What makes a good / great re-design?

By Jonathan August 31st, 2010, under Design, My work, News

I was thinking recently about what makes a ‘good’ versus a ‘wow’ type redesign… I have come to the conclusion that it has to have something that will impress the ‘average user’ without being so over the top in the creative stakes. Now this may be a bit of stating the obvious but in these days of generic themes and downloadable designs for Content Management Systems of Blog Systems (no surprise that I’m using WordPress!), how much effort is it worth putting into a re-design on your own site?

When I started this site it was a way to exhibit a few websites that I created for local small businesses. My intent was to use it as a learning vehicle originally and research the feasibility of independent designers or freelancers starting up their own businesses in such a way that they could compete with design agencies but deliver the lower costs that small and medium businesses need in an economic climate such as ours.

With house prices falling again and most if not all businesses forced to make significant efficiency savings, a well-designed freelancer website or portfolio could make all the difference, grabbing contracts and delivering business improvements for relatively little investment, but they cannot do this if they do not have a way to show off a strong portfolio, as businesses grow increasingly conservative as the economic squeeze continues.

Over the coming month, I intend to write a series of articles looking into how school leavers and students can start their own cottage industries. With many forced to live at home or in student accommodation, now is the time for entrepreneurs to come to the fore. If students like Christian Owens can make his first million by 16, then there is no reason why we as teachers and designers cannot encourage ours to do the same.

If you have ideas for how to start up as a freelancer, or have suggestions for any particular articles, let me know via the comments or contact pages. I’ll also be combining it with a redesign of this site to make a bit brighter and appealing as the dark theme has gotten a bit old now!

Day 1 at the E2BN Conference

By Jonathan June 29th, 2010, under Misc, News

I was unsure what to expect from my first E2BN Conference, but was pleasantly surprised to have a great opening speech from Stephen Heppell. His enlightened insight into the use of Academies in modern education shows great promise and I for one will be following the development of Portland Academy over the coming years.

The initial workshops are useful with a some good contributions but I have one concern… whilst the aim of the workshops is to equip us with knowledge and tools to deliver better teaching and learning, E2BN itself blocks the vast majority of the websites and applications! Even worse, local HE networks block third-party apps less browsers so the majority of efficiency-improving apps and sites are no longer of any use!

It’s time that we decided to educate children in schools properly in a modern, supposedly world-leading digital economy. Equip them for the future and employment by actually teaching them to use these tools responsibly and safely. Only then can the next generation hope to compete in the workplace. What do you think?

iPhone 4 signal problems

By Jonathan June 28th, 2010, under iPhone

Well, I have been reading quite a few articles about the intermittent left-hand held 3G signal issues that seem to be affecting the new iPhone…

Safe to say that using the bumpers cover that Apple sell (and from the looks of the shelves in the Milton Keynes store, sold out of on release day) appears to reduce the impact of bridging the antennae.

Having tried it both with and without the bumpers protective case, I have not noticed any real difference.. the signal strength drops off slightly but performance appears unaffected.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this and will report back with some evidence / pics in due course!