Neatly bringing together two recent posts (Radiohead House of Cards video, Lego album cover art), here’s House of Cards rendered in Lego
And no, I’m not a Radiohead nut, but I do love Lego.
Archive for August, 2008
Fun with post-it notes and Use Cases
Tim Wintle - August 10th, 2008After watching a great Google Techtalk on using generative research for systems architecture (Digging Beyond User Preferences by Indi Young), I was inspired to spend some of my Sunday afternoon playing with Post-it notes while thinking over some work I’m doing on our ad network and viral seeding applications.
I’d like to point out that I’m not following her process exactly in the images below…
Here’s what you’ll need:
Three Colours of Post-It notes
A very large piece of paper on the wall, or a large whiteboard
Stage 1:
Come up with a full list of use cases for your application (you do know you’re user’s use cases don’t you?). Pick a colour of sticky note and write them all down.
Stage 2:
Organise all of the the use cases into similar conceptual ideas on upper half of the piece of paper, so if two people are looking for statistics on a particular item (but for different reasons) then those two use cases would be in the same column. Move the columns around so that they each type of user’s use cases are close together.
When you’re finished this stage, you should have a piece of paper that looks something like this:
Stage 3:
Now choose another colour of sticky note and write down the features that your application currently contains. Stick these below the “tower” of use cases which they specifically fix.
Finally, time to do some brain storming over new features if you are in the planning stage, and write theses on the final colour notes (or if you’re in the middle of implementing a feature then put this on the final colour sticky note). Add these in the same way as before.
The idea of this all is to try to draw your attention to which use cases are being fulfilled by the existing system, and which parts may been more thought in the future.
You can also group the columns by the type of user that has those use cases (not shown on the image above). For example, in the above image we actually have five different groupings of use cases, and I’m glad to say that the section that appears to not have features to support it (just left of centre), is the group with only one user, Me, so it’s probably the least important section of the system to get up and running – I have my own external tools to support them.
Tuk Tuk Steals Team Rubber Morning!
Ian Ochiltree - August 6th, 2008Following a lengthly stroll to Team Rubber Towers this morning – pondering why I didn’t have some sort of hairdryer to ride to work (to preserve both leg effort and precious breakfast minutes) – I finally arrived at our front door ready to embark on a new day of web embellishment.
Much to my own bemusement, upon entering the building, I was ushered straight back out by an orgy of joyous faces and skipping new media types. Before I could consider the reason for this commotion, my unborn question’s answer had already been hatched…
Before me stood a truck, with what could only be described the result of a sordid entanglement between a Moped, a Tonka truck and a rollerskate strapped to its back…The day had finally come, Mr Andy Parkhouse’s Tuk Tuk had arrived! (Want more info on the Tuk Tuk? read this article!)
Amazingly, the delivery man lifted the truck straight off the ramp and onto the street!
I prefer to call it Roller-Ped. So do you probably…
Andy took the beast for a ride almost immediately, and shot around the streets of Bristol like an action figure in a rollerskate. Sadly, the Tuk Tuk suffered from some technical issues on Tyndalls Park Road. Luckily however, Matt was on hand with his bicycle repair kit and the know-how to get Roller-Ped back on her three feet.
Check the picture for proof…Roller-Ped pulled a wheelie on Lower Park row, achieving some ‘sick air’. In 50 years time, a little blue placard will hang on this street, announcing the spot of Roller-Ped’s first voyage/wheelie on British concrete.
Long live Roller-Ped.
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Update by Andy
Ian, I’ve told you, *it’s a truck* not a tuk-tuk 
@ Ric Hurst: the truck is a 400cc diesel Bajaj Hidec, from Sanjay at Tuk Tuk UK. It’s the only one in the country as far as I know. Cost was getting on for £4k including VAT & Delivery.
Insurance is about £250 from Adrian Flux, but would be more if I put a logo on the truck or commute in it. I don’t know the MPG, but it cost me £5.63 to fill up the tank. Four speeds and reverse, turns on a speck of a dust, top speed seems to be around 40mph.
Lego Fun
Katrina Percy - August 4th, 2008I am a big fan of Popbitch as it feeds my need for random crap and gossip. In this week’s newsletter titled “The porn pets of Saudi Arabia” (nice) I came across a link that made me think of a certain someone. Also Team Rubber loves its music so I just had to blog it! Album covers recreated with Lego, I particularly like the fact that Morrissey looks better in plastic form. Amazon saw potential in this form of art work, if you click on the covers it takes you to their site so you can buy the CD, nope, I still don’t want a Morrissey album.
