There has been a lot of debate over the currently proposed question so we thought we’d take a look at what makes the perfect question.  We applied our UX and Market Research skills to design a suitable alternative question for the referendum.

What makes the perfect referendum question?

There has been a lot of consultation by both the UK Government and the Scottish Government into the principles behind a good referendum question. Their findings, combined with the outputs from the Venice Commission’s report in 2005 which gave a review of referendum practices across Europe, has produced the following set of standards for the referendum question:

1. easy-to-understand
2. concise, unambiguous and to the point
3. legal, fair and decisive
4. must not lead the voter in one direction or another.

Ruth Stevenson, of Ruthless Research, summed up the situation perfectly, in her written evidence to the UK consultation earlier this year, setting out the professional standards of question design outlined in the Market Research Society’s good practice guidance. She stated that the proposed question should be:

“Short, straightforward and clear […] balanced so as not to lead voters towards a particular response […and] presented in a manner that does not introduce bias.”

So that seems pretty simple on the surface of things, how hard can it be to pose a simple, fair yet decisive question?

What questions have been proposed?

To date there have been two proposed questions for the referendum from the Scottish Government.

The first question was designed in 2010 to both ask the independence question but also to satisfy the legal constraints around the referendum (powers to call and hold a referendum were not devolved to Scotland and so only the UK Government could legally do so at this time). The question that was put forward was:

‘Do you agree/disagree:

1. The Scottish Parliament should have its powers and responsibilities extended as described [on the ballot paper].
2.  The Scottish Government proposes that, in addition to the extension of the powers and responsibilities of the Parliament’s powers should also be extended to enable independence to be achieved.’

Even with the caveat that the question had to be worded in a certain way to make sure that it was legitimate e.g. saying ‘enable independence’ rather than calling for independence these are really poor questions to be put to the Scottish people.

Firstly this question is really combining two queries in one which happen to be completely different constitutional issues which is not possible for a UK referendum: the devolution of power and independence. Whilst I am not part of the camp that believes that people are only able to answer one question per referendum I do think that the set up here is both ambiguous and is certainly not easy to understand. In addition the question does not state explicitly what would happen if the referendum returned a ‘yes’ vote.

The Scottish Government implied the question does not have to be fully explicit as there would be lots of campaigning prior to the referendum so that the population know what all the implications of each option. I, however, see this as a high-risk strategy for both campaigns as you are presuming that:

• parties campaign fairly and scrupulously
• people listen to the campaign messages.

However the real issue with the question(s) is that there are actually 4 possible outcomes:

1. No additional devolution and no independence.
2. Additional devolution but no independence.
3. Additional devolution and independence.
4. No additional devolution but independence.

The last of the four options does not even make sense but is still a plausible outcome. Therefore it could be possible to have four different campaigns for the four outcomes. Therefore each campaign will give a slightly different message and therefore it introduces a higher risk of a mixed and confusing message being delivered to the electorate.

This first question was rejected at consultation stage and the UK Government agreed to remove any of the legitimacy issues so that the Scottish Government could set their question.

In Janaury 2012 as part of the document issued by the Scottish Government called ‘Your Scotland, Your Referendum.’ that outlined the rules for campaigning and contained a draft ballot paper with this question:

‘Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?

Yes/No’

On some levels this question is much better than the former issued in 2010, it is certainly simple and much shorter and unambiguous.  However this is a fundamentally unbalanced, loaded and biased question that leads the voter to the positive agreement answer as it asks ‘Do you agree…’ only.  This mistake is against so many statistical and research principles that a question relating to this situation is actually included in a standard GCSE statistics exam! It could be slightly more balanced by offering both options e.g. ‘Do you agree or disagree…’ but this is really just a quick fix.

The second problem with this question is an attitudinal question e.g. it is asking the way the voter thinks about the situation, by using the term agree, rather than what outcome the voter wants which would give a clearer and more definitive result.

Does the question really have that much impact on the result?

You may be wondering why it is so important how this question is phrased. It may seem to be a minor point as there will be plenty of campaigning and so people should have been made fully aware of all the implications prior to the vote taking place. However recent research conducted by Lord Ashcroft, as part of the UK Government Consultation, clearly shows the impact of the wording of the question on the response rate.

