There are a number of posters placed around our floor at Internet blog towers today as part of World Usability day. We probably would have missed it were it not for the internal email we received from the BBC FM&T Usability and Accessibility team (who also put up the posters):
...In companies all over the world usability professionals, designers and developers are today celebrating World Usability Day. Good usability and accessibility makes sense both from a commercial and ethical standpoint. Fantastic strides have been made over recent years in the development of user experiences which are easy, accessible and enjoyable...
Here's a list of UK events that are taking place today on the World Usability day website. There's also a Usability day crossword puzzle the U & A team sent me that you can download and have a crack at. (NB: There are no prizes and I don't want you to send me your completed crosswords. If you get stuck let me know in the comments and I'll get the answers out of the Usability team here.)
Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog.
Everytime we sit down to write a weekly round-up someone somewhere says "No" to the BBC. This week it's the turn of BBC HD and Ofcom to do the dance of refusal.
As HD sagas on the Internet blog go the HD DRM debate is pretty tame compared to the HD PQ ruction. The Guardian reports:
Ofcom has rejected the BBC's request to introduce anti-piracy technology to Freeview to limit the illegal copying of high-definition TV shows, until issues raised by organisations including the Open Rights Group are addressed.
So this may be a pause rather than a wall of refusal. Regular readers of comments on the Internet blog (and I would hope that's all of you as some of the best stuff happens in the comments) may enjoy
The Phazer's contributions, on the aforementioned Guardian story.
Boingboing, who along with MP Tom Watson propelled the story to prominence, was celebratory in mood although it may be too soon to say that the "BBC's outrageous plan" has been "shot down in flames". Nevali on Tumbled Logic is gracious enough to say "I don't attribute this to malice, incidentally..."
The upgrade to the BBC's sign in system has been rolled out across the blogs. Some people have reported problems but it was gratifying to see a few kind words on Alex Ng's IA/UX blog (last acronyms for this week I promise).
Ben Chapman of Radio 1 talks about how the station uses social media in a video interview at Microsoft Advertising blog.
And finally, the Internet blog is gratified to learn that we're up five places in the UK Top Tech blogs hit parade. So thank you all for reading and commenting on the blog.
Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog.
Last night, the Royal Television Society hosted its annual Innovation awards. At the ceremony, our Controller of BBC Online Seetha Kumar, collected the final award of the evening - the prestigious Judge's Award. The RTS tell me that they created this award to pick out "the greatest vision in determining how the media might develop in the future and how the wider community will relate to all aspects of communication - in effect, mapping out the way which others will follow".
Our team work incredibly hard to try and make iPlayer the very best of its kind. It's of course always exciting to receive awards recognising these high standards, but we're especially proud to be seen to be helping establish the future of TV. These efforts are already producing real results too - in the 12 months to September, monthly viewing inceased by 95% (to 44.5m requests). With this in mind, I'd like to extend my thanks and congratulations to everyone involved.
Watch this space for lots more innovative stuff in the year ahead!
James Hewines is Product Lead, BBC iPlayer
| 15:26 UK time, Thursday, 12 November 2009
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~06~RS~)