Forms On Mobile Devices: Modern Solutions
My Clippings March 12th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
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Mobile forms tend to have significantly more constraints than their desktop cousins: screens are smaller; connections are slower; text entry is trickier; the list goes on. So, limiting the number of forms in your mobile applications and websites is generally a good idea. When you do want input from users on mobile devices, radio buttons, checkboxes, select menus and lists tend to work much better than open text fields.
But constraints breed innovation, and mobile forms are no different. The limitations of mobile devices have forced developers and designers to find new ways to allow users to input data faster and more easily. Thanks to the modern solutions covered in this article, the mobile space may not be a place to avoid forms much longer. Instead, it may become the place to encourage them.
[Offtopic: By the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has a mobile version? Try it out if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or another capable device.]
Field Zoom
In many mobile Web browsers, when a user selects a form’s input field, the “field zoom” feature expands it to fill the screen’s viewable area. This makes an otherwise tiny field large enough for people to actually see the data they are entering. Given that many form errors are caused by people not seeing their inputs well enough to correct misspellings, the usability of this feature is clear.
The Safari browser on Apple’s iPhone makes use of field zoom together with a “form assistant.” The form assistant displays “Previous,” “Next,” “AutoFill” and “Done” buttons below the magnified input field, giving people an easy way to move through and complete a form. No need to worry if an input field is off screen: the user just hits “Next” and won’t miss it!
However, not everyone will know about the form assistant or know how to hide the keyboard. So, make sure the controls on the Web page still allow them to complete the form. Excessive spacing around the “Submit” button can tuck it behind the keyboard.
Field zoom is another great reason to top-align input field labels in forms. As you can see on Google’s registration form (screenshot below), left-aligned labels disappear when input fields are expanded to fill the screen. With no visible label, the user can easily forget what question they have to answer. Long input fields also suffer a bit with field zoom.
Related posts:Springpad Allows You to Save Anything Anywhere
My Clippings March 11th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Re-launched yesterday, Springpad is a new Web service that allows you to save documents, images, photographs, notes, and even snippets of the Web for future reference in an account that you can access from any Internet-connected computer. If the idea sounds familiar, it should; Springpad isn’t the first company to do this, but the developers behind the scenes have recently completely redesigned the service to make it easier to use and to add features, and they’ve rolled out an iPhone app that lets you take your documents and other clippings on the go.
Whether a friend mentioned a restaurant that you’re interested in trying, you saw a blog post you want to share with your friends later, or you took a picture on your mobile phone you want to share with others, Springpad lets you save them all in your personal notebook. The service also organizes them and pulls in relevant data from around the Web to help you keep those items organized.
Springpad allows you to save snippets of everything you encounter that you want to remember or store, and then come back to it all later from your iPhone, or from any Web-connected computer. This way you have a place for everything from products you see in the store but want to research when you get home to a nearby bar that your coworkers are thinking about heading for happy hour after work. You can add businesses, restaurants, and other locations to your Springpad account, and Springpad will go out and collect information like Yelp reviews and maps to fill out the item description.
Springpad also works for snippets of the Web, like news articles and blog posts, downloaded images, even content on a Web page like recipes, books, or product listings. When you save something from the Web to your Springpad account, the service tries to link back as much information as possible, including images from the original source, a link to the item on the Web, and product information if it’s an item in an online store. You can also create multiple lists for different types of clippings, so you can create a specific list for all of the local restaurants you want to try, and another for articles you find interesting.
ProConLists.com Helps You Weigh Your Options
My Clippings March 11th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Contemplating a big life change? Maybe you’re deciding whether to look for a new job, or you’re weighing something simpler like where to go for dinner. A list of pros and cons can help you make the decision based on the evidence that’s in front of you and not on impulse alone.
ProConLists.com is a Web service that can help you quickly and easily get in front of you the pros and cons of any decision, big or small, and then share your list with the world to get everyone’s opinion on the decision.
ProConLists.com seems to be used largely for popularity-contest questions, like whether or not the Bloom Box fuel cell is worthwhile, whether you should play Guild Wars or World of Warcraft, and whether you should consider buying an Apple iPad. To use the service, sign up for an account (completely free). You can then start creating topics and listing the pros and cons for the decision below.
If the service just stopped with a list of pros and cons it wouldn’t be quite as interesting, but ProConList.com takes rational and emotional weight into account for each pro and con. When you type in an item, you can assign it a rational weight (as in, this is something that is logically important) and an emotional weight (as in, this is something that will make me happy or unhappy.) You can also assign a category to it so others can easily find your list and weigh in on it.
Once you’ve entered all of your pros and cons and you’ve assigned them weights, click the “calculate results” button at the bottom of the page to determine the score based on the number of pros and cons and their assigned weights. The service will give you the results, and tell you what your decision should be based on the information you’ve provided. The service also gives you your emotional and rational results based entirely on the weights of the items and not the number of items you’ve provided.
