In the book Fresher Styles for Web Designers: More Eye Candy from the Underground by Curt Cloninger I found a review of an interesting website Modernista! When you link to the current version of it from any other page on the web, the page from which you came appears behind the minimal Modernista! menu. It's wecome disclamer reads "You are viewing Modernista! through the eyes of the web. The menu on the left is our homepage. Everything behind it is beyond our control." As you scroll through the M! menu, notice that all its portfolio content is hosted on publicly available, "web 2.0" sites. Its print work is on Flickr, its video work is on Youtube, its web work is linked from del.icio.us, and recent news about the company is found at Google News. As you navigate to each of these subsites, the Modernista! menu continues to hover on the top left, uniting these disparate web locations under one logo. Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Modernista!
In the book Fresher Styles for Web Designers: More Eye Candy from the Underground by Curt Cloninger I found a review of an interesting website Modernista! When you link to the current version of it from any other page on the web, the page from which you came appears behind the minimal Modernista! menu. It's wecome disclamer reads "You are viewing Modernista! through the eyes of the web. The menu on the left is our homepage. Everything behind it is beyond our control." As you scroll through the M! menu, notice that all its portfolio content is hosted on publicly available, "web 2.0" sites. Its print work is on Flickr, its video work is on Youtube, its web work is linked from del.icio.us, and recent news about the company is found at Google News. As you navigate to each of these subsites, the Modernista! menu continues to hover on the top left, uniting these disparate web locations under one logo. 
This Week Terms And Definitions
Del.icio.us - a social bookmarking Web site that serves as a bookmarks manager for users, similar to a collection of favorite links. You can add bookmarks to your del.icio.us list, categorize the bookmarks, tag them and also share them with others. On some blogs the words "del.icio.us" may appear below a blog post as a hyperlink that readers can click to submit the post to their del.icio.us bookmarks.
Follower - on Twitter, blogs, and other social media sites, a follower is someone who subscribes to receives your updates.
Social media - a term used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another online. Some examples of social media sites and applications include Facebook, YouTube, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg, blogs and other sites that have content based on user participation and user-generated content (UGC).
Social networking site - abbreviated as SNS a social networking site is the phrase used to describe any Web site that enables users to create public profiles within that Web site and form relationships with other users of the same Web site who access their profile. Social networking sites can be used to describe community-based Web sites, online discussions forums, chatrooms and other social spaces online.
UGC - user-generated content, UGC is the term used to describe any form of content such as video, blogs, discussion form posts, digital images, audio files, and other forms of media that was created by consumers or end-users of an online system or service and is publically available to others consumers and end-users. User-generated content is also called consumer generated media (CGM).
Follower - on Twitter, blogs, and other social media sites, a follower is someone who subscribes to receives your updates.
Social media - a term used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another online. Some examples of social media sites and applications include Facebook, YouTube, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg, blogs and other sites that have content based on user participation and user-generated content (UGC).
Social networking site - abbreviated as SNS a social networking site is the phrase used to describe any Web site that enables users to create public profiles within that Web site and form relationships with other users of the same Web site who access their profile. Social networking sites can be used to describe community-based Web sites, online discussions forums, chatrooms and other social spaces online.
UGC - user-generated content, UGC is the term used to describe any form of content such as video, blogs, discussion form posts, digital images, audio files, and other forms of media that was created by consumers or end-users of an online system or service and is publically available to others consumers and end-users. User-generated content is also called consumer generated media (CGM).
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
A New Step In Site Interactivity
When I first visited the site of Publicis & Hal Riney I was very surprised by the way it could be navigated. Besides the usual navigation by using a mouse you can navigate by using just your hands! (you need a web cam to do this) I felt like I'm in a movie about space ships or in some kind of James Bond high-tech labs. Unbeliveable! You don't even need to touch anything - just move your hands. Everybody should definetly visit this web site for some great user experience!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
This Week Terms And Definitions
A-List blogger - a term used to describe a group of elite bloggers who post daily on their blogs and receive a huge number of links back to the blog they write. The defining element of an A-List blogger is the size of the blog's readership (e.g. its traffic).
B-blog - short for business blog, a blog used by a business to promote itself.
Bliki - short for blog and wiki, bliki is a type of blog that can be edited by readers or an agreed upon group of collaborators, contributors and editors.
