overview for sarahsquirrel

Discussion Thread Tuesday 22 🚂 April 2025 in c/melbourne@aussie.zone

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 2 points 4 hours ago

My hope that we can create an easy-to-use fediverse alternative to FB groups and events is literally why I'm here. Help me make this happen!!

Lemmy UX and usability. Where can I read up? in c/lemmy@lemmy.ml

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

Thanks! Yes Friendica is interesting, too! I took it for a quick spin and and yes, I think there are some opportunities to improve things for new and non-technical users that could be tackled with some user research and user-centred design! Are there places i should look if I want to contribute to Friendica or Fedilab? If you have suggestions for an active Friendica server I could try out as a newbie that'd be great.

Indeed, there are some UI differences between servers. But I think several of the Fedi services share difficulties related to high priority user tasks (sign up, logon, find posts / threads of interest, reply, post). I'm thinking some attention to users' mental models and development design patterns might benefit several projects and many servers all at once, perhaps. Just a thought.

Thank you again.

Lemmy UX and usability. Where can I read up? in c/lemmy@lemmy.ml

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

I agree with your caution against moving fast and breaking things!

I think that user-centred design tools can be very useful for big projects and existing services as well as small projects in development :)

Lemmy UX and usability. Where can I read up? in c/lemmy@lemmy.ml

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Thanks! It is useful for me to have more of a poke around there, for sure!

Of course, human-centred design and UX is more than just bug reports (sorry I'm probably telling you stuff you already know).

I am also interested to connect with other people thinking about the UX (end to end user experience) of Lemmy: find out what's already been done in terms of speaking with diverse potential users, finding out how people want to use it, thinking about mental models and user stories, etc.

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Lemmy UX and usability. Where can I read up? (aussie.zone)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone to c/lemmy@lemmy.ml

8 comments fedilink

Hi, can anyone point me to discussions or e.g. working groups focusing on user experience aspects of Lemmy?

I'm new to Lemmy but have been working in non-profit tech for many years.

Currently, my day job is in UX, broadly speaking. As a volunteer gig I'm looking to help a local group that's investigating the pros and cons of spinning up Fediverse instance(s). My focus is on the question of how we could help people in our town get signed up and using these services fluently.

Lemmy seems like a good candidate platform (to me) for meeting some of our group's needs. So I'm keen to get up to speed with the state of play (current priorties, known issues, plans and work in progress) in terms of making it as user-friendly as possible. I may have also capacity to contribute skills and time to these aspects of the larger Lemmy project. Where can I read about the current goals and plans? Who are the people bringing UX tools and human-centred design to Lemmy and how can I reach them?

Thanks!

NSW National Parks seeking feedback on proposed changes re. camping fees and bookings in c/australia@aussie.zone

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 5 points 1 day ago

I think it's more that it's very easy (and now free) to book a campsite and there's zero incentive for people to cancel bookings they aren't going to use.

Ghost bookings would be a labour intensive way to limit the number of people at campsites (ParkVics would have far easier ways to do that) and Bookings contractor commissions? On free bookings? That wouldn't be very lucrative.

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Australia’s biggest industrial polluter receives millions in carbon credits despite rising emissions (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone

1 comments fedilink

"Chevron’s Gorgon gas export plant in Western Australia received the equivalent of millions of dollars in carbon credits from the federal government last year, despite increasing its emissions.

The revelation in government data last week has sparked calls for changes to the safeguard mechanism, the government policy applied to the country’s 219 largest industrial climate polluting facilities.

The safeguard mechanism was introduced under the Coalition to stop industrial emissions increasing, but was not enforced as initially promised and emissions continued to increase".

[ACF representative] "Reynolds said the Gorgon development receiving a climate windfall after increasing its emissions was an “appalling example of a gas giant being able to game the system and financially benefit from its climate-heating emissions”.

Discussion Thread 🕹 Monday 14 April 2025 in c/melbourne@aussie.zone

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Your org has a SharePoint structure? I'm very envious! At our place we have multiple SharePoint archipelagos and no map.

Australian with working visa detained and deported on returning to US from sister’s memorial in c/worldnews@aussie.zone

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 3 points 1 week ago

Yep, the leadership have made it apparent that acting like a sulky 5yr old is in vogue. Kinda hilarious that they think it makes them look "strong" and "in control".

What is the avaliable alternatives to Bloomberg, Reuters, New York Times, Politico and The Verge? in c/boycottus@lemmy.ca

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'm confused. I mean, New York Times and Reuters are generalist news outlets. Politico is a politics news and analysis site. In what respect are the public broadcasters not offering what you're looking for? I love The Guardian but I don't see how it's a better match?

BBC News and ABC News and CBC News services (podcasts or read online) are good for general and political & business world news and analysis, including US news. They have news streams, in-depth analysis pieces and a huge range of podcasts.

PBS and NPR have online news streams and podcasts on all of these topics also.

Check out The Conversation, too.

‘We’ve made a mistake’: Peter Dutton backs down on work from home policy in c/australia@aussie.zone

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago

Yep, good to hear the in-laws echoing criticism of Dutton this weekend - because they're appalled he's intending to copy Trump and Musk

‘We’ve made a mistake’: Peter Dutton backs down on work from home policy in c/australia@aussie.zone

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 3 points 2 weeks ago

The importance of internal public sector roles such as communications is something we need to continue to talk about to people who are worried about governments wasting money. We need to make it apparent to everyone that they are essential for basic, frontline public systems to work effectively. Our schools, hospitals, pollution control, roads... all rely on 'backend' systems and communication between different arms of government.
The major tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas (yes, we're talking the US, not a poverty stricken nation) is becoming a problem because there are no communications between public health departments and agencies - because Trump has halted their funding.

What is the avaliable alternatives to Bloomberg, Reuters, New York Times, Politico and The Verge? in c/boycottus@lemmy.ca

[–] sarahsquirrel@aussie.zone 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

What about the British broadcasting corporation, BBC, Canadian broadcasting corporation CBC Australian broadcasting corporation ABC? Also America's own PBS and NPR are very much in need of support at the moment

Investigate local, community-run radio stations and independent news services, student journalism projects etc in your area as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_radio_stations_in_the_United_States