Anyway – this weekend I started a bit of a spring clean of my technology, starting with a rebuild of my Macbook which was sending me pathetic messages that my start up disk was full. As the family IT service desk I seem to spend so much time tweaking other people’s tech that by the time it comes to my own… plus I have so many “toys” that even though my Mac is my favourite I could just switch to another.

As a bit of a celebration/reward for successfully (although not without some heart stopping moments) rebuilding my Mac and installing Mavericks and Office 365, I renewed my Elegant Themes subscription and figured out how to manage the new admin panel my hosting company has implemented. So here is an interim step, freshened up look and hopefully a fresh start to my original plan almost two years ago to blog on a more regular basis!

Last weekend was one of technical disasters when I did a firmware upgrade on my Macbook Pro that didn’t complete properly. After the simple stuff didn’t work I finally utilisied sufficient patience and care to access the utilities folder and went through the process of checking the hard drive (wasn’t that), re-installing Lion which kept erroring at the very and finally restoring from back up – which worked. The only option after that was a factory settings reset. It was a bit of a lesson though – my back up was five months old. I didn’t loose that much but it was very stressful, despite enjoying my new little ASUS ultrabook, I realised how attached I still am to my Mac!

It has also given me a new appreciation for Google Docs. I’m actually constructing a report in sections on there now to keep it safe.

One of the things I have been thinking about a lot this week is the impact of complexity on usability for online resources. Our expectations of rapid response when we click on a link or save something are increasingly formed by a combination of high speed connection and simple apps that only do a limited range of tasks well. So websites offering more complex tools seem slow and laggy when they process information.  Related to this is the user expecting that complexity to be available on a tablet which despite it’s shiny new toy interface hasn’t actually got the guts/processing power of a standard laptop/desktop.

In some ways we are own worst enemy in that creating some tools (like this blog) is so simple and kind of magical that we expect everything will be when what we want to achieve with design and formula is not easy – I have seen complex excel spreadsheets slow down as they churn the calculations, and we can be reasonable tolerant of that, but put a web interface on it (which adds layers of tasks for the computer to do) particularly one that presents the data in a novel way and we wonder why it is taking a while.

And I don’t think there is an easy answer…

The other article I meant to blog about last week was this article from BBC UK titled Colour: Different points of hue. One of the areas I’m curious about is the degree to which our cultural background affects how we perceive web design and information architecture. That includes the structure of language and how users respond to imagery and text. Many of us have read information about different cultural perceptions of  colour. What is startling about this article is that our English understanding of a colour definition might not be the same as someone from another country’s definition.

I have come across this before in real life with my husband’s colour naming which while in English is based on his parents’ Dutch classification system (we have a totally different understanding of purple) but hadn’t realised that this wasn’t just a result of second language English but could be even more culturally determined.  I’m not sure that I’ll end up being more patient with him but it might remind be to give him an actual example when I want something in a particular shade! Which might also be a good idea with clients as well.

After a freezing cold day yesterday and chilly morning I have to say that I wasn’t feeling the love for Wellington today. And then a little miracle happened. I went to have my haircut at the hands of my amazing stylist RJ at Calibre (those who know me well know that I used to time my visits back to get my haircut) and ended up chatting with Craig, Suzanne and RJ about how I wanted to browse the Neil Dawson  exhibition at Paige Blackie gallery as I’d been walking past as they installed it. And somehow when I walked outside, the sculptures outside the InterContential were lit up and the spotlights on the Old Bank – it had gone from freezing to winter cool and Wellington was magical again – I was glad to be home.

On the more techie side of the equation Craig at work shared this link earlier in the week to LeanPub a site that lets you self publish your own digital books. I’m  increasingly curious about how the world of books can potentially change when authors can control their own distribution. I have to say the one issue that needs to be resolved with some of the self published books I’ve read is that good editing is in short supply!

Then in June 2010 we moved to Brisbane and I ended up working full time again. I didn’t particularly mind that, but I found that while there were still topics I wanted to write about, many of the posts never got much beyond drafts.

Now I’m/we’re  back in New Zealand again. While I’m not sure I have that much more time to write, a couple of things I heard at Webstock highlighted for me the value of maybe (a) starting to blog again and (b) doing it properly on my own domain.

Jeremy Keith talking about  being wary of expecting online services to be there forever can take the credit for the second decision – I may have to browse through the programme again to be reminded who commented on great bloggers being reduced to mediocre tweeters. (ETA I’m pretty sure it was Scott Hanselman It’s not what you read its what you ignore) I certainly don’t expect I’ll ever be able to claim a great blog,  but I do work in a collaborative online environment. That comment highlighted an issue I was beginning to experience  of not being able to find the clever new tool or interesting research I saw tweeted/facebooked a couple of weeks ago – and at times having to do a quick re-read to recall why it had seemed important and/or useful at the time.

This blog wont be totally techie, I still have an eclectic life!  But it will be a bit of a storehouse of what is useful to me and may be useful to you.