Digg - a community-based Web site where users submit content and rate that content by "Digging" what they see and like best. A submission that earns a larger number of Diggs, and therefore is more popular with users, is moved the Digg homepage for the category of content it belongs in. The Digg Web site was founded by Kevin Rose and launched in November 2004.
RSS is the acronym used to describe the de facto standard for the syndication of Web content. RSS is an XML-based format and while it can be used in different ways for content distribution, its most widespread usage is in distributing news headlines on the Web. A Web site that wants to allow other sites to publish some of its content creates an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A user that can read RSS-distributed content can use the content on a different site. Syndicated content can include data such as news feeds, events listings, news stories, headlines, project updates, excerpts from discussion forums or even corporate information.
B-blog - short for business blog, a blog used by a business to promote itself.
Bliki - short for blog and wiki, bliki is a type of blog that can be edited by readers or an agreed upon group of collaborators, contributors and editors.
Digg - a community-based Web site where users submit content and rate that content by "Digging" what they see and like best. A submission that earns a larger number of Diggs, and therefore is more popular with users, is moved the Digg homepage for the category of content it belongs in. The Digg Web site was founded by Kevin Rose and launched in November 2004.
RSS is the acronym used to describe the de facto standard for the syndication of Web content. RSS is an XML-based format and while it can be used in different ways for content distribution, its most widespread usage is in distributing news headlines on the Web. A Web site that wants to allow other sites to publish some of its content creates an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A user that can read RSS-distributed content can use the content on a different site. Syndicated content can include data such as news feeds, events listings, news stories, headlines, project updates, excerpts from discussion forums or even corporate information.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Web Accessibility
The original article "Introduction to Web Accessibility" http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php
Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. It is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities. An accessible Web can also help people with disabilities more actively participate in society.
Making a Web site accessible can be simple or complex, depending on many factors such as the type of content, the size and complexity of the site, and the development tools and environment.
Many accessibility features are easily implemented if they are planned from the beginning of Web site development or redesign.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
This Week Terms And Definitions
@ sign - pronounced at sign or simply as at, this symbol is used in e-mail addressing to separate the user’s name from the user’s domain name, both of which are necessary in order to transmit e-mails.
Child domain - Also called a sub domain , a domain that is part of a larger domain name in DNS hierarchy. DNS hierarchy consists of the root-level domain at the top, underneath which are the top-level domains, followed by second-level domains and finally subdomains.
Domain name registrant - the person, company or entity who owns or holds a domain name. When corporations and companies register a domain name, the registrant should be the company name (not an individual employee within the company) to ensure the business maintains ownership of the domain name.
Root server system - system of 13 file servers that are distributed around the globe and contain authoritative databases that form a master list of all top-level domain names (TLDs). There is one central, or "A", server that replicates changes to the other servers on a daily basis. Different organizations maintain the servers on the root server system. The U.S. government plays a role in maintaining about half of the servers.
TLD - short for top-level domain, and refers to the suffix attached to Internet domain names. There are a limited number of predefined suffixes, and each one represent a top-level domain. Current top-level domains include:
• com - commercial businesses; this is the most common TLD
• gov - U.S. government agencies
• edu - Educational institutions such as universities
• org - Organizations (mostly nonprofit)
• mil - Military
• net - Network organizations
• ca - Canada
• th - Thailand
Child domain - Also called a sub domain , a domain that is part of a larger domain name in DNS hierarchy. DNS hierarchy consists of the root-level domain at the top, underneath which are the top-level domains, followed by second-level domains and finally subdomains.
Domain name registrant - the person, company or entity who owns or holds a domain name. When corporations and companies register a domain name, the registrant should be the company name (not an individual employee within the company) to ensure the business maintains ownership of the domain name.
Root server system - system of 13 file servers that are distributed around the globe and contain authoritative databases that form a master list of all top-level domain names (TLDs). There is one central, or "A", server that replicates changes to the other servers on a daily basis. Different organizations maintain the servers on the root server system. The U.S. government plays a role in maintaining about half of the servers.
