Blogging and all that Malarkey

When I first shared my Contract Killer in 2008, I had no idea so many people would use it. It became the most visited page on my website. After being free for thirteen years, in 2021 Contract Killer became a paid-for template. Now, there’s an update, the biggest since 2008.

This time last year, I wrapped up my Director of Product Design contract at Nozomi Networks. That was a big change but also an opportunity to evaluate what I’d enjoyed about the role and what I missed from more varied design projects.

It’s UK General Election time and the chaps have gathered to discuss it, but without mentioning politics. What would their top policies be if they were running for office? What do they think of novelty candidates like Count Binface? Plus, why are political party websites so terrible? Andy tells his story about being in the audience for BBC Question Time and the strange tale of designing for an intergalactic space warrior.

The 2024 General Election is just days away, and opinion polls suggest Labour will win with a majority bigger than 1997. Even though I’m not as excited about Labour’s vision as I was then, I still keep my fingers tightly crossed. As I found a few weeks ago, there’s barely anything left of Labour’s labourwin97.org.uk campaign website from its victory in 1997 under Tony Blair. It wasn’t archived by the Wayback Machine, so I imagined what it might’ve looked like.

During the General Election campaign, I’ve been studying political party websites, looking at their user experience and visual designs, and imagining what I’d make if they asked me to work on their designs.

From the newsletter: It’s been a strange couple of weeks for me. The UK General Election campaign is at its halfway point, and the parties are all pushing their messages to voters. I decided to study their websites to see how effective I thought they were. I wrote about what I found and how I might design things differently were the parties to come calling.

Another front cover from the Daily Star newspaper: “Our favourite sane politician just 4 POINTS behind Rishi Sunak who may lose his seat.”

There are less than two weeks before election day, and most of the headlines have come about from things the party leaders have said on the various TV debates. Out of nowhere, Prime Minister Rish! told young people he might take away their driving licences if they refused his national service. Keir Starmer was pushed on his supporting Jeremy Corbyn but not Arsenal, which is an even bigger character flaw. Ed Davey said, well, actually, I can’t remember anything Ed Davey said. But the person I’ve been most impressed with is Carla Denyer, the teeny-tiny confident co-leader of the Green Party.

From the front cover of the Daily Star newspaper: “ Count Binface launches manifesto promising national service for ex-prime ministers.”

“All water company bosses to take a dip in British rivers to see how they like it.” “National service to be introduced for all former prime ministers.” “European countries to be invited to join the UK, creating a new ‘Union of Europe.’” Who would disagree with policies like these?