A few days ago I came across an article about the branding of the Dutch Government.  It appears that they are fed up of having different brand for each of their 200(ish) departments and ministries.  Instead, they are developing a single ‘Government’ brand that will be used for everything the government does, irrespective of the government.

This strikes me as a great idea – not only could it save money by just having one brand instead of 200, but it could help people recognise the work that government does.

After reading the article, I decided to take a look at branding used by our government here in the UK.  I surprised to learn about the sheer scale of central government and the huge number of brands in use.

The UK Government is comprised of around 45 departments & ministries (such as the Department for Transport and HM Treasury).  It also has approximately 72 executive agencies – these are organisations that have a degree of autonomy but are still linked to a particular department (such as the Food Standards Agency, Office of Fair Trading and the Crown Prosecution Service).  In addition to these, there are at, last count, 827 Non-Departmental Public Bodies (source: Cabinet Office, 2007).  These are agencies that are sponsored by government to deliver a particular public service such as the Environment Agency, the various arts councils and the British Potato Council.  You can find lists of the various departments / agencies on wikipedia (1 & 2).

It should be pointed out that this is just central government – it does not include local government (council councils etc), or the regional governments of Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland (or their associated public bodies).  Furthermore; it does not include organisations such as the Police, Fire department or the NHS.

A large number of these organisations have their own branding – that’s nearly 1,000 different corporate images!  The amount of money spent developing; maintaining and re-developing these brands must be astronomical.

The cabinet is regularly re-shuffled, which sometimes brings with it department splits, mergers, disbanding and creation.  In the last few reshuffles for example, the Department for Constitutional Affairs merged with some parts of the Home Office to create the Ministry of Justice; the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) was split in half, becoming the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS); the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was created; and the Office of Deputy Prime Minister became the Department for Communities and Local Government.  Quite a few changes!

With each of these changes, an old brand has been retired, and new brands created.  Gone are the Department for Constitutional Affairs, Department for Education and Skills, and the Office of Deputy Prime Minister.  Now we have five new brands in government.

If the Government just had one brand – “HM Government” or “UK Government”, with just one logo, one typeface, one style, the amount of money that could be saved during each reshuffle could be huge.

Now I’m not suggesting that we replace all 944 brands with just one - that would be a bit draconian, however, a substantial slimming down of brands within central government makes a lot of sense.  What do you think?

Selene M. Bowlby, a web designer and developer who has recently taken the jump into full time freelance work has just posted a blog entry with 60+ essential feeds for freelance web designers. She made the post in response to an open thread on Freelance Folder asking “How Do You Stay Sharp?”.

As a web developer, keeping on-top of changes in the industry is almost a full time job in itself. Dropping behind the curve is not something you can afford to do. When it does happen, getting back on-top of things is especially difficult.

I already follow a large number of the feeds that Selene suggests, and will definitely be adding the rest. I currently use netvibes to keep track of my RSS feeds - primarily because I use so many different computers throughout the day it allows me to keep everything in one place. If anyone has suggestions for a better reader, let me know.

It has been nearly 4 1/2 months since I started working for VSI, so you would think I would be getting used to the daily routine.  Get up at before 7, drive or catch train to Cardiff, get to the office at 8.30, work till 5.30, drive or catch train home, arrive home at 7.

I always have high hopes for the evenings – maybe go to the gym (and make use of the membership that is dutifully being taken out of my bank account every month), maybe finally get around to doing the blogs I keep meaning to write, maybe getting the Govilon history website finished.  However, by the time I get home, I’m always so tired, these things rarely happen.

I think part of the problem is the commute – an hour and a half each way.  If the traffic is good, I can do the journey to Cardiff in just over 45 minutes, but at peak times it takes up to an hour and a half.  The train is just as bad – always overcrowded and now that we’re well into winter it is frequently late.

Just before I went away on holiday, I worked some extra hours to cover for a workmate on paternity leave.  This meant I was getting into work an hour earlier than usual, and leaving an hour later.  The difference in the traffic was amazing.  I could leave the house at half 6 and be in the office for 7.  Leave the office at half 6 and be at home by 7.30.  Just the half hour difference in the morning gave me a whole extra hour at work.

When my colleague is back in the office, I’m going to try and move my hours so I start earlier and leave earlier.  Maybe then I might be able to get through some of the things I want to do in the evenings.

I’ve been very quiet for the last 6/7 weeks.  Everything has been a bit crazy at work – lots to do, lots already done, but not much to show for all the effort!

Over the last few months we’ve been busy working on several new websites, a fair number of which have now been handed to the client for final approval.  We’ve also been working on some of our own projects, and another new release of our content management system.

At home, I’ve been busy working on some of my own projects, including an updated Govilon History website (which I’m sure I’ll get finished eventually), and a new personal homepage (which I launched last weekend).

As soon as some of my work starts making it into the public domain, I’ll post some more.

I’m a little behind the times, but better late than never!