Lord Ashcroft polled the same 3090 Scottish adult respondents between the 26th and the 31st January 2012 with three questions and got varying results depending on the variation of the question:

So you can see from this simple piece of research that by changing the question from an unbiased attitudinal question to a one asking about the direct outcome of the referendum introduces an 8% swing in the vote.  Therefore the phrasing of the question is of the utmost importance and as Ipsos MORI stated, in their written evidence to the UK consultation, earlier this year:

“It must be seen to be fair so that the losing side in the ballot do not try to discredit or challenge the result on the basis of the question wording.”

 

What is the perfect question?

The best referendum question for independence that I came across during my research was from the referendum of the Republic of Montenegro in 2006 who were proposing independence from Serbia and Montenegro. Interestingly they set the question by taking one pro-independent, one anti-independent and one neutral and asking them to write it together.

This is the question that was posed to the people of Montenegro:

‘Do you want the Republic of Montenegro to be an independent state with a full international and legal personality?

Yes / No ’

This is a good question as it is fair, simple and unambiguous. It does not lead the voter to one particular outcome and it outlines what the outcome of the vote will be. With this question each voter is aware of the implication of the vote that they cast. Also by using the word ‘want’ rather than asking for an agreement it forces the voter to make a choice.

Based on this question and all the other factors we have come up with our own question that we think is fair, simple, legal and unbiased for the Scottish Government to pose in the referendum:

‘Do you want Scotland to become an independent country with a full international and legal personality or do you want Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom?

I want Scotland to be an independent country / I want Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom ’

Our reasoning behind this wording:

1. It is simple and easy to understand with clear and explicit responses.
2. It is fair to both arguments.
3. It forces people to understand that they are choosing between independence and remaining part of the UK rather than just choosing independence therefore removing an ambiguity from the question.
4. It adheres to the Market Research best practice in terms of not leading the voter and will give clear results.

We think that this question is far better than the current proposed question and will be interested to read the outcome of the Scottish Government consultancy, due to be released in Summer 2012, as to what the rest of the population think about the question for the referendum.

What do you think of our question or can you write a better one? Please share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comments.

There are 12 days to go until the grace period for the revision to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communication Directive expires.   We will be releasing a series of blog posts over the next twelve days to help you get your company’s website up to the standard required before the grace period expires.

The changes dictate that “explicit consent” must be gathered from web users who are being tracked via “cookies” or an alternative method.  This legislation is highly contentious however it is of the utmost importance that you show that you are taking the necessary steps to comply. Any company that has failed to take the steps necessary to comply could run the risk of enforcement action or potentially a fine.

What is the revised directive?

François wrote a blog post detailing the changes to the directive March but in brief:

“The aim of the changes is to protect privacy and, in particular, limit how much use could be made of behavioural advertising. This form of marketing involves people being tracked across websites, with their behaviours used to create a profile that dictates the type of adverts they see.”

Every visitor or user of a website must be made aware of how information is collected by websites, why the information is required and offer them the choice of whether or not they want such information to be collected.

What do the you need to do to be totally compliant?

The revisions to the directive basically mean that you must make users aware of what information you are collecting and get permission to use cookies or alternatives. This means if your website uses cookies or similar technologies:

1.   The user is supplied with clear and comprehensive information about why you are collecting information, how you store and access it.

and

2.    The user gives you explicit consent to collect this data.

How do you make sure you’re up to the required standard in the next 12 days?

There are four things that you must do before the 26^th May 2012:

1. A Cookie Audit:

You can do this in house or we can do it for you.  We have a comprehensive blog post that gives you instructions on how to complete the audit.  All you have to do is follow the instructions and we can offer you mentoring on it as required.

2. Determine the Invasiveness of the cookies and the action to be taken:

“Think of this in terms of a sliding scale, with privacy neutral cookies at one end of the scale and more intrusive uses of the technology at the other. You can then focus your efforts on achieving compliance appropriately providing more information and offering more detailed choices at the intrusive end of the scale.”

Our next blog post in the series will provide you with the questions you need to ask to establish the invasiveness of the cookies and the options you have to ensure compliance.

3.  Compliance Strategy

You need to decide on whether or not to use invasive cookies going forwards.

If you decide not to use them you will need to remove the cookies and the functionality that places them on the website.  You will not need to take any further action at this stage.

If you decide to continue using some or all of the cookies you will need to proceed to step 4 and list all the invasive cookies in use.

4. Amend your legals (T&Cs and Privacy): 

You will need to amend your legals on the website to reflect the cookie compliance and have a clear link to your cookies usage policy on the website.

