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• Benj-ify Wrapped 2024

  14 December 2024

  I wish Spotify Wrapped included live music, so here is my 2024 run down of gigs and festivals.

• PI planning and prototyping

  7 December 2024

  A double weeknote starting 25 November 2024.

• Vampire Weekend

  2 December 2024

  A weekend of live music in Cardiff and Manchester.

• Never half-ass two things

  24 November 2024

  A weeknote starting 18 November 2024.

• Moving teams again

  16 November 2024

  A weeknote starting 11 November 2024.

• What makes a successful usability test?

  7 November 2024

  A weeknote starting 4 November 2024.

• Travelling for user research and design workshops

  3 November 2024

  A weeknote starting 28 October 2024.

• Front-end dev standards

  25 October 2024

  A weeknote starting 21 October 2024.

• Prototype kit and nunjucks special

  19 October 2024

  A weeknote starting 14 October 2024.

• Observing users on site

  10 October 2024

  A weeknote starting 7 October 2024.

• New team and some great gigs

  6 October 2024

  A weeknote starting 30 September 2024.

• A tough week

  28 September 2024

  A weeknote starting 23 September 2024.

• Service assessment looming

  21 September 2024

  A weeknote starting 16 September 2024.

• Worrying about the future of interaction design

  14 September 2024

  A weeknote starting 9 September 2024.

• Contract extensions

  8 September 2024

  A weeknote starting 2 September 2024.

• Back from hols to a team shake-up

  31 August 2024

  A weeknote starting 26 August 2024.

• Design links and live music

  22 June 2024

  A weeknote starting 17 June 2024.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 18 and 19

  19 May 2024

  User acceptance testing, music festivals and snakes.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 17

  4 May 2024

  Some good interaction design habits I'm trying to adopt.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 16

  28 April 2024

  Inclusive language and the contenteditable attribute.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 15

  20 April 2024

  Struggling with JavaScript, usability testing, and design systems.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 14

  14 April 2024

  Planning user research and getting the prototype ready.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 13

  6 April 2024

  Reflecting on 1 year contracting, and nice things to do in Swansea.

• Thundercat at Bristol Beacon

  31 March 2024

  Finally managed to get to a gig in Bristol. Here are a few photos from the night (and following morning).

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 12

  29 March 2024

  Prototyping, beach safety forecasts, digital inclusion, co-design.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 11

  23 March 2024

  Refining business requirements, a uses page, X-GOVUK show and tell, a design system for Wales.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 10

  15 March 2024

  Design debt, mentoring, RSS feeds and white default in autocorrects.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 09

  8 March 2024

  Design Swansea, RSS feeds and Jakob Nielsen.

• 3 interaction design things

  6 March 2024

  My slides and talk transcript for Design Swansea Cropped on Thursday 7 March 2024

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 08

  2 March 2024

  Breaking words in tables, visit to Sheffield, remote working and designing Welsh services.

• Why I love remote work

  27 February 2024

  Remote working enables me to be a better parent, a better partner, be happier at work and to do better work.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 07

  24 February 2024

  1500 commits, adding a now page, visiting Sheffield and Axe-con.

• Why Markdown is a great design tool

  18 February 2024

  Different ways I use Markdown to help me design and write.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 06

  17 February 2024

  Designing with uncertainty, accessibility strategy resources, Bombay Bicycle Club.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 05

  10 February 2024

  Stress, stakeholder demos, links without hrefs and Bluesky.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 04

  3 February 2024

  Design Swansea, Shoreline management plans, testing prototypes in other devices, design debt and target size.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 03

  25 January 2024

  Prototyping rhythm, design authority presentations, design histories and Design Swansea.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 02

  18 January 2024

  Deadlines, new laptop, flow diagrams and accessible notifications.

• Weeknotes – series 07 episode 01

  13 January 2024

  Contract extension, joining a design community of practice in Wales and some interaction design bookmarks.

