Ben Unsworth
@benunsworth
User centred design in government. parkrun tourist A4418. Director of Digital and Tech for Kingston and Sutton councils.
Another thing the boy will be better at than me before too long. First ever wave he tried to catch and he’s up on his feet 🏄♂️ 🤙
House move making some progress, lawyers are lawyering. Next major admin is schools. It’s 2026 and the online experience is still appalling. Why are you making me interact with a GIS tool? Completely unusable on mobile. Let me put a postcode in a field and have a list of results returned please.
Irony is turning half your garden into a paddling pool and the temperature dropping by 10 degrees
Two weeks after the brother in laws stag do parkrun, it’s a wedding day parkrun in Tetbury
Not sure I agree with the ‘Good’ rating of my environment sensor in the home office. Work has had to stop.
Excellent weekend of boxcar racing. Our entry (that I am hired muscle for pushing, not engineering) won the best engineered for its tilt steer mechanism.
A very lovely evening at Interesting 2026. The hidden trance track in Radiohead’s Videotape was my highlight. Closely followed by the surprising connection between Sea Monkeys and the Nazis.
London on marathon day is a pretty special place. Managed to catch my buddy Steve in Rotherhithe and on Birdcage Walk. Lime bikes on quiet streets was a particularly delightful experience.
Aylesbury Rugby Festival for the boy today. Huge volunteering effort to get events like this to work. I’ve been put in charge of the tombola 😅
Local Decathlon branch has taken away the half dozen plastic shoe sizing devices and replaced them with an over engineered foot scanning machine. After multiple steps, including email capture 🤯, you get a data screen that doesn’t tell you the fucking shoe size of the person being measured.
Handing back a lease car and rolled the dice on a £1000 20 year old mini as our second car for the school run and partners local commute. What could possible go wrong?
Excellent note left on my windscreen while visiting the parents for lunch. Bonus points for: printing, double question marks, imagined scenarios, invoking higher beings and the confidence to attribute to No. 6 ✍️.
Excellent AI summary of 90% of my inbox… and my approach to ‘five touch’ sales engagement.
My heating oil is running low. 6 months worth usually costs me around £400. Now it’s going to be £800
My boy has strong KoЯn tribute act vibes today. We shall be listening to Blind on the way to cricket practice 🏏 🤘
Open data innovation still a thing. Gov releases EPC data in machine readable format and Zoopla has a shiny new ‘search by floor area’. get-energy-performance-data.communities.gov.uk
Excellent update on the official #parkrun app. Brings in all the excellent statistics and features from the unofficial 5km app they recently aquired.
My boy has had his first year of contact rugby at U9. It’s reassuring how strong the coaching is and how much you can feel the RFU leadership and guidance on safety and risk management at this level.
Guess who gave himself minty fresh hands this morning. Should probably be a long LinkedIn post with a laboured analogy about experience design… but for now, who the fuck has ever put mouthwash in a pump dispenser next to a sink?
I do like a council magazine. Lively debate with the in laws on the merits of this form of communication with residents 🙃.
Bought my partner a modern sewing machine a few years ago for £500 and it completely shit the bed after 5 years use. Meanwhile, her backup machine has been operating happily since the 1950’s
Back in DIY mode this weekend. Turning the old converted garage into a more useful utility room. Finally at the point where I can order some cabinets and worktops 🙌
parkrun challenge 🏆completed on Xmas day, have now run one on every day of the week.
Aylesbury U9’s away at Amersham today. A wonderfully foggy, rainy and muddy morning. The kids played some good rugby, first year of full contact and the tackles are getting better.