Featured in The Guardian
Posted: January 11, 2013 Filed under: Usability, UX (User Experience) | Tags: guardian, keepitusable, the guardian, Usability, usability agency, ux, ux agency Leave a comment »
What better way to start the year than a guest appearance in The Guardian!
They seem to have cut the photo in a way that looks like my head’s been chopped off, so erm, just ignore that and read what I say instead 
Read the article and check out my chopped off head on the guardian.co.uk >>>
BBC Home page research and redesign
Posted: May 27, 2012 Filed under: UI, UX (User Experience), Web | Tags: bbc, Design, home page, homepage, interface design, keepitusable, manchester, redesign, ui, usabiity, user experience, user research, ux, ux agency 3 Comments »I conducted a quick piece of research on the BBC Home page as part of an event called BBC Connected. Did you know it’s the third most visited home page? Yet only a very small percent of visitors actually use it? As our research discovered, most people bypass the page completely, preferring to use the navigation bar or a direct url (usually saved as a bookmark). Here, we share our findings and a few of our design proposals to improve the user experience of the BBC Home page, in particular under-served audience(s).
How do you use the BBC website? Do you ever look at or click on items on the home page? Have you used it more or less since the last redesign? I’d love to hear about your experience. Share your story using the comment box below.
Research by Keepitusable.com
Keepitusable Shortlisted for 2 Business Awards
Posted: May 10, 2012 Filed under: UX (User Experience) | Tags: 2012, award winning user experience, Business Award, keepitusable, manchester, salford business awards, salford business awards finalists, ux agency Leave a comment »
You may or may not be aware that I run a Manchester UX and Usability Agency called Keepitusable (keepitusable.com). We started the business in late 2010 after lots of people told us we should! So, the business was built very much on our existing reputations as great designers and user researchers. I’m predominantly the lead on anything to do with users, research, psychology, ergonomics. Ricardo has more UX and UI design experience than anyone I know so he leads all our design and prototyping work.
Our magic is the unique mix of our skills and experience plus our equal male/female balance that gives us the ability to see things more completely from the audience’s perspective.
We’re really pleased to have made the final four for 2 Salford business awards; Rising Star and Entrepreneur. It was very competitive and we had to really prove the value of user experience during the interviews. This can be quite tough as any UXer will know! At first it was clear they thought we were developers or graphic designers which is understandable as people always try to make sense of something new by comparing it to what they already know – mental models anyone?
Please keep your fingers and toes crossed for us and hopefully we will win at least one of the awards. The finalists are incredibly diverse so it will be interesting to see who wins!
I’m in the news…
Posted: March 4, 2012 Filed under: Design, UI, UX (User Experience) | Tags: #salfordunicarnival, graduates, graphic design, islington mill, keepitusable, manchester, salford university, salford university carnival, students, Usability, user experience agency, ux agency Leave a comment »
I’ve been featured on Creative Boom talking about the amazing Salford University Carnival held at Islington Mill this week. We had a great time! Below is an extract of the article and if you want to read more just head on over to Creative Boom.
Over a hundred Salford University graphic design students showcased their amazing work at Islington Mill yesterday in a fun carnival themed event organised in conjunction with Designers Northern Alliance.
Representatives from key Manchester and Salford agencies attended the event to inspire and look for the next generation of fresh talent. Keepitusable, Magnetic North, Design by Day, Eskimo Creative, and Code ComputerLove were just some of the industry experts to attend the event.
Lisa Duddington, co-founder of Keepitusable Salford’s first user experience design agency whose clients include the BBC, saw the event as a valuable opportunity to connect with and inspire the next generation of designers.
“It’s so exciting to be part of this event! We know how difficult it can be when you’re first starting your career, so we’re eager to help students and graduates to gain the valuable experience and knowledge they need to succeed in what is an incredibly competitive industry.
We have a fantastic relationship with Salford University and are proud to be able to offer both their students and graduates incredible opportunities to gain industry experience.”
Exclusive christmas wallpaper
Posted: December 12, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: christmas background, christmas wallpaper, free christmas wallpaper, keepitusable, Usability, user experience christmas Leave a comment »Exclusively designed just for Keepitusable, click on the screenshot below to go to Keepitusable where you can download our (free) exclusive christmas wallpaper for your desktop, iPhone, Android mobile and even your iPad! I’ve got it on my Android device and it looks great!
