Yesterday I was presenting at the National Meeting of the Professional Speakers Association and noticed that several members of the audience were taking notes. All very well, you might think. But in American meetings I’ve been to, several people would have been making their notes public – they would have been blogging the event. Why is it, I wonder, that you see live blogging from meetings more in the USA than you do in the UK? Part of the reason, I suspect, is that we’re about a year behind in adoption of new technologies in the UK. Another possible reason is that the availability of “ultra mobile” computers is much less in the UK. Try to get a laptop weighing less than 3kg at a reasonable price. So that puts people off taking their laptops, if they have them, because they are too heavy. What we need then, is a portable blogging device; a hand held machine that connects straight to our blog service. You can do that with a hand held PC; but there’s a clear opportunity for an enterprising mobile phone manufacturer. Are you listening Mr Nokia?
Online retailers don’t seem to learn about usability
Every year there are studies of leading web sites to see how close they are getting to providing a good experience for their users. Every year, major businesses and well known brands are criticised in
