blobfisk.com - the online home of Alex (Alexander) Horstmann

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About Alex Horstmann / BlobFisk

Alex Horstmann is an Irishman living in London! BlobFisk has been my nickname/handle/alias for a long time now, so generally where you see a user called BlobFisk it's me! How I came to use BlobFisk as an alias is a story that started with a trip to Sweden many years ago. In a bar one night a game started where the word Blåsfisk played a pivotal role! I remembered the word wrong, morphed it into Blobfisk and that has been my online handle ever since!

I am currently User Experience Manager for Channel 4 looking after all things user experience for this leading UK broadcaster. My role here includes managing Information Architects and external agencies, ensuring the usability and accessibility of all the Channel 4 online inventory (Channel4, E4, Film4, More 4, and 4Radio), expert usability and accessibility reviews and playing a key role in the redesign of the Channel4 site.

Before this I was Senior User Experience Engineer at Tideway Systems Limited. Previous to joining Tideway I worked for DeCare Systems (Ireland) in User Experience and Web Design, a US consultancy specialising in web applications whose clients included Avon Cosmetics, MasterCard, Figis and various large US insurance companies. Previous to this I was Internet Manager for Irelands largest recruitment company, Premier Recuitment, and Irelands largest independent radio station, 96FM, respectively. If you want to know more then my CV / Resume may be of interest to you.

I can also be found moderating at WebmasterWorlds HTML and Browsers Forum, and Flash and Shockwave Forum.

Published: 07/08/2008

I've recently accepted a role at Channel 4 (a television channel here in the UK) I've been shifting my interest from enterprise software and designing interfaces for a highly technical, niche audience and have begun thinking once again about the user experience of high volume, strong brand and broad interest sites. Specifically, I have been looking a lot at the new "Web 2.0" sites that are cropping up daily.

This week I started playing with Finetune, a Pandora like service that allows you to create playlists of your favourite music and suggests similar artists. It has a nice desktop client (based on Adobe Air) and a functional website. As you can guess I have some issues with the usability of the site, specifically about the editing of playlists - I find the right navigation a little confusing:

Anyhow, here is my first playlist! It's very, very varied - from Daft Punk to Dire Straits!

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