I developed this theory by reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, in the book Gladwell discusses the Broken Window or Zero Tolerance approach to crime prevention adopted by Rudy Giuliani in New York City in the early 90’s.
Under this approach Giuliani instructed the police to strictly enforce the law with regards petty crimes such as:
Soon after rates of both petty and serious crime fell suddenly and significantly, and continued to fall over the following ten years[1]. The theory is that by creating an environment where petty crime can’t flourish serious crime would also stop. Crime would remain low due to more high profile policing and social constraints.
In User Experience in a software development team I highlighted one type of broken window that of user experience; reduce bad development decision in the lower tiers through an incomplete mindset and that should reduce the impact of bad decisions in user interface tier.
Now I would like to highlight some other broken windows that should be consistently guarded against.
These are:
Broken links are a clear signal to your client that you don’t care about their project. After all, you couldn’t even be bothered to understand their content enough to ensure that they don’t look stupid in front of their customers.
The bottom line, whether we want to admit it or not, is that all web developers should be concerned about “brand”. Clients have the expectation that you’ll be responsible for their online brand and don’t take kindly to you making them look unprofessional. Don’t moan about it, take the opportunity to create a proactive relationship with your client and fix those links, help to make your client look more professional.
I’m not a standards nut, but ensuring that your page is compliant with a published grammar helps with the following.
Start getting it right now, validate every page and don’t move on until it adheres to the doctype declared in your page header.
I can here cries of heretic from my development fraternity – but before you storm my house with pitch forks and flaming torches let me explain.
It’s a truism that most developer aren’t that good at testing their own work properly, they know what work and will test to make it work but honestly having debug messages flash up on a live system is just bloody lazy.
You are responsible for ensuring that your code is at production quality no one else. Stop the belly aching, take some responsibility.
The development activity like most creative tasks has the potential to create many different broken windows. What’s important for one project isn’t important for another. The key is to start to take responsibility for your actions. Know how what you do affects your client, their customers and their perception of you. Identify you own broken window and be proactive learning how to fix them.
[1] This is debated, in Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner argue that the fall in crime was due to the legalisation of abortion in 1973. The crux of their argument is that there were fewer 16 – 25 year old males from impoverished families, those most likely to commit crime, around and therefore less people committing crime.
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>He looks at the Myths that surround innovation and breaks the process down to a pragmatic guide to creating the space to be a more productive innovator. Written in a relaxed style you'll plough though the book in no time at all, and come away inspired.
Anyone who wants to go further in software/product/web design should read this book.
Also, don't forget to read the Colophon as with all of Scott's writing it's a treat.
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>I've been fascinated by Clive Jame's art world TV Series Talking in the library. It's what main stream TV should be; Interesting people talking about interesting things!
To find out more check out the background to the series and a full video archive via Slate.
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>Despite some of the cynical reviews I personally thought it was a treat of a film to watch; back to it's roots, gritty and unpretentious.
One bit that resonated with me was the scene when Rocky is talking to his son about life...
"Let me tell you something you already know.
The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that! "
Kind of sums up my view on the world....
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>The highlight of the evening for me were the speeches.
The first speaker was Wayne Trevor of London Underground who talk about the the companies plan to make the underground fully inclusive over the next 10 years. Factoid - London Underground spends more than any other company in Europe on accessibility, how cool is that!
Then it was Michael Wolff of Wolff Olins who gave what I though was a wonderful speech on his time in charge of the Inclusive design challenge.
Then was Hugh Hudd of the RNIB who talked of the personal side of being blind. "Imagine everything you knew is blank, that form you must sign has no writing on it, who would you trust to tell you what you're about to agree to" that's what being blind is like, that's why we must do more to help everyone with disabilities access the information they need, in a format that's suitable to them.
It's nice to get to go to events like this because it helps me to reconnect with my passion for user experience. It helps me to remember the reasons I left a cushy job and decided to start on the path of running my own user experience consultancy because at the end of every website, or software application, or leaflet is a person wanting get on with their life, and who am i to stop them.
For some futher thoughts and comments see the new UX Consultancy Blog
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>With this in mind, it's never been more important for a company to create a product that meets their customer's expectations. It is essential to create an online experience that will engage the customer so that they feel as quickly as possible that the company not only has the item they want, but they are able to provide it in a way that is quick and simple.
Traditionally, these challenges have been met technically by software developers, websites have become more complex, and through the advancement of web 2.0 technologies there is very little to distinguish between a traditional software application and a website. Alongside the rise of technology and the Internet, a legion of usability engineers have been quietly working to shape the web to become more usable; more inline with customer’s expectations.
We all experience the efforts of these usability engineers but the truth is that most people still don't know what usability actually means and what measurable benefit it will bring to a company.
"Usability is an approach to product development that incorporates direct user feedback throughout the development cycle in order to reduce costs and create products and tools that meet user needs" - What is usability (Usability Professionals Association)
In short, a usability engineer works with product developers to test how easy it is for someone to use their product. This is done many different ways but the most common are:
User testing - a usability engineer will watch people use something and make recommendations on how to improve it to give better results for the user.
Expert review - a usability engineer will review a product and make recommendations on how to improve it to giver better results for the user.
Make sense? Usability touches every part of your life; think about it tonight when you drive home, get through your front door to uncork a bottle of your favourite Chardonnay and relax while listening to your favourite music. The fact that you drove home in comfort and safety, that you got into your house, that you uncorked a bottle of wine, that you can literally listen to thousands of your favourite pieces of music on your MP3 player without even thinking about it, is testament to how much usability touches your life.