• Helping to get quality code into production as an interaction designer

  6 December 2023

  My notes on how interaction designers can work with software developers and testers on agile delivery teams.

• First 6 months contracting

  10 September 2023

  I’ve just started my 6th month as a contractor, and wanted to share some notes around the practicalities of being employed inside IR35.

• Seb

  18 July 2023

  A collection of memories I have of my cousin Seb who died last year.

• My contracting goals 2023

  15 July 2023

  Here are some work goals I've set myself, now that I've started contracting.

• First 3 months contracting

  1 July 2023

  Contract extensions and cross-gov working

• This is forty

  17 June 2023

  I'm turning 40 this month, so I thought it was worth marking it with a blog post

• Inclusive design for interaction designers

  23 April 2023

  What can interaction designers do to make services more inclusive?

• My first few weeks contracting

  20 April 2023

  My first few weeks contracting, and thinking about interaction design versus service design.

• Setting up a new mac for interaction design

  27 March 2023

  A round up of interaction design software that I'll install first on a new Macbook.

• The stickers on my laptop, 2023 edition

  17 March 2023

  Time to clean the stickers off my laptop (again).

• Lining up my first role

  27 February 2023

  Good news, it looks like I've lined up my first contract role.

• I’m going contracting

  2 February 2023

  Hey friends, I've decided to take the plunge and go contracting.

• Accessible PowerPoint presentations

  20 November 2022

  A collection of tips for making PowerPoint presentations more accessible.

• Inclusive design resources

  12 November 2022

  A collection of posts, articles, guides and podcasts about inclusive design.

• Visiting all the beaches in Swansea and Gower

  4 November 2022

  I’ve set myself a challenge to visit all the beaches in Swansea and Gower. There are about 39 in total.

• Starting a blogroll

  29 October 2022

  I've decided to start a blogroll. A list of sites that I read or recommend.

• List of inclusive design books

  22 October 2022

  Some inclusive design books that I'm reading, or are on my wish list.

• Showing the post excerpt on blog post lists

  15 October 2022

  A brief look at how I'm using front matter to add blog post descriptions to my site.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 14

  7 October 2022

  Design Swansea, user research and design reviews.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 13

  1 October 2022

  My Gran’s funeral, passing probation, watching service design in gov via Twitter, Liverpool.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 12

  23 September 2022

  A look at the accessibility best practices and exclusion mapping guides I've been working on.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 11

  16 September 2022

  My first sprint, user research with people with access needs, and exclusion mapping.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 10

  9 September 2022

  Device testing, accessibilty at beta phase, and random 8s

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 09

  2 September 2022

  New sprint, writing UCD tickets, design QA (including basic accessibility checks).

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 08

  29 August 2022

  Design system day tickets, user research planning and writing design acceptance criteria.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 07

  20 August 2022

  Native app design, accessibility best practices, and my inclusive design reading list.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 06

  14 August 2022

  Gower beaches, heat wave and pizza

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 05

  8 August 2022

  Summer holiday edition - Alton Towers, Stanton village and Gower beaches.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 04

  30 July 2022

  Paddle boarding, manuals of me, design leadership for introverts.

• My interaction design tools, version 3

  27 July 2022

• A user manual for me, version 3

  25 July 2022

  A 2022 update to my user manual, based on Cassie Robinson's template.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 03

  23 July 2022

  Extreme heat, end of school, user-centred design training, mobile app design and 1-to-1s.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 02

  15 July 2022

  More onboarding, being in the chalet and getting my kit setup.

• Weeknotes – series 06 episode 01

  8 July 2022

• Things to do in Swansea

  25 May 2022

  My non-exhaustive list of nice things to do in Swansea. Mostly places that serve pale ale. And beaches. Roughly East to West.

• My first 3 months in the inclusive design team

  8 October 2021

• Joining NHS test and trace

  24 July 2021

• A user manual for me, version 2

  25 June 2021

• Adding some basic CSS

  11 April 2021

  Adding some basic CSS to stop Google shouting at me.

