03-30-2009
A really quick and easy way to create your own interfaces for the iPhone. Tons of different parts to play with from text fields to keyboards and buttons, with drag and drop functionality, all drawn in a playful ‘scribble’ style. Minimal security so don’t do anything to confidential, but a great place to brainstorm. Here is my quick App Sketch, try your own.
Note that your mockups are not protected in any way other than by a non-obvious URL, so don’t use this service for “secret” mockups. Only create mockups you would show in public.Note that your mockups are not protected in any way other than by a non-obvious URL, so don’t use this service for “secret” mockups. Only create mockups you would show in public.
See it for yourself : http://iphonemockup.lkmc.ch
03-25-2009
With the addition of email client reports for all our customers, we took a step back and analyzed 6 months of data covering more than 250 million opens. The result – a birds eye view of email client popularity and usage trends over time.
Campaign Monitor has put together a comprehensive of email client numbers, and trends. If part of your business revolves around sending rich emails out to subscribers then this information is vitial. Oh and they are going to update it monthly to stay relevant.
See the full analysis : http://www.campaignmonitor.com/stats/email-clients/
This past week Avner Ronen, founder of Boxee, had a healthy heated debate over the future of TV with media mongol Mark Cuban.
Boxee is being marketed as a ‘Social Media Center’, enabling users to view, rate, recommend their own media in addition to a variety of internet sources. From Flickr to Twitter to your DVD collection Boxee can handle it all.
From Mark Cuban
The concept of “users always want choice” really really sounds nice. It makes for a great panel argument. But the reality is that its not true. Ultimate choice requires work. Consumers like to think they have choice, but their consumption habits say they prefer easy.
From Avner Ronen
Innovation in the living room will not come from the set-top makers or the networks. if you would like to see the wild creativity of the Internet come to the TV screen, well you need to let the Internet come to the TV screen.
An enlightening read.
For anyone who is curious to see where TV is going, and what some of the hurdles that lay ahead I highly recommend reading the full conversation.
Read the debate : http://blog.boxee.tv/2009/03/21/a-lively-debate-with-mark-cuban/
Review of what Boxee is : http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/theres-something-about-boxee/
03-23-2009
In the land of 140 characters, space is at a premium.
Thus creating a user-name that is also concise is of value. It can be easier for people to remember. It takes up less space when people are ‘retweeting’ things that you have said. It takes up less characters when someone is going to send you a message.
If only there was a way to see what small Twitter names were still available. Enter Little-Twit.
Little-Twit.com keeps a list of all the available one, two, three and four letter user-names. All of the one letter names are gone and most of the 2 letter names are gone as well, just 21 left. Plenty of three and four letter ones left though!
Give a check before they are all gone.
See for yourself : http://www.little-twit.com/
03-19-2009
Mind maps can be used for many different tasks – including to-do lists, brainstorming, holiday planning, research, writing, project management – and in many different environments – school, meetings, workspace.
I was introduced to Mind Mapping software a couple years ago, and absolutely love it. Essentially its a really wonderful and easy way to get a smattering of ideas down quickly. If you find yourself having notes all over the place around a given topic, I highly recommend taking a look at this.
This is what a sample map looks like.
This is by no means an exhastive list of Mind Mapping software, but just a couple that I find myself using.
For the Mac I recommend MindNode which comes in both free and pro/pay versions.
For cross-platform I recommend Freemind, which as its name implies is free 
03-11-2009
Where Google is a system for FINDING things that we as a civilization collectively publish, Wolfram Alpha is for ANSWERING questions about what we as a civilization collectively know.
…Wolfram Alpha actually computes the answers to a wide range of questions — like questions that have factual answers such as “What country is Timbuktu in?” or “How many protons are in a hydrogen atom?” or “What is the average rainfall in Seattle?”
Wow. There are many sites competing for our search clicks and queries; Live, Google, Ask, Mahalo and many others to name a few. And each has tried to put a unique spin or twist on it to provide extra value and win us over. Wolfram Alpha approach of actually determining the correct answer, as opposed to pointing me to a document that might have the answer is a game changer. It is being called a Computational Knowledge Engine for the web and the service is scheduled to go live in May, and I could not be more excited.
Read the full article : http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/08/wolfram-alpha-computes-answers-to-factual-questions-this-is-going-to-be-big/
via @citobito
Apple has quietly updated their Shuffle line of iPods, you know the ones which are super tiny with few buttons. New for this update is the inclusion of VoiceOver, which will speak to you the name of the Artist that is currently playing.
Seeing as the Shuffle never had a screen and did not previously have a way to know the Artists or navigate playlists this is a welcome addition. Unfortunately the voice still sounds like the normal Stephen Hawking’s type voice.
See it yourself : http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/voiceover.html
03-05-2009
As more and more marketers use Facebook as a key conduit for brands online, it is important to note some of the new changes to their Business Pages. Following last fall’s overall redesign, these pages will now migrate to the same Wall and tabs design that personal profiles have used.
More sites need to take cue and follow Facebook. What they are doing is what software companies have been doing since day one, release a new versions of their products to introduce new features, make changes based on usability and respond to customer needs/ demands. The big differnce here is that Facebook ( websites in general ) can iteratae much quicker.. and should.
Read the Article : http://mashable.com/2009/03/04/new-facebook-pages
See the Redesign : http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/homepage_tour.php
03-04-2009
Do you sometimes quickly prototype a Website on a piece of paper? Have you ever wanted a browser chrome on top of your sketch book?
The Design Commission claim is made that this is the ultimate gift for the UX person in your life, and I would have to agree. Get yours and get creating! I should have mine any day now.
See for yourself http://www.designcommission.com/shop/dc-website-stencil-kit/
On this profile you’ll find a wealth of information about how to best utilize a Brand Community to meet your marketing objectives. You’ll find a comprehensive Friends list showing all of our Brand Community advertisers, a Blog with great information on Community best practices, and a special showcase section where we take note on stand-out Communities.
A strong collection of over 700 community pages created for MySpace complete with tips and tricks of how to set up your own. Awesome, but a bit overdue.
See it for yourself: http://www.myspace.com/communityshowcase
