Diary

The Perils of Technology

I thought that doing without mascara or lipstick was the worst thing to suffer as a bird, but doing without my own computer is far more detrimental to a woman's spirit. I'm hamstrung! I'm meant to be doing (amongst many other things) the new idents for all the BB projects as part of the development for the new portal and websites, but all I can do is research.

Which is no bad thing. What it makes me realise it just how good we are and how far we've come in a very short space of time. The mother brand (agency-speak for beatbullying.org) now has a complete brood comprising: BB Clic, BB Junior, BB Tunes, BB World, BB Sports, BB Workplace, BB World and BB Training. And there's one more but I've forgotten it. So each *division* needs its own identity. Each identity has to communicate the message of the project itself in addition to the core brand message. Just in case some of you wonder what I do all day long... (as someone said recently, *Work? All you do is a bit of drawing*) ...at the moment it involves thinking about the creative design and intent of such things. Then, as far as the portal is concerned and the 9 websites which will be developed, the information architecture for each has to be structured. For the uninitiated, this means working on the navigation, messaging, content and usability for each. No mean feat, when you've got no PC. So paper it is.

And soon you'll all be involved....part of understanding our brand objectives, positioning and strategy as an organisation is to revisit the *person* we think BB is. This is a hilarious but serious exercise in drilling down the brand and what it means. We first did it a few years ago with (in short) the outcome person being *Dermot O'Leary driving a Jensen Interceptor drinking Staropramen* although not obviously at the same time. Our competitors came out as different characters, although I shan't be divulging their profiles here!

So think on the following, Team BB, in readiness for the next big branding meeting - if we were a person, what sort of person whould we be? What car would we drive? What food would we eat? What sort of parties would we go to? Where would we go shopping? What do we like to do at the weekends? What sort of personality would we have? Answers for now as *comments* please....

SD The CD 

What a day!!

It's Friday! I have worked off my jet lag at last.

Last night, Diane, Laura and myself went to Uxbridge College (Hayes Campus) to roll out our BB Hillingdon Campaign. The Mayor and Mayoress of Hillingdon presented certificates to all the ambassadors and I made a short speech thanking everyone! It was possibly the best yet as there were parents, baby nieces, uncles, cousins, teachers.....................it was fantastic and everyone excelled themselves. I really have to thank everyone including Mike Crane over at Uxbridge College. Mike supported us all the way through and helped us bed down brilliantly. Got to thank the Ambassadors who have all been amazing and have done themselves proud. A big welcome to Abbotsfield students to and we are all looking forward to working with them as well.

Lastly, massive thanks to Laura and Diane who rock big time! Diane even treated us to a really long but enjoyable drive home!! Cheers guys, you are the absolute best! Friday here I come..............JQ

Halloween!!!!

Back from DC and feeling really quite rough. Ran a really well received training yesterday in Essex. the group were receptive, willing to discuss and network and maintained their energy all day.

Spoke with Diane after I had finished about our Patron Julie coming to London and generally about anything else BB! Di sounded well bunged up and I told her to go home as the later half of this week is a big deal for BB. On the 1st we have our Smooth FM Bring a Pound appeal and everybody is involved!

I still feel totally drained and know exactly what is on the horizon for me over the coming weeks! In any case, I will get to see our little baby during our 23 week scan and to be frank, nothing can dent my happiness nor excitement at this prospect! Can't wait to be a dad.............JQ

So Quiet Today!!

My day is drawing to a close at BBTowers.  My thought for the day is how much work ive managed to do today.  Ive caught up on all the anti bullying week orders that were stacked on my desk, due to being off last week.  It's been a nice quiet day in the office maining due to Diane not being here haha, sorry Di, love you really!  Thank Rebecca (volunteer) for coming in today on her day off, always a pleasure to see you.  Had a few calls today from parents that watched 'This Morning' on ITV today and phoned in for advice.  Anyway back to work now, bye bye bloggers

Laura

Farewell Quincy

Have a safe journey John, we're all going to miss you at BBTowers

Laura

Leaving on a jet plane..................

I am the last person left at BBTowers on Tuesday evening.

After a hearty lunch at Joanna's, I have settled down and realised how nervous I am about flying tomorrow evening to DC. So nervous that it took 8 attempts at leaving a decent voicemail message on my phone!! Comments welcome...........

Team were great today. They always are.....but today was tops. Now that everyone has gone home, I think I should say that this is a cracking place to work. Starting as volunteer over four years ago, I never thought I would land on my feet with such wicked folk around me doing a top job.

Now if only I can sus this blog malarkey out and make sure I can document my stay in DC properly I'll be well chuffed. Au revoir BB and see you all next week. JQ

Accessibility

Boning up on latest thinking re accessibility for the new websites and some interesting thoughts have come up on Outlaw regarding disabled web users and usability. For the first iteration of the websites launched in October 2005, we tested extensively with young people but were careful to include a sample of young users with a range of learning difficulties including autism, Aspergers, dyspraxia and various sensory impairments. The final usability test group comprised 103 young people and 11 of them *fitted* in to the broad category of learning difficulties. We will of course be repeating this in the next few months and hopefully extending it.

The problem with the debate surrounding users with learning difficulties accessing the web is that so little evidence of testing is published as most work is done for private clients. We intend to publish our research when complete and address the debate head on, effectively implementing our own guidelines (for our own use and any interested parties). It's all very well and necessary having various guidelines to adhere to, but many are flawed or irrelevant. As an example, the Outlaw account of User Vision's report states that 25% of (visually impaired) users found the ALT tag not to be important at all and regarded as only important by 33% of the same users. Yet you try and get a site through an accessibility checker without ALT tags.

Flash movies also prove problematic in the same research but you do wonder what sort of Flash movies they are accessing (sic)? Flash *can* be made accessible. We wouldn't advocate it at the moment for full on content for adults, but for young people it's crucial. You watch a group of users with learning difficulties using a well-made Flash site and then it's HTML counterpart and make up your own mind which they enjoy the most and more importantly, which is more effective in terms of delivery of content. With Flash it's about deploying specific strategies to make it accessible to different disability types - and then using the strategies coherently.   

Let the testing begin - I can't wait.

SD the CD 

Day 1 and 2

First day yesterday and got stuck in to reorganising office - practised phone cable wiring skills!  Lots of stuff going on and ideas whizzing about amid the upheaval.  Today, have phone, PC and started the induction process. I've been made welcome by the entire team including Jarvis. Looking forward to getting on with the burgeoning list of ideas and things to follow up...trusts, corporate, and anything else that fundraising covers. Glad to be here!

richard joins the blog

Morning everyone,

It is now Tuesday morning and i am settling in nicely at my new desk up with the execs.  Much more sophisticated up here you know.  I've just sent out today's news summary, and now wondering what to do before tucking into the welcome lunch for all new BB staff.  The burger was amazing last time, but not sure whether to be more adventurous today... tough decision.

Ah, Niall has just returned from a meeting, so better go and do some work rather than just pretend.

Happy Birthday Dewayne!

Need we say more! Joanna's - bring it on....