Halloween posters and pumpkin patrol cars

Well I think we made it through without getting the dreaded knock from witches, ghouls, ghosts and vampires this evening.  I spent some quality time trawling through all the UK police websites, picking out all the halloween advice - specifically the 'no trick or treat' posters. I did this because in the past, there have been suggestions that money could easily be saved if police forces collaborated on seasonal campaigns like Christmas, drink-driving, Halloween and fireworks.

26 forces host 'no trick or treating' posters with 10 offering posters for shop owners regarding flour and eggs with 9 offering 'we welcome trick or treaters' posters.

There is a definite north/south divide with most forces in the south offering some sort of halloween advice. Many northern forces don't offer similar advice with none of the Scottish forces offering anything at all.  If I get time, I'll add in a UK graphic to illustrate this.

So take a look at all the posters and see what you think.  My view is that they are all very similar and there need only be one poster designed for all forces to use. It would be possible to leave a space for a force crest and message at the bottom if that is important.  By pooling resources for posters, there would be additional budget available for supporting material which is not normally an option for many forces - video, audio and game resources could also be shared.  Listed below are some innovative ideas I came across which could also be scaled up for national use.

Surrey Police - Pumpkin patrol car

Competitions (Essex, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, West Mercia)
Video (Essex, Thames Valley, Nottinghamshire)
Radio adverts (Surrey)
Schools resources (Northamptonshire)
Screensaver (Essex)
Pumpkin patrol car (Surrey)
Colouring sheets (Essex, West Mercia)
Halloween webchat (Leicestershire)

Apologies if I have missed out any innovative halloween initiatives - please comment with any additions and I'll update! There are perhaps many other ideas which would become practical opportunities at a national level - maybe TV adverts, high-profile launches, celebrity endorsements, cinema adverts, flash games, smartphone apps . . .

Web forms - make it easy

In my years as a web developer I've spent an awful lot time building web forms.

The biggest thing I've learnt from this is User Interaction - UI.

The problem I've found is size. Working within the public sector - Police, every department seems to want to know everything and wants to know it depth.

So they come to me for a web form. The quest for instant knowledge and information inevitably means the form will be massive, be five pages long and take 15 minutes to fill out. STOP!

Online forms that are oversized just won't get filled in. People want to do things quick and snappy. Not go through a myriad of 'open' text boxes. Incidentally open text boxes being one of the biggest problems.

A lot of online banking is quick and easy these days. This is because it's easy for the user to do. You log in, move some money around (maybe), look at a few other things and then you're done. You may say that's different because that's a service and not a form. The thing is though is the service is made up of lots of little forms and there's the key - lots of little ones.

Appreciated public sector organisations need to know a lot of detail but it's how they go about getting the user to give them that information.

From my experience I've come up with these tips:


Overall size

Consider the overall 'screen size' of the form. Ideally the form wants to be contained on one screen - as in you can see the whole of the form on the screen of a standard desktop monitor. (Obviously laptops, netbooks, mobiles etc will vary greatly but you have to have a common base somewhere.) If the form is getting bigger than this you might want to ask - do we really need to know all we're asking. This also leads onto questions to do with bureaucracy and forms - scope for another article.

If you do have to go down the more than one page route then I would recommend paging the form. Split the form up into sizeable chunks that break and continue at natural points. Also let the user know, at the start how many pages there are to go through. Then as they go through each page let them know their progress by way of a breadcrumb at the top of the form. Just an idea.


Text

No text in the form other than the labelling of fields. Add somewhere else but not in the entrance. I don't want to have to read through everything then fill out the form. This information should be optional to read. Forms should be intuitive enough so the user knows what they're filling in just by looking at it, the title and the environment it's in. Explanations for fields for example should neatly sit under links within the form - not explanations actually in the form.


Open text boxes

Loose as many of these as possible. They are a nightmare for the user. This is one of the most off putting aspects of a large form. You're giving the user simply far too much to do.

Look at giving the user the answer you want in dropdown menus, radio buttons and check boxes. This is far smarter and dramatically reduces the size of the form.

There maybe some 'word smithing' needed here as to how to ask the question.


Error handling

A good form normally has some validation for what's being entered. This is normally for either/or security reasons and we want to for example know that the email address entered at least looks like an email address.

The user however shouldn't need to know any of this. If the user enters data into a field incorrectly they should be politely told they are wrong. Not given pop up alert boxes, error codes and statements of how wrong they are in bold red. Something quick, simple and not in your face should suffice.




That's about all I can think for now. I'm by far no means an authority and am open to comment and suggestion on these points.

