8. She blinded me with science!

Years ago I bought Michelle Nijhius’s The Science Writers’ Handbook on ebook… and then completely forgot about it. I rediscovered it this month. It’s a great read for anyone interested in learning how to breathe life into an essay. Nijhius explains that essays are stories about stories, meaning that a good essay is not only a journey in a topic, but also a journey of an author learning about a topic. Her book is also a good jumping off point for anyone interested in what books to read about essays, from Phillip Lapote to Anne Fadiman.

This month in digital government and design

• My SVA interview with the pan-Arabic publishing initiative kayfa ta is online!

• There have been various versions of the UX iceberg over the years, however Tim Paul’s diagram of the form iceberg is a useful new addition. (See also Lindsey Branton’s take on this in Scottish Enterprise)

• The time tax for government services. Why it’s important to having standards like making a service simple to use

• A report from the UK government’s Disability Unit explores the lives of disabled people

• Rather than try to force people to stop saying 'customers' and start saying 'users', explain what is meant by users

• Technical writing is different from content design. As explained by someone who has done both

• You probably have too many back-to-back 30 minute meetings

• For that matter, if you have a work family, you should probably reconsider - it’s hustle culture at its worst

• Looking for a bootcamp to restart your creativity? This Central Saint Martins course will challenge you to create 100 projects in 5 days. Next cohort just before Christmas

Miscellany

• The upcoming film CODA (Children of Deaf Parents) not only focused on the Deaf experience, but was a Deaf-friendly production
• Writing is like acting in that it's about voice. And to inhabit roles, actors have to unlearn socially conditioned voices "to speak in a pleasing, non-threatening, docile or friendly voice, which often means taking on a timbre, a pitch, a vocabulary limit"
• Having a banana moment?
• I only just discovered this cut scene from The Trip which is a Monty-Pythoneque song (yes, song) that is absolutely not safe for work

Until next month,

Vicky