You may have noticed the cute story about Tiger bread. If not, let me summarise:

Giraffe bread

The story starts with a letter to Sainsbury’s from a 3 year old.

“Why is tiger bread called tiger bread? It should be called giraffe bread. Love from Lily Robinson age 3 and 1/2″.

It received a reply and they both got posted on a blog.

“I think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea – it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn’t it?

“It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong time ago thought it looked stripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly.

“Chris King (age 27 & 1/3)”.

Subsequently the story hit Facebook and Twitter and then this happened:

“In response to overwhelming customer feedback that our tiger bread has more resemblance to a giraffe, from today we will be changing our tiger bread to giraffe bread and seeing how that goes.” (Sainsbury’s)

Speak up!

This story is cute but more importantly it shows that good ideas can make an impact with the support of social networks. If nobody except Lily, her mother and Chris from Sainsbury’s had been aware of the letter it’s unlikely that the change in name would have occurred.

Changing a product name from tiger bread to giraffe bread is hardly a life altering experience. The fact that a three year old can get the attention of the third largest supermarket in the UK, a company with an annual turnover in excess of £21 billion, is exciting.

Marketing gold

Lily’s idea, as well as being practical, has started a new wave of publicity for the company. Anyone reading the news story is likely to come away with a fuzzy glow (unless they’re autobots) with the idea of freshly baked tiger/giraffe bread from Sainsbury’s happily at the forefront of their minds. Feeling hungry? Can you smell the sesame oil?

Thought so.

Credit: Thanks to BBC News for my story quotes.

Now the government is demanding an overhaul and I’m not surprised.

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At one time the UK was at the frontline of computing and our technological advancements were the envy of countries that now dominate, like Japan and the US. We still take pride in old heroes like Alan Turing and even the BBC, with their computers for schools initiative, back when teaching IT really meant something.

For me, the BBC computers for schools initiative is mind boggling. My husband, who is only about three years older than me, learnt to programme computers as a child. He bought magazines filled with computer programmes and used school and home computers to hone his skills. Fast forward to when I was learning IT and, oh yes, I learnt to type. At a moderate speed.

We don’t need armies of secretaries anymore – it’s not the sixties. So why did we ever take a step backwards? What made the government or the teachers stop in the mid 80s and say, “hang on – this computer programming is never going to catch on. Internet shminternet!”

<shock horror>

Fast forward a few more years and people have rediscovered the value of these skills and the diversity of jobs and possibilities available to people with real in-depth computer skills has snowballed.

It makes me angry to think that my education was so abused. I feel as if years of my life have been wasted. All those jobs I wanted but couldn’t apply for because I lacked the basic skills. And yes, I know I can still learn them now. I could even enrol on a third university degree course if I wanted to (and had the time and money available). But I could also have learnt them at school instead of spending valuable time proving skills I already possessed. The ability to find letters on my keyboard. The ability to copy and paste. The ability to insert tables.

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The lesson? You cannot trust schools to get it right. Just because something is, or isn’t on the curriculum, don’t think it has to be this way. I implore every child and teenager to educate themselves about the possibilities that may be available to you because you cannot rely on the authorities to guide you properly.

With hindsight I can easily see the shortcomings of the education system I was raised in. At the time, it was all I knew.

My homepage began with the words “Congratulations!” and “Hi”. It’s really not me, so why did I write it?

At the time it felt like I was projecting the right image but with age and increasing confidence (and skill) I knew it was time to change.

What you see now is a pared down version. I’ve done away with the overly-excited hyperbole greeting. I’ve added a photo so you know I like to drink tea. (Ooh, I’m so British!)

I hope you all like the updated pages. I was nervous about changing them because it felt like an omission of guilt, that the original copy wasn’t good enough. But I’ve changed. My writing is better now after a few more years’ practice. So why shouldn’t I make my site better? Why not embrace those changes and show how I’ve progressed?

It’s like getting a different hair cut or wearing a dress when you normally live in jeans. It’s OK if it makes you happy. We are made to evolve.

Restrictions seem to be light if they even exist, as tweets so far have included the announcement of a family member’s death and jokes about Swedish culture.

Sweden claims they want a broad spectrum of citizens to use their account and each individual will get a week to control the updates. It’s a novel way of using the platform and I’m keen to see how the experiment goes.

Twitter has become known for allowing brands and corporations to interact with members of the public and show their human side. It’s been embraced by many businesses in the UK and abroad but for some organisations it’s a risky step that they’d rather not take.

But what are the risks for an entire country?

An embarrassment on Twitter will be stored forever, and may go viral if it’s funny or shocking enough. Could an embarrassment bring down the government? End tourism?

It could certainly damage these things but I wouldn’t avoid visiting or trading with a country just because I disliked what one person who happened to live there said.

Neither would I assume everyone in Sweden is stupid just because one person said something a bit daft online.

Every day people make mistakes or say stupid things online – not using an official country account but still as representatives of their country and culture.