Final note

There are many online forms that I've made that don't comply with what I've said above. Some of these are older forms and sometimes you can't help it. Sometimes you're simply told that's how it has to be. However I would always argue (now - didn't a while ago) that the information we're getting our public to give us is very precious. We don't want to make it difficult or put them off.

Communication Teams and the Public

Bloggers VS Press Office Session

Having taken part in a session entitled 'Press Office vs Bloggers' at the recent #HyperWM event at Walsall College, and the 'Tweets' since the event, I have decided to write this blog to capture the issues and what can be learnt.

It was obvious from the start that there was going to be polarised opinion within the session between the bloggers in the room and the press officers representing their organisations. I will try to list some of the issues as I saw them.

Change in communications

The crux of the matter seemed to be this:

The bloggers felt they weren’t getting responses to their questions from the press officers. The press officers felt that they were there to push organisational information to the media, not individuals, be they bloggers or not.

I believe that while organisations still need to use the conventional methods of communication through the media, times have moved on from 10 years ago when this was the primary form of communication. Due to the opening up of  web communications through social media tools such as Twitter and Blogs, members of the community have arguably become just as important as the media. We should surely therefore respond to questions from the community as we respond to those from the media.

It is not acceptable in today’s communication world to ignore these digital engagement channels. In fact we should embrace these as people who follow bloggers and Twitteres are those actively reading posts being pushed out and are therefore a more willing audience…  A Direct Marketing campaign  is successful  if  it achieves a 3% return . Using digital channels I would expect this to be very much higher.

Lack of information

Another concern from the bloggers was that often they can’t find the information that they wish to communicate to their readers. They are happy to research the organisation’s website to find the information and then to compose their article themselves – they are not necessarily looking for the press office to write the article for them! They may seek to get a perspective from the organisation to add to the article.

The concern is that they are often thwarted as the information is not within the website; or if it is, it’s not easily available and difficult to search for. Public Sector organisations are obliged to publish information through the Public Scheme (link). As the Publication Scheme manager for my organisations, I personally feel that organisations should try to provide more than just what is required under the scheme.

Therefore Publication Scheme managers, Communications managers and Web Managers must try to provide as much information as possible through the website for the public. This is not only for the Bloggers but general members of the community to link to in Tweets or to read on the website itself!

Bloggers can be positive

In the session it was suggested that Bloggers are negative about organisations and therefore this is the reason that they are not being engaged. There were a number of bloggers within the session all of whom stated that they are fair in their articles – if sometimes a little persistent! They want to work with the organisations to help them get the information to the local people that they 'represent'. To do this they need a meaningful conversation with the press office team.

A press officer for a local government organisation stated that they are there to communicate and provide information to the media and not the bloggers. I don’t think that bloggers can blame the press officers themselves as they are working within the guidelines set out for them by the organisation. Therefore the issue I think is more to do with lack of understanding by those leading communications within these organisations -  the way people receive their information has changed – people will view TV programmes when they want to (SkyBox, iPlayer etc), will get news information through feeds from multiple sources and Twitter, etc.

Therefore in my opinion if the press office embraces the fact that bloggers can help get the information out to the communities this can be a positive thing for the organisation. As a good friend has mentioned "Press Offices are like Life on Mars - still in the 1980's".

Other Blogs on this session

Dead Badgers (A Post About Council Press & Communication Offices) -- Mike Rawlins
‘Making it findable’ – the creed of the hyperlocal blogger -- Podnosh (Paul Bradshaw)

I would also suggest the following: New Rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly by David Meerman Scott

Note: Photos courtesy of HyperWM

List of Police Force and Police Authority Twitter Accounts

Following is a list of the police force and police authority official Twitter sites.

Police Forces - England, Northern Ireland and Wales

Avon & Somerset Constabulary: http://twitter.com/ASPolice

Bedfordshire Police: http://twitter.com/bedspolice

Cambridgeshire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/cambscops

Cheshire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/cheshirepolice

City of London Police: http://twitter.com/CityPolice

Cleveland Police: http://twitter.com/ClevelandPolice

Cumbria Constabulary: http://twitter.com/Cumbriapolice

Derbyshire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/DerbysPolice

Devon & Cornwall Constabulary: http://twitter.com/DC_Police

Dorset Police: http://twitter.com/dorsetpolice

Durham Constabulary: http://twitter.com/DurhamPolice

Dyfed Powys Police - Heddlu Dyfed Powys / Heddlu Dyfed Powys: http://twitter.com/dafyddP

