Handing over the reins

I'm off on holiday for a bit (and it is holiday not 'gardening leave').

I thought we could experiment while I'm away. Other authors may be posting to this blog.

This is probably a good thing. You'll have a change in perspective and a change in style too.

In the background

Now we've started to focus our attention on the fluffy stuff it's easy to forget the other work that's going on.

Choose-O-Tron-O-Matic Explorer user experience is finished, Dealer Locator specification is starting, data modelling for Features and Specs is on-going, technical specifications are emerging.

A project update has been delievered to colleagues in France, Germany, Spain, FCSD. Follow up meetings are being arranged where necessary.

The teams aren't idle. In fact things are a little stressful at times, so I went and bought my own Stress Reduction Kit.

Good news, bad news

Someone used the meebo chat widget to ask "what's the point of going online if the content is sooooooo out of date?"

Well do you want to hear the bad news as well as the good news?

The last three weeks have been occupied with the creative for the navigation and the homepage.

Navigation is pretty much nailed and homepage is almost there. The great news is that these look amazing.

OK, so what's the bad news? You know what, I don't want to tell you the bad news because it'll depress both of us.

He likes, she likes

How many of you are married, or living with someone?

And how many times have you been shopping for furniture, curtains, lights, bed linen, cushions, rugs and you can't agree easily with your partner on what you should buy?

Well if you find it's difficult to make a choice you're both happy with, you're not alone.

Men and women like different things. I know this isn't rocket science but the presentation we saw on gender website preferences resulted in a workshop to discuss in more detail what this means for us.

There is a male and a female aesthetic, and they are quite different.

This doesn't just apply to websites, it applies to everything and there are some genetic reasons for the differences.

More than 8% of men are colour blind or dichromatic. Is it any wonder men are more conservative when it comes to colour.

Women have more cones at the back of the eye which help the brain interpret colour. Is it any wonder that women enjoy and appreciate colour.

1/2 % of women are tetrachromatic which means they see not only the primary colours: red, blue and green, but also colours at the ultra violet end of the scale. Even more reason for the female appreciation of colour.

Men have better spatial awareness - the ability to think in 3D. This explains why men are often good at parking and why women appreciate parking distance sensors. The result of this is that men are more comfortable with 3D images whereas women prefer 2D images or images of items in context.

There are other differences that are harder to explain through physiology.

Anyway this doesn't mean a group of male designers can't design to a brief targetting women, but it does mean that they need to be aware of what women want if they want to get it right.

And it also means that if you argue with your partner about furnishing and decorating the home it's not necessarily because your partner lacks taste.

The next big thing from Apple

How very dare they?

Those pesky VW folk have been reading this blog. Which one of you squealed.

We found a Compare-O-Tron.

Thanks to Neil for pointing this out but 'How very dare they?'

Wunderman Conference in Nice

You may have heard about the 'Did you know?' presentation.

Here is a prettier version. Be patient while it loads.