Anyone who spends any time with us will have often heard us promoting users of your website or printed material. We believe very highly in putting your end users first as without them any solution we produce will fail. With this in mind I got a recent email newsletter from a website I use that sums this whole subject up in a few choice words. Below is an extract from the email (the line in bold is the best bit):

“It’s both easy and hard to believe, but yesterday, February 15, was our first birthday! We’ve learned enough lessons to fill a book, which we might write someday, but the most important one can be shared in just a few words:

Listen to your members because without them a website is just web pages.

It’s one thing to craft a website, hook up some processing rules and a database, put it on some servers and go live. But when people, all kinds of people, show up and start doing their thing, it becomes something very different. It grows, it surprises you in good ways (awesome avatars, brilliant bookmarks!) and bad (spam). It makes you work harder than you ever expected and it pays off in so many unexpected ways. By listening to members, we’ve been able to do a great deal with just 3 to 4 people, depending on when you look. If we tried to think it all up ourselves, we wouldn’t have a chance.

We don’t have aspirations of runaway signup numbers and gajillions in revenue. We find that the words “small and remarkable” go together well when thinking about where Ma.gnolia is going. Ma.gnolia as a website is a shell of technical pieces and good looks, but with our members with us it’s a truly unique experience. Let’s see where the next year takes us.”

As I said, the website is a social bookmarking service so listening to members is very important. However, we can all apply this principle to our websites. When we finished the current Walney website (www.walneyuk.com) we began discussing the next phase of the site. My advise to the great people at Walney was to find out what their customers think of the website and what features they want before we decide what should go into phase 2. We will post further information here on phase 2 as it happens.

So let’s all make an effort to invite comments and suggestions from our users. I will start this off here and ask if any of you readers have a topic you would like us to discuss or something you want our website to do then please let me know by contacting us.

My partner is a chef, so we decided to ask him for some savoury pancake recipes, and a fantastic batter recipe. Enjoy your pancakes:

For the pancake mixture:
110g/4oz plain flour, sifted pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
50g/2oz butter

Method: sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets an airing. Now make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Then begin whisking the eggs - any sort of whisk or even a fork will do - incorporating any bits of flour from around the edge of the bowl as you do so. Next gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking (don’t worry about any lumps as they will eventually disappear as you whisk). When all the liquid has been added, use a rubber spatula to scrape any elusive bits of flour from around the edge into the centre, then whisk once more until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream. Now melt the 50g/2oz of butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl and use it to lubricate the pan, using a wedge of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake. Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium and, to start with, do a test pancake to see if you’re using the correct amount of batter. I find 2 tbsp is about right for an 18cm/7in pan. It’s also helpful if you spoon the batter into a ladle so it can be poured into the hot pan in one go. As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter. It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it’s tinged gold as it should be. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife - the other side will need a few seconds only - then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate. Stack the pancakes as you make them between sheets of greaseproof paper on a plate fitted over simmering water, to keep them warm while you make the rest.

Tips for the batter

- Add the milk to the flour gradually, whisking continuously until smooth, if lumpy just sieve into another bowl
- Rest the batter for at least 20 mins this allows the starch in the flour to swell and soften giving you a lighter batter.
- Invest in a good crepe pan made of cast iron that will conduct heat well.
- If your pan is new then you should season it before use. Never wash the pan after use. Wipe it clean with some kitchen paper.

Tips for cooking pancakes

- Butter burns easily so use a mild oil instead
- The less batter you add to the pan the better. You can always add more to fill in any holes, this will ensure lovely thin pancakes
- Don’t worry if the first pancake doesn’t turn out okay, they usually don’t!
- Its fun to toss your pancakes but it’s easier and less messy to use a palette knife especially if you don’t have a good non-stick pan.

Mexican Chicken wraps

Add fresh chopped coriander to the batter before cooking. Fill each pancake with cooked chicken pieces, grated cheddar, salsa, chillies and soured cream. Roll up and put under the grill until hot.

Creamy Prawn and spinach:

Cook the pancakes. Mix some cooked, peeled prawns and some wilted spinach ½ tub crème fraîche and crated parmesan. Fill each cooked pancake and place in a dish, dot with the remaining pancakes and scatter with breadcrumbs and grated parmesan. Grill until golden brown.

I ’stumbled upon’ this great site today. The simplicity in comparison to You Tube is very different but I like the refreshing design on Stumble and it is a great way of seeing what videos are out there.

StumbleVideo

After a crazy January start, I finally found a couple of minutes to catch up on some reading and research within the design world…

I just read this great article about paper prototyping, which reminded me of a project we just finished. We had been asked to redesign 2 portals in only a couple of weeks! This left us with a fantastic and exciting project but limited time to carry it out. After a first electronic start we soon realised that we would never meet the deadline and produce something amazing at the same time. This meant we had to pull our heads together and try a different approach, which lead us to pen and paper. This method saved us time and mainly meant that when we finally did go back to the computer we just had to make 1 digital mock up with a few minor amendments.

I would recommend to not only read the following article but try it out yourselves.

Paper Prototyping (A List Apart)

I just saw this great video that charts the evolution of the Web and discusses Web 2.0 and the current status of the Internet.

This is not for the feint-hearted, but I just saw this article on ZDNet. It is remarkable that securing your computer is so difficult in an age when viruses, spyware etc. are so prevalent. In addition surely Microsoft have realised by now that the kind of people buying computers are not all technical support gurus.

» Screen Gallery: When is a firewall not a firewall? When it’s Vista’s built-in firewall | Berlind’s Testbed | ZDNet.com