A feed of the latest writings by Benjamin Parry.
The weekend before last my two friends and I were resting in a warm and cosy lounge reflecting on the previous four hours hiking over the South Downs National Park. As we were feasting on homemade soup, bread, cheese and obscenely strong hot chocolate, our conversation was rudely interrupted by the hiking app announcing we were off course. “Well yeah… thanks Columbus!” It reminded me of two…
Comedians Tim & Eric are well known for their irreverent approach to press interviews. The duo use them as another stage for their absurdist style of humour. Amongst the anarchic trolling of this interview clip their lies some timeless advice for research practitioners. Don’t waste your qualitative research time by asking quantitative questions. Quickly establish a rapport so that people’s time…
I feel sorry for anyone tasked with writing a talk about ethics in digital technology in early 2025. The smorgasbord of negative examples are enough to make anyone feel nauseous and light-headed. If the menu doesn’t trigger your gag reflexes, then I’m afraid to say, you might have taken the wrong pill. Let’s rewind a quarter of a decade. ‘Don’t be evil’ they said. So what happened? Clearly Larry…
Within the realms of a company; don't exploit anyone, don't manufacture terrible awful products that go into landfill or are unsafe and hurt people, don't use exploit workers in factories… – Camilla and Jason Iftakhar, Swifty Scooters A heartfelt manifesto from Camilla and Jason Iftakhar, the founders of design-led company Swifty Scooters. In their podcast they explain how their brand values drive…
Over the past decade or so, the wave of digital transformation has converted old and broken processes into connected and efficient systems. During this time we’ve seen the slow erosion of trust from digital platforms and services; our personal data compromised , the enshittification of service and experience, the creep of disinformation , lock-in , addictive and deceptive design patterns .…
Over the past few years I’ve been turning to open source software to escape the deluge of enshittification and pernicious data mining that is the reality of so much of today’s software. In January of 2024 I took a short-term bet on Readwise to nurture a more frequent and meaningful reading habit. I hoped that paying an annual fee upfront would give the the monetary motivation to make the…
There’s a moment during the design of a research study that always gives me pause for thought. The tension between three variables: the research goals, the duration of the session and the experience of the participant. As I write a discussion guide, I assign time estimates against sections, individual questions and tasks. These aren’t set in stone though, after all a discussion guide is just that,…
Background and context ¶ Section titled Background and context Hold your breath. The last few years have been traumatic. As individuals and researchers, we’ve weathered a perfect storm of wicked problems that have left us exhausted with the status quo and pessimistic about what is to come. The economic downturn, mass layoffs, the UX research reckoning and threat of skills atomisation. The…
Over the last few weeks Clearleft have been teasing out some social media posts about a new 1-day research conference happening in late February 2025. If you’re on their mailing list you’ve likely received an email with the announcement too. Introducing: Research by the Sea ¶ Section titled Introducing: Research by the Sea You might already know about Clearleft’s flagship multi-day conferences UX…
I’ve recently got back into the habit of listening to podcasts. As a kinaesthetic learner, I find the portable nature of audio content fits perfectly into my daily routine. Whether it be completing humdrum daily chores or traveling from A to B, I can use that time positively for learning. Also, my dyslexic brain can consume audio content much faster than it can written content. Yet access to…
I love the idea or weeknotes. As a reader of other’s notes, I enjoy finding out what other people are working on whether that be personal or client projects. I love the serendipity of discovering a new tool or approach for problem solving, discovering new authors or content creators. As a writer of my own notes, I find them a useful way to reflect on my own challenges and successes, document and…
Ooof! A 4-week weeknotes wrap-up eh? Hmm… here’s what bubbles up over the past 28 days. One of the biggest highlights was attending the opening day of UX London on the theme of research. I thought the content and speakers was excellent this year and Ben Sauer’s energetic storytelling workshop was the cherry on the cake. There’s so much more to say that I think I need to wrap up my thoughts in a…