• Switching to Eleventy, but still naked

  8 April 2021

• Family friendly TV shows with LGBT characters

  11 March 2021

• Redirect custom domain name from GitHub pages to Netlify

  20 February 2021

• Checking for visual changes with BackstopJS

  9 January 2021

• Some personal goals for 2021

  8 January 2021

• Deploy my Jekyll site to Netlify

  15 December 2020

• Create a list of sample pages for testing

  13 December 2020

• Change default branch from master to main

  13 December 2020

• A plan for accessible maps

  28 November 2020

• Weeknotes – series 04 episode 04

  15 November 2020

• Weeknotes – series 04 episode 03

  6 November 2020

• Weeknotes – series 04 episode 02

  1 November 2020

• Weeknotes – series 04 episode 01

  24 October 2020

• A user-centred design and data community

  15 October 2020

• 11ty resources

  20 May 2020

• Teams who share their accessibility processes in the open

  19 May 2020

• Accessible close buttons

  30 April 2020

  A short post about designing close buttons with SVG icons and accessible mark-up.

• Generally, it’s better to avoid opening links in new windows or tabs

  20 April 2020

• My first year at Swirrl

  16 April 2020

• Pens for UX sketching and note taking

  13 April 2020

• User research activities for testing interface content

  6 April 2020

• Making data part of the web sticker

  4 April 2020

• Books about racism in the UK

  8 February 2020

• Accessible search form mark-up

  10 January 2020

• Some personal goals for 2020

  9 January 2020

• Making data tables more accessible

  18 December 2019

• User research questions for data users

  9 December 2019

• What have I accomplished this decade?

  14 November 2019

• Accessibility checklist

  7 November 2019

  A list of accessibility recommendations; covering typography, content, layout and interaction.

• Using Shortcuts app to add location data to my posts

  6 November 2019

• Going full Monzo

  5 November 2019

• Work trips 2019

  4 November 2019

  I've been making a note of all my work trips this year.

• Finally went to Ty Cwrw in Mumbles last night, tried a lovely Tenby Brewing x Tiny Rebel ale

  3 November 2019

• Coffee beans

  2 November 2019

• Tiny Rebel beer mat

  26 October 2019

• Design workshops

  6 July 2019

• Writing user stories

  28 June 2019

• Co-working spaces in Cardiff centre

  19 June 2019

• Remote working pros and cons

  17 June 2019

• Weeknotes – series 03 episode 05

  20 May 2019

• Weeknotes – series 03 episode 04

  15 May 2019

• Weeknotes – series 03 episode 03

  5 May 2019

• Weeknotes – series 03 episode 02

  29 April 2019

• Weeknotes – series 03 episode 01

  23 April 2019

• How to be a more resilient service designer

  23 February 2019

• Weeknotes – series 02 episode 06

  17 February 2019

• Weeknotes – series 02 episode 05

  8 February 2019

• January 2019 bookmarks

  2 February 2019

  My read later list from January.

• Weeknotes – series 02 episode 04

  1 February 2019

• Weeknotes – series 02 episode 03

  26 January 2019

• Weeknotes – series 02 episode 02

  19 January 2019

• Weeknotes – series 02 episode 01

  11 January 2019

• Christmas day dinner timings 2018

  27 December 2018

• December 2018 bookmarks

  21 December 2018

  My read later list from December.

• Five things Andy taught me

  19 December 2018

• A user manual for me

  14 December 2018

• NaBloPoMo round-up

  30 November 2018

• Learnt recently that definition lists (DLs) can have multiple definitions (DDs) for every term (DT) and I’m so here for it.

  29 November 2018

• Nice people saying nice things about the ONS website

  28 November 2018

• November 2018 bookmarks

  27 November 2018

  My read later list from November.

• Blog stats

  26 November 2018

• The stickers on my laptop

  25 November 2018

• I’ve added previous and next links, so users can skip to the posts published before and after this one.

