It upsets me when papers make the effort to do proper usability studies and then misuse the results because they get confused by qualitative and quantitative data.

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Following on from part 1, here are some more creative ideas for presents. These however require very little artistic skills!

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Valentines Day is fast approaching and it's often nice to give a personalised handmade present. This is part one: for those who like making things. I'll do another post tomorrow for those who are somewhat artistically challenged.

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I found a really good article called the 10 usability crimes you really shouldn't commit and I have updated the website according to adhere to some of the principles - mainly making the website logo now a link to the home page and indicating the active form field for comments below. I didn't actually realise you could change the currently focused field in a form by adding in :focus. I disagree with the last point the article makes, about not justifying text because some people find it harder to read. I'm not dyslexic, but I personally find justified text much neater and easier to read than left-justified.

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I went to the Dean Gallery today with Steven since it was such lovely weather outside and we thought we'd do something cultural. The gallery sits opposite the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and houses a small, permanent collection of Surrealist and Dada art which is well worth seeing if you like Dalí, Miró, Ernst, Magritte, Picasso or Man Ray.

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I despair when I go into art shops and find how expensive good quality canvases are. You can get canvas relatively cheaply, but the quality is flimsy and they always have very thin wooden frames and pre-primed with this stuff that just feels fake. At art college we got taught how to make our own canvases (I feel like the plural should be canvii?), but unfortunately I no longer have access to a workshop with a saw, pre-cut wood, weird corrugated nails, reams and reams of free canvas fabric and a burly workshop assistant to hammer for me.

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From Lara's recommendation I went along to the arts & crafts fair being held in the gardens of St Johns at the West end of Princes Street called 3D/2D Craft & Design Fair with some friends. It runs until 30th August and is free entry.

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I browse Google news and Reddit every morning on my iPod and many of the websites that link from them look very poor on the iPod/iPhone. It's really not hard to make a website look good on a small screen but unfortunately mobile web usability is often neglected.

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I have made two new paintings called With You part 1 & 2. They are on 15cm square canvas and made of fabric, bubble wrap, tape, tissue paper, beads and a tonne of PVA glue:

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I've been experimenting with images and CSS on how to make an image look like it's been taken with a polaroid. You can see the results in the About me page. I still own a polaroid, and have about 2 photos left. Pity they don't make them any more :(

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Over the last two weeks I have been making three highland cows out of papier mache and fake fur fabric. I intend to give them away as presents, although I'll be sad to see my creations go! Scroll to the bottom to see the results.

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