Steve Parks

As I write this blog post I'm enjoying a steaming mug of smooth tasty PG tips tea - available in all good supermarkets.

I'm tapping smoothly away on my Dell Inspiron laptop (available at www.dell.co.uk), sitting at a practical, cheap and easy to assemble desk from IKEA.

Right, what was I going to actually say?  read more »

There seems to be a link between business success and good design.

A lot of people think design is just about pretty graphics, but it's actually about usability, effectiveness, and consumer satisfaction - and getting a vital competitive edge.

And so many businesses ignore design, or get it badly wrong - and then fail.  read more »

The Undercover Economist author: Tim Harford asin: 0349119856

I'm writing this blog post sitting in first class on a National Express train between York and London.

Now, when I say first class, what I actually mean is that I'm sat on the floor, in a corridor between two first class carriages.  read more »

I travel to London roughly once a fortnight, and go by train so I can work. The line was run by GNER, but has been taken over by National Express.  read more »

Well you may have seen that I'm back to blogging again.

I do all my blogging at home once the working day is done - but BT, god bless 'em, put a spanner in the works a few weeks ago.  read more »

I popped to the local convenience store this evening, and one of the items on my list was fabric conditioner.

There was every kind of washing powder, liquid, tablet, sachet - I never knew it was so complicated to get your clothes clean!  read more »

I spend a lot of time in London, and when I'm there I tend to have meetings all day, and either business or social events in the evening.  read more »

It's been a while since I've had a chance to post on my blog - I've been moving house and as if it didn't cause enough chaos to pack my study into boxes and then try to find everything again, BT has done it's best to keep me offline!  read more »

A report from the National Consumer Council - titled 'The Stupid Company' - states that companies are alienating consumers with shoddy customer service and unrelenting sales pitches.

It warns that businesses are focussing too much on making a quick profit, rather than on building a long term relationship.

The authors of the report found that:  read more »

The BBC has learned that Barclaycard has instituted a policy of identifying customers who regularly pay off their credit card in full, and then penalising them by bringing forward the date payment has to be made by.  read more »