The iPhone will always be part of a much bigger picture. How well you address human and environmental factors will greatly determine the success of your product. All too often, iPhone developers create products in isolation from their customers. In order to create really appealing applications, developers must stop focusing only on the mechanisms of the apps. Zoom out: understand the person using the application, as well as the complex environmental factors surrounding that person.

To better understand the context of these design challenges, we’ll highlight several levels of human and environmental factors.

Also consider our related articles:

• iPhone design mistakes: Over-Design
• iPhone App Design Trends
• How to Create Your First iPhone Application

Level 1: You Are Here. To Create An App That Customers Love, Zoom Out

Level 1: The app itself.
This is how many developers view their apps. As a developer, you have a vision of what your product should look like and why customers will turn their attention to it. However, if you observe your product so closely, you may put it in the wrong context and design it for the wrong purposes and for the wrong users. This is why you need to zoom out.

Level 2: A person is using this app.
That person has specific goals and challenges. In the section below we’ll start by exploring some of the most prominent — and most ignored — human factors pertaining to the iPhone. We’ll discuss basic physical ergonomics, visual limitations and common design mistakes.

Level 3: That person is using this app in a specific environment.
Step back and you’ll see that the app is a part of a complex social environment. It plays but a relatively small role in communication between people and helping people accomplish bigger goals. This is where the social components comes into play: networking, community, social-driven websites and applications and many other things create the environment — or the context — in which the application will be used.

Level 4: The environment is part of a greater culture.
Your ability to address the unique needs of different cultures will affect the success of your product. Ignoring them is too expensive, especially if your app sells worldwide. Here it is important to understand that the environment is a part of global networking. You need to be aware of cultural differences, traditions and metaphors in order to create an application that will not only gain popularity in certain local circles, but will also have a global success.

Level 2: Understand The Person’s Needs And Limitations

“Measure twice and cut once”: an effective strategy indeed. For you, the iPhone app developer, this means that you have to step back and answer these questions before you start coding:

• Who will be using your application?
• What are the capabilities of that person?
• What are the limitations of that person?

Answering these questions will broaden your perspective and prepare you to address your customer’s needs. A whole Human Factors profession is dedicated to just that.

Basic Physical Ergonomics

Here are a couple of the most important physical-, cognitive- and ergonomic-related truths about the iPhone.

1. Our fingers are not mouse pointers.
Remember this property of our fingertips: their surface area is not equal to one pixel. In many applications, tappable objects are way too small, making the interface frustrating to use. Here’s one example: in iFitness, different muscle groups are indicated with red pins. Tapping a pin brings up the name of that muscle. And if you tap the name, you get a list of exercises that develop that muscle.

The pins are twice as small as those used in the Google Maps app. Tapping the pin you want is very hard, because the surface of your fingertip covers an area of three or more pins. You end up tapping repeatedly on the area, enabling random pins, wishing you could sharpen your finger. After more than a few tries, you get lucky and hit the right one.

Which of these pins will be activated when you tap on it?

Here are some ways to solve these ergonomic challenges:

1. Make buttons and other tappable objects bigger.
2. If making a button bigger is impossible, then enlarge the clickable area to be bigger then the button itself.
3. Reduce the number of options on each screen, and make the selection process sequential (e.g. Arm Muscles ? Biceps).
4. Implement multi-touch gestures within the interface. For example, selecting a muscle group in iFitness would be made easier by introducing a two-finger zoom feature.

2. We’re not superheroes, unfortunately.
App designers need to take vision limitations into account. Mobile phones tend to be used in places with worse lighting conditions than computers. Think about those people who will be using your app on a bumpy bus or train or walking down a sunny street. Even if the technology is useful and perfectly executed, people will be reluctant to use the app if they find it hard to see what’s going on. Here are a few examples of potentially useful apps that do not account for vision limitations.

TweetDeck

Fish-tycoon

Here are some ways to avoid these mistakes:

1. Choose only the elements that are absolutely necessary. Make them bigger, and get rid of everything else. If needed, create additional screens with fewer options.
2. Remember that pixel dimensions on the iPhone are smaller than those on your computer screen. So, screenshots viewed on your computer’s iPhone emulator look larger than they would on the iPhone itself, even though the resolution is the same.

The author holds an iPhone (163 ppi) in front of Apple Cinema’s 30-inch display (~100 ppi). Your iPhone screen layout may look fine on a computer emulator, but don’t be fooled: it will appear much smaller on the iPhone because of its smaller pixel dimensions.