Across a study of 863 projects it's been estimated that you can benefit from a measurable increase of 135% by setting aside 10% of your development budget for usability , as well as other benefits such as an increased in brand loyalty and word of mouth marketing.
Products have come a long way over the past 30 years, but there is still much to do. One area of usability that needs to greatly improve is accessibility; from 1st October 1999 it became a legal requirement that "a service provider had to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services".
Accessibility is the term that describes a field of usability that aims to explicitly improve the usability of a product for people with disabilities such as visual impairment, dyslexia, hearing impairment, mobility problems etc.
It's no longer acceptable for a company to create a product without providing equal access to everyone. Moreover it's really bad business!! I can't think of any company that wouldn't want some of the £50bn that the 8.6 million registered disabled citizens of the United Kingdom have to spend - or the £175 billion the UK's over-50's have to splash out (most people over 50 have some form of impairment such as deterioration of their sight).
The secret here is that accessibility isn't expensive either, as long as it's designed into your website from the start. A few simple techniques, can give you access to a combined market of 225 billion pounds, and if that isn't good enough...those same simple techniques will make it piece of cake for Google to find and rank your website because Google accesses your website in the same was a visually impaired user with a screen reader does. Optimise for accessibility and your search engine ranking is likely to improve.
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>I'm not exactly sure what i expected feel at the end of the day, but I'm glad to say the feelings of blind panic have now subsided and I'm starting to feel that i might acclimatise to the challenges that lay in front
As usual when I'm feeling a little odd, I talked it over with my 4 year old daughter, every night we play a game called - what happened on the way to work, in search of inspiration I usually use what happens in the day to help make up a story.
This is what happened today.
Ellie (e) - Daddy what happened on the way to work?
Me (m) - Today Ellie Daddy got on his horse and ventured in the great unknown, It all started off quite slowly with me checking that I had everything I needed, then off i went. suddenly i came across an enormous mountain. No matter which route I though about taking I realised that my horse couldn't make it. Normally, as you know, I would ask my giant friend to help. Usually I would sit on his shoulder and ask him to take me up the mountain, but today my giant friend was no where to be found. So I started the long climb to the top.
E - Why can you use your TARDIS to fly over the mountain?
M - Ah... right then Ellie good night.
Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>The English version of the article is also available.
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>Today I handed in my notice at WorksUnit (the rather good digital design agency I've been working for, for the past eight months) to give UX Consultancy a proper go.
Two main things are going through my head at the moment - one is the sense that an adventure is about to begin. The second is that I must of some how lost my mind and I will at any point wake up from a drug induced coma that those nice nurses in the psych ward administered to prevent me for having delusions.
As I'm pretty confident that I haven't woken up in a rather bad b-movie (I can't imagine that any nurses will suddenly appear) so I suppose that an adventure IS about to start.
Wish me luck... In four week I'm going to be self-employed, trying to scape a living as a user experience consultant... anyone got any work ;)
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>These books describe hundreds of different factors that will improve the developer lot, reams and reams have been devoted to:
The really good ones will make an impact and will change your life in an instant. However, the majority of developers I know consider these books pointless because the only books they think they need to read are the technical ones.
At work our book shelf is littered with titles such as WAP in 21 days and ASP in a nutshell. We’ve got more O’Reily and Wrox book then I’d care to mention and it was when I saw these literary carcasses getting dusty in favour of the latest technology release (“use dotNet to cook and egg “or something like that) that I decided enough is enough.
When I started programming I used Pascal, then Visual Basic, then ASP (VBScript, Jscript) and now (when I code) it’s in C#. Let’s not forget the forays into Delphi, Java, and C++. Plus my frequent use of TSQL, and other propriety languages such as MT’s templating system. However, rather then listing the skill portion of my CV I have a point I want to make, which is we very rarely stick with one programming language so why do we spend so much time learning the nuances of a programming language and not the supportive skills that enables us to adapt to the environment a developer works in?
I’m not suggesting that there isn’t a place for technical books. That would be absurd! My point is that in order to stand out from the crowd a developer should taking time to ask question and learn about best practice, fundamental principles, why and how developer tools work (I'm thinking Visual Studio) . We should all be interested in what are the factors that allow developers to flourish and then play our bit in ensuring that it happens.
Of course you have to write good code and for that you need to understand the languages you work with, but I'm convinced that you can get much further by working on the constants in our professions and not the things that change!
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>Anything to add, recommend, Email me. In addition take a look at:
As it is my website I'd like to suggest a couple of my articles too. :)
Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>The Windows Live team have released a rather fantastic tool called Windows Live Write. It's fantastic - you can write as if in word and have it publish directly to your blog (in my case MT blog)! I've been waiting years for something like this.
I've had my suspicions but now I'm really starting to think that Microsoft are starting to get thier act together! Microsoft a force to be recond with again!
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>To celebrate I'm going to wear Velcro shoes and hire out an automatic car, perhaps with variable cruise control. I may even get a Velcro jump suit just to top the out fit off.
I suggest we UX (UE) professional adopt this as our uniform of choice :)
Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>"If i could give you one tip for the future..."
Thank you
Matt Goddard
]]> Who is Matt Goddard?Matt Goddard is a software developer and user advocate with 10 years experience working in the software development industry.
He lives in the New Forest near Southampton in the United Kingdom. For more information and contact details see the about section
If you'd like to discuss or comment on this post then visit the Fitts' Lawn Forum
]]>