  24 November 2018

• Speaking at Service Design in Gov 2019

  23 November 2018

• A quick review of the Netflix She-Ra reboot

  22 November 2018

• This is a quick test note from my phone. I’m using Working Copy GitHub client for iOS.

  21 November 2018

• This is a simple note template. A note is a post that is typically short unstructured plain text, written & posted quickly, that has its own permalink page.

  20 November 2018

• My first “no meeting” day

  19 November 2018

• Adding h-entry to the posts template

  18 November 2018

• Getting started with indieweb

  17 November 2018

• A single word that makes the tricky task of changing nappies so much easier

  16 November 2018

• Introduction to interaction design in gov

  15 November 2018

• Leave me feedback

  14 November 2018

• How improving typography can help us to meet user needs

  13 November 2018

  What is typography? What problems does good typography solve? How do we know poor typography is a real problem?

• 100 blog posts

  12 November 2018

  This is my 100th blog post. Here's to 100 more.

• Interaction design tools

  11 November 2018

  The tools that I use every day. Interesting to note the lack of any design apps like Sketch.

• Swn 2018

  10 November 2018

  A quick round-up of the things we got up to at Swn.

• Articles I’ve written that have been published somewhere else

  9 November 2018

  A collection of posts that I’ve written for other blogs.

• Sid’s words

  8 November 2018

  A list of our 2 year old's unique words.

• Good coffee in places we go for meetings and user research

  7 November 2018

• New design team retro

  6 November 2018

• Work trips 2018

  5 November 2018

  I've been making a note of all my work trips this year. Here’s a run down of the key things I spotted.

• NaBloPoMo progress

  4 November 2018

  It’s not a dashboard. Definitely not a dashboard.

• Creating the image post layout

  3 November 2018

  A round-up of the key things in my new image post template.

• 9 miles to Glasto

  2 November 2018

• October 2018 bookmarks

  1 November 2018

  My read later list from October.

• September 2018 bookmarks

  2 October 2018

  My read later list from September.

• How to focus in open plan offices

  26 September 2018

  Earlier this week, I asked the Twitter hive mind for tips how to get focussed work done when working in open plan offices.

• A plan for accessible charts

  17 September 2018

  A list of user research findings, accessibility report findings, best practice, resources and good ideas that I’ve collected over the past 2 years.

• How to lead user-centred design

  14 September 2018

  My brief notes from the Government Digital Service (GDS) essentials of leadership training, run by Rebecca Kemp and Ade Adewunmi.

• August 2018 bookmarks

  6 September 2018

  My read later list from August.

• July 2018 bookmarks

  5 September 2018

  My read later list from July.

• June 2018 bookmarks

  7 July 2018

  My read later list from June.

• Weeknotes – series 01 episode 06

  10 June 2018

  Inflatable bowels, Twitter charts and busy, busy days.

• What's the best way to mark-up an SVG map?

  3 June 2018

• Weeknotes – series 01 episode 05

  2 June 2018

  A trip to GDS to discuss service and graphic design. Plus prototypes, pattern audits and moaning.

• Kicking things off with the graphic design team

  30 May 2018

  Make your work visible, zoom out, and create some great British public service design.

• How to start a service design community

  30 May 2018

  My notes from today’s cross-gov service design call.

• Weeknotes – series 01 episode 04

  26 May 2018

  We got a new graphic designer and a new UX designer. Ryan Dunn popped in too.

• May 2018 bookmarks

  25 May 2018

• Service walkthrough

  20 May 2018

  Observe a service by going through the stages of the user journey.

• Weeknotes – series 01 episode 03

  18 May 2018

  Featuring service design, accessible maths symbols and pizza.

• Hiring a user experience (UX) designer at ONS

  14 May 2018

• Weeknotes – series 01 episode 02

  12 May 2018

  Heatwave edition.