It feels like it could be a risk but I can’t put my finger on anything that might go horribly wrong. An awkward typo? A swear-filled rant? These are far from ideal but the whole point of the project is to give voice to individuals.

Are they censoring?

Given the existing content of their newly taken-over Twitter stream it’s unlikely there’s any serious censorship going on. Perhaps they don’t need censorship because they’ve already vetted the participants?

In any case, I shall be watching with interest and reporting its progress.

If you’re interested in the people in charge, follow the link in the Twitter bio to learn about who is tweeting now. At the time of writing this, Hasan is in charge and he’s a second generation immigrant with an interesting perspective on racial integration in Sweden.

View the Twitter page here: http://twitter.com/sweden/

I got a comment on one of my posts recently that was very badly written. I don’t mind that – I’m not the kind of person who would reject a comment just because I didn’t like the author’s sentence structure. What worried me about it was that it came with a link to a copywriting website. At first I thought, ‘OK, maybe they’re affiliated with the site but a professional does the copywriting’. I even clicked the URL to check it out.

It looked OK

The design wasn’t bad and there weren’t any flashing banner ads. It seemed reasonable. Then I started reading.

O dear.

Not quite as bad as the comment I’d received but full of errors and discrepancies. The worst thing was when I tried to leave the site and a box appeared saying something along the lines of

“Stop! Please help us by saying what’s the main reason you’re leaving our site!”

O dear.

It made me think. If your English isn’t very good, either because it’s not your first language or you just struggled with it at school, how would you know if someone else’s writing was good or bad?

Would you recognise a well written sentence? Would you spot the tpyos?

The thing about spam is, although most people treat it as a joke, it must work at least some of the time or people wouldn’t keep doing it. The battle for online quality is still being fought and there are many sites which are substandard and poorly designed or implemented.

Avoid looking like a charlatan

• If your tastes in web design tend towards loud and ‘crazy’ you may need a second opinion to help you tone things down. I don’t advocate boring web design but your site should reflect your business and that means it needs to look professional, well organised (i.e. not cluttered) and populated with well written, good quality content.
• Pages for portfolios, case studies or client endorsements may be appropriate, depending on your business offering.
• Adding a link to your professional Twitter stream can also be helpful to show how you interact with people online. The Twitter stream is useful for showing that you are accessible and it gives people who don’t know you an insight into the type of person you are.
• Be warned, if you do this you need to be careful what you tweet. Swearing, bad spelling, hacked accounts and mistaken messages that you meant to send from your personal account can all spoil a beautiful homepage. Equally a stream of messages saying ‘BUY NOW!!!!’ or similar will mark you out as a spammer, not a savvy salesperson.
• That reminds me, don’t use all caps because that’s the online equivalent of STANDING REALLY CLOSE TO SOMEONE AND SHOUTING IN THEIR FACE. It also makes the text harder to read as many people recognise words from their shape. Put it in all caps and you lose the natural shape.
• Don’t clutter your page with too many adverts. It may be tempting but the effect on your page design won’t be pretty and visitors will assume you’re just online to make money from ‘click-throughs’.
• Lastly, don’t make it hard for people to leave your website. Boxes that ask “are you sure you want to leave this page?” are not cool. Believe it or not I’ve seen them used several times now and I would never revisit any of those sites.

If you’re wondering about web design, social media integration or how to impress on the web why not give Firehoop a call? You can also read more about web design and usability from their articles here.

Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments!

If you’re Cheltenham (or Gloucestershire) based and would be interested in donating some of your time to help this worthy charity let me know! The role is largely about organising other volunteers, making sure they understand and stick to guidelines, checking the quality of recordings and generally making sure things run smoothly. It usually takes between half an hour and two hours per week depending on what crops up. It’s a non-recording role but you may get the opportunity to provide holiday or sickness cover for the teams you’ll be looking after.

If you’d like to know more I can send the job description or answer any queries. Just leave a comment or send me a tweet (@Pictors_Pen)

Closing a contract is rarely a joyful experience. You may despise the client if they’ve been particularly difficult to work with but most of the time you know you’ll miss the work and the money. Sometimes you’ll miss the client too because they were helpful, fun to work with or just didn’t interfere with your creativity too much. Whatever the reason, contracts do end but you have a choice to end them well, badly or downright atrociously.

Scenario 1:

The client was rude, unreasonably demanding and now refuses to pay for work completed in good faith. You could be rude back, point out all the reasons why they suck and wish, very loudly, that their business fails before flouncing out of the office, slamming the phone or clicking ‘send’.

This response is more satisfying to think about than perform. The resulting guilt, stress and possible career shame (as your ex-client bad mouths you and forwards your email to all their contacts) can blight your life and earnings for some time.

Scenario 2:

The client was very good to work with but they no longer have the budget or support from the relevant department or individual to continue your contract.

It’s unlikely you’ll get in a strop over this scenario and instead you might email them to say you’ll be sorry to stop working with them and to thank them for being a good client. This is probably the bare minimum in terms of a required response to the news that your contract is ending. But is there anything else you can do?