This week has been a joyful mix of getting out into the wild world, catching up with old friends, fostering a revised fondness of writing, both my own and other’s, and creating a space for those words to rest. I started the week with joining familiar faces from Clearleft in Brighton for a few celebrations. There’s a saying ‘Once a Clearleftie, always a Clearleftie’, that certainly seems true from…
It‘s a combined weeknotes as the routine for the last 2 weeks has been turned upside down mostly because of the bank holiday weekend and the school half term. Here’s are some of my highlights. I had a wonderful walk around Lewes and neighbouring villages with a good friend. It was really refreshing to address some really important topics with someone with an entirely different lived experience as…
If I sit for too long I get restless. My muscles start to stiffen and ideas stagnate. Time to get up and move. This is as true for work as it is for social encounters. The thought of sitting in a pub for hours on end makes my skin crawl, literally. Sharing that time while doing something active is a completely different story. A completely different me. Movement is a catalyst for processing the…
At last night’s Homebrew Website Club Europe/London introductions James mentioned his blog post of ideas . One idea in particular resonated with a few people in the group, including me: an IndieWeb zine. A printed zine for the indie web. I would love to see a magazine, perhaps quarterly, that encourages contributions from people with personal websites. The zine could be about the culture of having…
This week has been great. One of the best I can remember in a long time. The sun shone a lot. I met the wonderfully friendly, passionate and encouraging people at Homebrew Website Club London/Europe to discuss all things IndieWeb . I swam a lot in Pells Pool, the Lewes lido. The day after attending The Research Thing’s Global Awareness Day meetup I spent a few hours conducting an accessibility…
Before you ask, no, I didn’t see the aurora borealis. Yes, I’m gutted. Yes, I stayed outdoors on Saturday night whining like a dog for it’s owner to return. Yes, I still have every possible aurora watch setup in case it happens again… oh, please let it happen again! Although I missed this rare natural phenomenon I did have other wins this week. I managed to watch some of 11tyConf the International…
The beautiful cheery blossom outside our home. Here’s a quick summary of the last 5 weeks. There’s no order to this, just what comes to mind. I’ve been admiring the ephemeral beauty of Sakura in and around Lewes. Our trip to Japan last year has bought new meaning to this time of year and this spectacle has become a memory-portal to the beautiful country I so wish to return to. I watched as a few…
The past two weeks have been a constant reminder of just how much I enjoy the freedom of owning my own website. Jeremy’s post What the world needs was a lovely reminder that not everything has to measure up to expectations. Whether that be your own, other people’s, or the broader impact on the planet. I’m writing for myself. I write to figure out what I think. I also publish mostly for myself—a…
We’re now in double digits for weeks of 2024. Breaking habits ¶ Section titled Breaking habits Duolingo and Readwise have both suffered a loss in attention over the past 14 days. The little owl is really pissed off with me at the moment. I’ve gone from finishing in the top three and advancing leagues every week to barely maintaining a single lesson per day. I’m finding the design of the passive…
Spring is just around the corner, I can sense it. New buds and flowers are beginning to sprout and the birds are busy chattering away with the gossip of a new season. With the undeniable change around the corner, the urge to clean becomes too great to resist. Out with the old, in with the new ¶ Section titled Out with the old, in with the new I took delivery of a new MacBook Air over a week ago.…
Oops! It seems I’m a bit behind with these weeknotes. Here’s a hazy recollection of the last 21 days. Recently adding the watching , reading and listening pages on my website has motivated me do more of each of these activities. There’s something about actively typing out each entry that feels much more rewarding than a LastFM or MAL background synchronisation. We had a family trip to the Barbican…
Sometimes there’s so much to talk about that you end up with nothing to say. Week 4 has been one of those weeks. Here’s a haiku from deep within my subconscious, heck knows what it means. Driving while texting Juggling hot potatoes Disbelief and doubt Time spent away from one screen was switched to another for a bit of salvation. Here’s a few things that have brought me joy. Here’s a few things…
It’s been a very busy 2 weeks at home and work so here’s a bundle edition of weeknotes. I’ve ended up dropping a lot of habits over the last 14 days but now have a new one thanks to my slowly degrading MacBook Pro. The 2016 TouchBar model I have is prone to a design flaw, dubbed ‘flexgate’, which affects the display. Apparently, over time the opening and closing of the lid wears out the cable…
