Hi Magnificent One!
This week saw A11y Camp hit Melbourne for two days. ‘A11y’ is the short form of ‘accessibility’. I was super sad I couldn’t be there, but reading through the Twitter hashtag was still insightful. Go search for #A11yCampMelb if you want to have a read.
You’ll see fabulous sketchnotes, like this one:
Accessibility is about making your content and digital assets useful for everyone. If you aren’t sure where to start, my recommendation is to go and get yourself a copy of the WCAG 2.0 International Standard. It’s ISO 40500:2012. By using the standard, you know that you’re doing it right, and that you can audit against it.
It’s no good being committed to great customer experience if you’re not designing them for the more than 50% of people who have a disability.
In other news, we have had some fabulous wins, with our client Training x Design getting some great media coverage. Gina has achieved this by having a solid strategy, a great content team (us!), and a PR crew who knows how to leverage the first two - and a collaborative mindset.
And pretty soon I’ll have some announcements to make about the Pixie team. But you’ll have to wait for that. ;)
Enjoy the reading this week! We cover everything from human stories to writer’s block this week… and even ‘tech stack fatigue’. Love to hear what you think.
cheers
Leticia Mooney
Queen Pixie at Brutal Pixie
Tip of the week
If your in-house content team is not good at challenging you, or advocating upwards, that’s your fault. You need to empower them so they can. The value to you will be immense. [tweet this]
The Sunday Five
Here are the best articles we’ve found from the past week. If you find any gems during your week and would like to see them included, email them to hello@brutalpixie.com.
[ UX ] Keeping human stories at the centre of health care
In this article at Harvard Business Review, M. Bridget Duffy argues that there is too much of a trade-off going on in health. In an industry in which about 80% of the outcomes rely on relationships, there is a shocking tendency to put in place technology that impacts the wellbeing of the practitioners. The human experience of care is much more important than the technology. Read this here.
Key takeaway: Focusing on people means testing technology impact on people, and enabling people to show up in their best state - always.
[ Humans ] I wanted to be a billionaire by the age of thirty…
This snapshot of a life by Humans of New York comes at us from Ghana, in Africa. It is the story of a middle-aged man, one who hasn’t achieved his goals despite doing all the things he apparently should have done. It’s a powerful read for those of you who are in your 30s or 40s, and will give you much to think about. Read it here.
Key takeaway: Maybe the way you think about things isn’t the way they are.
[ Social Media ] Why media people are furious over Facebook’s bad video metrics
In the past couple of years, media and publishers of all kinds have been ‘pivoting to video’. But it turns out that everyone was given a bum steer by Facebook, which is now being sued for ad fraud. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s claimed that Facebook knowingly inflated their video metrics. On the back of this, many media outlets completely changed their direction. When it fell flat (as many of us content folk predicted well before 2016 - you might even remember me saying so!), loads of people lost their jobs, and people are (surprise) going back to print. Read this here.
Key takeaway: If you are the kind of executive who would prefer to jump on a trend than build on your existing capabilities and strengths, more fool you.
[ Tools ] How to cope with the tech stack fatigue that plagues us all
Talk about a good headline. I saw this, thought ermagherd that’s me!, clicked it, and here we are. Just like many in 2018, I live in an insane stack of tools, each one separate. You’ve probably heard me whine about SaaS if you follow me on Twitter, or get my other publication, The Next Five Years. Ultimately this article is a sales pitch from Kapost, but it gives you some great food for thought about value vs budget vs time vs effort. Read it here!
Key takeaway: Your content tech stack needs to deliver value in multiple dimensions, not just in one (your pocket).
[ Writing ] Writer’s block really does exist. Here’s how to beat it
This article is by our soon-to-be-not-a-pixie-anymore Steff, who is one of the best commercial writers I’ve worked with. In this excellent piece, she unpacks writer’s block, and gives you some super solid strategies for getting rid of it. It is essential reading for any professional writer. Get it here. (Fair warning: Don’t read it if you dislike swear words.)
Key takeaway: When it’s your job, you could wail about writer’s block, or you could get over it. Getting over it is less expensive.