TLD - short for top-level domain, and refers to the suffix attached to Internet domain names. There are a limited number of predefined suffixes, and each one represent a top-level domain. Current top-level domains include:
• com - commercial businesses; this is the most common TLD
• gov - U.S. government agencies
• edu - Educational institutions such as universities
• org - Organizations (mostly nonprofit)
• mil - Military
• net - Network organizations
• ca - Canada
• th - Thailand
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Little Efforts Can Make A Big Difference
The original article Seeking to End World Hunger, One Search at a Time by Jenna Wortham
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/seeking-to-end-world-hunger-one-search-at-a-time/#more-6439
The trio of students built Hoongle.org, a custom Google search engine that promises to donate 20 grains of rice per search to schools in the developing world. To date, they raised about $1,500, enough for about 6,000 meals.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/seeking-to-end-world-hunger-one-search-at-a-time/#more-6439
The trio of students built Hoongle.org, a custom Google search engine that promises to donate 20 grains of rice per search to schools in the developing world. To date, they raised about $1,500, enough for about 6,000 meals.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
This Week Terms And Definitions
Baud - the number of signal changes transmitted per second during data transmission by modem.
Baud rate - the speed at which a modem transmits data, or the number of "events" it can handle per second.
Encode - the conversion of data to a machine-readable form.
Emulation- to simulate otherwise incompatible software or hardware to make it compatible - running Microsoft Windows on a Macintosh computer, for example.
Human-computer interaction - a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.
Baud rate - the speed at which a modem transmits data, or the number of "events" it can handle per second.
Encode - the conversion of data to a machine-readable form.
Emulation- to simulate otherwise incompatible software or hardware to make it compatible - running Microsoft Windows on a Macintosh computer, for example.
Human-computer interaction - a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.
Friday, April 17, 2009
YouTube Symphony Orchestra
YouTube gathered a whole Symphony Orchestra from around the world!
The world's first collaborative online orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall on April 15, 2009. Selected by the YouTube community and several members of the world's most renowned orchestras, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra is made up of over 96 professional and amateur musicians from 30+ countries and territories on six continents and represents 26 different instruments.
They have been chosen out of thousands of musicians - who posted audition videos on the popular website.
The talented musicians learnt the piece via internet tutorials - before coming together for the first time this week in New York.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
This Week Terms And Definitions
CMS - Content Management System - a computer application used to create, edit, manage, search and publish various kinds of digital media and electronic text. They are frequently used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentation such as news articles, operators' manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, and marketing brochures.
Browser chrome - the borders of a Web browser window, which include the window frames, menus, toolbars and scroll bars. When designing a Web page, the browser chrome must be added to determine the width of the page. Viewport - the remaining viewable space in the browser window.
Task-oriented schemes - schemes that organize content and applications into a collection of processes, functions, or tasks. These schemes are appropriate when it's possible to anticipate a limited number of high-priority tasks that users will want to perform. On the Web, task-oriented organization schemes are most common in the context of e-commerce web sites.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Microsoft Will Deploy Internet Explorer 8 Through Automatic Update
The original article "Prepare for Automatic Update Distribution of IE8"
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/04/10/prepare-for-automatic-update-distribution-of-ie8.aspx
Microsoft plans to distribute Internet Explorer 8 to computers running previous versions of IE (IE 6 or IE 7) via Automatic
Updates starting from the 3rd week of April. The update will be rolled out gradually from a small user
base to large number of users. The update will be a ‘high priority‘ update for systems running Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and is an ‘important‘ update for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The final version of IE8 was distributed via automatic update recently to users still running pre-release versions of IE8, Beta 2/RC1.
Organizations can use the IE8 Blocker Toolkit to block automatic delivery of IE8. The blocking tool has to be in place by the week of April 20th. IE8 will be released to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) in July 2009 and will be classified as an Update Rollup.
P.S.' Why to use a blocker?' - we wondered at the office. Then we were told that "the IE8 blocker is meant for admins to delay the installation until they are ready to install them for the entire organization due to certain issues (such as ocompatiblity issues, security issues, or testing for reliablity)". At our office the machines will be updated as soon as our geek-aid aministrator has a chance to do it.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
This Week Terms And Definitions
Animated GIF - type of GIF image that can be animated by combining several images into a single GIF file. Applications that support the animated GIF standard, GIF89A, cycle through each image. GIF animation doesn't give the same level of control and flexibility as other animation formats but it has become extremely popular because it is supported by nearly all Web browsers. In addition, animated GIF files tend to be quite a bit smaller that other animation files, such as Java applets.
GIF - stands for graphics interchange format, a bit-mapped graphics file format used by the World Wide Web, CompuServe and many BBSs. GIF supports color
and various resolutions. It also includes data compression, but because it is limited to 256 colors, it is more effective for scanned images such as illustrations rather than color photos.
