I often tell people that Blogging and social networking has changed my life. 

• It makes me think and create
• It helps me learn
• It keeps me in touch with people
• It helps me get (the right) answers, quickly
• It helps my expression, and
• It drives my business

I was introduced to Glenda, a fellow blogger and accessibility consultant, a few weeks back on LinkedIn.  She just got in touch with me and I checked out her blog.

To my surprise I discovered that she has cerebal palsy and types on a keyboard with her left thumb. A quick scan found her very recent video from Lorelle VanFossen’s keynote at Word Camp Portland on the weekend.

So inspirational! And the very reason I set up a blog!  UsableWorld is about how well designed technology, like Wordpress, can help people achieve things that they never believed possible!

Glenda sums it up her blogging experience by saying ‘Wordpress has given me a voice.’  That’s exactly what it has done for me too.

How has blogging and social networking helped you?

‘Innovation is the creation of the new or the re-arranging of the old in a new way’ Michael Vance, creativity expert

I saw this go cart on a hill in the park across the road today…

Someone bought a kite too…

Innovation equals

Cool hey?

And continues to do so now.

Her TED Talk bought tears to my eyes.

We have used out massive brains to mess the environment up.

Let’s use them to fix it.

This a cool new widget for those of you with lots of slideshows. Showcase your work or even better put all the shows from a conferece in one spot! Simply tag them all the same and it becomes easy to group them together. Here’s my randomness of shows:

| Get your Presentation Pack

Writing a short report is one of the hardest things in my industry.  People often seem to think that the bigger the wad of PDF the better the usability report! But your clients don’t read that stuff!

I was invited in to a client’s office to present a report with Rebecca today. They wanted to hear it from the ‘horse’s mouth’ and ask us some more detailed questions.  I’m also sure that they wanted us to help them digest the info quickly and easily.

The report was short and to the point and not repetitive. It simply laid down the usability facts from the testing.  This meant that Rebecca could present straight from the Word document without having to waste time on a pretty PowerPoint preso.

Creating a pithy report requires you to be very organised before you get into the prose.

Rebecca and I used a mind map to debate and structure all of the content of the report. Then Rebecca simply used the framework we created to ‘fill in the blanks’ and focus on the insights required to inform and inspire our client.

She also chose the right report template up front.  That meant she wasn’t distracted from writing good content by the reporting ‘process’.

It’s interesting, if you use mind maps, collaborate with others and choose the right template first, you will get a much more successful deliverable than if you just started writing straight like crazy after the testing.

When you get prepared your attention can be placed on the content, voice, quality, findings and solutions that need to be communicated, instead of stressing about how to put the report together in a meaningful way.

Our client loved the report today, we chatted for an hour and they headed off to implement the changes we recommended immediately.

Other reporting writing articles:

• 1. Using spin
• 2. Report design tips
• 3. Don’t repeat yourself

I don’t know that it really enhances the magazine reading experience right now? The advertisers will certainly be relieved of millions of dollars!

See how the ad changes?

It will be interesting to see how the e-paper develops in the consumer space and what is done to recycle it!

Read more about it on Wikipedia

That’s developer speak

You can still access them

 I’m just running a workshop on social marketing 2.0 with Arkgroup.

So Arkgroup is a conference company with literally hundreds of presentations delivered each year.

Do they have a SlideShare presence? No.

I styped arkgroup into slideshare’s search and I got this:

So, then I set the challenge. I bet this slideshow is on the homepage of a Google search on ‘Intranet Workshop’

IT WAS!

Do you think that these guys should look into social marketing?

I tweeted on this earlier today and I reckon it is worth a blog.

Often I reuse slides from previous presentations, actually i always do! And I love mind mapping for planning presentations!

Today, I worked out that you can drag a slide from Keynote’s Light Table (.ppt Slide Sorter) into Mindmanager. Now I have an uber cool sorter that I can add text and notes to!

Like this!