Gaining Explicit Consent

Once you have completed these four tasks if you use invasive cookies the next decision to take is how to gain explicit consent. Please note that this does not have to be implemented by the 26th of May 2012.  The ICO suggest the following techniques:

• pop-ups, splash pages and similar techniques
• new account sign-up terms and conditions that include tick-box consent options for cookies in use
• account changes to terms and conditions that include tick-box consent options for accepting changes to the cookies in use
• settings-led consent where implications of a change to the cookies used are clearly explained
• feature-led consent where implications of a change to the cookies used are clearly explained

We’ll be reviewing the best and the worst of these options over the coming weeks once we see websites fully implementing their strategy.

How can we help you?

To ensure that your website is in full compliance with the new directive we are offering the following services:

•  Cookie Audits: 

1.  We will conduct your cookie audit for you and supply you with a full list of all the cookies (and alternatives) that are on your website and their purpose.  Cookie Audits start from £150.00 (excluding VAT) depending on the size of your website.
2. We can mentor you through the cookie audit.  This will be priced on our standard hourly mentoring rate of £60.00 per hour.

• Determine the Invasiveness of the cookies and the action to be taken:  

Following your audit we will work with you to review and assess your cookies.  This would be an hour long consultation with you, and any others you wish, and then an hour for us to produce the documentation off the back of it.  We are offering this service at a price of £120.00 (excluding VAT).

• Remove Cookies and Functionality:

 Once the cookie audit and assessment of invasiveness is complete we can supply you with a fixed price quote for the removal (or modification) of any functionality that places cookies on a user’s computer.

•  Legals and T&C Templates:

You will need to amend your legals on the website to reflect the cookie compliance and have a clear link to your cookies usage policy on the website.  We can amend your legals on the website to reflect the cookie compliance.  We will provide a template and update your copy and add a clear link to your cookies usage policy.  We are offering this service for £175.00 (excluding VAT).

 Please note if we undertake this task are not providing professional legal advice and are supplying templates.

To ensure that you are fully compliant with this legislation before the grace period expires on the 26^th of May 2012 contact us on 0131 556 6818 to discuss your chosen strategy.

photo courtesy of 'WillowGardeners'

Happy Easter from the Border Crossing Media Team!

Our Easter office will be closed from 5pm on Thursday the 5th of April to Tuesday the 10th of April.  For all critical enquiries during this period please call your designated point of contact on their mobile phone.

We hope you have a wonderful Easter!

Pre-conference networking drinks

The event started on the Thursday evening with pre-conference drinks so after going to a very interesting meeting about tax relief for R&D at the Hub I got to take a lovely stroll across the Clyde to the SECC to see what was going on.  I arrived to a wide array of drinks and food and also free wifi, always a favourite of mine at a conference!  This did mean however that I found myself a suitable corner to check my email and so may have missed out on some networking opportunities.

The main purpose of the evening was an introduction to the conference by Hannah Rudman of Amb:IT:ion Scotland and 3 case studies of cultural organisations collaborating with digital companies:

• Stellar Quines, a touring theatre group, partnership with Freakworks and the Institute of Creative Industries at Napier University to produce ANA, a 3D theatre experience.  Stellar Quines had seen a decrease in profits of touring their works around Scotland and so are experimenting with 3D recordings of their performances to be able to continue showing them in remote places in Scotland whilst substantially reducing their costs.  A good idea in my opinion as a lover of both theatre and the potential of 3D.  Whether it works right now or is a work in progress though I can’t say as unfortunately we could not see an example of it in action.
• Inner Ear’s partnership with Walking Heads the Glasgow music tour app and the Edinburgh music tour app.  This is where you can download an app and it takes you on a walking tour round your favourite comedy or music spots.  There seems to be nothing truly innovative about this idea but it does show how you can provide these tours on demand without having the risk of giving tourists any equipment.  At a RRP of £0.59 it is certainly priced right for both locals and tourists.
• Timespan’s partnership with Leith’s own Bluemungus on the Museum Without Walls project in Sutherland giving an augmented reality view of the area at the time of the land clearances 200 years ago.  This was my favourite of the case studies not just because of our connections to Bluemungus or for the excellent fall off the stage but because I could really see how the  augmented reality provided by the app would truly enhance the understanding of the area and it’s history.  I could imagine both young and old using this app to be able to see what the land looked like hundreds of years ago and getting inspired to find out more.

After listening to the case studies both tired and inspired I headed back to Edinburgh for the night.

The main event

The next day was more of a traditional conference format with the morning filled with Workshops and the afternoon with speakers.  Francois and I made it through to Glasgow for the first workshop of the day and went our separate ways.

