@adrianh Surely everyone knows that without constant culling, books gradually occupy all available space?

Related: my “routinely on the way to the charity shop” pile appears to be larger than some pics I’ve seen of “library shelves”

@laura_carlson @iheni thanks for the mention

@words_number @jscholes @heydon

I agree it’s not the most familiar or best arrangement. I was quite surprised when the research in 2010 came out with better results for Austrian folks than I expected. Since then, people may have got used to labels above boxes.

On the other hand, I’d definitely chose (consistent, well-designed) labels below the boxes ahead of labels inside boxes. Every time.

@jscholes @heydon

Actually, it’s not all that bad. It’s more important for the labels to be consistent and also unambiguously associated with the space for the answer. I wrote about this a while ago.

https://www.effortmark.co.uk/label-placement-austrian-forms-lessons-english-forms/

@vampiress Marking up my edits on-site on the paper printout by putting paper clips at the edge of each page with a change. This was before we had Post-It Notes

@stevenjmesser @frankieroberto @mattedgar please join. It’s open to everyone and is a friendly, supportive place that has a gentle pace of traffic enhanced by the cheery messages from the Service Manual team telling us all who is on support week by week

@joelanman I suppose there’s some sense in that but why pick on forms specifically and not on everything else?

@joelanman really? That’s extremely weird

Reminded again today that @RochelleGold is one of the loveliest kindest people ever

@hildabast behind a paywall so I have not read it myself.

I do know that one of the scientists mentioned in it, Kristian G. Andersen, rebutted it on the x-birdie with a series of posts starting with
“Deeply misleading article @TheAtlantic representing scientists as being insincere.

While science is not perfect, the key issue is literacy and a generally poor public understanding of science.

Ironically, Mazer deeply misrepresent facts and does a real disservice to science.”

@heydon Another triumph

@mnl yet another reason to loathe “robotic process automation”, which is (almost) always adding more tech to a bad business process rather than doing the proper and appropriate work of making the business process better. And which (nearly always) assumes that people who are badly paid are doing a low-skill job “that a robot could do better”.

“While we are thinking about the future, the present is still happening”

Julian Thompson in his keynote #SDinGov

I may have to get this tattooed on my forehead

Especially for use whenever I hear the words “to-be operating model”

https://www.rootedbydesign.co.uk/

@martinjordan Great journey, thanks for keeping the emissions low

I went to @webexpo in Prague by train/Eurostar/train/train/train and home by train/train/train/train/train/ferry/(husband collected me by car) - but I didn’t try to do it quickly, took my time and had holiday time en route.

(But have to admit I drove to this conference, sorry. Last year’s train nightmare ran deep)

Read this, by policy and privacy expert Heather Burns, to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of 9/11

https://webdevlaw.uk/2023/09/11/the-things-i-learned-under-the-bluest-sky/

@jvschrag @mnl

There is no obvious broader discipline that is a clear home for forms, really. In some ways, management. In other ways, information design, typography, or design (as with Professor Twyman). In other ways, Technical Communication which itself has uneasy relationships, sometimes being seen as an Engineering discipline but also as part of language (example: English) faculties

@jvschrag @mnl

The answer is “yes” but also “it’s complicated”.

My favourite history of forms is this video by Professor Michael Twyman at the University of Reading

https://blogs.reading.ac.uk/typography-at-reading/2017/12/01/professor-michael-twyman-on-forms-design-and-the-history-of-forms/

@FrasSmith@octodon.social hope the journey goes well

@joelanman
Thanks - always good to get more people reading that page

The user research part is essential, I think

At NHS Digital, we changed to “begin prototyping with one thing per page” which seems to convey the concept better to designers and developers

@joelanman yum