Don’t assume the client knows stuff

I don’t mean you should presume your client is an idiot and that’s why they’re dropping you. But there are some things they may not realise, such as:

• You really have enjoyed working with them
• Your work has benefitted their business (hopefully in some specific, measurable ways)
• You offer other services
• Your contract could be changed to offer a reduced or alternative support level

I don’t consider myself a sales person and I hate to be pushy, so that’s not what I’m advocating. All I’m saying is that a carefully and pleasantly worded email covering the four points above could really help.

It may not get you a new contract but it will leave a positive impression in their mind:

• the client will remember you for longer
• they’ll be more inclined to hire you again when their financial/company situation changes
• they may say nice things about you and recommend you to friends in other organisations
• and they’ll be more inclined to give you a sparkling reference on LinkedIn (if you ask nicely)

Being rude, or simply failing to express yourself clearly is a great way of shutting a door that might have otherwise been left helpfully ajar, waiting to spring open on a new opportunity later.

What are your top tips (or horror stories) for ending contracts?

There are two things that really help people make the right career choices.

1. Knowing who you are
2. Getting good advice

If you’re missing one or both (like I was) it can be a tough and painful process.

Know thyself

I remember leaving university, attending an interview with a recruitment agency and responding to the question “So, what are you interested in doing?” with the words, “Um, admin?”.

It took me another few years to realise what actually made me happy at work. Before that I’d attend interviews and go for jobs that I knew would put me way out of my comfort zone, because I hadn’t figured out what I could do that would suit my skills and my personality. This is where the “knowing who you are” comes in. Choosing a job or career path isn’t just about what you’re qualified for, or even what your natural skills are. These are relevant and you should know them but there’s more to think about.

• Are you intimidated by large groups?
• Is it important for you to be able to socialise with your colleagues?
• Do you mind if your boss isn’t very approachable?
• Do you prefer large open plan or smaller office spaces?
• Are you nervous about working with members of the public?
• Are you organised, really?
• Can you work confidently as part of a team?
• Can you be assertive?

There are probably even more questions you need to ask yourself and when you’re applying for a job or attending an interview you should think about the type of company you want to work for and what sort of environment would make you comfortable.

It seems illogical at first – surely you just match your skills to a position, right? No, people are illogical because we have hormones and emotions and personalities which means our colleagues and office environment have a massive impact on our quality of life and our ability to perform.

You may not get much choice, certainly while the job market is slow, but if you don’t understand how these things affect your work you’ll never know how to make the right changes to improve your situation.

Career advice

I’ve found it hard to come by good career advice. What I wanted was for someone to tell me what sort of job would fit my skills and natural talents and how to find that type of job, including what to study at A Level and university. Perhaps it would have been easier to get that advice if I’d known more about myself to start with but there you go.

Instead I made my choices based on personal interest with no thought to a possible career path. It wasn’t the worst thing I could have done but neither was it particularly helpful.

In retrospect, I should have planned for one or two career options. That way, even if you change your mind during or after your studies you will still have something to get you started or fall back on while you prepare to switch lanes.

Got any good tips on finding the right career? Post them below and help people!

Don’t worry – you don’t need to log in to read them! (That would be bad for usability.)

We’ll be adding a new article each day this week, covering different aspects of usability for websites. Today’s article introduces the concept of usability and how it affects the process of web design and development.

I hope you like them!

I’ve noticed a few people following, then unfollowing, then refollowing. If I didn’t follow-back the first time just take the hint.

If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, let me explain. People can follow me on Twitter, which means they get to see my tweets (little status updates, witty comments, etc). I get notified when they follow me as Twitter sends an email. So, I can see when people follow me initially but if they then stop following me and then start again, I get another email. This is how I know some people are following, unfollowing and refollowing. Got that? Good.

If it was just once per individual you could argue it was a mistake. They pressed the wrong button, unfollowed me and then realised their error. With some people, this has happened several times. In these instances, I think they’re just trying to get my attention.

When I first started using Twitter there was a subculture of people who thought that every follow deserved a returning follow, i.e. if someone follows me I should follow them back. This, to my mind, is a load of nonsense. I’m not interested in absolutely everyone who may wish to follow me and there are only so many people I can physically keep up with so it makes no sense to follow back unconditionally.

I imagine my ‘refollowers’ as people who thought I must have forgotten to follow back the first, second or third time and are trying to get my attention. Again. If they were behaving this way at work or at a party I’d think they were potential stalkers, or at best, utter weirdoes. I’d make sure I didn’t have to sit next to them or get locked into conversation.

Incidentally, if you think the follow/follow back culture is made up nonsense I have to inform you that I still occasionally get followed by people who mention it in their bios. Things like:

Hi, I’m Dan, I love collecting pigs, Jesus and my Mom. I always follow back.

If people have that much free time and are genuinely interested in talking to everyone they meet online then good luck to them. But following back is not something that should be done automatically. Neither is it a rule of the Twitter platform.

Who knows, perhaps there’s another reason for the constant refollows. Any ideas?