How to get rid of gobbledygook from your writing
“The reason we conduct user research …. is that humans always have unexpected behaviors. How do we know what people want, need, or prefer? ” Jakob Neilsen
The truth behind three myths about spending in retirement
Susan Bell Research designed and conducted a survey commissioned by Super Consumers Australia into how and why people over 65 were drawing down their super. The survey busts some of…
How to spot ‘work voice’ and what to do instead
Work voice is a formal, impersonal writing style that disengages and confuses your users, customers, and members.
As we age, we gain a type of intelligence called ‘crystallised’ intelligence
This means that people draw on what they already know Crystallised intelligence comes from our experiences and the knowledge we have stored in long term memory. We become very good…
The research methods we use
I was at a marketing conference recently, and I introduced myself to people as ‘a researcher’. The question I was asked was: ‘Qual or quant?’ I said ‘Both – and…
The ONE reason why business writers use jargon, and how to fix it
Jargon: everyone hates it, but most of us use it. Why is that? Read on to learn about the jargon impasse
Why reading is like running
Here is a short video I made about how reading is like running. If you test your content with users, your readers will not feel like this. https://youtu.be/FbbIB1C1sys Reading is…
Insights about upcoming retirees
In this post I summarise some recent academic work on retirement focussing on people who could retire but don’t, or who are going through the transition to retirement, and add…
Empathy and mythology in this year’s Christmas magazines
Each year, Lynne Freeman and I do a visual analysis of major women’s magazines’ Christmas editions in the UK and Australia We do this because we believe that magazines in…
