In my current role I’ve spent the last 5 years getting usability and User Experience (UX) principles and methods embedded in the organisation. It’s been hard work and there have been lots of small victories and battles on the way. We’ve progressed from an annual usability survey to having a dedicated UX Architect role and standardised methods and tools. I spoke about our journey at a Software East event earlier this year. I’ll soon be [...]

I’ve talked about my MSc dissertation research before on this blog. In fact I originally set up this blog to explore some topics related to my research. Having had a bit of a break after completing my dissertation in August 2010, I have decided to publish it here, spurred on by the kind words of a fellow academic researcher Catherine Howe. My research question was: How do the attitudes and perceptions of citizens, Council officers, Councillors [...]

I’ve finally finished my MSc dissertation which is a massive relief. After four years of part-time study I am looking forward to having my weekends back! And I plan to get back to blogging, now that I’ve more time on my hands. My research study investigated: Attitudes and perceptions of Council officers and citizens to using social media to engage with local government. My research was driven from a human-computer interaction (HCI) perspective, as I’ve [...]

For anyone that’s familiar with my posts on social media or usability this one is rather academic and self-indulgent, so bear with me! I’m making fairly good progress with my MSc research, having completed a few interviews and some of my literature review. Every so often I take stock of the approach I’m taking and re-evaluate my research question and approach. I decided that writing about the issues I come across would be a good [...]

So here I am. I finally got round to starting a blog after finishing my MSc modules in May 2009. For the last 3 years I’ve been studying a part-time MSc in Human Computer Interaction whilst working full-time, so spare time has been in short supply! Over the next year I’ll be working on my MSc research project which is closely related to my day job as Web Development Manager in local government. I’m hoping [...]