Ian Bartlett, Head of UCL Publications & Marketing Services, reports on the recent alumni professional networking event.

What is the secret for a successful career in the world of digital media? What degree should you take? How do you stay on top in this fast-moving environment?

These questions and many more were addressed by the discussion panel of UCL alumni as they spoke and during the following Q & A sessions, the event being chaired by Professor Claire Warwick (@clhw1) from the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities.

From a personal angle, I wanted to learn more about the paths taken by panel members to reach the positions that they now hold.

From the perspective of my role as UCL’s Head of Publications and Marketing Services (PAMS), I wanted to know:
1) Were the UCL degrees taken by each of the panel members integral to their success?
2) Where did panel members see digital media heading next?
3) How does an organisation cope with the fast-changing developments in digital marketing?

(more…)

Have you ever left your card in a chip and pin, mistyped a phone number, left your petrol cap on the top of a car or, more worryingly, poured orange juice into your cornflakes? As somebody who recently misread a label and poured a carton of chickpeas (instead of custard) over a sticky toffee pudding, I’m particularly interested in how and why such errors can occur.

To mark World Usability Day (10 November), Professor Ann Blandford gave a clear and helpful lecture about how the design of technology can help make these errors less likely. While the mistakes made above do cause delays and aggravation, Professor Blandford began by highlighting how technology design can affect far more serious situations.

(more…)

‘Who is the man from Mitanni?’ was the question posed by an iPad as part of the Qrator exhibit, on a digital tour I took of the UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology on 12 May. Qrator invited visitors to comment on a cast of the man from Mitanni made in 1887 by Flinders Petrie, the museum’s founding archaeologist, in Karnak, Egypt. Visitors’ interpretations then became part of the object’s history and the iPad display.

The digital tour, which also showcased technologies called Tales of Things and 3D Encounters, was a chance for visitors to help shape the development and use of technology in a museum environment.

(more…)

Claire Ross, UCL reports on Claire Warwick’s Lunch Hour Lecture to mark the fifth anniversary of Twitter on 21 March. Is Twitter is an ephemeral technology, consisting of mundane, pointless tweets about people’s personal lives, normally revolving around what people had for lunch? Or can a study of its use help us to understand how we express our identities on and offline?

Watch the Lunch Hour Lecture here (36 minutes)

(more…)