This week's best things
Serendipity, collaborative digital art, donation UX, the best museum cafes in the UK, crimes of UX, how people are using gen AI in 2025, a digital Ned Kelly experience, and digital fishmongers.
Hi, my name is Ash, I'm an advisor, strategist and facilitator.
For nearly two decades I have helped cultural organisations sharpen their digital thinking and activity.
I am interested in helping you make the most of wherever people and internet technologies come together.
I can support you with projects, challenges and opportunities that involve strategy, leadership, change, users, technology and innovation.
Get in touch: ash@ashmann.co.
Newsletter: Latest issue
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This week's best things
Rebrands, robots, coping with virtual meetings, webcams, chickens, the water-cooler moment moves online, the downsides of effortlessness, why graphic designers can't stop joking about hating their jobs, Bluesky can't take a joke, and wide-leg jeans from the 90s.
Embracing seasonality - we're not built for 100% all year
Since moving to Sweden 18 months ago, one of the biggest shifts I’ve noticed, compared to life in the UK, is how deeply seasonal life feels here. It feels worth embracing.
This week's best things
Failure stories, FOH & education teams, the National Theatre, a million homepages, AI optimism, museum toolkits, Wikimedia crawlers, knitting, the immersive industry, gov collabs, and a strange Nintendo site.
This week's best things
Surrealism, impressive HTML, accessible content, a new Swiss passport design, Pixar's rules for storytelling for UX, chatbots and mental health, a new book about Facebook, immersive art and mental health, AI preferences, Gen Z and millennials, documentation, 23andMe, and Gary Oldman laughing a lot.
Book notes '24
A chronological list of all the books I read last year with a few words about each.
This week's best things
The FACT symposium, Margaret Heffernan, Fourth Spaces, a new digital experience from the National Gallery, Digital Culture Talks, running a 'failure budget', museum exhibition experience, UX is dead, little book of strategy, more AI woe, and a family of t-rexes
Beks Leary on 200 Creators - reach, resourcing, risk, and organisational buy-in
A podcast chat with the National Gallery's Beks Leary exploring lessons from working in large vs small organisations, differences in digital storytelling across sectors, and key lessons from the 200 Creators project.
This week's best things
Tone of voice, Google and the future of search, Digg returns, a fish doorbell, designing better error messages, Duolingo's product principles, Albania shuts down TikTok for a year, can ChatGPT replace a curator, a load of vacancies, salt sculptures, and Sweden's Eurovision entry.
This week's best things
A wall of sound, a spectacular website celebrating Andrei Sakharov, the importance of word choices, Kotter's dual operating system, Swedish perspectives on AI in exhibitions, an AI playbook for charities, Fyre Festival 2, a final essay from SGS and Owais Lightwala, a survey on digital failure.