Level 3: Understand The Challenges Specific To The User’s Environment

Goals and Environment

Your app will usually play a relatively small role in helping the user achieve a bigger goal. The better you understand what goals people have and what they need to achieve them, the better you can design your app to satisfy those needs. Mobile phones are often used in loud, distracting environments. A simple stroll through town brings plenty of noisy distractions (cars, dogs, mail carriers, etc.). Consider the following examples. Which voice memo app would do a better job?

Apple Voice Memos	vs.	iTalk

Although Apple Voice Memos looks nice, iTalk addresses the average user’s goals and environment much better. Think about it: why would someone prefer to record a voice memo over writing a note? The audio format has fewer advantages than simple text. You can’t scan, edit or enhance audio files as easily as you can text. In most scenarios, text is a much more convenient format in which to exchange information.

So, why and, more importantly, when would people use voice memos? When they are not able to type. The most common time is probably while driving.

According to the New York Times‘ summary of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s findings, drivers who text have a 23-times greater risk of a collision than drivers who don’t text. Which application would be easier to use in this case? The one with the big shiny mic and the record button that is small and hard to reach (especially for right-handed people)? Or the one with the red record button half the size of the screen? Certainly the latter.

Confirming for the user that the recorder is activated is important, too. Which interface communicates the device’s status more clearly? Where do you tap when you’re done?

Apple Voice Memos	vs.	iTalk

Based on which design works better overall, iTalk wins. Apple Voice Memo looks great when you’re checking it out on a friend’s phone but performs poorly in a real-world context.

Mobile Phones, Networking and Community

The mobile phone is, without a doubt, a social tool. The greater the number of people involved, the more engaging the experience is. Think about it: if you were the only one with a phone, it wouldn’t be very useful. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are driven by the understanding that we are social beings — we want to share! Imagine how dramatically designs that foster greater social interaction could change the mobile world.

With the seemingly endless ways to capture and share information, many people feel overwhelmed with information. To help them cope, designers must exploit the iPhone’s platform to make their applications as efficient as possible. Here are some inspiring examples:

Bump

“Bump makes swapping contact information and photos as simple as bumping two phones together. No typing, no searching a list for the right person, no mistakes.” (iTunes Store description)

Mover

“Ever wished you could send something to the iPhone right next to you? Do it with style with Mover.”

Loopt

“Loopt transforms your mobile phone into a social compass to discover and navigate the world around you. Use Loopt to see who’s around, what to do, and where to go.”

How Loopt works (video):

Level 4: The Environment Is Part Of A Greater Culture.

Your ability to address the unique needs of different cultures will affect the success of your product. Ignoring them is too expensive, especially if your app sells worldwide. Design should adapt to regional challenges. Jacob Nielsen, a leading usability expert, gives us an illustration of this:

“In Sweden, the Automatic Teller Machines have very large buttons. I hadn’t noticed this particular design element on previous visits, which have usually been in warmer months. In 1996 I was in Stockholm in February and immediately realized why the ATM buttons are so big: you can press them wearing thick gloves.”

Such insights are gained only by understanding the product in its real-world context. Here is the graphic designer’s point of view:

“… Understanding the object in context moves graphic design from a purely formal arena to a social and political one.”
—Steven Heller and Karen Pomeroy in “Design Literacy,” Allworth Press, New York, 1997.

More wisdom from Nielsen:

“A system must match the user’s cultural characteristics. This goes beyond simply avoiding offensive icons; it must accommodate the way business is conducted and the way people communicate in various countries.”

Apple studied American users and addressed their goals. That’s why the iPhone is so popular in US. But it hasn’t succeeded in Japan. The handset is selling so poorly there that they are giving them away for free.

Conclusion: Excellence Comes From Hard Work

Designing a great app isn’t a simple task. Jacob Nielsen recently asserted that “the mobile user experience is still miserable.” Extracting user insights from testing is a challenge. People have difficulty telling you what they want; they usually only know it when they see it. But developers don’t have to tackle user research alone. Interaction designers are trained to find relevant user groups, talk to customers and read between the lines. They understand how real-world context affects an application’s design.

It takes a lot of leg work, but your efforts to understand user needs will be rewarded. The forefront of mobile technology is an exciting place to be.

Related posts

Please consider our related articles:

• iPhone design mistakes: Over-Design
• iPhone App Design Trends
• How to Create Your First iPhone Application

Special thanks to Larissa Itomlenskis.