HoneyMonkey - a computer or a virtual PC that actively mimics the actions of a user surfing the Web. A series of "monkey programs," which drive a browser in a manner similar to that of a human user, run on virtual machines in order to detect exploit sites. The browsers can be configured to run with fully updated software, or without specific updates in order to look for exploit sites that target specific vulnerabilities. In this manner, the attacks more likely to impact customers can be analyzed and detected.
Podcasting is similar in nature to RSS, which allows subscribers to subscribe to a set of feeds to view syndicated Web site content. With podcasting however, you have a set of subscriptions that are checked regularly for updates and instead of reading the feeds on your computer screen, you listen to the new content on on your iPod (or like device).
Shockwave - a technology developed by Macromedia, Inc. that enables Web pages to include multimedia objects. To create a shockwave object, you use Macromedia's multimedia authoring tool called Director, and then compress the object with a program called Afterburner. You then insert a reference to the "shocked" file in your Web page. To see a Shockwave object, you need the Shockwave plug-in, a program that integrates seamlessly with your Web browser. The plug-in is freely available from Macromedia's Web site as either a Netscape Navigator plug-in or an ActiveX control. Shockwave supports audio, animation, video and even processes user actions such as mouse clicks. It runs on all Windows platforms as well as the Macintosh.
GIF - stands for graphics interchange format, a bit-mapped graphics file format used by the World Wide Web, CompuServe and many BBSs. GIF supports color
and various resolutions. It also includes data compression, but because it is limited to 256 colors, it is more effective for scanned images such as illustrations rather than color photos.
HoneyMonkey - a computer or a virtual PC that actively mimics the actions of a user surfing the Web. A series of "monkey programs," which drive a browser in a manner similar to that of a human user, run on virtual machines in order to detect exploit sites. The browsers can be configured to run with fully updated software, or without specific updates in order to look for exploit sites that target specific vulnerabilities. In this manner, the attacks more likely to impact customers can be analyzed and detected.
Podcasting is similar in nature to RSS, which allows subscribers to subscribe to a set of feeds to view syndicated Web site content. With podcasting however, you have a set of subscriptions that are checked regularly for updates and instead of reading the feeds on your computer screen, you listen to the new content on on your iPod (or like device).
Shockwave - a technology developed by Macromedia, Inc. that enables Web pages to include multimedia objects. To create a shockwave object, you use Macromedia's multimedia authoring tool called Director, and then compress the object with a program called Afterburner. You then insert a reference to the "shocked" file in your Web page. To see a Shockwave object, you need the Shockwave plug-in, a program that integrates seamlessly with your Web browser. The plug-in is freely available from Macromedia's Web site as either a Netscape Navigator plug-in or an ActiveX control. Shockwave supports audio, animation, video and even processes user actions such as mouse clicks. It runs on all Windows platforms as well as the Macintosh.
4 Ways Companies Use Twitter for Business
Original article by Sarah Perez was posted on Read Write Web
Twitter was originally intended for communication among individuals, a number of organizations have begun to actively participate on the platform. However, not all companies are using Twitter in the same way. "As Twitter is a public forum, employees should understand the limits of what is acceptable and desirable," says Jeffrey Mann, research vice president at Gartner.
Based on Gartner’s research, they have narrowed down the four different ways that companies are using Twitter today: direct, indirect, internal, and signaling.
Direct
Some companies are using Twitter as a marketing or public relations channel, much like an extension to their corporate blogs. They will post about corporate accomplishments and distribute links that take people back to corporate web pages, press releases, and other promotional sites.
Indirect
The second method some companies use on Twitter is to let their employees tweet instead. As the employees use Twitter to enhance their own personal reputations, the company's reputation is also enhanced by proxy.
Internal
Some companies use Twitter internally to share ideas or communicate about what projects they're working on. If this information is confidential in nature, employees either need to protect their updates or even better, not use Twitter at all. Gartner doesn't recommend using Twitter or any other consumer microblogging service in this way because there's no guarantee of security.
Inbound Signaling
Some companies aren't as much Twitter participants as they are Twitter "listeners." Using search tools like search.twitter.com or desktop applications like TweetDeck are easy ways to keep track of what's being said about the company, its product names, or even the industry as a whole. Smart companies are tuning in to these micro-conversations to get early warnings of problems and to collect feedback on product issues or ideas.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
This Week Terms And Definitions
Digg This - on many blogs including Typepad, Blogger, Live Journal, Moveable Type, and Wordpress, the words "Digg This" may appear below a blog post as a hyperlink which readers can click to submit the post to the Digg Web site.
