Archive for the ‘User Experience’ Category

Wanted Dead or Alive…

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Okay, so finding an old desk to burn is proving more difficult than first expected.. there are plenty of crappy old PC desks floating around on Gumtree and Freecycle etc, but I want one with some real character.. maybe one that I’ll even feel a little bit bad about burning after it’s all over.

So this is a call for anyone reading this blog, to spread the word that Nick at Flaming Desks is in search of a FREE desk for his bonfire.

P.S. We don’t really have a $1000 reward.

What’s goin’ on ‘ere then?

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

As Robbie points out, I have been preaching the everlasting gospel of sharing desks to one or two select industry contacts! Only things is, we haven’t really done a post that deals with “What are we doing?” and “What do we want?” all in one place yet - so anyone rocking up here might end up a tad confused.

I thought I’d have a go at that now. (Should also give us something to link to from our “About” page too - which has been a bit sparse and unloved so far.)

OK, so what are we doing?

First of all “we” is two friendly companies - Nonsense and White October. Rob from Nonsense and Dave from White October had an idea in the pub, and quickly realised that a collaboration between the two companies could make it happen. This blog is the manifestation of that collaboration. All posts are written by Nonsense and White October people, who are taking on various roles in getting what has become known as “Flaming Desks” made. (Hence silly posts about burning a desk for marketing purposes, and tedious ones detailing functionality!)

The idea here is that we’ll be 100% transparent about what we’re doing, so anyone can come along and read the actual conversations we’re having as we develop the Flaming Desks idea. And of course those people can comment on what we’re doing, which will enhance the whole thing.

Yeah, but WHAT ARE WE DOING????

So we had an idea (and I described how here) that we loved, which goes a bit like this:

There are lots of people (particularly “media types”) who from time to time could do with a desk for a day in a city somewhere. There are lots of offices, small and large, with a spare desk sitting there empty. Flaming Desks sorts them both right out… you’ve got a spare desk; you list it. You need somewhere to sit; you find one on offer and request it.

This is Flaming Desks. The beauty of the idea is that everyone wins. People with desks get an opportunity to meet new and interesting people (basically a nice way to network) and people without desks get, well, a desk. We can see loads of the “uber-freelance” brigade using this service once its up and running.

And finally, what do we want?

Right now, the main thing we want from all you lovely visitors is feedback. Please comment away on any of the issues being discussed as much as you like. This could be anything from something simple like “it’ll never work you muppets”, to something more complicated that I personally wouldn’t understand - like “have you considered using the Jango framework for Python in a Redhat Linux environment?”.

There’s a place for all your comments, in all the different posts. We promise that we’ll respond to all the feedback we get. (Although don’t expect us to be polite if your feedback is mean and nasty!)

Specifically:

  • Are there any existing communities / web apps that you could see it integrating well with?
  • Spotted any obvious pitfalls?
  • Do you have an old desk you want burnt?

Answers on a postcard. (If you actually want to send a postcard, send it to Nonsense London, Studio 4, 10/11 Archer Street, London, W1D 7AZ - we’ll put it on the blog.)

Yeah, but what do we REALLY want?

Two things you could do that would be invaluabe to us right now would be:

- vote in our straw poll.
- subscribe to the RSS feed, or bang in your email address in the little box in the top right the blog [Or this one... DF].

- forward the link around like crrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzyyy.

[UPDATE:] And another thing! Why are we doing this?

Simple. Because we think its one of those things that just needs to be made. OK, and because it might make a few people notice our two companies a bit. And because we’ll hopefully meet loads of useful clever people through the comments and collaboration. And not to make any money. Well maybe one day, but only from someone who promises not to bugger everything up. (Hmmm - not that simple then.)

Now & next

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Hey guys.  Good meeting yesterday.  Right I haven’t got long before some other people’s children arrive at my flat, so I’m just dumping these notes out:

Functionality

Now:

  • Home page with large Mapstraction map showing locations of offices; prominent link to add a desk
  • Page to register and upload your office and desk details (including multiple desks?)
  • Preview details page
  • Office details page
  • Desk details pop-up / page
  • Request this desk form
  • Tell my friends about this desk (following account creation)

Not discussed, but needed now also:

  • Confirmation email
  • Login
  • Forgotten password
  • Account
    - Update password
    - Update email
  • Edit my office and desk details (replication of register)

Later:

  • Registration for people requesting desks
  • Rating and reviews of desk owners / desk users
  • Postcode / postal town search
  • Filters on the map
  • Tell everyone in my address book about my desk (automatically pulls in from Hotmail / Gmail etc)
  • Blog ‘buttons’

Actions

  • Wireframes x 3- Dave (soon as)
  • Legals - Rob
  • Dave to send Rob liability clauses from contract - Dave
  • Update blog to show name - Dave
  • Logo design - Nick
  • Desk sourcing and burning - Nick
  • anything I missed off?