If you’re reading this, you’re on my rebuilt website. Huzzah! Rebuilding this thing has been on my list for ages. Back in 2013 I moved from Octopress to Jekyll , I’m now using the static site generator Eleventy . I suspect in a few years I’ll write a similar post announcing a shift from Eleventy to Blapp or whatever the next new hot build tool might be. I want to give a huge shout out to Andy Bell…
Week one ¶ Section titled Week one I still have the Japanese NHK app on my phone which I occasionally use for watching and reading content and catching up on sumo highlights. This week it’s been buzzing non-stop with earthquake warnings and some dire news of the people affected by the natural and man-made disasters. A thoroughly distressing start for the nation. Information if you wanted to help .…
I had high hopes for 2023. There were aspects of the previous year that I was glad to see the back of and I was looking forward to some good fortune that felt well overdue. Repayments this year have been few and far between. I’m holding out for a full reimbursement over the next 12 months. Loved ¶ Section titled Loved A highlight was without a doubt our family visit to Japan in April. We’d timed…
“I want to make an AI…“ says my son at the dinner table. He’s 12. This isn’t an uncommon discussion in our household. He continues “what piece of code can I write to help you?” “Err… that’s a really difficult question to answer.” I respond, “Why don’t you flip the order of your question and first ask me what kind of things I struggle with. Then you can decide if AI or code is the best fit for…
Wow. What a week! Most of the last seven days have been dampened by the virus I can’t seen to shift and the epic weather of storm Ciarán. Halloween celebrations were given a pass for this year but I‘ve been enjoying reports of this year’s Japanese Jimi ‘Mundane’ Halloween festival costumes from afar. It’s interesting to see some of the cultural simulates, I feel very seen by ‘passenger who is very…
It’s the stinking cold on your one week off – Ironic, Alanis Morissette Yeah that happened. A nine-day weekend somewhat ruined by the common cold. But like that wedding day rain Alan sang about, with every cloud there’s always a silver lining. Mine was the excuse to relax. The kind of guilt-free relaxing that you only dream of. I’ve spent a lot of that time poking around in my Obsidian vault,…
Let’s face it, part of the attraction to personal knowledge management (PKM) software is indulging in the act of Bikeshedding. While the endless tweaking of settings, templates and plugins seems rewarding at the time, it usually a distraction from the original goal: building a networked system of knowledge. As an aside, this obsessive tinkering could be good news for the software developers in the…
Do one thing and do it well. – Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike Taken from the 1984 Program Design in the UNIX Environment manifesto, it’s one of the many principles for designing today’s digital products and services. 39 years later, software creator’s appetites have ballooned. No longer content with doing one thing well, they seemingly want to do everything because they can . Every log in at Service…
The last couple of weeks have been really busy so here a 2-for-1 edition of weeknotes. At the Clearleft office ¶ Section titled At the Clearleft office The tempo of work life has changed considerably over these last 2 weeks. I joined a briefing call at the end of Tuesday introducing me to a project that I was about to be swapped into. The rest of the week was a mixture of handover, onboarding and…
We made it! 2022 is done and dusted. Clear your nostrils for the fresh fragrance of a crisp sheet of A4 paper ready for enthusiastic scribbling. Oh, the opportunity! Oh, the energy! At the Clearleft office ¶ Section titled At the Clearleft office Starting the year on a 4 day work week was a gift I was happy to receive, as the brandy butter cobwebs were still yet to be properly swept away. I was…
2022 was a mixed bag. A pick ’n’ mix of some terrible and terrific events. Being completely honest I’m glad to see the back of it but I’m happy to say I’m hopeful for 2023. The forgettable bits ¶ Section titled The forgettable bits One of the many benefits of working at Clearleft is the gift of a 4-week sabbatical after 5 years of employment. I’d planned to take some proper R&R in August to take…
Here’s a few of my highlights from the last 2 weeks of doing not much at all. Week 50 ¶ Section titled Week 50 We were gifted a Snow Day on Monday 12th Dec. My son was lucky enough to have his school close for the day. A few of his friends and parents went for a ‘quick’ lunchtime walk in the snow… 3 hours later. Since the snow hadn’t thawed I took a similar ‘quick’ off-road bike ride which ended…