Facebook - the name of a social networking site (SNS) that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, post photos, share links and exchange other information. Facebook users can see only the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks.
TrackBack - a type of peer-to-peer communication system that was designed to send notification of updates between two Web sites via a Trackback Ping. Ping in reference to TrackBack refers to a small message sent from one Web server to another. TrackBacks are useful for informing a Web site that you have referenced its Web site within your own Web site, and is popular with bloggers.
Twitter - free social messaging tool that lets people stay connected through brief text message updates up to 140 characters in length. Twitter is based on you answering the question "What are you doing?" You then post their thoughts, observations, and goings-on in their day. Your update is posted on your Twitter profile page through SMS text messaging, the Twitter Web site, instant messaging, RSS, e-mail, or through other social applications and sites, such as Facebook.
YouTube - popular free video-sharing Web site that lets registered users upload and share video clips online at the YouTube.com Web site. To view the videos you are not required to register. Launched in 2005 by former PayPal employees, the video-sharing site was acquired by Google Inc. in October 2006 for US $1.65 billion in Google stock. YouTube is currently based in San Bruno, CA and is a subsidiary of Google, Inc.
Facebook - the name of a social networking site (SNS) that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, post photos, share links and exchange other information. Facebook users can see only the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks.
TrackBack - a type of peer-to-peer communication system that was designed to send notification of updates between two Web sites via a Trackback Ping. Ping in reference to TrackBack refers to a small message sent from one Web server to another. TrackBacks are useful for informing a Web site that you have referenced its Web site within your own Web site, and is popular with bloggers.
Twitter - free social messaging tool that lets people stay connected through brief text message updates up to 140 characters in length. Twitter is based on you answering the question "What are you doing?" You then post their thoughts, observations, and goings-on in their day. Your update is posted on your Twitter profile page through SMS text messaging, the Twitter Web site, instant messaging, RSS, e-mail, or through other social applications and sites, such as Facebook.
YouTube - popular free video-sharing Web site that lets registered users upload and share video clips online at the YouTube.com Web site. To view the videos you are not required to register. Launched in 2005 by former PayPal employees, the video-sharing site was acquired by Google Inc. in October 2006 for US $1.65 billion in Google stock. YouTube is currently based in San Bruno, CA and is a subsidiary of Google, Inc.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tag Clouds
In class we discussed the arranging and hierarcy of information on the blog. I found an article about tag clouds while reading a book Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks (2009 SitePoint). On the right is a nice example of using a tag cloud as a subnavigation on Web Designer Wall which shows that usability and good design work together very nicely. (http://www.webdesignerwall.co
m/)
m/)Here is an excerpt from the book.
A visually interesting way to present a set of topics in the form of a tag cloud - a series of words that use size and prominence to indicate a particular term's popularity or importance, so named for the way the group of terms resemble the puffy outline of a cloud.
Tag clouds are particulary interesting form of navigaton, because they imply a sense of what topics are most discussed by allowing some tags to appear in larger or smaller font sizes. As a general rule, the larger the font size, the more popular the tag.
The knock-on effect is that the links within tag clouds are usually dynamic in two different ways:
* their size is constantly subject to fluctuation as the content on the site changes
* the terms that form the tag cloud are also updated as soon as new topics are introduced
Some sites - where many tags are supported - will only display the most popular: this results in a form of navigation that regulates itself with little effort required from the person(s) behind the web site.
A visually interesting way to present a set of topics in the form of a tag cloud - a series of words that use size and prominence to indicate a particular term's popularity or importance, so named for the way the group of terms resemble the puffy outline of a cloud.
Tag clouds are particulary interesting form of navigaton, because they imply a sense of what topics are most discussed by allowing some tags to appear in larger or smaller font sizes. As a general rule, the larger the font size, the more popular the tag.
The knock-on effect is that the links within tag clouds are usually dynamic in two different ways:
* their size is constantly subject to fluctuation as the content on the site changes
* the terms that form the tag cloud are also updated as soon as new topics are introduced
Some sites - where many tags are supported - will only display the most popular: this results in a form of navigation that regulates itself with little effort required from the person(s) behind the web site.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
This Week Terms And Definitions
Firewall - a software security system that protects Web sites and networks from unauthorized access.
Hostname - the name that identifies the computer hosting a Web site.
