Navigating the Bigger Picture

2011

The Government Digital Service was formed in April to implement the ‘Digital by Default’ strategy proposed by a report produced for the Cabinet Office in 2010 called ‘Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution’

2010

British Standard 8878 launched 7th December – a Web Accessibility Code of Practice for creating and embedding web accessibility strategy within an organisation – my masters report contributed to this.

2010

A contract working with Capita and YPLA producing DirectGov prototypes for UK Government Learner Assessment and Payment Systems (desktop and online)

2010

The Business Case for Accessible ICT (my dissertation) produced with the Business Disability Forum, AbilityNet and a 20 strong business taskforce was launched by Stephen Timms (Digital Minister) and the Barclay’s CEO

2009

Gained my Masters Degree in Human Centred Systems (First Class)

2007

Committed to specialising in User Experience, Trinity agreed to sponsorship for a P/T Masters in Human Centred Systems at City University London, whilst working F/T with them

2005

A full-time position with Trinity Expert Systems Ltd (a Microsoft Gold Partner) representing all aspects of UX for External Client and Microsoft Projects in the public, private and third sectors

2005

A brief freelance spell at QinetiQ to help design a product for satellite insurance

2003

A contract designing, developing and testing Government ICT products for British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta)  – usability, accessibility, use of wireframes and site statistics were now more prevalent

2001

Gained my BA Degree (First Class) and set up a partnership with two university colleagues in association with City College – a LearnDirect centre aimed at bringing IT (Hardware | Networks | Websites | Education) into the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter

2000

… Continued placement as my first contract with DialNet – an education Internet Service Provider in Birmingham – working as a graphic/web designer and HTML/CSS coder

1999

The Internet of Things, as a concept, is officially named by Kevin Ashton – the Executive Director of Auto-ID Labs at MIT

1999

A placement ‘year’ for a .com boom company building basic business websites (as most businesses still didn’t have one) – fifty or so websites in, I needed a new challenge…

1997

Started a BA in Interactive Multimedia Communication – along with Human Computer Interaction principles we learnt to build websites – HTML2/3 | CSS1 | Flash | Director | Video

1995

Working for Cap Gemini – Project Assistant to the Project Manager in a 50+ team at the Wesleyan, Birmingham – great insight into software development prior to my first degree

1994

By mid-1994 there were 2,738 websites, by the end more than 10,000 (Gray)

1993

By the end of 1993 there were 623 websites – according to MIT Researcher Matthew Gray

1992

The first image appeared in a web browser

1990

Tim Berners-Lee ‘invented’ the World Wide Web