After endless months of limitations, lockdown has been (and continues to be) very slowly eased. With this comes more freedom and more choices - more open spaces re-opening, children’s play parks being un-padlocked (truly one of the saddest sights for me has been...
Nudge is not the enemy
Yes, we are still in the midst of a pandemic with a vile virus that will be around for some time. The death toll is staggering, but...but the changes in behaviour in the UK at least (I can only speak for the UK, as it’s where I live) have also been staggering. Right...
Stop the spread – of misinformation
I know I bang on about plain English, direct communications and making things simple but this situation we are in now – a global public health pandemic – reinforces this five hundredfold.
Tricky times – to email or not to email
We really are in unprecedented and utterly bewildering times. It’s fast-moving and there are people that need to be kept informed across the board about a whole host of issues – some, clearly more important than others.
Evolving language
A couple of days ago I read a piece about teachers banning slang in classrooms and jumped on a quote in the piece from linguistics expert Ian Cushing, a lecturer in education at Brunel University London who said, "There's no incorrect or correct way of using...
#grabbag – a competition to win a giant bag of crisps?
On Sunday (8 September) tweets started to appear using #grabbag. A competition to win a giant bag of crisps? Nope.
My thoughts on The Great Hack
Hands up if you’ve watched The Great Hack on Netflix? I wasn’t going to watch it as I felt I knew the bones of the story from following the revelations, in real-time, as they came to light on Twitter, and reading the many Guardian and Observer articles but I succumbed...
Communicating about mental health – inspired by #commschat
Mental wellbeing, positive mental health and mental wellness are issues for all of us, not just the oft-quoted statistically one in four that will suffer mental ill health at some point in their life.
What the *ux* is UX
Do you keep seeing UX everywhere and wondering what the *UX* it is? Yep me too. So I did some research. There isn’t a single recognised definition of UX but it stands for user experience and is about making things better for the user. In essence it’s putting the user...
Getting the best results through constructive feedback (in copywriting and dog training)
Most dog owners know that one of the principles of basic canine training is rewarding good behaviour and correcting undesirable (bad) behaviour. If you aren’t clear with your dog about what is right and wrong he/she won’t have a clue what to do. Waiting patiently for...