Orphan file - a file on a Web site that is not reffered to by any link or button and thus cannot be reached by any means other than through its absolute URL - in other words, to find it you must know its exact pathname.
Page flipping - an HTML structure for Web pages that allows users to see successive screens without needing to scroll.
Search engine - the part of a program, such as a database, that seeks out information in response to requests made by the user. On the Web, search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Yandex (the most popular russian SE) provide sophisticated criteria for searching, and provide summaries of each result as well as the Web site addresses for retrieving more information.
Hostname - the name that identifies the computer hosting a Web site.
Orphan file - a file on a Web site that is not reffered to by any link or button and thus cannot be reached by any means other than through its absolute URL - in other words, to find it you must know its exact pathname.
Page flipping - an HTML structure for Web pages that allows users to see successive screens without needing to scroll.
Search engine - the part of a program, such as a database, that seeks out information in response to requests made by the user. On the Web, search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Yandex (the most popular russian SE) provide sophisticated criteria for searching, and provide summaries of each result as well as the Web site addresses for retrieving more information.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Google's Websites Growing Popularity
The original article "Hitwise: Visits to Gmail Surpass YouTube" byPhil Glockner:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hitwise_visits_to_gmail_surpass_youtube.php#more
According to a new report by web measurement firm Hitwise, in the past two weeks visits to Gmail have been consistently higher than popular Google-owned video site YouTube. Additionally, these two sites have been contending for the #10 spot overall since the week ending January 10, 2009. Historically, the same top 10 sites have been fixed in their positions, so this shift represents the first big change in quite a while.
Across the top Google properties, Gmail is now #2, trailing only Google search.
Looking at the growth trend between YouTube and Gmail shows how dramatically Gmail has grown over the past year. Gmail has been on a steep, steady growth line while YouTube's fortunes have reversed a number of times. When comparing Gmail to other popular webmail clients Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Mail, it has a ways to go to get close to capturing the market share of those other products.
To us this appears that while adoption of Gmail is growing, it may be as a result of people choosing one web mail provider over another.
According to a new report by web measurement firm Hitwise, in the past two weeks visits to Gmail have been consistently higher than popular Google-owned video site YouTube. Additionally, these two sites have been contending for the #10 spot overall since the week ending January 10, 2009. Historically, the same top 10 sites have been fixed in their positions, so this shift represents the first big change in quite a while.
Across the top Google properties, Gmail is now #2, trailing only Google search.
Looking at the growth trend between YouTube and Gmail shows how dramatically Gmail has grown over the past year. Gmail has been on a steep, steady growth line while YouTube's fortunes have reversed a number of times. When comparing Gmail to other popular webmail clients Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Mail, it has a ways to go to get close to capturing the market share of those other products.
To us this appears that while adoption of Gmail is growing, it may be as a result of people choosing one web mail provider over another.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
This Week Definitions
Some of new terms could also be found in the article about usability posted previously.
Definitions:
CGI - Common Gateway Interface - a programming technique for transferring data between Web server and other applications, such as database.
Ethernet - a hardware connection standard used on local area networks (LAN) that offers fast data transfer.
Hypermedia - the combination of graphics, text, movies, sound, amd other elements accessible via hypertext links in an online document or Web page.
Interface - the physical relationship between human beings, systems, and machines - in other words, the point of interaction or connection. The involvement of humans is referred to as a user interface.
Definitions:
CGI - Common Gateway Interface - a programming technique for transferring data between Web server and other applications, such as database.
Ethernet - a hardware connection standard used on local area networks (LAN) that offers fast data transfer.
Hypermedia - the combination of graphics, text, movies, sound, amd other elements accessible via hypertext links in an online document or Web page.
Interface - the physical relationship between human beings, systems, and machines - in other words, the point of interaction or connection. The involvement of humans is referred to as a user interface.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
What, Why, How, When And Where Of Usability
The original article "Usability 101: Introduction to Usability" by Jakob Nielsen: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html
What (Definition of Usability)
Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word "usability" also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.
Usability is defined by five quality components:
* Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
* Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
* Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
* Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
* Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?
There are many other important quality attributes. A key one is Utility, which refers to the design's functionality: Does it do what users need? Usability and utility are equally important: It matters little that something is easy if it's not what you want. It's also no good if the system can hypothetically do what you want, but you can't make it happen because the user interface is too difficult. To study a design's utility, you can use the same user research methods that improve usability.
