This post (contrary to appearances) isn’t really written by me. Kinza Ahmed has been working with us over the summer as a marketing intern, helping behind the scenes in putting together the hugely successful first conference call among other things. We have greatly enjoyed having Kinza here at Distilled HQ. It’s fantastic to see a student who wants to learn about how the real world of business works – but I think the rest is best presented in her own words. Without further ado, here’s what Kinza sent me this morning (entirely without provocation – all her own idea). I hope you’ll join me in wishing her all the best with her studies and whatever she decides to do after that:

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I applied to Distilled after seeing their advert online for a marketing intern. After studying their website, I knew that not only could I gain some invaluable experience but I would really enjoy my experience here. It has become common knowledge now that being qualified on paper is not always enough to secure a job in your desired field, so getting some “real life” industry experience has becoming increasingly necessary. This was one of the reasons I was eager to get some experience. Furthermore, as an undergraduate student I wanted to be really sure that this was definitely the career for me and thus shape the rest of my degree accordingly. So having the opportunity to work in a company that consistently smashes their targets not only looks great on the CV but motivates me to progress so I too can achieve my goals.

I came down to London from Nottingham (where I am studying for my degree) especially for the interview. I felt increasingly anxious on my journey down. I had prepared for the interview and had done my research on the company- but what if they asked me something I couldn’t answer? What if they rejected me there and then? Completely irrational thoughts were distorting through my mind as I walked from the station to the offices. I decided to compose myself, enter the building and make my way up to Distilled’s floor. I was greeted by Will who was sitting on the sofas in the reception area having a meeting with another member of the team. My initial apprehension quickly vanished as I entered the calming atmosphere of the office. My first impression of the office was: ‘funky’! The office had a professional yet laid back aura that was distinct from the rest of London’s hubbub that I had left outside the door.

The interview went well. The questions were direct, straightforward and I was impressed by Distilled’s focus on what I wanted to gain from this experience. They gave me a chance to talk about what interested me and somewhat tailor my interning experience if I was selected. To my delight, I got a phone call from Sarah on the very day I received my exam results for my first year, saying that it was a pleasure to meet with me and that they would like to offer me the marketing internship. Yippee!

During my time at Distilled, I had specific projects I was working on (as well as a number of general duties) involving all types of marketing- including internet marketing – something that I was yet to learn about expressly in my academics. Off the back of this, I got to explore the different roles in the Web Development team and how all the different aspects of the company interact to create an all round, great project. Consequently, working as a Distilled marketing intern opened my eyes to the other roles that are available and how they integrate. I have learnt so much more in addition to the new marketing knowledge I have acquired. I will take back new found information in Sales, Accounting, Economics and Business Psychology and will definitely implement this information in the rest of my degree, which will of no doubt be to my benefit.

It’s clear to see that Distilled gives their interns the time and space to explore their own capabilities whilst keeping a close eye and offering continual support. The experience was unquestionably a success for me, so a big thanks to the Distilled team!

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Legibility guidelines for dyslexia often conflict with usability conventions for websites. My challenge was to find a way of designing a website that adhered to both sets of rules.

Background:

Just before embarking on the new website design for the British Dyslexia Association I read Steve Krug’s book ‘Don’t make me think’ on usability. I was excited about putting my new found knowledge into practice.

I entered the design kick off meeting with my usability hat firmly on, but unfortunately left with it slightly askew.

The problem was whilst gibbering on about usability I found many of my ideas got knocked down as they contradicted dyslexia conventions.

The final home page design:

For example:

In my naivety I suggested underlining links to highlight what was click-able. However, underlining is a dyslexic nightmare because it jumbles up letters and makes words considerably harder to read. I also queried the client’s reasoning behind the cream background (thinking to myself that it looked quite dated) only to find that cream backgrounds with black copy work well together by softening the glare and improving legibility.

Designing for dyslexia means making things really clear and simple, removing all the frills and pretty little elements that are often used. In the words of Steve Krug ‘keeping noise down to a dull roar’; for a dyslexia website you should aim for a quiet whisper.

It was clear that I was going to have to go back to square one with my attitude towards this website design and take dyslexia into consideration.

An Inner Page Design

Dyslexia:

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which mainly affects the development of literacy and language related skills. This means that the typography and layout of the design needed due care and consideration.

Leaving dyslexia conventions to one side for a moment it was still important to step back and ask myself – Who is this website for?

Well… the website is for dyslexic people obviously, but also parents, teachers, professors, employers and other people researching on the behalf of dyslexic people; the website had to ensure that it met all of these peoples needs too.

As designing for dyslexia generally means designing simply and obviously this should mean that people without dyslexia can also use the website easily… so long as usability is not impaired in the process.

The solution was to consider these points when designing:

Imagery – Imagery helps to break up content from a usability perspective but also can describe what something is without the need for so much reading.

Columns – We suggested the use of columns was a bad idea. If they’re long this means scrolling down and then up again to access the rest of the article. Unlike a newspaper, websites can only show a certain amount of copy at once; screen size and scrolling means articles are chopped into sections as you read. So from a usability perspective columns were a bad idea but from a dyslexia perspective a blessing, because shorter line lengths of 70 – 80 characters are easier to follow. We over came this issue by having columns but keeping them short eliminating lengthy scrolling.

Paragraphs – Keeping paragraphs short and to a minimum helps with both dyslexia and usability.

Leading – Having dyslexia means that things can get jumbled more easily. Increasing the leading (width of white space between lines) will help to separate each line from the next, making finding your way from the end of one line and to the beginning of the next much easier.

Typography – Minimum text size is even more important here, sticking to 12pt or even perhaps 13pt is a must.

Links – try to emphasise these without underlining them – one way to do this is by having arrows leading towards click-able items.

Colour – we used colour strongly throughout the design as a means of clearly dividing up the sections and also keeping cohesion when linking through to inner pages.

Less is more – no fancy backgrounds or additional elements that are not absolutely necessary.

A combination of all these elements helped us to generate a clear and successful design that the client and hopefully the users will love.

View the website at BDA Dyslexia

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I’d just sat down to write my blog post, when a postcard arrived from Will, Lucy and Tom. It was sent from their holiday in France, where they were thoughtful enough to mail in some international SEO advice! And so:

In case you have any trouble reading it (or if the sight of Comic Sans was enough to make you disable your images) it reads:

So, useful advice from the rest of the SEO team, even when they’re relaxing!

Similarly, I remember being taught the use of the phrase ‘les baladeurs cassette’ at school, but finding that everyone in France just called it ‘le Walkman’.

France has particularly cheap broadband, (this 2007 article puts it about 15% the cost in the UK) but like many other countries, particularly in Europe, this is juxtaposed with large rural swathes of the country that are barely connected.

I guess that if you want to reach those people, internet marketing may not be the most effective way.

Wish you were here! Rob xx

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