Archive for the ‘New Zealand’ Category

Theme song for the Kiwis

The Kiwis have chosen their theme song for their victory dance: The Clean - Anything Could Happen

Sunday Morning Agenda

Here’s an agenda for Sunday morning

Time Status
09:22 Stop coding
09:30 - 09:45 Ripple Effect talk with judges
09:45 - 10:00 Grampians Disability Advocacy Assocaition talk with judges
10:00 - 10:45 Judges meeting
10:45 - 11:00 Judges talk with Team Australia
11:00 - 11:15 Judges talk with Team New Zealand
11:15 - 12:00 Judges meeting
12:00 Awards ceremony

Probing the Kiwis

News pages - a head to head look

The CodeBlacks page
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Team Australia
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Are we panicking yet?

Team Australia: “We’re right on the verge.”

CodeBlacks: “Jeffrey had a meltdown a little while ago.”

What you really want to know about the CodeBlacks

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

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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)