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From 9am next Thursday 13th November we will be pulling in people off the street to test some of the country's top transport websites. This includes such chestnuts as:

• Dublin Bus
• Irish Rail
• Ryanair

The aim is to guage just how easy they are to use by Séan and Síle Citizen. We will then collate our results and feed the information back to the site owners. If they have any sense, they will use this data as a starting point to improve their sites.

Lots of room for improvement

If my experience is anything to go by, we should be flooded with recommendations. 

iQ Towers was all but deserted last night. Everyone was at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham to attend the annual IIA Net Visionary Awards. In the wonderful surrounds of the great banqueting hall, Morgan presented the 2008 Innovation Award to Niall Devine at MyCharity.ie - a well deserved accolade. Following a tasty dinner, a sumptuous chocolate dessert and some coffee, yours truly decided to head home. Little did I know the night was only starting. Some tired heads in the office this morning suggest the residents' bar in the nearby Hilton Hotel proved a comfortable venue for night-cap (or 2). Some scenes from the evening are shown in the video below (no sound).

iQ Content - the company for whom I work - was awarded 8th place in Deloitte's FAST 50 last night. This ranks us among the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Ireland, based on average percentage revenue growth over 5 years. Well done to Morgan (the boss) on getting this recognition.

Myself and Aislinn from iQ left the wellies at home and enjoyed a nice day out at the world's biggest agricultural fair - the National Ploughing Championships - in Kilkenny this week. (A short video of the onsite attractions taken with my mobile phone is shown below.) In between gawping at giant tractors and high-tech slurry spreaders, we conducted interviews with farmers and other agricultural professionals. Our aim was to gather perceptions about the utility of the web to their trade.

Good but...

In summary, they have a positive perception of the internet. However, issues including a lack of broadband availability and poor design hinder their use. Several individuals said that sites built for them must be more 'farmer friendly'. Meaning? Less clutter, clear benefits, simple processes. Seems that farmers understand usability better than most.

As a green-type of guy, I follow an "Energy Efficiency" blog. Recently, the blogger was commenting about Website Maintenance. I couldn't help myself, I had to comment. Here's a snippet of what I had to say. "Basically, don't make your site bigger than you can maintain. Would you build a house with 200 rooms, 12 bathrooms, 4 wine cellar, 3 garages and stables - if you could only afford to heat a 1 bedroom flat?" Read the full post.

I used to be a rail commuter in Dublin. Each morning I would scramble aboard a train at Sutton and travel from there to Pearse Station. As one of the city's most central stops, the crowds at Pearse were legion. During rush hour, thousands of people would regularly pile out of the trains eager to get to work. Physically leaving the station was something of a thrill.

The thrill of the chase

All the usual hazards were there, umbrellas-in-the-ribs, briefcases-in-the-shins, etc. To increase the fun even more, Iarnrod Éireann designed an exit route that included an exciting chicane of corners and turns. The schematic below shows just how imaginative they were in obstacle course design. (Now, visualise those small spaces crammed with hundreds of people.)

It need not have been like that

Oddly - as we clambered down the stairs each morning - straight ahead of us was a big, locked door marked 'Exit'. If opened, that door would have disgorged everyone straight onto the street, without so much as a bruised knee. I used to wonder why the rail bosses would not just unchain that exit and let us out easier. No doubt, innumerable productivity agreements and other demarcation negotiations would be required first. And sure, wasn't it grand anyway? People could still get out of the station. They just had to wait a bit longer and not be so demanding all the time.

Open sesame

Imagine my shock as I cycled past the station a few days ago and noticed that the exit had been opened. Through the wide open doors, I could clearly see the stairs down which I used to plod each day. Now at last I understood the reason for all the weird weather and lightening storms we have been having of late. Surely, it reflects the cosmic significance of this monumental decision to improve the travelling experience for Dublin commuters. Indeed, Pearse would be proud. Instead of milling around like ants in a farm, people can now walk out of his station somewhat elegantly. Credit where credit is due. Well done (at last), Iarnrod Éireann.

A new dawn?

So, is a new dawn upon us? Is Iarnrod Éireann starting to put customers at the centre of its thinking? How far could this new spirit extend? I rushed home to log on to the internet. A truly user-centred rail website. What would it be like? www.irishrail.ie I typed. ...! Oh well. Some chains take longer to break. Read reaction to this post on the iQ Content website

My colleague Fabrizio created a Manga-like avatar for everyone in the office today. I think I can see the resemblance (do I really look so fierce?) However, from another angle it looks a bit more like Moby than me!

My new avatar

Me

Moby

After several weeks of rain, sunshine, rain, floods and then a bit more sunshine - the thatching has finally finished. Below is view of the roof mid-way through. It shows some of the materials used. This includes willow rods and pins, as well as a bunch of flax.

My mother's family is lucky enough to have a thatch cottage in West Donegal. This cottage could be up to 200 years old and is in nearly pristine condition.

Not quite 'pristine'

Well, when I say 'pristine' - I mean it has had very few changes over the years. So although it remains an excellent example of vernacular architecture - the roof and interior have suffered somewhat from damp since its last occupant passed away. That's why, now - with the assistance of An Chomhairle Oidhreachta - the thatch is being redone. But not just any old thatch. No, no. Thatch in the original Donegal style using native flax.