(al)

© Alexander Komarov for Smashing Magazine, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
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iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Disregard Of Context originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 15, 2009.

Windows/Mac/Linux: If you’ve been sporting the same desktop wallpaper since the Bush administration, it might be time to mix it up a little. Wally is a lightweight wallpaper changer that pulls images from a wide pool of sources.

For a simple wallpaper refresh, you can simply point Wally at a folder on your computer and set the interval at which you want the wallpaper to refresh. If you don’t have a huge stash of wallpaper, or you’re tired of your collection, you can have Wally pull pictures from remote directories via FTP or from any of ten available sources like Bing, SmugMug, Picasa, Buzznet, Photobucket, Pike, Panoramio, Yahoo!, or Flickr.

You can adjust various settings like auto-rotation based on EXIF data, photo selection only if photos are bigger than the desktop and/or landscape as well as how frequently the wallpaper will change and how pictures will be positioned.

Wally is freeware and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Have a favorite wallpaper tool or source for great wallpapers? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

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Keep Your Wallpaper Fresh with Cross-Platform Wally [Downloads] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 14, 2009.

Google Internet browser without installation.
Download Portable Google Chrome MultiVersion Online on RapidShare (0.4 MB) (Updated for Vista and 7)
Download Portable Google Chrome 1.0.154.65 on RapidShare (8.3 MB)
(md5: c5623348a26942c871cd2cd3e4d51abb)

In first screen of Chrome MultiVersion Online, enter ver number:
3.0.195.33 for Chrome Stable
4.0.237.0 for Chrome Dev
2.0.172.43 for Chrome Stable

Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome.
Download Portable Chromium Latest Online on RapidShare (0.4 MB) (Updated for Vista and 7)

Chromium Latest Online will download latest build (you can run also as updater to check if you have latest).

SRWare Iron is based on the Chromium-source and offers the same features as Chrome – but without the critical points that the privacy concern.
Download Portable SRWare Iron 3.0.189.18153 Beta on RapidShare (8.5 MB)
(md5: d3f6886a7f76920f93bd5b085b71f95c)
Download Portable SRWare Iron 2.0.178.15300 on RapidShare (8.3 MB)
(md5: c53c028e3f3ee9ff584deb1701d32c31)

Download Plugins on RapidShare (2.9 MB)

Extract Plugins: Flash 10.0.32.18 & Gears 0.5.32.0.

Extract and run ChromePortable or ChromiumPortable or IronPortable.
If you want to add parameters, start in incognito mode, not set cache in temp, not delete cache or allow multiple instances: edit *Portable.ini.
Example: AdditionalParameters=–app=http://portableappz.blogspot.com
Settings of installed Chrome, Chromium & Iron should be preserved.

Results in Acid3 Test :
Chrome, Chromium & Iron: 100 %

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Google Chrome 3.0.195.33 Stable, 4.0.237.0 Dev… Chromium & SRWare Iron Multilingual originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 13, 2009.

As long as people find their own cell phone footage compelling up to share with the world, low-quality video will continue to be an integral part of the YouTube experience. The Google-owned video site already attempted to buck that trend once, with the addition of HD video, and now it’s taking things a step further, introducing 1080p footage.

“As resolution of consumer cameras increases, we want to make sure YouTube is the best home on the web to showcase your content,” the company wrote in a blog post. “For viewers with big monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the fullscreen experience.”

The addition will roll out next week, bumping the site’s maximum resolution up from 720p. 1080p videos already posted to the site will be re-encoded by YouTube.

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YouTube Getting 1080p Video Next Week originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 13, 2009.

Many businesses and retailers offer discounts if you’re buying in bulk or buying for a large number of people. The trouble is: how do you get those discounts when you’re just shopping for yourself or maybe a couple of other people? Groupon can help; it’s a new Web service that provides you and your community collective buying power with participating businesses offering group discounts in your area.

Each day, the service posts a number of discounts and coupons for goods and services from retailers and stores in your area that you can sign up to take advantage of. The catch is that the bargain is only good if the required number of people to activate the deal also sign up. You only get the bargain price if enough people sign up for it as well, so the service depends on members to spread the word. 

Regional or national chains that don’t set their own pricing or schedule their own sales are a bit less likely to participate in a service like Groupon, but your local winery or brew pub may have a special deal on the site that’s only available if 20 people sign up for it, and you may find a local spa or gym that’s offering a discount off of a membership if they can get enough people to sign up to become members at the same time.