My first workshop was called Partnerships and Collaborations and was delivered by Julie Tait, Director, Culture Sparks; Gillian Easson, Development Manager, NESTA; Rohan Gunatillake, Producer, Sync.  The point of this workshop was to discover how these organisations could either help both cultural and digital companies make connections.  A large focus of this workshop was explaining about a new NESTA fund called:

The Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture that is open for applications from Cultural Organisations to apply for to work with Digital companies to either:

How to find cookies on your website

Step 1: Select and update two browsers

I decided to use Firefox and Chrome.

In Firefox: click on “Firefox”. Select “About Firefox” and click on the “Check for Updates” button. Install any necessary updates.

In Chrome: click on “Chrome”. Select “About Chrome” and click on the “Update Now” button if you are not running the latest version of Chrome.

Step 2: Delete any and all cookies

Remove all of the cookies stored on your computer prior to testing your website:

In Firefox: click on “Preferences”. Select “Privacy” and click on the “remove individual cookies” link. Then click on the “Remove All Cookies” button.

In Chrome: click on the “Tool” icons in the top right of the browser window, then select “Preferences”, “Under the hood” and “Clear browsing data”.

Step 3: Use your website

Go to your website and use every page and all functionality available. Do not browse other websites whilst you do this.

Step 4: Log your findings

Note down all of the cookies that your website has installed on your computer. Then click on the name or source of each cookie to reveal further information. Log the following for each cookie you find:

• Cookie name
• Expiry date
• Source or host of cookie

In Firefox: click on Preferences. Select “Privacy” and click on the “remove individual cookies link”. Click on the arrow next to the name of each website that has installed a cookie. Then click on the name of each cookie this website has installed. This will display the information required at the bottom of the pop-up window.

In Chrome: click on the “Tool” icon in the top right of the browser window, then select “Preferences”, “Under the hood”, “Content Settings”, and “All cookies and Site Data”. Click on the name of each website. This will display each cookie the website in question has installed. Click on the button that represents each cookie to reveal the necessary information you need to log.

Step 5: Repeat steps 1-4 using a different browser and/or tool of your choice

To ensure you find all of the cookies in use on your website I’d highly recommend multiple passes with different tools. You could use your secondary browser or you could install an add-on or extension to your primary browser such as Firecookie for Firefox’s Firebug. Repeating the process with different tools should help you reduce the risk of failing to find and log all of the cookies in use on your website.

Analysing the cookies you’ve found

Identifying the “invasiveness” and “necessity” of each and every cookie you find is the bare minimum required to show that you are taking steps to comply with this new legislation.

I don’t think it is appropriate for me to get into what is “invasive” or “necessary” as in the end of the day this is a) purely subjective, and b) I’m not the ICO. Therefore, my personal opinion really doesn’t matter. So I’d highly recommend that you refer to the following guidance documentation published by the ICO:

• Changes to the rules on using cookies and similar technologies for storing information
• Guidance on the rules on use of cookies and similar technologies

Following this you will then need to:

1. Decide which cookies will require “explicit consent”.
2. Decide which if any cookies you can do without.
3. Remove any invasive or unnecessary cookies that you do not wish to keep.
4. Update your privacy and/or use of cookies policy to reflect these changes.
5. Plan and test how to obtain “explicit consent” on your website.

Presenting these changes to website visitors

This is certainly the hardest element of complying with this legislation. Due to this we are taking an incremental approach. Phase 1 is to update our legal documents and phase 2 will be testing ways to obtain “explicit consent”.

In terms of phase 1 we’ve taken our lead from the ICO themselves and have compiled the following table which details the cookies in use on this website and blog:

We’ve tried to make it as clear and useful as possible whilst detailing all of the information required.

In terms of phase 2 we certainly won’t be adopting the ICO’s approach. Vicky Brock has shared some sobering data that indicates the ICO has only managed to convince 1 in 10 people to provide them with “explicit consent”. With a few minor copy and interface design tweaks I’m sure the ICO could improve this. But the real issue for me is that more often that not people are simply going to ignore or deny consent.

Why? Because granting “explicit consent” simply isn’t what people wish to do when they use a website. After all they’re only on our websites because they want to find or do something. And I think it’s safe to say that providing “explicit consent” is just about the last of a user’s priorities unless it’s a blocker to them completing their goal(s). So yes, we’re going to continue testing a number of different ways to secure explicit consent – who doesn’t love a challenge! But I’m not sure we’re going to find one that gives us access to all of the data we’ve grown to love.