• Weeknotes – series 01 episode 01

  5 May 2018

• April 2018 bookmarks

  30 April 2018

• March 2018 bookmarks

  25 March 2018

• February 2018 bookmarks

  16 February 2018

• My link sharing workflow

  10 February 2018

• Use fewer layouts

  3 February 2018

• Add a list of page layouts

  28 January 2018

• January 2018 bookmarks

  28 January 2018

• Change date format

  27 January 2018

• Add SVG icons

  19 January 2018

  Why SVG is best for icons, and which attributes to use.

• Add aria-current to the site nav

  13 January 2018

• December 2017 bookmarks

  31 December 2017

• Accessibility for designers

  19 December 2017

  A guide to web accessibility for graphic, visual and UI (user interface) designers.

• We’re hiring 5 graphic designers at Office for National Statistics (ONS)

  16 December 2017

  3 digital designers and 2 brand and print designers in Newport. Closing 22 Jan 2018.

• November 2017 bookmarks

  30 November 2017

• My first 12ish months

  28 November 2017

  You'll never guess what happened after I joined Office for National Statistics (ONS).

• Disney data

  22 September 2017

  Data from our family trip to Disneyland Paris.

• My 12 year quest to get a public service design job

  17 February 2017

  There have been a lot of 'I'm leaving government posts' recently. It feels a bit weird because I've been trying for years to get in.

• Retrospective (my first 2 months)

  17 December 2016

• User experience (UX) designer objectives

  18 November 2016

• User research activity cards

  9 November 2016

• Work with me at Office for National Statistics (ONS)

  29 October 2016

• Creating a digital delivery culture

  21 October 2016

• Visual note-taking with Eleanor Beer

  30 August 2016

• Things my little girls have taught me about feminism

  26 August 2016

• User experience (UX) designer skills

  18 August 2016

• Should designers design content?

  28 July 2016

• The first UK Government accessibility meet-up

  22 July 2016

• The New ABCs of Research by Ben Schneiderman

  21 June 2016

• Port80 2016

  20 May 2016

• The last ten percent

  17 April 2016

• Research findings over the long term

  16 April 2016

• Training for the Welsh 3 Peaks

  29 March 2016

• Speaking at Design Swansea in April

  27 March 2016

• Great service design at Premier Inn

  26 March 2016

• Usability research labs in the UK

  13 March 2016

• Tools for recording usability tests

  22 January 2016

• Baby guerrillas

  20 January 2016

• When things get tedious

  12 November 2015

• Goodbye WordPress

  5 November 2015

• What’s the best way to learn UX?

  28 March 2015

• Finding work and managing money as a freelancer

  9 March 2015

• Reasons London

  22 February 2015

• My top albums 2014

  12 December 2014

• Responsive HTML email talk at Winter LocalHost 2014

  25 November 2014

• Swansea design meet-up

  25 November 2014

• My BlogConf slides

  11 October 2014

• Who inspired me

  8 October 2014

• Making responsive HTML emails

  28 September 2014

• Freelancing and switching off

  2 June 2014

• Notes on creating Twitter, Google+ and Facebook profile page images

  22 April 2014

• Responsive email design

  3 April 2014

• Worrying about health

  27 March 2014

• User experience design

  17 February 2014

• My name is Benjy and I’m a web designer

  4 February 2014

• Readable, guessable and hackable urls

  29 November 2013

• Web design tools

  26 November 2013

• Why I like to use “smart quotes”

  17 November 2013

• 30 things done before I'm 30

  10 June 2013

• Stickiness and lumpy bits

  19 May 2013

• Crafting animation on the web

  14 May 2013

• Crafting animation on the web an introduction

  2 March 2013

• Animation as a design material

  31 January 2013

• Immersive animation on the web

  26 January 2013

• On knolling

  27 October 2012

• An excuse for a blockquote

  19 October 2012

• Design is an actual job

  7 October 2012

• Designing user experience in casinos

  18 October 2010

• BBC Newsnight talks graphic design and infographics

  10 August 2010

• Swansea town sea shanty

  10 May 2007