David Bowen commentaries

In his regular columns for the Financial Times and ft.com, senior consultant David Bowen has pursued themes ranged from customer relationship management and career marketing to ‘ethical’ retailing and royal family sites. His collected Financial Times and ft.com columns from January 2001 onward are indexed by theme and available for viewing on this site.

You can access articles directly by selecting a link below.

  • How protesters have lost all sense of reasoning online Groups using the upcoming G8 summit in Scotland to campaign against the world economic order have already set up camp online to lay claim to the moral high ground. Their protest sites show the power of the web as a vehicle for expressing an opinion – an
  • The seven deadliest sins of growing websites Nitty-gritty detail is the daily currency of website development. Of the seven sins of detail we come across most often, a majority relate to navigation issues that are all too easy to lose overall grasp of as a site gets ever bigger.
  • Why you’re seldom far from home on a corporate site The look a company gives to its corporate website can be a big clue to its country of origin. And that in turn can betray a lot about the way it uses medium.
  • How the web helps everyone form a view of events Protagonists in the various conflicts in the Middle East carry their arguments into the online arena. But as well as giving the actors on the ground an unmatchable medium for advancing their point of view, the web gives users three different ways to gain
  • How the web can play a big part in contingency planning While the web has its disadvantages as a communications medium in times of crisis – not least that it normally requires a computer and electricity – recent events have shown that it should – and could – be given a big part in any response to an em
  • Where the best-laid travel plans are taking us In the course of pioneering new ways to use the web, clever journey planners are treading paths that all sorts of site owners will be able to follow in the future.
  • Where fashionable brands trip up in their transfer to the web Luxury brands and the web go together like strawberries and gravy, but that does not stop the great brand-owners from pouring money into sites. The results are mixed, to say the least.
  • When large helpings of information can be good for your image Two years ago, snack food companies were in denial about any connection between their products and the general fattening of the population. Now some well-known names are toning up their online features to get their reputations back in shape.
  • Why flouting convention can lead to radical loss of control Like the organisations that spawn them, large websites reach a point at which the sum of their parts overwhelms the coherence of the whole. A close look at the site of international campaign group Greenpeace shows how and where the gaps begin to appear.
  • Why accessibility is an opportunity to make improvements Organisations are being driven by legislation to make their web sites more easily accessible to people with disabilities. This can lead them to take a fresh look at the basics of usability, to the benefit of all users. But imaginative thinking will be nee

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