2026-02-16 03:24:02
In the web design sense, "breadcrumbs" are the navigation helpers on many websites that show you where you are in the site — a path from where you currently are, back up the folder/URL structure, to the homepage.
The terminology comes from the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel where the titular children are left to die in the woods but leave a trail of breadcrumbs to find their way home.
So far, so sense. Except, if you remember, Hansel originally leaves a trail of white stones.
These show up well on the forest floor in moonlight and the siblings make it home safely — much to their wicked stepmother's chagrin.
When he leaves the breadcrumb trail the following night (his stepmother having prevented him from sneaking out to collect stones) they are almost immediately eaten by the birds and the children wander lost until they are nearly eaten by a hideous child-eating witch.
I don't feel like breadcrumbs are the most accurate description of the UI element. I'm not sure exactly what is (I'm a developer and, therefore, terrible at naming things) but my initial thought was "Hansel Path".
What do you think? Get in touch by email, hit me up on the Socials™, or elsewhere online.
2026-02-15 16:25:20
My phone vibrates quietly on the desk near my left hand. I put down my tea cup and pick it up. There is a local weather warning for snow. I shrug; there have been warnings like this recently that came to nothing and, besides, I'm warm indoors for the forseeable. I dismiss the notification and put my phone down.
Just then, a wild and tumultuous flurry of snowflakes — each as big as a cat — batter the window pane for five endless minutes then abruptly subside in favour of bright sunshine.
Within minutes it's like the snowstorm never happened.
I bought a tiny wireless keyboard for my phone so I can type better when I'm away from my laptop. Often I'll have time at my desk at work to write a post but, by Jesus, do I hate writing anything long-form on my phone's on-screen keyboard.
Work has been incredibly busy this week.
Tuesday I was out of the office on a training day. It was nice, I learned so many things and got to spend time with my friend, Iain. We used to be in the same team but not any more so we don't get to hang out every day. Sad times.
The down side to that is that I have to do five days of work in three days 🙃
With two important deadlines looming, everyone is in the same boat though. All hands on deck to get two reports finished.
I'm quietly confident this is my best technical audit yet!
I've seen a couple of wrens hanging around the kitchen window; flitting between the hedge and the tree roughly around where the last pair nested last year. I'm hoping we will have some new neighbours — with a happier ending than last time! 😢
She was a princess of the magic line. The gods had sent their shadows to her christening.
Lord Dunsany, The King of Elfland’s Daughter
2026-02-13 20:56:39
Not to get all hipster but I got into Charli XCX from being very tumblr online when she released True Romance. Her new album is the soundtrack from Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" which feels like a flex but one I'm here for!
Album opener, "House", is my favourite track — it reeks of Kiki Rockwell (affectionate).
The album is cohesive (a given for a soundtrack) and effortlessly blends Charli's vibe with more classical soundtrack elements. Feelings of disquiet compete with elation, swells and valleys and builds aplenty.
2026-02-13 15:25:57
Despite my good intentions, I still spend more time on my phone than I would like to. Actually, that's no surprise considering that it's such a powerful tool.
niqwithq
I have written on this topic before (quoting ava and discussing how smartphones are not the enemy) and my opinions haven't changed.
Niq is completely right; phones are tools and, used correctly, are perfectly safe.
I use mine in much the same way as Niq; it's a productivity tool with very little by way of "entertainment". I communicate, organise, research, and log through my phone.
So, yeah, I'm still not worried about my "screen time".
2026-02-12 22:45:55
In my job, we work with a lot of medical content that, for various legal reasons, cannot be public-facing. We are also very aware that the internet is, by default, very public-facing. How do we, as an industry, manage the access to sensitive information?
There are three basic levels of "content";
This covers anything about a drug or product that the general public are allowed to see. This is a large amount of the clinical information content on a typical pharma brochure site. This includes prescribing information, dosing guidelines, important safety information, and details on how the drug works (Mechanism of Action).
When we get into promotional materials, the law (outside of USA and New Zealand) generally requires us to ensure our visitors are local Healthcare Professionals (HCP's).
Getting people to sign up for an account is a notoriously difficult UX problem. It requires a delicate balance of "value exchange" — what do I get in exchange for signing up? In pharma, this is usually exclusive content.
We need to take reasonable steps
to ensure the user accessing the information is a Healthcare Professional. For this we use two main tools; self-identification and third-party verification.
Under a self-identification model, should the content allow, we throw up a modal blocking access to the content until the user selects the "I am definitely an HCP" button. It's not foolproof obviously but it satisfies the regulations as reasonable steps
.
Third-party verification is through, mainly, three companies; DocCheck for the EU, Doximity for the USA, and OneKey for global. HCPs register with these companies and verify their medical credentials in exchange for a unique ID number. We can then ask the user for their unique ID and verify it with the company by API. This is more robust than self-identification but is a higher barrier to entry — back to the delicate balance!
These services, naturally, don't have every single HCP registered, it's a voluntary thing so it's not a perfect solution.
As the UK is no longer part of the European Union, the number of British HCP's registered on DocCheck is proportionally lower; not nil but not representative. There is no directly comparative product for British HCP's. Even the two main National Health Service (NHS) verification systems; NHS Login and NHS CIS2, aren't to be used for third-party gated content. Some sites rely on "pattern matching" NHS ID numbers or work email addresses. Alternatively, confirming a registration number with the General Medical Council or the Nursing and Midwifery Council is still active is another –not foolproof– way to verify a user's identity.
Moving into more restricted content, we need that foolproof verification. This kind of content includes financial or legal contracts, personally identifiable information, clinical trial data, or drug-issuing portals. Systems where a user must be an HCP.
For these, we use systems like LexisNexis, Onfido, or iDenfy which verify users using government-issued documents like passports, driver's licence, or Medical Practitioner licences in tandem with systems like DocCheck to cross-reference. Identity verification systems guarantee the user is who they say they are but can't guarantee the user is a medical professional.
2026-02-12 17:54:15
I got this email today.
"So what?", you might think, "Companies send order dispatched emails all the time".
The thing is, I haven't ordered anything.
It's a company I use though, which is odd. Have I ordered something and forgotten?! Has a subscription renewed that I don't remember?!
When I opened the email, it was a simple marketing email about same day delivery.
I can see what's happened here; it's a dirty trick to boost open rates.
Ignoring the fact that open rates mean nothing –an inexact vanity metric– this has the negative effect of breaking a level of trust the company has built up with me over several years.
When your marketing manager's need for "line goes up" competes with respect for the customer, the customer almost always loses.