Mike Taylor - Thoughts

Running the Goggins 4x4x48 challenge to help create a safe haven for Caitlin

This past weekend (21-23 June), a group of 38 of us gathered in Willingham, Cambs, to take on the David Goggins 4x4x48 challenge to raise money for a local girl, Catilin Passey, and her family. Caitlin has CLN3 Batten disease, a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder and the aim is to raise funds to create a safe haven for Caitlin and to help her family give her the environment and experiences she needs.

June 24, 2024

Progressive cognition: the slow reveal of complexity through user action

Some thoughts on reframing 'progressive disclosure' in situations where you're trying to teach users what's possible and increase discovery and learnability of features. In these cases, the term 'progressive cognition' encourages focus on the user's perception and on building their mental model, and this then drives what you disclose at each step. I also look at 'signalling the proposition', where what is presented in the initial pre-interaction state communicates underlying messages to users.

May 8, 2024

Content & design principles for skim-scrollers

As users scroll down web pages (a low interaction cost), they're only noticing big things - headlines, images, movement, calls to action. When something catches their attention, they'll slow and start to look more closely at what surrounds it. The detail comes into focus. Here are some useful content design principles aimed at making the most of this 'skim-scrolling' behaviour.

April 9, 2024

Umbikers on Tour: Ireland

Andy and I have known each other for several years through the Umbraco community; we're both regular attendees at the Umbraco London meetup as well as a variety of other events. We also share a keen interest in motorcycles (hence "Umbikers"!) and both attended the ABR Festival last year (and will be there again this year!). Earlier this year, we decided to take the bikes on a week-long tour of Ireland.

April 4, 2024

Running for Mind

This Sunday, 7 April, I'll be running the London Landmarks Half Marathon in aid of Mind, the mental health charity.

April 2, 2024

Navigating AI responsibly

‍In an agency environment, the plethora of AI tools coming onto the market present an opportunity to fundamentally transform the way we work. But there is a danger of getting caught up in the excitement and losing sight of the fundamentals.

March 6, 2024