Optimising a user's experience is an attempt to improve life for a site's visitors and in doing so, for the site owners in the process. But what happens when usability goes bad?
Harry Brignull's presentation examines the dark side of interfaces, looking at how we're tricked, duped and cajoled towards handing over credit card details, signing up for free products, that aren't really free.
Update: The full application process and guidance notes are now live.
Monday (4th April) sees the launch of a new R&D grant scheme from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) for small and medium-sized companies in science, engineering and technology sectors.
Unlike previous TSB schemes which have required organisations to collaborate in order to secure funding, the R&D grants are available to single companies, which must be based in the UK and fit with the EU definition of an SME.
Three types of grant are available:
The government's plan for ISPs to voluntarily implement a national firewall for the UK are still very much on the agenda according to a open letter from Ed Vaizey, UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries to the Open Rights Group (ORG).
An interesting move in a country that prides itself on freedom of speech, hyper-injunctions notwithstanding. Naturally enough, there are plenty of advocates making a well-argued case for why this won't work and campaigns to get MPs to stop website blocking.
This is a fantastic visualisation of 24 hours' worth of tweets across London. It's a great video - and choice material for social media presentations, I'd wager - that brings to life the way information is shared across a geography.
The red dots are the tweets, with the yellow streaks showing the direction of a retweet (RT) from the origin to the destination. Of course, this is just a fraction of the actual volume as most people don't have geolocation turned on.
I’m writing this a few days after returning back to the UK after attending “South by South-West” (SXSW) Interactive, Austin, Texas. It’s an enormous conference or festival of all things digital and web related. In Silicon Valley it’s known as “spring break for geeks”, an apt description which describes the attendees and the atmosphere just a little too well.
It’s spread over 5 days, with talks, discussions, panels and keynotes running all through the day with parties running all through the night. There is simply no other conference like it. You won’t see people in suits, instead, flip flops, shorts and a T-shirt branded with your company logo is fairly typical.
The GameHorizon 2011 Conference (28th - 29th June) is backed by the GameHorizon Advisory Board as well as a steering committee featuring some of the games industry's leading names.
A two-day event, the conference features creative, innovative and inspirational speakers from the worlds of gaming, entertainment and business. Attend and network with the experts, the influencer's, the people driving the games industry forward.
We're delighted the organisers have offered two lucky Chinwaggers the chance to win a free conference ticket worth £335.
During the hectic week that was Social Media Week London, we managed to catch up with Tim Green, Editor of Mobile Entertainment, just after the Apps Go Social panel session on Mon 7th Feb 2011.
'From VCs to Super-Angels: The New Rules of Startup' is nearly upon us and we want to make sure you get the most out of the event as possible.
This free event, hosted by UK Trade & Investment will question a panel of investment experts as they explore how to deal with superangels, together with savvy angels and VCs.
The event itself is full but you can register to watch a live online webcast from your living room, it will be just like sitting in the front row...but you can do it in your pj’s (don’t worry we wont tell anyone).
Social Media Week London generated so much coverage that it's taken us a little while to pull together all the information. This review brings together slides, pictures and coverage from Apps Go Social, sponsored by Nokia and GlobalWebIndex.
The apps market is going from strength to strength, with brands dominating the space, the next generation of apps are increasingly becoming more social integrating; checkin's, likes and recommendation engines to add extra value to the user, any time any where.
The event looked at the trends in mobile apps, with a spot of forecasting at the connecting point of social, local and mobile and how brands are making the most of the new technology to increase their customer base and interaction with their content.
Chinwag's Digital Missions, hosted with the help of UK Trade & Investment, have been running for over 3 years, and have included 7 trips to the USA, as well as helped promote and recruit for trade missions to Japan and China.
The missions have been a huge success with dozens of companies finding new business, setting up offices in the US and finding long-term business partners and friends amongst the mission companies.
We're continually looking to improve the missions and look at new destinations, and this is where you come in.
