘It’s your future, vote for it’ didn’t quite do it for me. It comes across as being a bit blasé and almost jokey. The calls to action on the right hand side are also not very clear. ‘Back the Ban’. What ban? ‘Save our Sure Start’. What’s Sure Start? We’re getting into mystery meat territory here. Even more confusing is that when you click on the Sure Start banner you’re diverted to a Facebook page where you’re asked to add your name to help the Labour Party save Sure Start. You are then invited to submit your first name, last name and email address. What isn’t clear is how this can help. What are they going to do with this information? How can it help their cause? Why should you submit your personal details?
I did however like their use of video under the Manifesto 2010 tab. Again they seem to have favoured an informal approach, which works well in this instance. The clickable links within the video allow you to skip to the policies that interest you most.
What is surprising about the Labour site is that their policy prompts appear towards the bottom of the page, suggesting that they’re not as important as the volunteering, voting and joining links. To be fair, they do appear as sub pages in the top menu but on election day when people are making their final decisions, surely this is vital information and not drawing attention to it is a bit of a wasted opportunity.
A well-positioned search box would be invaluable allowing you to locate information quickly and easily. This is missing from the site.
The Labour manifesto is well-presented. The design is clean and easy to follow, with information split into clear paragraphs and bullet points. It also allows the option of downloading and sharing on Twitter and Facebook. Policy information is not so easy to follow with large chunks of unbroken text stretching three quarters of the way across the page.
Liberal Democrats
Content on the Liberal Democrats site is much clearer in terms of design and navigation. There’s no splash screen. As soon as you land on the home page you can navigate to all sections of the site. The layout appears more cluttered than the Labour Party site. However, the calls to action are clear, with the use of icons and explanatory labels. A search box in the top right hand corner allows quick and easy access to information and removes the need for browsing.
Policy information is easy to follow too. Text is kept to a minimum and is split into readable chunks. Large prompts direct you to related pages.
The Lib Dems manifesto page is set out into easy to read sections, allowing you the opportunity to read a summary, read online via e-book or download a PDF. Perhaps most interesting is the Lib Dem’s use of video on this page. You are invited to mix your own video by clicking on three options. The footage then plays in your browser automatically, tailored to your choices.
Conservatives
In terms of aesthetics the Conservative Party site has the edge. The colours work well and the home page is broken into clear, concise sections, offering different ways to access information. Like the Lib Dems site a search box at the top right of the page cuts out unnecessary browsing if you want to find information fast.
The Conservatives favour a similar approach to labour with a main banner and links on the right of the page. This works well but then they go and spoil it by making the second link all about Labour. I suppose you can argue that this is understandable, given that they’re fighting for Labour’s position, but all this back biting and sniping doesn’t appeal to me at all. Don’t tell me what ‘they’re’ doing or not doing. Tell me what you’re doing or going to do. I can make up my own mind and I’m far more likely to be won over by clear and honest arguments that highlight the positives than negative comment on the opposition.
Of all three sites the Conservative manifesto page is perhaps least appealing in terms of its overall design. However, like the Lib Dems they also favour an e-book version of their manifesto which works well. Audio and accessible versions of the manifesto are much easier to locate on both the Conservative and Labour sites.
The Conservatives’ use of video comes in the form of Webcameron and Conservatives.TV. Their bank of videos are fully searchable with quick links to recent videos, most viewed or alternatively you can view a full list. Where they go one step further is providing related videos which change depending on what you’re viewing. Social media links allow you to share content on your networks.
So, there you have it. A quick run down on the main party websites. I’m a huge advocate for substance over design fluff. But I wonder what effect these sites have had on voters, in terms of clarity, ease of use and portrayal of their message?
