Groupon Gives Your Community Buying Power
My Clippings November 13th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
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.
Cheapism Helps You Find the Cheapest “Best Buys” [Frugality]
My Clippings November 8th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Thanks to the research power the internet bestows upon you, it’s easy to find the best of class and the most expensive in any given category. What if you want the best of the cheapest picks? Cheapism can help.
The premise of Cheapism is this: You don’t want the absolute best and premium priced item, you just want the best value among the cheaper options.
When you visit Cheapism you can browse their top picks for categories, read product reviews for products with budget-friendly prices, and read up on what to look for in economical products in the category you're researching. The latter might be the most valuable part of the site, the guides are quite detailed and offer lots of great information on shopping in the zone above cheaper-than-dirt and below ultra-premium—they even provide a scale for each product category showing where the common price divisions fall for that particular product.
Check out the link below to explore product reviews on everything from printers to coffee makers. Have a favorite site for finding great deals and comparison shopping? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Showcase of Designs Optimized for iPhone
My Clippings September 27th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
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Over the last couple of years, mobile devices have managed to gain mainstream popularity. With iPhone, making mobile Web applications finally usable by broad masses, web design can now be applied to mobile applications as well. In this post we are focusing on designs that are specifically optimized for mobile devices, in particular iPhone.
Though iPhone’s Safari browser is able to render any website just like you would see it on a desktop browser, the available screen area is much smaller than in common “classic” displays. This poses a new challenge for designers and developers who now can reach millions of users that use mobile Web. Websites that are specifically optimized for the iPhone utilize the screen to the fullest extent, and use less bandwidth (which is necessary, because the connectivity is not always optimal).
The iPhone browsing experience is quite different than the regular browsing experience. The buttons and hyperlinks have to be bigger because our fingers are not as sharp as the mouse pointer. Optimizing a website for iPhone is not rocket science. It’s the same HTML, CSS and JavaScript that you already know. The only major difference is the screen size.
In the showcase below we present some of the interesting, interactive and beautiful designs that are optimized for the iPhone. You will also learn about some handy tools that will help you optimize your website for the iPhone.
Also consider our previous articles:
- How to Create Your First iPhone Application
- iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Over-Blown Visuals
- 100 (Really) Beautiful iPhone Wallpapers
1. News / Entertainment
Sevnth Sin
The unique navigation makes this site very interactive. Nice concept, nice colors.
Blip.tv
Perfectly suits the theme: video entertainment! Clean and clear typography.
NBC
The YouTube-style design makes it very easy to navigate and find shows.
Zinio
That’s a kit of magazines, all one-touch away!
Spin The Bottle
A simple bottle spinning game. Good use of graphics.
Daily Wallpaper
Similar to Zinio, but 2 thumbnails in a row make it more easy to navigate around.
AOL Horoscopes
Very well designed for a horoscope site. Matching color scheme throughout.
Tags: Apple, Build, css, Food, Google, Guideline, Information, IO, ISO, Javascript, ma, man, Photo, php, quick, script, Shopping, video, Wallpaper, way, WordPress, XP
10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines
My Clippings September 26th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
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Everyone would agree that usability is an important aspect of Web design. Whether you’re working on a portfolio website, online store or Web app, making your pages easy and enjoyable for your visitors to use is key. Many studies have been done over the years on various aspects of Web and interface design, and the findings are valuable in helping us improve our work. Here are 10 useful usability findings and guidelines that may help you improve the user experience on your websites.
Form Labels Work Best Above The Field
A study by UX Matters found that the ideal position for labels in forms is above the fields. On many forms, labels are put to the left of the fields, creating a two-column layout; while this looks good, it’s not the easiest layout to use. Why is that? Because forms are generally vertically oriented; i.e. users fill the form from top to bottom. Users scan the form downwards as they go along. And following the label to the field below is easier than finding the field to the right of the label.
Tumblr features a simple and elegant sign-up form that adheres to UX Matter’s recommendation.
Positioning labels on the left also poses another problem: do you left-align or right-align the labels? Left-aligning makes the form scannable but disconnects the labels from the fields, making it difficult to see which label applies to which field. Right-aligning does the reverses: it makes for a good-looking but less scannable form. Labels above fields work best in most circumstances. The study also found that labels should not be bold, although this recommendation is not conclusive.
Users Focus On Faces
People instinctively notice other people right away when they come into view. On Web pages, we tend to focus on people’s faces and eyes, which gives marketers a good technique for attracting attention. But our attraction to people’s faces and eyes is only the beginning; it turns out we actually glance in the direction the person in the image is looking in.
Eye-tracking heat map of a baby looking directly at us, from the UsableWorld study.
And now the baby is looking at the content. Notice the increase in people looking at the headline and text.
Tags: advertising, Apple, Build, cli, email, flash, Google, Guideline, Information, IO, ma, man, Microsoft, nano, php, quick, Shopping, video, way, XP
Website of the Day: TownMe
My Clippings September 25th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Just moved to a new city or town? Or perhaps you’re taking a business trip to a place you’ve never visited and you’re trying to locate some decent restaurants and shopping areas. A recently launched site called TownMe will help you get acquainted with your new surroundings by showing you the best restaurants, bars, and businesses thanks to the “What’s Near Me” search tool. I met with the founders yesterday (who food for thought, are two former Google employees) and learned all about this site and its useful features.
Umm hello?! It even has a section under tools where you can check out birthday deals in your city (free food and more!). Aside from discovering where the sugar daddies are located in your city, checking out what other people are tweeting about in your community, or where the best yoga studio is in your neighborhood, TownMe allows you to create your own info page or edit someone else’s so you can list out all of your local faves to share with the community as well.
Have an interesting website you want to share? To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group, read more.
- First of all, join the Website of the Day group.
- Click “New Post” under the website of the day tab at the top of the page.
- Give your story a “Title.”
- Fill in the “Body” with a link to your favorite website and the reasons why you love it.
- Type “Technology and Gadgets” in the Categories box
- Add keyword(s) in the tag field with relevant tags (for example mine for this story was “Website of the Day”).
- Choose whether you want the post to be private or public.
- Click “Create Post” to submit content.
So join the Website of the Day group and share information about all your favorite sites! Yours just might end up on the GeekSugar homepage!
Tags: Food, Google, Information, IO, Shopping
Showcase of Fresh and Well-Designed Online Shops
My Clippings September 6th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
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E-Commerce websites are often thought of as typically being unattractive or poorly designed. In this post we will feature 35 appealing designs of online shops. Those featured in this post include examples from a variety of different industries and showcase several different styles of design.
Throughout this showcase the most noticeable trend of well-designed e-commerce sites is the use of high-quality photos. Many of the sites use large images on the homepage, and product and model photography is always important for creating interest from visitors.
You may also be interested in these other posts from Smashing Magazine:
- 12 Tips for Designing an Excellent Checkout Process
- Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices
- Showcase of e-Commerce Fall Sales Designs
- 5 Universal Principles for Successful eCommerce Sites
Fresh Well-Designed Online Shops
Zoomii.com – The “Real” Online Bookstore
Tags: amazon, Google, IO, Photo, php, Shopping, way, wind, XP
Amazon Remembers Forgot
Shopping July 5th, 2009 by Shai Perednik
My nephews had a toy that we couldn’t figure out what it was. We tried googling the #s on the back. But no luck. So I remember Amazon’s Remebers service and tried it out. I uploaded this photo:
And got back the sassy crab toy:
Who on earth would be stupid enough to think a blue man toy looks like a rattle crab.
What a horrible experience. I hope no one got paid for this!