That’s the beauty of a service like Groupon: It has the ability to connect local businesses with communities and people who live near the business who may not even have known were around the corner from them. For example, in my area an indoor climbing gym with only three locations in my region offered their regularly #35 “Intro to Climbing Course” for $17 if they could get 15 people to sign up. The deal was successful, and 86 people signed up for the course.

One of Groupon’s strongest features is how local it is. The service calculates your location when you visit the homepage, and drops you into the Groupon section for your city or region. The service also pulls down Twitter posts from the Groupon account in your area and puts them in the sidebar, so you can read previous deals in your area or sign up to follow your local Groupon rep. If you’re curious what’s happening in a different city, you can click to see them all, or visit the Groupon forums to see what other members are talking about.

The service also offers deals from retailers on the Web; today’s bargain is from a bakery called Feed Your Soul, which donates some of its proceeds to charity. They’re offering 2 dozen cookies, normally $45, for $22 if they can get 20 people to sign up for it. So far, 53 people have signed up to take part in the deal, and even more can sign up now, comfortable in the knowledge that the business will honor the special group pricing. Only the first several people who sign up for the deal bear the possibility that the entire bargain may fall through if there isn’t enough interest.

Groupon isn’t going to get you any bargains at Amazon or your local big box store like Target or Best Buy, but it will likely connect you with some local businesses that would certainly be more appreciative of your business, and score you a great deal in the process.

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Groupon Gives Your Community Buying Power originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 13, 2009.

High quality free WordPress Themes have become harder and harder to find in the past year, with the influx of premium themes, more and more designers and developers are selling themes (and rightly so, they do amazing work). However, the quality of freely available themes has improved as well; in fact, some themes are very advanced and professional and can serve as a solid foundation for your next designs.

There are a lot of choices out there for someone wanting to choose a WordPress theme for their blog. But, that aside, the quality is certainly there, and we are sure you will be impressed with this WordPress theme compilation.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• 100 Amazing Free WordPress Themes for 2009
• 100 Excellent Free High-Quality WordPress Themes

Free High-Quality WordPress Themes

AppCloud Theme
A nice e-commerce WordPress theme with a clean and professional look. Built upon 960.gs, with an integrated slideshow, two layouts (horizontal and vertical) for app/gadget images. The theme also includes sections “Featured products” and “Top Selling” and a categorized products view.

Berita (via ThemeCloset)
Berita is a minimalist corporate theme created for companies to prominently display their logo, but the theme could be used for any type of website. It’s a feature-rich theme with a preview slider on the front page and a robust theme administration page.

Magazeen
Magazeen is a two-column theme released specifically for Smashing Magazine readers. The theme has some subtle enhancements that encourage looking at related and new posts, like a related posts drop-down effect for the category link.

Mainstream Theme (via Wootheme)
You have the option of choosing from five different theme colors with Mainstream. Thumbnails are automatically resided and the sidebar is widgetized.

Rusty Grunge
Rusty Grunge is a simple WordPress theme yet still gives you the “destroyed” look. This theme utilizes a fully-widgetized sidebar and has been downloaded over 28,000 times and is featured as a pre-installed theme on Dreamhost’s default installation of WordPress.

Obscure WordPress Theme
A dark magazine WordPress theme suitable for any site niche; also a good fit for a community-based site.

Paper Wall
Smashing Magazine released the illustrated theme Paper Wall last month. The inspiration behind the Paper Wall theme was a designer’s desk, as designers typically put things on paper. It’s a two-column theme with many elements of paper: paper boards, peeling paper and paper “menus”.

Gallery WordPress Theme
a beautiful, free, gallery-style Thematic child theme for WordPress, designed by Christopher Wallace especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. It is extremely flexible and can be used as a starting point for design galleries and portfolios.

Cool Retro
A nice, clean illustrated WordPress theme with a retro-look and nice typography.

Life Collage
Life Collage is a child theme of the Hybrid theme framework. It’s about getting back to the roots of blogging. About sharing our lives. And, about having a little fun while we do it.

Shalom Typo
This theme was designed for the typographic template contest at Smashing Magazine by the German designer David Hellmann. This WordPress theme is based upon this layout. A clean and nice typographic WordPress-theme.

Jungleland Theme (via Theme Lab)
The stylish browns give an earthy feel to this blog making it a good choice for those blogs focused on the environment and nature. It features a photo gallery and a sidebar menu

Monkeypr Theme (via Queness)
Monkeypr is a nicely designed and fun WordPress theme.