After your list is created, you can share it with the rest of the ProConList.com community and they can leave comments on the list as a whole, or vote up or down on your individual pros and cons, or the weight you’ve assigned to them. If you trust the community’s opinion, you can even go back and add some of the pros and cons they suggest to your list.
Keep Your Daily Momentum Going With a 10/15 Split [Work]
My Clippings March 10th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
One of the toughest aspects of staying productive is overcoming the ups and downs of motivation. Spending 10 minutes getting organized in the morning, then 15 minutes again in the evening, can help even out your daily go-get-’em energy. More »
Deep Water Bath Fills Your Tub to the Brim [Stuff We Like]
My Clippings March 10th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
A luxurious soak in the bathtub is that much better when you can sink all the way up to your chin. Use Deep Water Bath to override the overflow valve and get extra inches of water in the tub. More »
DLS Screencast: first time with Microsoft Pivot
My Clippings March 10th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Filed under: Internet, web 2.0, Browsers
Microsoft Labs has an insanely-cool tech demo product called Pivot. In a nutshell, it’s a completely new browsing paradigm which lets you “swim” in the ocean of data rather than drown in it. You can zoom in and out on complex sets of data, and slice and dice them in all sorts of crazy ways.
I saw a TED talk about it (you can watch it too, after the jump) and on the one hand it seemed very cool, but the guy presenting it was also the developer and was very familiar with it. This made me wonder what it’s like to use it for the first time — it’s such a paradigm shift, that I just had to see what’s the learning curve and how it actually works in real life.
So I downloaded and installed it, and made a short screencast documenting my initial impression. It’s very different than the TED Talk because I’m obviously a first-time user, which is the whole point really. My video is after the jump.
My own video:
The original TED Talk showing an overview of Pivot:
DLS Screencast: first time with Microsoft Pivot originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft – Download Squad – Tech demo – Microsoft Pivot – Business
DummyImage.com is the Lorem Ipsum of web images
My Clippings March 10th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Filed under: Developer, Web services
DummyImage.com is a great time saver for web developers laying out a quick page. It receives arguments in the URL, and returns an image of the exact size, colors, and file format specified. The image at the top of this post is not a screenshot; I merely entered the following line into my editor:
As you can see, it’s completely human-readable. I have a serious thing for web services with human-readable URLs. I guess they make me feel like I’m on top of things, like I know what I’m doing. Anyways, self-analysis aside, there’s really not much else to say about this service. It is very useful, and free, and open-source. Oh, and you can also overlay text on your images, not just the dimensions:
DummyImage.com is the Lorem Ipsum of web images originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Lorem Ipsum – Download Squad – Open source – Uniform Resource Locator – Graphic design
How To Harden PHP5 With Suhosin On CentOS 5.4
My Clippings March 10th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
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How To Harden PHP5 With Suhosin On CentOS 5.4
This tutorial shows how to harden PHP5 with Suhosin on a CentOS 5.4 server. From the Suhosin project page: “Suhosin
is an advanced protection system for PHP installations that was
designed to protect servers and users from known and unknown flaws in
PHP applications and the PHP core. Suhosin comes in two independent
parts, that can be used separately or in combination. The first part is
a small patch against the PHP core, that implements a few low-level
protections against bufferoverflows or format string vulnerabilities
and the second part is a powerful PHP extension that implements all the
other protections.”
A Trojan horse in a battery charger
My Clippings March 10th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
A Trojan horse (Windows) was detected in the software accompanying a USB Energizer DUO charger of batteries. It opens a port on the affected PC that makes it possible to be able to reach it easily from outside.
Even though it is impossible not to throw the stone at the company that did not make any elementary checks before offering its software, there are others, and Apple springs to mind, who already know about this kind of mishap. In 2006 a small series of iPod had been put on the market with a PC Virus pre-installed on it…
Staying Motivated at Work with a Status Board [Workflow]
My Clippings March 10th, 2010 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Panic is a software company that makes useful tools like my personal favorite, Transmit for the Mac. They’ve also made a beautiful project status display that keeps their team on top of what they’re working on and keeps everyone motivated.
The board is actually an internal web page that auto-updates support email queue numbers, how far along each company project is, day over day revenue comparisons, the company calendar, and Twitter messages. Here’s the effect it’s had on the team:
Les, one of our support guys, said it best after a week: “That board is like magic.” Our support turnaround time is faster than it’s ever been. Just the simple act of “publicizing” those numbers – not in a cruel way, but a “where are we at as a group?” way – has kept the support process on-task and, I think, made it a bit more like a video game. (It helps that when all the boxes are at “zero”, a virtual bottle of champagne appears on-screen, and a physical one is likely removed from the fridge.)
Brilliant! I am dying for one of these for my own personal use. Panic, will you add that to your project list? For the nitty gritty on how this board was built and what kind of display it’s on, check out the full post at the Panic blog.
Smarterware is Lifehacker editor emeritus Gina Trapani’s new home away from ‘hacker. To get all of the latest from Smarterware, be sure to subscribe to the Smarterware RSS feed. For more, check out Gina’s weekly Smarterware feature here on Lifehacker.
Republished from smarterware.org
