Blog

Two weekends ago, Andrew and I went along to the third Good for Nothing hack weekend, appropriately titled Occupy Blue Monday. It was as inspirational and invigorating as ever. I've written before about what it's like to do a Good for Nothing. I love the way they take new, collaborative ways of working and hack culture to support the true innovators in social enterprise. As a participant, it's amazing to be able to use your skills to provide real value - a new kind of volunteering with tangible results.

This week, we welcomed Will Roissetter to the Many. Being such a fresh addition, he's yet to be given an avatar. So while we wait to put a face to a name on the blog, we thought we'd ask him to introduce himself to you in his own words. 

Have you ever read Fuck My Life? If you haven’t, you really should stop by at least once a month. It’s a continuous stream of everyday stories in which people share the shitty moments that ruined their day. The stories are often hilarious or eye-watering, sometimes both at the same time. A heavy sense of irony is essential.

It was in this mindset that I opened the site on my mobile phone this morning and saw this ad banner at the top of the page:

This is the grid I use to help me draw sketch wireframes. It may be tatty and covered in splotches, but it helps me draw straight lines quickly.

The grid also helps me sketch pages around advertising. For the last five years the two constants of virtually every project I’ve worked on have been the width of the page and the size of ad banners. Got to fit an MPU above the fold. Can’t go above 980 pixels wide. Better make that column the same width as a skyscraper, just in case…

Imperica magazine recently asked me if I would be interested in taking part in an 'In Conversation With' on their site. 

We're lucky enough to share this space with a really interesting and smart group of people, and Duncan and I thought it would be fun to tell some of their stories. We've kicked off with a chat with  Murray Steele, a Rails developer from Unboxed who works for us so much he is now completely 'one of the family'... He's also one of the brains behind the regular Ruby meet-up LRUG and the annual Ruby Manor conference. Find out more over the turn!

There's a popular technique in interaction design known as Progressive Disclosure. You can see this in wizard-style interfaces that show you a single question at a time. The theory is that it's better to show one single thing at a time than to show a big wall of stuff that makes you run away.

Did you see Black Mirror on Channel 4 recently? It's a bleak and paranoid set of 3 parables of a future with unintended consquences. Created by Charlie Brooker, all three are available to watch now on 4OD.

Of all the things I love to read, long form is my favourite

I have enjoyed long form journalism for a very long time. I like a story that's lengthy enough to grow familiar: events I can dread or anticipate, characters I can get to know and watch change. I like going on that journey.

Long form used to be a bit of a rare beast, but this has changed over the past year. There are more places to get your long form fix these days, and more and more of them are online.

Curiously enough, while the rest of the publishing industry endures a series of beatings from the world wide web, things in the long form corner are starting to look brighter. 

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and our little festive update to Holler Gram is now in-store.  

Welcome to Holler Gram Seasons. 

More screenshots below.