Roundup: meal kits, GDS on services, Gmail addresses, user off-boarding, and productivity
April 13, 2018
Eating something different - David H
https://luckyattitude.co.uk/hellofresh-big-uk/
I've been using meal kit companies for a while now and think this nicely sums up the reasons I do it.
Don't build apps - Martyn E
https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/working-with-mobile-technology#consider-emerging-technology As a follow up to Tom S's post last week, here's the GDS take on progressive web apps from the recently updated Service Standard. I like the clarity of "Don't build apps"
What is a service? - Martyn E
https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2018/04/04/what-do-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-services/ I sometimes describe Unboxed as a "Service design and digital product development" company. This is a nice clarification on what GDS means by "service". I'd quite like to hear how they define a "product" too.
A tale of two email addresses - Murray S
https://jameshfisher.com/2018/04/07/the-dots-do-matter-how-to-scam-a-gmail-user.html
Google not really making it clear that the dots aren't important in a gmail
address feels like a mistake. It's not just users that need to understand
this either, those of us who build systems that use email addresses as a
unique identifier are affected too. With + addressing and ignorable .s
it seems like a given google address effectively has an infinite set of email
addresses for a single person. Of course, we can't just filter emails on the
gmail.com or googlemail.com domains, as the same applies to anyone that
uses google for their own domain. Perhaps the real problem is that we should
stop thinking of email addresses as unique, but I'm not sure what we'd use
instead.
Off-boarding your users - Lawrence R
https://uxplanet.org/offboarding-the-way-to-say-goodbye-to-your-users-26bf45b5bf4a
A lot of effort goes into signing users onto a service or product, less so when they leave. Often the process is laborious, painful, hidden, or just incomplete. Another consideration is a users data legacy and right to remove any stored data (be forgotten) as a result of GDPR. Currently the consensus seems to be to obscure the process to encourage retaining the user and their data. But with changes in the law soon to take place, presumably this paradigm is set to end, leading to a new, more empowering, and as yet undefined alternate to take it's place.
Productivity - Elena T
https://blog.samaltman.com/productivity
It doesn't matter how fast you move if it's in a worthless direction. Cultivating a practice of independent thought can help you find pick the right problem to solve and do the work.
Track of the Week - Richard S
Always upbeat and puts a smile on my face. Don’t read the comments unless you have seen “Pulp Fiction” or offence might be taken.