I've been working on the Plain English Club website to turn it into a blog and resource hub, as well as a newsletter. But I am in a tizz over the name.

One of my favourite internet things is still Carrd, which allows you to quickly and cheaply set up a one-page website. I've used it for all sorts of things, including my freelance website and a prototype user research library I once made for HM Land Registry.

Ace stuff from Ema Thornhill at Scope, neither of which I can find on Bluesky. "Sometimes the research sessions we do look nothing like the research sessions we planned. But that is OK because it means the participant took part in a way that was accessible, inclusive and comfortable for them."

I have a stack of things to add to Plain English Club Bookmarks. I also need to send a first newsletter of 2026. And turn the whole thing into a blog. I still think Bookmarks is a really brill resource. www.plainenglish.club/bookmarks/

Thanks @timapple.com! The good news is that I just about remember it. The podcast was called Write for Your Life and it still lives right here. This final episode was almost exactly 10 years ago. wfyl.captivate.fm/episode/red-...

I've been trying to write a review of my 2025, but various tasks keep getting in the way and actually, perhaps this sentence itself is all that is needed.

Just watched The Golden Compass with the kids and without getting too technical, I can say that it’s a load of old tripe. Worst film ever territory.

Internet of Public Service Jobs - 01/01/2026 newsletter.digitalbydefault.jobs/internet-of-... A little New Years Day treat!

Oh yeah and there's a UX Sky feed!

This is a fantastic list of design folks here on Bluesky. It also explains my overnight bump in followers, which I initially put down to my important announcement about having tidied my desk. Thanks for including me @spavel.bsky.social. 🙏

I have spent several hours attempting to tidy my desk/office/general tip area and I have to say it is now slightly better than it was before.

Bonus anniversary content: it’s ten years since this winning name/title combination on BBC News

Managed to pop out a last Plain English Club newsletter before Christmas. Contains all sorts of goodies for content designers and other clear language enthusiasts. www.plainenglish.club/inevitable-a...

Important information.

A website dedicated to laptops and their stickers. Hundreds of them. stickertop.art Thanks @kottke.org

The true pleasure of Bluesky. "When I look around, I see people who often took a big professional risk because they would not comply. In many cases, they had profiles they had built up for years. They let it go. They did this because they refused to extinguish their moral character."

Bagged my copy.

New tool from for managing your projects from 37 Signals. Kanban but without all the enormous guff you get with Jira and, these days, Trello. 👀 www.fizzy.do

Currently reading L.A. Baby by the marvellous Tim Key and it is, as you might expect, very funny. But also moving and thought-provoking and yes, daft. www.utterandpress.co.uk/products/l-a...

I love the remix of Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place in the midst of Kelly Lee Owens’ Boiler Room set (~33:50 mark). Had me chair dancing this AM! [soundcloud.com]

Am I the only person in the world who still uses an RSS reader to follow blogs and whatnot?

“Art is valuable precisely because it is not easy to create. We are interested in art, in any and all of its forms, because humans made it. That’s the very thing that makes it interesting; the who, the how, and especially the why.” [joshcollinsworth.com]

Almost a year now since I received this absolutely classic burn from the Canadian government.

His excellency @gazaston.com shared this by @capwatkins.com with me earlier this year. I have found it a tremendous help in negotiating tricky conversations at work and... with the kids? capwatkins.com/blog/the-sli...

With new technology and AI changing industries all over the place, to keep with the times I’m thinking about turning Plain English Club into not just a newsletter, but also a… blog. Like, primarily a linkblog? As if it were 2005 again?

Latest Plain English Club newsletter features: – specialised language – writing online content by @sheltercharity.bsky.social – designing for people on the autism spectrum – designing user-centred AI labels Also, @cjforms.bsky.social on not using 'reading age' when talking about adults.

I send a new edition of the Plain English Club newsletter late on Friday afternoon, the absolutely worst time to send an essentially work-related newsletter. Indeed, it has been a while since I worked in marketing and comms. www.plainenglish.club/specialised-...

SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten. "I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA

I am one of these professionals. 👋

New favourite example of structural ambiguity

The BBC's Accessibility Guide has several resources, including step-by-step instructions to using assistive technologies. The resource includes insight into several assistive technologies, including VoiceOver, JAWS, NVDA, TalkBack, ClaroRead, and Dragon. bbc.github.io/accessibilit...

Completely forgot that I made a list of content designers you can follow when I first signed up to Bluesky. Here they are look. Absolute word nerds, the lot of them. go.bsky.app/7Pm7ERf

Pleased to announce that the most popular link in last week's Plain English Club newsletter was this EXCITING list of words to avoid from the Office for National Statistics style guide. Wild time in content world. service-manual.ons.gov.uk/content/lang...

I sent a new edition of the Plain English Club newsletter this week. It features: – all things user stories > @curiousscutter.bsky.social – content portfolios > Emily Wachowiak – trauma-informed content > @traumainformedcontent.com – content design and AI > Danielle Mclune Plus other goodies. 💌

I've spent more than a year working on a project that I can't really talk about yet. But I did just add some other work I recently did for @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social to my content design one-page portfolio. verymeta.com

Much-needed couple of hours in the hills for a bit of a fresh air. Very lucky to have all this on our doorstep. (Houndkirk > Burbage > Long Causeway for fellow Sheffield folk.)

Noticing all the content design bods doing content design talks at the Button conference. I've done enough noteworthy *things* on enough noteworthy *projects* over the last few years that I should probably apply to become a content design bod doing a content design talk at the Button conference.

Hosted the 14th edition of Sheffield Novel Slam last night. It's always a great event and we had loads of talented writers doing their thing, despite the actual terror of having your writing judged live on stage. I took no pictures.

Last day of producing a daily podcast for the Trans Pyrenees Race today. Very much love playing a small role in this mad community I've found myself a part of. The people who do these races are both bonkers and brilliant. Just a few more dots likely to arrive in San Sebastien tonight.

My most pet of peeves.

I feel quite strongly that the new liquid glass design on Mac OS is absolutely rubbish. Bewildering stuff.

Finally had time to finish up Suzy's (wife) Etsy shop for her alphabet, circus letter art prints. They are lovely on a wall and obviously, you should buy them all. And that rhymes. www.etsy.com/shop/circusl...

Rumicat looks like a simple, free way to send a newsletter if you don't need bells, whistles or the need to share your newsletter platform with dreadful people. Strong Tinyletter vibes before it got Mailchimped. www.rumicat.com

Since 2019, the @relay.fm community has raised over $4 million for the life-saving work of St. Jude. When I stepped foot on its campus with my son in 2009, I had no idea where life was taking us, but I'm thankful it's here. stjude.org/relay

I'm not producing the podcast for the Transcontinental race this year, but I can tell you I have spent the last couple of hours watching two dots hurtle across Italy to see if they catch a ferry by 11pm. Ridiculous people. Wish more people knew about these feats! dotwatcher.cc/race/transco...

You don't necessarily need to say "image of" in your alt text for users to know it's an image. Screen readers will announce that it's an image. But it can help readers to specify if it's a hand-drawn image, Polaroid, infographic, screenshot, chart, map, diagram, or so on.

I read Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' for the first time this week and it turns out yes, it is about as brilliant a short story as you can write/read. 👍

absolutely spectacular writing from the Wikipedia editor who added this to Jim Carrey's entry en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Car...

This was my experience before moving away from Substack (for other reasons).

A blog post – imagine! – that contains some information about a thing that I did. And done for the last few years. Which is produce podcasts for very long bike races.