Archive for August, 2007
Early hours, less reports
We are all still awake here in the newsden but unfortunately there is still little I can report. The Aussie team assures me that they are going ahead, slow and steady but I fear they may be feeling a bit deflated as the fatigue sets in, along with the tedium. So for now, here’s some videos for you to enjoy…
Overview of the Kiwi Plan
Team Status Updates
Kiwi Coffee Break
Cheers for now, Renae.
Vox poll
The CodeBlacks have debated long and hard whether the “*” used to signal that a form field is required should go the left or right of the label text. Let us know your opinion.
Booze-a-thon revisited
Steve (CodeBlacks designer) : “Are the Aussie team really getting drunk?”
Me : “Well … there’s beer, there’s wine … they’re certainly drinking.”
Steve (plantively) : “But Natasha told us we couldn’t drink!”
Me : “That was a judgment call rather than an official policy.”
Mike
The Importance Of User Personas
We’ve just finished a round of interviews with our two respective usability experts Ruth and Zef and it’s interesting stuff. I should point out that even though there is live blogging it’s been a gentle balancing act between revealing information that you are interested in hearing dear reader and respecting the privacy and game plan of each of the teams. If the blog posts have been slow it’s because it’s been difficult finding things that aren’t too sensitive to release in the public domain at this stage of the competition.Having said that, look forward to our next round of videos on YouTube. Zef from the New Zealand team has crafted very detailed, targeted set of user personas and scenarios with specific details that will inform the design based on user needs. For example, rating whether users are highly dependent on accessing the site, what kind of set up they may have at home - 56k or broadband? 1024px screen view or 800px? What essential tasks do they need to complete and what sort of accessiblity challenges do they face? I am confident that if they can follow this through to the finished product they have a very good chance of nailing this competition. The Australian Team have taken a slightly different approach to their user personas but they have their audience clear in mind. Let’s wait and see where it can go.In the meantime, we’re leaking the documents:
If you’re still awake, let’s take a vote. Tell us which approach you like and why.Renae (still awake for now)
Booze-a-thon
Dear Aussie team,
Is this a web contest or a drinking contest 
The borders are slowly blurring.
Your sincerely,
Renae (in smart ass mode)
Volunteer profile 7: Eric Li
Eric has been diving deep into the industry of photography by freelancing
with a number of different government departments, Non-profit
organisations and the paper. With a passion for photography in mind, Eric
does wedding, events, conference, portraits, news and sports photography
in Canberra.
Eric will be capturing the moments in FCP through a his bulky Canon 70-200
f2.8 telelens.
Midnight update
The CodeBlacks is quiet. Everyone hunched over their laptop, some with headphones on. Concentration. Coding.
Team Australia are noisy. There’s beer on the table and there’s blood on their hands. From opening the beer!
Trendsetters?
Do you know of any other example of an event that utilised live blogging, twittering, YouTube and Flickr? Perhaps, just perhaps, we are making history now. Can you prove us wrong? If so, we’d like to know.