Citizensheep » development

YUI Graded Browser Support

Michael — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:00:09 +0000

This page has been around for a good while. I’m flagging it up now because I’m trying to build up a sort of toolkit and primer for colleagues managing websites; the rather unsophisticated ‘every user should have exactly the same experience on our website’ is – sadly and surprisingly – still a common attitude.

This explanation of Graded Browser Support and ‘progressive enhancement’ from Yahoo! is well put and, coming from Yahoo!, adds credibility to our arguments for it.

Visit YUI Graded Browser Support

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HTML5 Readiness

Michael — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:01:34 +0000

This is a very nice demonstration of what HTML5/CSS3 is capable of, and shows how ready the various browsers are for it. Visit HTML5 Readiness Possibly related posts html5 Gallery Web Designer’s Checklist Bookmarks for 4 January 2009 through 5 January 2009

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Preview tour of Birmingham’s ‘mac’ gets the thumbs up

Michael — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:48:38 +0000

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited round the new mac before its official opening next weekend. I was really very impressed.

I hadn’t been particularly struck by the outside of the building, but now I’ve been inside I see the external fabric in a much more forgiving light. The interior is completely unrecognisable to anyone who was familiar with the building before: it’s light and airy, has a lot more public space, is wheelchair accessible and has lifts to the upper levels; there’s free wifi throughout, big windows with fabulous views of the park, movable seating in the theatre, a fantastic gallery space… I could go on and on.

We were even given samples of the food, which was amazing; I forgot to photograph it, but essentially it was high quality canapes. I expressed a concern that the food has upped its game too far, and out of the comfort zone and pocket of most people; I often used to go to the mac precisely because I could get no-nonsense grub – stew, fish and chips, lasagne – for three or four quid. I was assured though that the menu is still in that price bracket, but more inviting.

I also hadn’t realised how close to the budget they were, with only a fraction still to raise. And I’m told that apart from the setback of a few months when they discovered that the lido underneath the building was still there and needed removing, the project was delivered on schedule.

I took a load of photos (on my iphone I’m afraid) which you can flick through here:

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Learn to Program (using Ruby)

Michael — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:00:02 +0000

I'm trying to get my head around Ruby (and Rails, and HAML) and this is proving a good start. Obviously you need Ruby installed first (which wasn't all that straightforward, not in Windows at any rate), but once you've done that it's quite enjoyable.

Visit Learn to Program (using Ruby)

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Web Design Dashboard

Michael — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:00:32 +0000

A set of very handy lists of online web development tools, neatly and clearly laid out. Covers inspiration and design as well as markup, coding and marketing. Visit Web Design Dashboard Possibly related posts Best Online Collaboration Tools 2009 Bookmarks for 8 January 2009 through 15 January 2009 "Mad Libs" Style Form Increases Conversion 25-40%

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Mapping my local area reminded me: what’s going on with the old BBC Pebble Mill site?

Michael — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:18:24 +0000

For a little while I’ve been aware of a blog about my postcode area of B29, but it had never dawned on me to offer to contribute. So today I offered my services, and jumped in by plotting B29 onto a Google map. And in so doing I remembered the void that used to be Pebble Mill.

The site of the old BBC studios has been clear for more than four years. The University has plans for a Science and Technology Park which is apparently due in 2015, but the only pages I found on their website with any dates refer to nothing later than 2006. And (at the time of writing) the Birmingham City Council‘s search engine is broken, so not very fruitful.

I’ve posted a question to the new Help Me Investigate website (currently in private beta, so for now you need an invitation to join), in case anyone has light they can shed on it.

Knowing me I may have been completely oblivious to frenetic development activity, and that there’s actually an enormous glass cathedral of science now sitting where the BBC used to be. Hopefully though I haven’t missed much, and this blog post is still relevant.

So are we still to expect a glossy university science building bang opposite the Nature Centre (handy for medical experiments), or may we use the waste ground to play on?

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Buying friends’ time: when should we do it?

Michael — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:30:51 +0000

For a long time I had no way of knowing who to ask specific technical questions of, and now – thanks to the power of social media – I suddenly know loads of people on whose expertise I can call. The trouble is, when does the relationship become professional and require a financial commitment?

This morning I needed some advice on WordPress MU, and was able to think of a number of personal contacts that I could ask. However, I would have been asking on behalf of my employer and therefore would be taking advantage of people’s goodwill by expecting free advice from people who would usually charge for it. So I emailed some of my new friends for their professional rates.

This has created a couple of dilemmas.

Firstly, there’s the question of loyalties. If each of my friends have the same skills, how do I decide which to give my money to? I guess I just have to be professional and choose against which will be best value for money for my employer. It feels a bit uncomfortable though.

Secondly, and much less easy to answer, is the question of boundaries: when are my friends my friends and when are they my consultants?

I believe that – for most office jobs – the boundaries between professional and personal lives are blurring to the point of being indistinguishable. Thanks to social media, and technology in general, we can now be available at any time for both friends and colleagues. This means that employers who refuse to accept that are missing out by not being where their market is at any point; and are probably therefore unwittingly discouraging their employees from being loyal to their jobs outside ‘office hours’.

I, and my employer, have benefited hugely from the use of social media by myself and colleagues. Those inane little messages – that take practically no time to send and respond to – help to create personal relationships which can be unimaginably valuable for support on a professional level.

But, as I’ve said, these sometimes need formalising as professional relationships. The paradox is that, by formally identifying professional connections with friends, do I thereby force them into being consultants during my work time and friends outside of it: and in turn reinforce the work-life divide and the 9-5 ethic that I believe are vanishing?

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DIYcity: reinventing your city by building web apps

Michael — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:06:30 +0000

“Twitter bots, aggregators, social software, mobile apps – we use these things more and more in our daily routines to make our lives better. But can we also use them to remake our cities altogether? How can these technologies be applied to transform urban spaces, changing them from the centralized, hard-coded things they are today into finely-tuned, fluid, user-operated systems that are efficient, sustainable and fit for life in the 21st century?”

Visit DIYcity

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Bookmarks for 8 January 2009 through 15 January 2009

Michael — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:00:22 +0000

These are my links for 8 January 2009 through 15 January 2009:

Us Now: A film project about the power of mass collaboration, government and the internet – "Us Now is a documentary film project about the power of mass collaboration, government and the Internet.
Us Now tells the stories of online networks that are challenging the existing notion of hierarchy. For the first time, it brings together the fore-most thinkers in the field of participative governance to describe the future of government.
Wireframes Magazine – An online magazine dedicated to wireframes. Also available via RSS, email and Twitter.
Design Stencils – Yahoo! Design Pattern Library – Pre-made images for and patterns for building wireframes (primarily for Yahoo user interface).
Snail Mail-Powered Art Projects – Five intriguing projects that combine the internet with good old-fashioned letter post.
Information Architects / Web Trends Startpage – A visualisation of web trends.
White Llama: Social reporting at events: a brief guide –

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