Folio Elements Theme (via Press 75)
With its black background, Folio Elements theme will surely make your images and photographs noticed. There is no sidebar, no widgets, no list of categories, no place to comment and nowhere to search. However, if you are looking for a basic carousel-type theme with absolutely no basics, bells or whistles, then Folio Elements might be the one for you.

SimpleCart(js)
SimpleCart(js) is another child of the Thematic WordPress framework. The theme requires WP E-Commerce and is a flexible way to showcase products with the grid framework. The theme features a rich wood background and simple white content area.

Glassic
A simple clean WordPress theme with the focus on typography and simplicity. Released by Abdullah Ibrahim exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

Zinepress Theme (via Well Medicatedi)
Zinepress is a two column magazine style theme. There is a nice sidebar with enough space for ads and for your widgets. It is hand coded and has valid XHTML STrict 1.0 and CSS Level 2.1. The developer has successfully tested this them with IE 6.0+, Firefox 2+, Opera 9+, Safari 3+, and Chrome 0.2+. Suggested WordPress version is 2.7 or higher.

Futurosity Aperio Prototype
Futurosity Aperio is a clean straight-forward blog theme built on Sandbox

Futurosity Vero (via Theme Meme)
Built on Sandbox and Blueprint CSS framework, the Futurosity Vero is a minimalist theme. Near the top of your home page, your most recent and featured post will be displayed.

PolaroidPress (via Tutorial9)
PolaroidPress, as you might guess from the name, plays on the usage of “polaroids” in the theme that display your random images. It’s a simple two-column theme with an airy feel.

H5
The H5 theme is more of a proof-of-concept theme to show designers how to show theme designers how to design with HTML5 and CSS 2.1. It’s a bare-bones theme that’s perfect as a building block for creating your next WordPress theme.

Inuit (via CSS Reflex)
Inuit makes use of a lot of whitespace and preview images for each post on the homepage. The theme also comes integrated with Twitter and Flickr.

Wu Wei
Clean, modern and minimal. The theme was based on the Taoist concept of wu wei: knowing when to act, and knowing when not to act. The theme is built on the principles of the grid system.

Modfolio
Modfolio is a child theme of Modularity, a theme framework for WordPress. Modfolio is another portfolio theme with an extremely dark layout. The theme has 10 potential homepage layout combinations with different colors and element positions.

Cardeo Minimal
A minimal three-column theme with plenty of white space and gray text.

Album Theme (by Brian Gardner)
Album theme is one of the many beautiful templates offered by StudioPress. Some included features are SEO optimized, widget ready, automatically sizes images for thumbnails, and ad ready. This theme is not free, but they do include the PSD file.

Album Theme (by Allan Cole)
Auto-focus is a blog theme designed for photographers to showcase their work.

Mystique (by Digital Nature)
This sleek one column theme has a flexible-width, threaded comments, and an adjustable header.

Manifest
Manifest is a straight-forward one column blog. It has no widgets or sidebar, but gives you a nice clean approach that focuses on your content.

Debug Theme (by Joost de Valk)
When your WordPress installs fail and you need more information, the debug theme is perfect. On the home page, it displays the important URL’s, editor, memory setting, etc. On sub pages it shows the page type, all the query vars that are set and the SQL query for that particular page.

Calmdream WordPress Theme
A very clean and simple layout for magazine layouts.

Portfolio Theme (via WPESP)
Portfolio is a two column blog theme which can be described as a minimalist. This modifiable design will make your own portfolio look great!

Blog Theme
The Carrington Blog-style theme is filled with advanced features like widgetized sidebars, AJAX loading of content, stylish galleries, customizable headers and colors.

Mobile Theme (via Carrington Themesl)
The Carrington Mobile has a beautiful design supporting advanced touch browsers )Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Pre)./p>

Pyrmont V2 Theme (via WP)
Pyrmont V2 is a two-column theme with a black background that could very well make your photographs and designs stand out.

Destyle Theme
Destyle is a magazine-style WordPress theme. This is another theme packed with useful features such as: multi-level superfish dropdown menu, ad management, predefined CSS styles, customa page templates, Twitter and Flick badges on sidebar and automatic image resizing.

ImpreZZ
A dark, three-column theme that gives the second column a third dimension.

Would you like to see more similar lists on SM?

Your opinion is very important to us. There are literally hundreds of similar lists on various design blogs. We are trying to do our best to present you only the best of the best, collecting useful links over months. Would you like to see more similar lists in the future? Or should we drop lists altogether and focus on more original content?