A promising solution

On a more positive note I did come across a number of companies who are working on solutions. The best of these was Cookie Control developed by the clever folks at Civic. Will Civic’s solution have a profound impact on the number of people willing to “grant explicit consent”? I’m not sure, but the ICO should definitely give it a go and see if it fares any better than their current implementation.

If you’re undertaking a cookie audit and want to share your thoughts about compliance please do get in touch!

But what have they changed and how will it affect us all?

Why have Google changed their Privacy Policy?

Google say that the purpose of the new changes, to be implemented from the 1st of March 2012, is to provide one simple and easy to understand privacy policy across all Google Products and Services.  And to be fair it does.  The current policy was 6 sides of A4 long but had 35+ links to cover all the differences between the different services.  The new policy is 7 sides of A4 and only links to 3 other services!  The language is considerably simplified and makes sense to anyone without consulting a lawyer or technical guru.  As a user experience design company I like the new policy, it is simple, understandable and compared the to last one it is much better.

I’d say there is one problem with combining all the policies into one document that I found: when you read all the data that they collect using all their products and services it can be confusing and worrying which applies to you.  For example they clearly state that they may collect

‘telephony log information like your phone number, calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls.’ .

They do not confirm however if they collect this information if you are logged into any Google product on your phone or just their telephone and SMS products.

What are the changes to the policy?

Google are now planning to share all information that is associated to you between it’s services and products.  The aim is to give you “one beautifully simple experience” across all products by remembering your preferences, improving search results and, most lucratively for Google, a better quality of adverts.  Here is their nice video that explains in brief how your Google interaction will be improved:

In essence the new policy allows Google to associate all of the personal information that you give them with all of your Google user accounts.  The idea is to make it easier for you to share your photos, videos, status updates with the people you know.

That all sounds good – Where’s the catch?

The catch all depends on what Google does with the data.  They clearly state that they will not associate personally identifiable content, unless you ‘opt-in’, with their Double Click Cookies for their Advertising Service companies.  Advertisers will still get information about your account, what you like and how you behave online, but it will be anonymised.  They also state that they will never ‘sell’ their data stored on you but that does not stop them sharing it for free.

However, this is the only service that it is clearly stated will not have you personal information, such as phone number, address etc associated to it. Google will start collecting even more information about us as individuals and will be able to legally associate it to individuals.  This information is extremely valuable and in the wrong hands could be seriously misued.

I don’t really believe that Google are necessarily ‘the wrong hands’ however.  I certainly am not of the opinion that the Google bosses want to take over the world to form a dystopian future.  I do, however, believe that they are in a data mining war with Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and other Social Networks or search engines.

Google confirm that they will share

‘aggregated, non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners’

unless they have your consent to share more.

This information is worth a fortune to advertisers, marketers and product developers.  If they can understand how you use the internet then they can start directing campaigns specifically target at you.  If the quality of the advertising that is displayed when you are searching is more targeted then you are more likely to click through. Therefore Google and the advertisers make more money.  Advertisers can also reduce the risk of developing campaigns that do not resonate with their target audience, saving them time and money.

This concept however is not a new one and has always been how the Googles’ and Facebooks’ of the World can survive whilst providing a valuable and free service.  The only difference now is the quality of the data is getting better, more specific and more personal.

What are the options – can I opt out of this data collection and sharing?

In short: No.

This is where Google have received most of their critism. You cannot opt out of their new policy without opting out of using their products altogether.

They do allow you to have some control over the information that is shared and displayed to other users:

• Use the Google Dashboard on your account to review and control some types of the information tied to your account.
• Use the Ads Preference Manager to opt out of certain Google Advertising services or change your preferences.
• Check and amend your publicly available profile using the Google Editor.
• Use the Google+ circles to control the information that you share with groups of individuals.
• Download the information stored on Google services associated with you.
• Set up your browser to block cookies or to indicate when a cookie is in use.  This may stop some functionality working properly.
• Apply to have any information that they hold which is wrong or incorrect to be removed and/or updated.*

Is this the start of Big Google Brother watching us? Should I change how I act online?

Not really, Google have been collecting date on us for a long time.  When you sign up for their accounts it clearly states that they own all the information that is contained within them, no different from Facebook, Yahoo etc.  Yet due to their size and position as the most popular gateway to the internet Google we are more aware of what they do. We are entering into a new era for online search and advertising and this could be a good thing.  Google could truly lead the way for a more intuitive and fulfilling experience online.

