Do you speak iconish? I don't, and it lead me into a bit of a problem yesterday. Checking in to the site I'm training on, I was directed to fill my details in on a touch screen. Clever system - I poked at the Union Jack and up came a page with a keyboard diaplayed and I was asked for my last name ... duly entered on the keyboard on the touch screen, and my full details and internal contact are displayed.

Great. But what next?

"Err - what do I do now" I ask across to the security guy. "Has it printed a badge for you?" he asks. No, it hadn't. And he goes to the manual system of hand writing a visitors badge ... he's about to call my contact when my contact arrives; it seems that the system has emailed him to say I've arrived - very clever but I would have appreciated that feedback!

So what's all this about Iconish? Same procedure this morning ... except that when I got stuck, an employee who I happened to know came over and suggested that I press a little picture which (in hindsight) looked rather like a badge. And - magically - the system advanced to a further screen that asked me to agree to a nondisclosure agreement. Duly done, and an "E" icon let me select to send myself a copy of that agreement. I'm starting to learn Iconish, I think.

For a location where the same visitors come back time and again, I've no doubt the system is great. For a first timer, it lacks instructional feedback; I usually think of myself as being reasonably bright but until one or two things were pointed out by a human I couldn't work it. A great objective lesson for designers, especially, of web sites where newcomers will simply walk away if they can't work out how to use the site.

(written 2005-04-19 19:13:24)

 G902 - Well House Consultants - Web site techniques, utility and visibility

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Colour blindness for web developers
Checking that all our servers are up and accessible
Automating regular manual procedures
What career opportunities for web designers
The Iconish language
Natural or man-made?
Short weekend
What they are saying about our OF COURSE newsletter
Spotted - the local MP
Getting a list of unique values from a MySQL column
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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