A long time coming

It has taken the guts of 2 years to get this all organised and underway. We are particularly fortunate to have found an expert craftsman (and gentleman) in Ivor KilPatrick. He, his father and brother will be undertaking the repair of the roof over the next 3 weeks (weather permitting). I would love to be there to see them at work, but alas West Donegal is quite a ways from Dublin. The video attached to this posting shows the cottage as it currently appears (on a beautiful, warm, sunny day - not many of those in Donegal, mind!) I shall upload another after the work has been done.

I note the new Irish Times website has gone live. Looks like a good, professional job by Web Factory. Well done. The previous address of the Irish Times - Ireland.com - has now changed to a lifestyle/tourism website. Not sure that the execution here is as good. For instance, the new website carries the label 'Beta' in its logo. Can a website really be 'Beta'?

Application beta

An application certainly can - if some functionality still needs to be ironed out. That is where this label is seen most frequently. The classic example is Gmail. After 4 years or more it is STILL in beta. (Nearly finished there lads?) On a website, 'Beta' smacks of the old days of 'under construction', i.e. we are not quite ready to golive, but have to. Indeed, the ireland.com website has 2 navigation icons labelled "coming soon". Neither is clickable and so we can't even learn what they have in store. Why not just leave them out?

Just go live

Perhaps it would be better to just say the website is live as-is, hide anything that is not ready and build it up over time. Otherwise, won't it always be 'Beta'?

Cantóirí - the choir of which I am a member - recently came to the end of its choral year. Definately, it was one of the most enjoyable I have had for a quite a while. The highlight was the shared concert we performed with Danish choir Panumkoret in April. Hosted by the famous Pepper Cannister Church in Dublin, both groups 'clicked' very well and partied well into the early hours after our gig in Toners Pub. Hopefully 2009 will bring us to Copenhagen to reprise this success. Below you can watch Panumkoret and Cantóirí at rehearsal before our gig, directed by Jon.

Yesterday, I called my bank (Bank of Ireland) via their automated phone system. Within the 20 seconds they had infuriated me so much, I just had to complain to the girl who answered me. Why? I had a very simple task to complete. I wanted to check a transaction. I wanted speed and convenience. They wanted to sell me a loan. Their needs came first They made me listen to a long advertisement before I could do anything! Listen to the monstrous Bank of Ireland telephone ad (WAV 4Mb) Just like many awful websites, they forced me to follow THEIR narrative, instead of allowing me to create my own. The girl's response? "Oh yes, we have had quite a few complaints about that." I bet you have.

According to my colleague, Radiohead may not design great websites, but their music remains as as good as ever. Last night I joined 40,000 others to see them play on a sun-drenched evening in the grounds of Malahide Castle (near Dublin city). Below is a clip from 'How to disappear completely' from 'Kid A'. Listen carefully and you'll hear the crowd cheer when Thom Yorke sings the line "I float down the Liffey". The Liffey is the river that runs through the centre of Dublin. Apparently, Thom wrote this song whilst staying here some years ago. They have been rolling it out as a crowd pleaser at all their gigs here, ever since.

An interesting test case for website disaster recovery and failover at StatCounter. According to its blog, StatCounter's host facility exploded at the weekend. This had the effect of wiping our service for most of its customer base. Happily Stat's customers are fairly forgiving and loyal (me included). BUT if this has been my bank, I would have been a whole lot less understanding. This should make you think. How would your customers react if you had significant downtime? What contingency do you have, in case the worst happens. Read a bit more about how to measure website host performance.

The superpowers of the web are constantly coming up with new formats for online content. Over the past year we have seen Air from Adobe and Silverlight - the touted "Flash-killer" - from Microsoft. In addition, widgets, mashups, RSS feeds, AJAX, podcasts, wikis and more continue to gain ground. But, just cause they are new and cool - does that mean you need them?

When should you say YES and - more importantly - when should you say NO to a new format? Read this post in full on the iQBlog.

Have just returned from another cycling trip to a Meditteranean island. Last year it was Sardinia. This year Corsica. Myself and my brothers journeyed around the coast from Bastia to Ajaccio. Despite 2 days of very heavy, west-of-ireland style rain, we had an excellent time. (A photo of me (middle) with 2 of my brothers overlooking the magnificent Corsican coast is shown below.) In comparision with Sardinia, Corsica is very mountainous. This meant lots of climbing uphill and wonderful freewheeling descents. The highest ascent was 1,101 metres (higher than Carrauntuohil, Ireland's highest mountain).

At 4.50pm yesterday - just 10 minutes from the end of Boot Camp '08 - a massive power outage struck south Dublin. Despite the sudden loss of lighting and overhead projectors, our resouceful iQ presenters managed to wrap up successfully. Drinks in the Long Hall and Hogan's pubs then helped to soothe my throat - sore as it was after 8 hours of lecturing. Read all blog postings from iQ Boot Camp '08

Which means, Boot Camp is well underway. Keep up-to-date with regular blog entries at the iQ Blog. Brian at Boot Camp Elizabeth at Boot Camp

iQ Boot Camp 2008 begins iQ Boot Camp 2008 begins tomorrow in the SAS Radisson in Dublin. While my colleagues apply a final polish to their presentations, here are some thoughts on what you can expect if you come along. Read the full post on the iQ blog