Techcrunch, a technology blog covering ’web 2.0’ and internet start ups had a bit of a redesign earlier this week.  As a blog that I keep track of all the time, I’m really pleased to see it move away from its previous, cluttered look to this clean and fresh design.

Features of the new look include a much more integrated navigation including links to other blogs from the Techcrunch  network, more consistent advert space, links to most active and recent comments, and a move away from full posts on the homepage.

The new navigation brings a much more consistent feel across the website.  Links to the other Techcrunch blogs (CrunchGear, MobileCrunch, TechCrunchIT etc) have moved from their previous location at the bottom of the old advert column to the very top of the page, making it easier to navigate across the network.  However, TalkCrunch (the network podcast) and CrunchNotes (Michael Arrington’s personal blog) are notably missing from this list.  Other links which a regular reader wouldn’t use very often but are still important (such as About, Contact, Advertise etc) have been moved to the right of the logo.  While they are still obvious, it means they do not take up as much valuable real-estate as the previous layout.

The new Techcrunch network navigation makes it easier to move between blogs

The new design loads much quicker than before.  The old site took an age to load (it was almost worth going to make a cup of tea while waiting for it to load), however the new design is pretty much the same as every other blog in the world.  I can only assume this is mainly achieved through a simpler layout and improved code.

One of the way’s the speed has been increased on the homepage is by switching to an excerpt scheme (only showing a small extract rather than full articles).  From a web design point of view, this is a big improvement - it increases page views (because you have to visit a dedicated page for each article), and it can increase your Google rank (because you no longer have duplicate content on your site).  But from a user-interaction point of view, it requires many more mouse-clicks, and makes it difficult to just scan through a series of entries.  I’m torn as to which is best and have been considering a similar switch on this blog - comments from readers would be much appreciated.

In general I think this redesign is a big success (although a fair amount of the comments on their website seem to disagree with me).  Mark Hendrickson (who announced the re-design) explained their intention to roll this design out to other parts of the network, an aim which would bring consistency across the board.  However, I’ve heard this before. CrunchGear has had two designs over the last year, both of which were supposed to be rolled out across the network and never were, and more recently new layouts have appeared on TechCrunchIT, TalkCrunch and CrunchNotes.  If, however, this does happen, all the blogs will be much more pleasant.

Other recent Techcrunch layouts.

As I mentioned in an entry earlier this month, I’ve spent virtually every minute of every day (when not eating, sleeping or going to the gym) working on numerous projects for both VSI and my freelance clients. The first, a revamp of my blog was finished 2 weeks ago, the second was finally finished this afternoon.

Following several weeks worth of work, I’m really pleased to launch the new company website for VSI-Thinking - the web development company where I’m employed. The new website showcases a number of the systems the company has produced for clients such as Thomas Cook, the Celtic Manor Resort and Peterstone Court. The site also shows off a few of the solutions we offer to our clients.

The launch of the new VSI site is my first major achievement since becoming a full time developer at the company. Over the past two months, I’ve been involved in a complete revamp of our in-house content management system, providing a much more consistent look and feel across all of our modules, adding new controls and improving the quality of the code. The VSI website is the first to make use of the improved CMS.

What I’m especially pleased about however, is the launch of our new company blog. All the developers at VSI (myself included) will be regularly posting company news, random thoughts and solutions to some of the challenges we encounter.

Of course, despite the site launching, we can’t just draw a line under it and move on. We’ve already begun development on the next version of the CMS, bringing in improvements and features that didn’t make the cut this time around. I’m also hoping we can introduce blog commenting facilities in the near future.

So, keep an eye out for posts from me on the VSI Blog, and go check out the new website and let me know what you think.

Things have been a bit quiet on this blog over the last few months because I’ve spent pretty much every waking moment working, commuting or working some more.  During office hours I’ve been working as a full time web developer for VSI-Thinking.  I’ve spent the last month and a half getting reacquainted with their systems, policies and clients.  I’ve also been involved in an overhaul of their content management system that is used on customer websites.  It’s been exceptionally busy over the last 2 weeks as we build up to the release of this latest version.

When not sat at my desk writing thousands of lines of code, or commuting from Cardiff Bay to Abergavenny (and vice versa), I’ve been busy working on some of my personal websites (a few of which will be launched / re-launched soon).

Today, I’m happy to be able to tick the first item on my to-do list – Daibach.co.uk Version 5.  After a few months working on-and-off, I’ve finally put the finishing touches into place.  This version of the site is a major upgrade from previous versions.  Not only has it got a new design and content management system (it’s now running Wordpress), but a fairly large restructuring of the content of the site has also taken place.

Although the latest design went live in June, some parts of the site (most notably photos) still operated from the old CMS.  It’s taken until now to pull all these bits and pieces into Wordpress, but finally, it’s done!  Some older sections – such as photos and media – have been brought into the main blog, while music has moved into the profile pages.  There’s also a new page outlining some of the changes to the site and the reasons behind them. Hopefully, the new structure will prove to be more flexible as my needs change.  Of course, in typical designer fashion, I reserve the right to change my mind regularly!

