“blind people use phones, read Kindles and watch TV in a variety of different ways”
Source: ‘People think you can’t be blind and use a phone’ – BBC News
Author: Justine
Conversational Semantics · An A List Apart Article
“As Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and even customer support chat bots become the norm, we have to start carefully considering not only how our content looks but how it could sound. We can—and should—use HTML and ARIA to make our content structured, sensible, and most importantly, meaningful.”
Honest and understandable.
Using structured data will make your content discoverable to voice assistants
gds.blog.gov.uk 
Neural networks and deep learning
Neural networks and deep learning:
by Michael Nielsen
Cure for Tech Frustrations
Someone should probably sell these. (via Swiss Miss)
Tuesday Tab Sweep
Nine Essential Characteristics of Good UX Designers – Passion should be a the top of the list.
Book review: Wrench in the System by Harold Hambrose – Might be a good read for the executive in your life who hasn’t yet seen the light.
Refreshing Three HCI Laws: If you’ve never heard of Fitts’ Law, Hick’s Law, and the Power Law of Practice, here’s a quick recap.
Front End Concerns When Implementing Faceted Search – Part 1 – Daniel Tunkelang, Chief Scientist at Endeca, walks you through implementing a Faceted Search.
Managing UI complexity – An interaction designer discusses the various techniques he’s used to reduced the visual complexity of the application he’s designing.
Restarting the New Zealand Calendar of UX Events
I’ve been talking to a few Auckland-based User Experience (UX) folk recently – discussing how we can better connect, network, learn and be inspired.
In my talks, I’ve noticed that not everyone is necessarily aware of all the various UX-related events already happening in Auckland, so I thought it would be a good idea to restart my UX Calendar of Events.
The UX Calendar lists each event individually, but here’s a brief overview of what’s already happening in Auckland:
- Auckland Web Meetup – John Ballinger & friends organise a great event, typically with 3 speakers each time, so there’s usually at least one topic of interest. And there’s free beer and pizza, and drinks afterwards – good opportunity for networking.
- Auckland UX Book Club – Two books successfully discussed so far, and the group is growing. Thanks to Peter Grierson for kicking this off this year!
- Auckland Pecha Kucha – Initially started by the Architecture crowd in Auckland, but topics vary and provide a great insight into how other creatives work and think. I love the format: 6 minute presentation means you never get bored.
- Girl Geek Dinners – Monthly dinners for the more geeky women amongst us, but I’m sure they’re welcoming to everyone…
- DINZ run occasional events, such as Designers Speak Plurals. The next one is in Auckland on 29th July. Looks like a great line-up of speakers.
- YMedia are currently running the YMediaChallenge.
- Design Assembly put together an evening of talks and discussion for Graphic Designers four times a year. The next one is on 30th September.
- There are even rumours of an upcoming TEDx event in Auckland (Oct 1?). More info shortly.
Let me know if I’ve missed any…
Stalking Your Users: How to Conduct User Research in the Real World
As part of the Webstock Master Class series of workshops, Alex Wright will be presenting a workshop on ‘Stalking Your Users: How to Conduct User Research in the Real World‘ on Wednesday 19 August.