2008
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Recently Read
Text Preferences Survey What is the ideal text size to use on the web? What about line height and column (line) length? Most of the information in this area is based on print (at best) or anecdotal (at worst). A design agency in Brighton, Message, has decided to try and find out by carrying out…
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Floored (plus other items of note)
I’m lying on the bed, laptop perched on a tray, watching TV. It’s a little tricky to type because I’ve got a cut on the middle finger of my left hand, and my arms and hands are sore. Why? Laminate flooring. Previously the laminate flooring ran from the hallway through to the kitchen, it’s a…
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Design matters
Why would you choose to make something difficult to use? Are you deliberately putting barriers in the road? Or are you just forgetting the main reason why people pick up a document or manual? Long ago, when I had just started out as a technical writer, I attended a course on designing for Print. It…
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Modern Life is Rubbish
Kitchen is almost finished. Last bit of tiling is getting done on Monday, most of the flooring will go down over the weekend, then it’s a couple of touch up jobs with a paintbrush, a little wallpaper and we’re done!! I’ve sent off my letter of complaint and received a phone call following up to…
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Round up the usual suspects
I love movies. I love the thrill of them, the cinematography, the way they move you, the way they lift you up and make you soar, or the way they quietly affect you and alter your point of view. I love big ridiculous blockbusters, loaded with special effects and noises, that don’t care about plot…
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I am not a dictionary
How many times in your professional career have you been asked to spell something, or asked if a word is hyphenated? How many times are you asked whether to use “that” or “which” in a sentence? We are the grammar police, the word monkeys, and many of us revel in that role (if not the…