So what’s next?  Well, the next task is to look at the projects site.  There is a lot of missing content, uninteresting materials and general issues with the site, so I’ll be taking a long hard look at it over the coming months and whipping it into shape.  I’ll also be working on a new Govilon History site – with huge upgrades to the searchable census records, historical photos of the village and plenty of enhanced content. A few other projects are also in the pipeline – I’ll be posting about them when they are a bit closer to launch.

On Monday, the social networking site Facebook released its new design to a selection of its members.  Over the next few weeks, this major update will be pushed out to everyone registered on the network.  Yesterday evening, a discussion began on Twitter surrounding the new Facebook image – with a number of users who don’t like it, and just as many who do.  I was part of the former, so I thought I’d explain where I think this latest design went wrong.

Right from the beginning, Facebook were open about their intentions.  They set up a group which they regularly updated with concepts, thoughts and reasons.  They also gathered a lot of feedback – some positive, some not so positive (you’ll never please everyone).   Some of the early ideas and plans were fantastic.  Some even made the final cut – such as the new tabbed profile page.  However, other not so great ideas also made it through such as the new combined mini-feed/wall.  But at some point, the design has gone off the rails and seems like it is trying to be all things to all people.

The old Facebook design was very simple to use.  Its consistent appearance and layout kept it clean and professional – a feeling surprisingly absent in the latest incarnation.  The designers have attempted to further simplify the simple site navigation by moving everything into a much thinner masthead at the top of the page (you can see old and new below).  This has been achieved through the use of drop down menus.  However unlike the previous design, the presence of these menus is not obvious – for some bizarre reason, the arrows that informed the user of a menus existence are gone.  Even more annoying is the continued reliance on JavaScript to make the menu visible.

Facebook navigation - old vs new

The new profile design is a vast improvement on the old layout which had become crowded and difficult to use.  Implementing a tabbed format for the profile means I no longer have to wait forever while several hundred thousand applications load before I can see someone’s details, or post on their wall.

The big annoyance however is that the layout completely changes when you swap between tabs.  The ‘Wall’ and ‘Info’ tabs have a large profile image, with information and buttons underneath.  However the ‘Photos’ and ‘Boxes’ tabs, have a small profile image and the content takes up the full page width.  This lack of consistency is exacerbated further when you realise that the boxes tab (where all the applications have been hidden away) doesn’t even make use of the full width in most cases.

This latest design is 161 pixels wider than the old layout – yet I’m left wondering where this extra space is used.  Looking at it in a bit more detail, the column that houses the profile picture is no wider than before, but it is now positioned much further to the left, occupying the area that used to house the search and adverts.  The space saved by moving that to the left is taken up but the slightly wider content column.  But still, the site only takes up the same space as before – why the extra 161 pixels?  The answer – adverts.  A much more prominent advert column has been created to the right of the page.

Facebook profiles - now include more prominent adverts

After looking at some of the bits that annoy me, I get the feeling that it isn’t that bad.  There are actually many bits about this new design I like. I would put it down to not liking change – but I know that isn’t true. Overall, I think the designers have missed a trick by not creating a consistent structure and layout to the site – at the moment it just seems like a miss-match of styles, columns and widths.  Hopefully over the next few months, some of these issues will be ironed out.  Although something tells me we’ll just have to get used to it.  But please Facebook, bring back the link to my list of recently updated friends!

TechCrunch, a leading technology blog network, has announced a project to develop an open-source ‘web tablet’ capable of running Firefox and Skype.  The aim is to produce a very thin device (similar to a MacBook Air), with a touch screen interface, WiFi, half a Gigabyte of RAM, a 4Gb solid state hard drive, and possibly an inbuilt camera for video calls – all for less than $200.

According to Michael Arrington, owner of TechCrunch, they are working with a supply chain management company who believe it is possible and can have a few prototypes ready in a short period of time (within a month).

I’ve been considering buying a UMPC for quite a while as I no longer have a need for a fully fledged laptop.  I do however still want a portable device, so I can sit down in the evening in front of the TV, browse the web and reply to emails.  If TechCrunch pull this off – and I really hope they do – I will definitely be investing in a unit.

Something like this is right in Apple’s territory – they already have the thin MacBook Air and the fantastic touch screen interface of the iPhone, but no tablet PC.  If TechCrunch get this device out quickly, Apple will have been caught asleep at the wheel.

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later and it turned out to be sooner than I expected. Wordpress have just released Wordpress for the iPhone.

Following in the footsteps of TypePad, this app allows you to post to your Wordpress blog straight from your iPhone without having to use the standard admin panel.

One I’ve tested it a bit (this entry is being written using the app), I’ll probably write a bit more.