The real issue is not what will Google do with the information that they collate, its how much information are you happy to reveal online for a free service? The majority of people I find who complain, on a personal level, about how much data is collected and shared on Google or Facebook ironically tend to be the people who share the most personal information about themselves online.  We as individuals have as much responsibility to protect our own information as Google do. When you open a Google account of any nature you are entering into an agreement where they will let you use their products and services for free and they will use your data.  If you then choose to share you phone number and other personal items with friends through Google services then you should be aware that you have freely given that information to them.

Ultimately it is up to you to judge whether having the full proposed Google experience will be worth the privacy you may give up.

Let us know what you think about the proposed changes and whether you think we give away too much information online.

In fact selecting the tutorials to attend is no easy feat. As on each day there’s at least 3 tutorials vying for your attention. I won’t be able to attend an event each day but if I could I think I’d go for:

Monday 19th of March 2012

Web Page Design: The Anatomy of High-Performing Web Pages
Kara McCain

Tuesday 20th of March 2012

The Human Mind and Usability: How Your Customers Think
Marieke McCloskey

Wednesday 21st of March 2012

Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability
Kathryn Whitenton

Thursday 22nd of March 2012

Information Architecture 1: Structuring and Organizing Web-Based Information
Kathryn Whitenton

Friday 23rd of March 2012

Information Architecture 2: Navigation Design
Jen Cardello

If I could clone myself I’d also love to drop in on:

• Catherine Toole’s Content Strategy tutorials Process and Qualitative Audits (on the Wednesday) and Content Formats and Guidelines and Brand Tone of Voice (on the Thursday).
• Marieke McCloskey’s tutorial on Wireframing and Prototyping (on Friday)

Check out the full line-up of tutorials and remember early-bird registration discounts will only apply till February 17th 2012.

I hope you find selecting the tutorials you’d like to attend easier than I did!

Could not create database for connection named <your_database_name>
SQLSTATE[XXXXX] [YTYYY] No such file or directory

The reason this is happening is because you are using MAMP’s MySQL server. The location of its unix socket tmp file (/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock) is different from the default location (/var/mysql/mysql.sock or /tmp/mysql.sock) of the MySQL unix socket file of an OSX installation. By default, Symfony2 assumes it should use OSX’s own MySQL server and all of the files associated with it. Therefore, it cannot find the correct files in the places it would normally look.

To fix the issue, edit the file:

symfony2_project/app/config/config.yml

and add the following line:

unix_socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

inside the dbal: section make the code look like:

doctrine:
    dbal:
        driver: %database_driver%
        host: %database_host%
        port: %database_port%
        dbname: %database_name%
        user: %database_user%
        password: %database_password%
        charset: UTF8
        unix_socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

    orm:
        auto_generate_proxy_classes: %kernel.debug%
        auto_mapping: true
...

This overwrites the default location of the mysql.sock file and lets Symfony2 know where to find MAMP’s mysql.sock file.

You might need to adapt the examples above to suit your installation in case it uses different paths but this example should help you on your way.

We couldn’t make it to the event but the organisers have recently announced they’re releasing the video recordings and slides from the conferences amazing line-up of speakers. UI16 OnDemand provides access to the following speakers and talks:

• Luke Wroblewski on Web forms and user input
• Hagan Rivers on Application maps
• Kevin Hoffman on Kickoff meetings
• Kim Goodwin on UX leadership
• Bill Scott on Design principles
• Steve Portigal on User culture
• Stephanie and Greg Rewis on CSS3
• Brandon Schauer on the value of UX in an organisation
• Jared Spool on Making design intuitive

Access to these resources will cost $189, if you buy before February 2nd, 2012. Thereafter the price will rise to $239. In return you get lifetime access to premium content that you are free to share within your company.

If you’re not convinced why not check out the conference website and an amazing taster video from Kevin Hoffman on the true cost of design meetings and how the team at Happy Cog have tried to address this.

Convinced?

Then purchase UI16 OnDemand you won’t regret it!

Photo courtesy of Simon 'Kelp' Keeping

Merry Christmas from the team at Border Crossing Media!

We’ve had a very busy 2011 with new projects and even our own rebrand.  We’d like to thank all the people we have had the joy to work with over the last year and wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a spectacular New Year.

Our office will be closed from 12pm Friday the 23rd of December  until Wednesday the 4th of January 2012.

We will be checking emails and picking up messages over the festive period but all non-critical issues or enquiries will not be dealt with until January 4th 2012. For all critical enquiries please call your designated point of contact on their mobile phone.

Have a wonderful Christmas & New Year!