Would you like to see more similar lists on SM in the future?(polls)

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2009. | Permalink | 30 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: themes, wordpress

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40 Free High-Quality WordPress Themes originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Supertalent announces a USB 3.0 key, RAIDDrive.

Like its name indicates, and following the example of the SSD, it reads and writes simultaneously on several chips so as to increase the data flow. On a USB 3.0 connector, it will be able to read the data at 200 MB/s. This speed will be able to increase to 320 MB/s by using the protocol UAS (USB Attached SCSI).
It will be offered soon in 32,64 and 128 GB at a price point still to be defined. All that remains is to find a compatible computer and UAS drivers,  since these are not being provided by Supertalent.

PS: UAS is always a standard in the state of “being drafted”.

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320 MB/s for a USB 3.0 key originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

You've always wanted to learn how to build software yourself—or just whip up an occasional script—but never knew where to start. Luckily, the web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time.

Since the invention of the internet, programmers have been using it to discuss software development techniques, publish tutorials, and share code samples for others to learn from and use online. If you’re curious about how to become a programmer, you can get off to a running start using tons of great free web-based tutorials and resources.

First Things First: Don’t Get Hung Up on Choosing a Language

A common pitfall for beginners is getting stuck figuring out which programming language is best to learn first. There are a lot of opinions out there, but there's no one "best" language. Here's the thing: In the end, language doesn't matter THAT much. Understanding data and control structures and design patterns does matter very much. Every language—even a simple scripting language—will have elements that you'll use in other languages as well and will help you learn. In classes I took to get my degree in Computer Science, I programmed in Pascal, Assembly, and C—languages I never actually got paid to program in professionally. I taught myself every language I've used in my career, reusing concepts I already knew, and referring to documentation and books to learn its syntax. So, don't get hung up on what language to learn first. Pick the kind of development you want to do, and just get started using one that works.

There are several different kinds of software development you can do for various platforms, from the web to your desktop to your smartphone to a command line. In this article, we’ll outline some of our favorite starter tutorials and resources for teaching yourself how to program for each major platform. We’re going to assume you’re a savvy user, but a newb when it comes to wrangling code snippets, so we’ll keep things at the beginner level. Even just following through a beginner programming tutorial, you’ll be happy to see how far you can get.

Desktop Scripting

The easiest way to try your hand at programming for your Windows or Mac desktop is to start with a scripting or macro program like AutoHotkey (for Windows) or Automator (for Mac). Right now hardcore coders throughout the Lifehacker readership are yelling at their monitors, saying that AHK or AppleScript are not "real" programming. That may be true—technically these types of tools just do high-level scripting. But for those new to programming who just want to get their feet wet, automating actions on their desktop, these free tools are a fantastic way to start—and you'd be surprised at how much you can do with them.

For example, Adam developed the standalone Windows application we all know and love, Texter, using AutoHotkey, so this scripting language is capable of far more than just small-scale automation projects. To get started with AutoHotkey, check out Adam’s tutorial on how to turn any action into a keyboard shortcut using AutoHotkey. (Then, check out the source code for Texter to see the innards of a full-fledged AHK-based Windows application.)

Web Development

Instead of being bound to specific programming languages and the look and feel of a particular operating system, you can put your killer application in the browser and run it in the cloud, as a webapp. Welcome to the wonderful world of web development.

HTML and CSS: The first thing you need to know to build any web site is HTML (the page markup that makes up web pages) and CSS (the style information that makes that markup look pretty). HTML and CSS are not true programming languages—they're just page structure and style information. However, you should be able to author simple HTML and CSS by hand before you begin building web applications, because a web page is the frontend to every webapp. This HTML tutorial is a good place to start.

JavaScript: Now that you can lay out a static web page with HTML and CSS, things get fun—because it's time to learn JavaScript. JavaScript is the programming language of the web browser, the magic that makes dynamic in-page effects go. JavaScript is also the stuff of bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Ajax, so it’s the key to making all sorts of web goodies. Start learning JavaScript here.

Server-side scripting: Once you're good at making things happen inside a web page, you're going to need to put some dynamic server action behind it—and for that, you'll need to move into a server-side scripting language, like PHP, Python, Perl, or Ruby. For example, to make a web-based contact form that sends an email somewhere based on what a user entered, a server-side script is required. Scripting languages like PHP can talk to a database on your web server as well, so if you want to make a site where users can log in and store information, that's the way to go. Excellent web development site Webmonkey is full of tutorials for various web programming languages. See their PHP Tutorial for Beginners. When you’re ready, check out how to use PHP to talk to a database in WebMonkey’s PHP and MySQL tutorial. PHP’s online documentation and function reference is the best on the web. Each entry (like this one on the strlen function) includes user comments at the bottom which are often as helpful as the documentation itself. (I happen to be partial to PHP, but there are plenty of other server-side scripting languages you might decide to go with instead.)