Better late than never. Clearleft HQ ¶ Section titled Clearleft HQ Jeremy kicked off the week by giving another run-through of his Declarative Design talk. He was soon to be heading to San Fransisco to drop wisdom on the An Event Apart audience. Sounds like it went well . It’s a superbly layered talk which is worthy of a place on your watchlist. Listen to early versions of talks such as this and…
Weeknotes are back! Clearleft HQ ¶ Section titled Clearleft HQ I’m wrapping up my last couple of weeks before I’m on annual leave for the rest of the year but I’m most definitely ending on a high and really excited about what the new year will bring at Clearleft. He’s been here a while but this week our new senior researcher Luke Hay make it public that he had joined as an official Clearleftie.…
I returned to the Clearleft office this week after 2 weeks annual leave. My first face-to-face interaction, albeit through a screen, was with Jeremy for our fortnightly peer-to-peer 1:1. I love chatting with Jeremy, he’s a thoroughly good egg. In this week’s brief chat he mentioned that he was meeting up with a recent UX and UI design graduate from Ukraine who had recently moved to Lewes. He…
Reading what has been happening at Twitter HQ over the past few weeks is astonishing. Musk’s parasitic behaviour to his new employees and users reminds me of a bloated cuckoo crushing it’s newly occupied nest. His public arrogance makes it all the more sickening. Twitter: how it started, how it’s going. Over the last 12 years, Twitter has been an indispensable platform for growing as a…
I’m almost halfway through my 4-week sabbatical already! I had some wonderful things planned but this week but in reality it’s been a huge Pain in the arse . Every cloud has a silver lining though. Being forced to rest has offered me the opportunity to do some long overdue catching up on my todo lists and tinker with some things I set up a while ago. Listen ¶ Section titled Listen I started off…
One of the benefits of working at Clearleft is the gift of a 4 week sabbatical after 5 years of service. It’s a wonderful recognition of your ongoing hard work and commitment to the company and clients. The timing couldn’t have been better. The emotional and physical demands of the pandemic. The high demand for research and fast pace of agency life. The transition of key life stages as a family. I…
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Ferris Bueller was right. The last fourteen weeks have slipped by so quickly that I’ve let a lot of the new positive habits of 2022 take a backfoot. Take this week for example. I’ve been unwell with vicious flu which quickly turned into sinusitis. If you’ve never fallen victim to the latter, count…
Week 4 is done and dusted. Just a reminder that we’re almost 1/12 of the way through 2022. Clearleft HQ and elsewhere ¶ Section titled Clearleft HQ and elsewhere We wrapped up the immerse phase of our current project on Friday. Playing back everything we’ve learned about academic publishing, and the researcher discovery and access experience. Dylan and I have crammed an astonishing amount of work…
The working week began with kicking off a new client project at Clearleft. It’s my first time working with Rhian and we also have Dylan joining us for the next 7 weeks. We‘ve been working at full throttle these past 5 days learning about the glacially slow world of publishing. So as an antidote to the fast-paced week, I’ve been loitering amongst some slow activities and content to help unwind and…
Around the Clearleft office ¶ Section titled Around the Clearleft office We’re all missing those incidental moments around the office where you learn about what people people are working on and what they’ve been up to out of the office. Being remote has made that so much harder. To try and make it easier to connect with people I set up a Water Cooler Moment workflow in Slack. Let’s imagine you…
Okay here goes nothing. I’m seeing a lot of people start the new year with writing weeknotes so I thought it might be fun to follow suit. I started my first week back at Clearleft HQ by helping the amazing Helen Davies wrap up her first project as lead product manager. Kudos to Helen for weathering the storm when Covid took me out the project at short notice. Also a massive thank you to Praise for…
The last 18 months of remote testing could be summed up with a handful of quotes. How do I share my screen? How do I get back to the chat window? I’m sorry I’ve not used Zoom, we use Teams. During a test, these moments of confusion don’t appear too disruptive. But when added together, they reduce the time with a participant by five mins or more. They also break the natural flow of the test.…
I belong to a small community called UXup Brighton , “a friendly group of UX folk who meet monthly, to share skills and experiences, build our network and support each other to grow and develop our careers”. The group is run and hosted by the brilliant Kate Rickard . Alongside the monthly meetup there is a supporting Slack channel where people can openly ask questions to the group. A couple of…