Media: Art imitates Life - the Ambridge Wide Web

Usability News first saluted the arrival of computers in The Archers, the long-running BBC radio soap opera, with The Archers gets Usability. Last week, trailers for the show were full of news that "Bert is still painstakingly coming to terms with the computers in the Bull, and is trying Jolene's patience more than somewhat." Here Tom McEwan puts us straight on the history of developments in this fictional rural idyll.


"The current storyline might suggest to some that as the Web finally hits the Archers, Britain's longest running (radio) soap came late to the world of computers, but there's been more than just the cobwebs of Brian Aldridge's affairs floating around the plotlines in the last few years.

We could start with incomers Linda Snell and her forgettable husband. Fresh (in the 1980s?) from Surrey on the back on his raking it in as an M4 IT consultant, they represented just one more twist to the perennial plot of technology vs honest toil on the land. Robert (ah, that's his name) managed to (all but) go bust, though, (partly) by dint of selling the same solution twice (did the boy not read the works of Finlay et al on Design Patterns). But not before Linda did a websearch in front of Shula (every male thirty something's dream until she threw her lot in with the Countryside Alliance) for a word we knew was going to bring more muck to her screen than might be found in Grundy's byre (for they were still poor tenant farmers then).

The high point for the usability of ICT had to be the midst of the foot and mouth crisis when level-headed but engagingly emotional Geordie spouse of Deeyavid Archer (Ruth - think Sunderland University's Gilbert Cockton with plaits and a penchant for rising at 5am to check on the cows) convinced him that they could restock the herd without leaving the disease-riddled pastures of Ambridgesheer. Onleee-ine. Which they did, profitably - so there was no need for folk to drive their cattle all over the country spreading pernicious wotsits (storyline courtesy of... the agricultural story editor...or the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs?)

So the current plotline seems recycled. Therein is the real twist. It doesn't matter what the technology is - if you try to hang onto yesterday too long it will kill you. Even if it's Grace Archer in that tinder-trap barn that they should have pulled down years before the series even started, it's always time to get rid of the old, and embrace the new. It may seem unusable, but how great were the good old days really?"

All change at the top for System Concepts
Source: System Concepts Ltd, 3 July 2009
 
Leslie Fountain has been promoted to joint Managing Director of leading usability consultancy System Concepts.

Life in UCD immortalised in fiction: you couldn't make it up
Source: UN, 2 July 2009
 
Sarah Herman's fictitious book on life in a user-centred design company has hit the shelves and The Guardian's book pages...

Interfaces Magazine - Issue 79: The Education Issue
Source: Interaction Group, 1 July 2009
 
The latest issue of Interfaces is now available as a free download from the Interaction Website.

Two new Behavioural research Tools from Noldus
Source: UN, 30 June 2009
 
Tool updates make on-site behavioural data collection easier.

Cell Phones that Listen and Learn
Source: MIT Technology Review, 29 June 2009
 
New software tracks a user's behavior by monitoring everyday sounds.

Top Six Don’ts for Usability Testing
Source: FutureNow Inc., 27 June 2009
 
Six tips for creating quality usability tests to ensure useful feedback from testers.

Usability: ‘Lovely software. But I can’t work it’
Source: FT.com, 26 June 2009
 
In a recent survey by Global Graphics, 77 per cent of office workers estimate they lose up to one hour a week because business software is difficult to use.

And what do you do?
Source: Dexo Design, 25 June 2009
 
How do you describe your job role? Here are the results of a recent 'Preferred UX/UI Title' Poll.

Most Doctors cite Usability as critical to Electronic Health Record Adoption
Source: TMCNet, 24 June 2009
 
It's all about 'meaningful use'.

Glossy monitors look good but can hurt
Source: QUT, 23 June 2009
 
A new advisory cites research which suggests high gloss monitors make users sit awkwardly.