Web frameworks: Over the years, web developers have had to solve and resolve the same problems and rewrite similar code to build dynamic web sites. To avoid making everyone reinvent the wheel for every new web development project, some programmers have come up with development frameworks that do some repetitive work for you. The popular Ruby on Rails framework, for example, takes the Ruby programming language and offers a web-specific structure for getting common web application tasks done. In fact, Adam used Rails to build his first serious (and impressive!) web application, MixTape.me. Here’s his take on how to build a web site from scratch with no experience. Other popular web development frameworks include CakePHP (for PHP programmers), Django (for Python programmers), and jQuery (for JavaScript).

Web APIs: An API (Application programming interface) is a programmatic way for different pieces of software to talk to one another. For example, if you want to put a dynamic map on your web site, you want to use a Google Map instead of building your own custom map. The Google Maps API makes it easy to programmatically include a map in a page with JavaScript. Almost every modern web service you know and love has an API that lets you include data and widgets from it in your application, like Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, Google Maps, and the list goes on. Integrating other webapps into your web application via API’s is the final frontier of rich web development. Every good, major web service API offers thorough documentation and some sort of quick start guide to try it out (here’s Twitter’s, for example). Go crazy.

Command Line Scripting

If you want to write a program that takes textual or file input and outputs something useful, the command line is the right place to do it. While the command line isn’t as sexy or good-looking as a webapp or desktop app, for rapid development of quick scripts that automate processes, you can’t beat it.

Several scripting languages that work on a Linux-based web server also work at the command line, like Perl, Python, and PHP—so learning one of those baddies makes you conversant in two contexts. My path never took me too far down the Perl road, but I taught myself Python using the excellent and free online book, Dive into Python.

If becoming a Unix ninja is one of your programmer goals, you absolutely must get good at shell scripting with bash. Bash is the command line scripting language of a *nix environment, and it can do everything from help you set up automated backups of your database and files to building out a full-fledged application with user interaction. Without any experience writing bash scripts beyond a dozen lines, I wound up developing a full-on personal to-do list manager in bash, Todo.txt CLI.

Add-ons

Nowadays, modern webapps and browsers are extensible with with bits of software that bolt onto them and add features. Add-on development is gaining in popularity as more developers look at existing software, like Firefox or WordPress, and think “But if only it could do THIS…”

You can do a whole lot in any web browser with just a mastery of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Stylish user styles are created with the same bits of code that make regular web pages, so they’re worth learning even if you just want to tweak an existing site with a small snippet of code.

More advanced browser add-ons, like Firefox extensions, let you do more. Developing Firefox extensions, for example, requires that you’re conversant in JavaScript and XML (markup that’s similar to HTML, but way more strict in format). Back in 2007 I ran down how to build a Firefox extension, a skill I picked up after I stumbled upon a free tutorial.

Many free and well-loved web applications offer an extension framework as well, like WordPress and MediaWiki. Both of those apps are written in PHP, so comfort with PHP is a prerequisite for getting started. Here’s how to write a plug-in for WordPress. Developers who want to ride the cutting edge of Google Wave can get started writing gadgets and bots in HTML, JavaScript, Java, and Python. I wrote my first Wave bot following this quick start tutorial in one afternoon.

Web Development for the Desktop

The best part about getting started programming in one context is when you can take those skills and apply them elsewhere. Learning web development first is a great way to start because now there are ways to put those skills to work on desktop applications, too. For example, Adobe AIR is a cross-platform run-time environment that lets you build your app once and release it to run on the desktop for every operating system AIR runs on. AIR apps are written in HTML, Flash, or Flex, so it lets you apply your web development skills in a desktop context. AIR is a great option for deploying desktop apps like one of our top 10 apps worth installing Adobe AIR for.

Mobile App Development

Mobile applications like the ones you run on your iPhone or Android smartphone are all the rage right now, so you may have dreams of striking it rich in the iTunes App Store with the next killer app. However, for the new coder, diving headfirst into mobile development can be a rough learning curve, since it requires comfort with advanced programming languages like Java and Objective C. However, it’s worth checking out what iPhone and Android development looks like. Check out this simple iPhone application development example to get a taste of what iPhone developers do. Android apps are written in Java, and here’s a friendly video tutorial of what building a “Hello Android” application workflow looks like.