Essex Police: http://twitter.com/EssexPoliceUK

Gloucestershire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/Glos_Police

Greater Manchester Police: http://twitter.com/gmpolice

Gwent Police - Heddlu Gwent / Heddlu Gwent: http://twitter.com/gwentpolice

Hampshire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/HantsPolice

Hertfordshire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/HertsPolice

Humberside Police: http://twitter.com/humber_police

Kent Police: http://twitter.com/kent_police

Lancashire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/LancsPolice

Leicestershire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/leicspolice

Lincolnshire Police: http://twitter.com/lincspolice

Merseyside Police: http://twitter.com/MerseyPolice

Metropolitan Police Service: http://twitter.com/metpoliceuk

Norfolk Constabulary: http://twitter.com/NorfolkPolice

North Wales Police - Heddlu Gogledd Cymru / Heddlu Gogledd Cymru: http://twitter.com/NWPolice

North Yorkshire Police: http://twitter.com/NYorksPolice

Northamptonshire Police: http://twitter.com/northantspolice

Northumbria Police: http://twitter.com/NorthumbriaPol

Nottinghamshire Police: http://twitter.com/nottspolice

Police Service of Northern Ireland: http://twitter.com/policeserviceni

South Wales Police - Heddlu De Cymru / Heddlu De Cymru: http://twitter.com/swpolice

South Yorkshire Police: http://twitter.com/syptweet

Staffordshire Police: http://twitter.com/StaffsPolice

Suffolk Constabulary:

Surrey Police: http://twitter.com/surreypolice

Sussex Police: http://twitter.com/sussex_police

Thames Valley Police: http://twitter.com/ThamesVP

Warwickshire Police: http://twitter.com/warkspolice

West Mercia Police: http://twitter.com/wmerciapolice

West Midlands Police: http://twitter.com/WMPolice

West Yorkshire Police: http://twitter.com/WestYorksPolice

Wiltshire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/wiltshirepolice

Police Forces - Scotland

Central Scotland Police: http://twitter.com/cspcomms

Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary:

Fife Constabulary: http://twitter.com/FifePolice

Grampian Police: http://twitter.com/GrampianPolice

Lothian and Borders Police:

Northern Constabulary: http://twitter.com/northernPolice

Strathclyde Police:

Tayside Police: http://twitter.com/Taysidepolice

Police Authorities - England, Northern Ireland and Wales

Avon & Somerset Constabulary: http://twitter.com/ASPoliceAuth

Bedfordshire Police: 


British Transport Police: http://twitter.com/BTPAuthority

Cambridgeshire Constabulary:

Cheshire Constabulary:

City of London Police:

Cleveland Police:

Cumbria Constabulary: http://twitter.com/CumbriaPA

Derbyshire Constabulary:

Devon & Cornwall Constabulary:

Dorset Police:

Durham Constabulary: http://twitter.com/DPAuthority

Dyfed Powys Police - Heddlu Dyfed Powys / Heddlu Dyfed Powys:

Essex Police:

Gloucestershire Constabulary:

Greater Manchester Police: http://twitter.com/GMPA1

Gwent Police - Heddlu Gwent / Heddlu Gwent: http://twitter.com/gwentpa

Hampshire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/HantsPoliceAuth

Hertfordshire Constabulary:

Humberside Police:

Kent Police: http://twitter.com/PoliceAuthority

Lancashire Constabulary: http://twitter.com/lancsPA

Leicestershire Constabulary:

Lincolnshire Police: http://twitter.com/LincsPA

Merseyside Police:

Metropolitan Police Service: http://twitter.com/MPADirect

Norfolk Constabulary:

North Wales Police - Heddlu Gogledd Cymru / Heddlu Gogledd Cymru:

North Yorkshire Police: http://twitter.com/NYPAuthority

Northamptonshire Police: http://twitter.com/NorthantsPA

Northumbria Police:

Nottinghamshire Police: http://twitter.com/NottsPA

Police Service of Northern Ireland:

South Wales Police - Heddlu De Cymru / Heddlu De Cymru: http://twitter.com/southwalespa

South Yorkshire Police: http://twitter.com/sypoliceauth

Staffordshire Police:

Suffolk Constabulary:

Surrey Police: http://twitter.com/SurreyPA

Sussex Police: http://twitter.com/sussexpa

Thames Valley Police:

Warwickshire Police: http://twitter.com/WarwickshirePA

West Mercia Constabulary:

West Midlands Police:

West Yorkshire Police:

Wiltshire Constabulary:

Twitter - followers September 2010

Click graph to enlarge

This graph shows the number of followers during August compared with September for English and Welsh police services.

As can be seen from the graph, police services are getting an average of about 100 extra followers each month.  Previous research showed that only about 50% of these are local businesses and public so this reduces the average to 50 relevant followers per month.

Key stats for September 2010

4,268 extra followers for September
34,480 followers in total
3,098 tweets in September
30,736 tweets in total
3,618,144 messages delivered in September