iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Disregard Of Context
My Clippings November 15th, 2009 by System
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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.
Tags: Apple, blockquote, cli, Extract, Google, Information, IO, ISO, ma, Mac, man, Photo, php, script, video, way, XP
Portable XLS Converter 1.7.3
My Clippings November 13th, 2009 by System
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YouTube Getting 1080p Video Next Week
My Clippings November 13th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
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.
A Single Graphic Card to Control 8 Displays
My Clippings November 12th, 2009 by System
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Most likely annoyed by the new Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity, able to manage 6 displays, and by AMD strategy to take shares of its niche markets, Matrox fired back with a new graphic card: M9188.
This card scored a new record as it is able to manage simultaneously up to 8 displays. I features 1 or 2 GB of VRAM and is installed on a PCI Express 16x slot. Matrox does not plan to compete on the market of graphic cards dedicated to games, but develop solutions allowing simultaneous management of several displays as used in airport, stock exchange places, video-controlled operation centers, etc.
Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code [Programming]
My Clippings November 12th, 2009 by System
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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.
Tags: Apple, backup, Bookmarklet, Bookmarklets, Build, cli, command line, css, email, flash, Google, Information, IO, Javascript, Linux, ma, Mac, man, Monkey, OSX, php, quick, script, video, way, wind, WordPress, XP
Google Go: An Open-Source Programming Language
My Clippings November 12th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
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 }
Tags: blockquote, Build, Google, IO, Javascript, ma, man, php, script, way, XP
Secrets preference panel updated for Snow Leopard
My Clippings November 12th, 2009 by System
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Filed under: OS, Software, Odds and ends
From time to time we have shared hidden settings in applications which can be used to “tweak” an app’s behavior, such as forcing Snow Leopard’s dictionary to reuse the same window or make the print dialog expanded by default. These settings are normally changed using the Terminal.app which can be daunting to some.
Secrets is a (free!) preference panel which has collected a bunch of these settings and made changing them as simple as checking a box or choosing from a drop-down panel of possible choices. It includes settings for about 40 different applications, from Apple applications such as Mail, iCal, iChat, Finder, Front Row, Keynote, DVD Player (and more) to third-party applications including Adium, Audio Hijack Pro, BBedit, EyeTV, VMware Fusion, and TextMate (just to name a few). Some applications have a lot of hidden settings, and some have only one or two.
If you see a setting but don’t know what it does, click it and Secrets will show a brief explanation (these are also available on the Secrets website, but they are easier to read in the preference panel). If you change a setting which requires you to restart the application, Secrets will tell you, and even give you a “Quit This” button. (It’s usually best to make these changes when the app isn’t running.)
Unfortunately at least one of the secret settings from 10.5 doesn’t seem to work in 10.6. That is, the setting to turn HelpViewer into a regular (instead of floating) window. There may be others.
I’m off to explore and see what new goodies Alcor (the developer of Secrets, who you may also know as the creator of Quicksilver) has uncovered.
Thanks to the recently-revived Hawk Wings site for bringing this to my attention. If you use Apple’s Mail.app, Hawk Wings is a great site for tips and information.
Update: We seem to have taken down the Secrets website (oops!) but you can download the preference panel from a mirror (zip) (166kb).
TUAWSecrets preference panel updated for Snow Leopard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: Apple, cli, email, Google, Inc., Information, IO, Leopard, ma, Mac, man, quick, Snow Leopard, terminal, wind, XP
Cheapism Helps You Find the Cheapest “Best Buys” [Frugality]
My Clippings November 8th, 2009 by System
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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.
Getting Started With Content Management Systems
My Clippings November 8th, 2009 by System
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The need to update websites faster to keep content fresh has been ever growing. Ever since the first business owner wanted their Web designer to update their website faster, content management systems have played an important role on the Web. Why does this matter to you? How do you know if your company is ready?
In this article, we will look at how to tell if your organization needs a content management system. We will also give you information on the abilities of content management systems to help you better understand what they can do. While content management systems may seem complex, their entire purpose is to streamline your workflow and make your life easier.
A content management system allows you to create, manage, store and edit massive amounts of content without any HTML programming skill. Because you are able to edit your content from any computer with an Internet connection, you no longer have to rely on third-party developers or companies to keep your website up to date. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Every company would like to reduce costs and increase productivity.
Also consider our previous articles:
- 10 Things To Consider When Choosing The Perfect CMS
Goes over what features to look for when choosing a content management system. - 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites
Explains the mistakes we all make when running our websites. The nature of those mistakes varies depending on the size of your company. As your organization grows, the mistakes change. This post addresses common mistakes of large organizations. - Developers Toolbox
Offers tools and resources to help you achieve your goals at a more hands-on level.
1. What Is A Content Management System?
If you have never heard the term before, a content management system (CMS) is a Web-based solution that makes it easy for a company to manage website updates internally. For many companies, updating a website is not something to look forward to because it can be a lengthy and, over time, expensive process. Most companies search for easier means of accomplishing their goals. The solution that many large and small companies have found is a CMS. The easy-to-use application allows your company to control its online identity with little to no knowledge of Web design.
Tags: Apple, Build, cli, CURL, Google, Information, IO, ma, man, Microsoft, module, Photo, php, quick, script, security, ssl, video, way, WordPress, XP
XP Quick Fix Plus Repairs Common Windows XP Errors [Downloads]
My Clippings November 7th, 2009 by System
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Windows XP: If your Windows XP installation is acting up, sometimes a fix is as simple as tweaking a registry key. Rather than muck about in your registry looking for it, use XP Quick Fix Plus to patch things up.
XP Quick Fix Plus is a tiny portable application that presents 40 quick fixes arranged in a push-button chart. Press the button for the problem you’re having like CDs not autoplaying, file associations grayed out, the boot.ini tab missing in MSCONFIG, or any of the other 40 common problems, and XP Quick Fix Plus will patch the registry key for the problem you’re having and get things back in working order.
Not sure if the button covers the problem you’re having? Mousing over the buttons gives you a detailed description of the problem. Have a favorite quick-fix tool to share? Let’s hear about it in the comments. XP Quick Fix Plus is freeware, Windows only.