Patience, Elbow Grease, Trial and Error

Good coders are a special breed of persistent problem-solvers who are addicted to the small victories that come along a long path of trial and error. Learning how to program is very rewarding, but it can also be a frustrating and solitary experience. If you can, get a buddy to work with you along the way. Getting really good at programming, like anything else, is a matter of sticking with it, trying things out, and getting experience as you go.

This article is just one self-taught programmer’s top-of-mind recommendations for beginners. Experienced programmers: What did I miss? No matter your skill level, add your thoughts and recommendations for beginners to the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, thinks the best programmers are self-taught. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

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Go to Source

Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code [Programming] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Google’s dominated search, online document collaboration, e-mail, telephony, and more, so why not programming, too? The tech giant has announced its own open-source, object-oriented programming language, called Go.

The Google Open Source Blog says that “Go combines the development speed of working in a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++.” (If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it.) “Typical builds,” the blog continues, “feel instantaneous; even large binaries compile in just a few seconds. And the compiled code runs close to the speed of C.” Go supports multiprocessing, as well as true closures and reflection.
The Go Web site (golang.org) explains
the rationale behind creating Go, mostly citing the change of the
computer landscape that’s occurred over the past decade or so that’s
seen very few (if any) major systems languages spring up: more powerful
PCs, many of which use multicore processors; increased dependency
management in software that’s not reflected in the “header files” of
C-based languages; the growing desire for dynamically typed languages
(such as Python and JavaScript) instead of type systems such as Java
and C++); and the poor support for concepts such as garbage collection
and parallel computation.

Google says that Go takes full
advantage of modern, multicore hardware; that it simplifies dependency
analysis and avoids the overhead present in C-style languages (such as
files and libraries); that Go’s type system has no hierarchy, which
saves the programmer from having to define relationships between types;
and that Go is fully garbage-collected and naturally supports
concurrent execution and communication.

If you’re interested in
getting started with Go, or you just want to learn more about its inner
workings, Golang.org is loaded with tutorials, manuals, FAQs, and other
documentation for easy assimilation. There’s
even a section devoted to C++ programmers who want to learn Go. Also
there to be found are code samples, such as the traditional beginning
to all studies, “Hello, world!”:

05    package main<br>
07 import fmt "fmt" // Package implementing formatted I/O.<br>
09 func main() { 10 fmt.Printf("Hello, world; or ???????? ?????; or ????? ??\n");<br>
11 }

It’s
way too early to tell, of course, what the impact of Go on programmers
or programming will be. But we have a feeling that in this way, as in
so many others, quite a few people will fall behind Google and look at
this as a convenient way of writing programs for modern hardware. If it
won’t spell the end of the various programming languages in common use,
it will undoubtedly represent at least the start of a major C change.

Go to Source

Google Go: An Open-Source Programming Language originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

There are people all over the internet that are willing to give away their work for promotional purposes or because they want to spread their design talent to other people.

For this reason we are lucky enough to have a wide variety of free PSD website templates for your use and enjoyment. I have collected some of the best ones I found from around the web to bring to you, already split up into layers in Photoshop. Enjoy!

1) Design Studio PSD Template

2) Orange PSD Template

3) SanduneBiz PSD Template

4)Cambridge PSD Template

5) Crisp Presentation PSD Template

6) Citrus Square Burst PSD Template

7) Audryhipburn PSD Template

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9) Old Victorian PSD Template

10) Bright Colors Radio PSD Template

11) Blackboard PSD Template

12) Colorful Video PSD Template

13) Shape PSD Template

14) DelliStore PSD Template

15) Midnight Sun PSD Template

16) Environmental PSD Template

17) Smashing Multimedia PSD Template

18 ) Slideshow PSD Template

19) Fresh PSD Template

20) 5 Webdesigns PSD Template

21) 3 Free PSD Template

22) Organic Conference PSD Template

23) Summer of Love PSD Template

24) Herbal Treats PSD Template

25) Solitude PSD Template

About the Author
Tyler Denis is a part-time freelance designer from Ashland, New Hampshire. He is also the creator/writer of the design blog Denis Designs/blog, a website dedicated to bringing quality tutorials and inspiration. You can follow him on Twitter or at his personal site, Denis Designs.

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Go to Source

25 Slick PSD Website Templates Free for Download originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.