Why Usability is Important
On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website's information is hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here? There's no such thing as a user reading a website manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface. There are plenty of other websites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.
Current best practices call for spending about 10% of a design project's budget on usability.
How to Improve Usability
There are many methods for studying usability, but the most basic and useful is user testing, which has 3 components:
* Get hold of some representative users, such as customers for an e-commerce site or employees for an intranet (in the latter case, they should work outside your department).
* Ask the users to perform representative tasks with the design.
* Observe what the users do, where they succeed, and where they have difficulties with the user interface. Shut up and let the users do the talking.
It's important to test users individually and let them solve any problems on their own. If you help them or direct their attention to any particular part of the screen, you have contaminated the test results.
To identify a design's most important usability problems, testing 5 users is typically enough.
User testing is different from focus groups, which are a poor way of evaluating design usability. Focus groups have a place in market research, but to evaluate interaction designs you must closely observe individual users as they perform tasks with the user interface. Listening to what people say is misleading: you have to watch what they actually do.
When to Work on Usability
Usability plays a role in each stage of the design process. The resulting need for multiple studies is one reason I recommend making individual studies fast and cheap. Here are the main steps:
1. Before starting the new design, test the old design to identify the good parts that you should keep or emphasize, and the bad parts that give users trouble.
2. Unless you're working on an intranet, test your competitors' designs to get cheap data on a range of alternative interfaces that have similar features to your own. (If you work on an intranet, read the intranet design annual to learn from other designs.)
3. Conduct a field study to see how users behave in their natural habitat.
4. Make paper prototypes of one or more new design ideas and test them. The less time you invest in these design ideas the better, because you'll need to change them all based on the test results.
5. Refine the design ideas that test best through multiple iterations, gradually moving from low-fidelity prototyping to high-fidelity representations that run on the computer. Test each iteration.
6. Inspect the design relative to established usability guidelines, whether from your own earlier studies or published research.
7. Once you decide on and implement the final design, test it again. Subtle usability problems always creep in during implementation.
The only way to a high-quality user experience is to start user testing early in the design process and to keep testing every step of the way.
Where to Test
If you run at least one user study per week, it's worth building a dedicated usability laboratory. For most companies, however, it's fine to conduct tests in a conference room or an office — as long as you can close the door to keep out distractions. What matters is that you get hold of real users and sit with them while they use the design. A notepad is the only equipment you need.
What (Definition of Usability)
Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word "usability" also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.
Usability is defined by five quality components:
* Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
* Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
* Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
* Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
* Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?
There are many other important quality attributes. A key one is Utility, which refers to the design's functionality: Does it do what users need? Usability and utility are equally important: It matters little that something is easy if it's not what you want. It's also no good if the system can hypothetically do what you want, but you can't make it happen because the user interface is too difficult. To study a design's utility, you can use the same user research methods that improve usability.
Why Usability is Important
On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website's information is hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here? There's no such thing as a user reading a website manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface. There are plenty of other websites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.
Current best practices call for spending about 10% of a design project's budget on usability.
How to Improve Usability
There are many methods for studying usability, but the most basic and useful is user testing, which has 3 components:
* Get hold of some representative users, such as customers for an e-commerce site or employees for an intranet (in the latter case, they should work outside your department).
* Ask the users to perform representative tasks with the design.
* Observe what the users do, where they succeed, and where they have difficulties with the user interface. Shut up and let the users do the talking.
It's important to test users individually and let them solve any problems on their own. If you help them or direct their attention to any particular part of the screen, you have contaminated the test results.
To identify a design's most important usability problems, testing 5 users is typically enough.
User testing is different from focus groups, which are a poor way of evaluating design usability. Focus groups have a place in market research, but to evaluate interaction designs you must closely observe individual users as they perform tasks with the user interface. Listening to what people say is misleading: you have to watch what they actually do.
When to Work on Usability
Usability plays a role in each stage of the design process. The resulting need for multiple studies is one reason I recommend making individual studies fast and cheap. Here are the main steps:
1. Before starting the new design, test the old design to identify the good parts that you should keep or emphasize, and the bad parts that give users trouble.
2. Unless you're working on an intranet, test your competitors' designs to get cheap data on a range of alternative interfaces that have similar features to your own. (If you work on an intranet, read the intranet design annual to learn from other designs.)
3. Conduct a field study to see how users behave in their natural habitat.
4. Make paper prototypes of one or more new design ideas and test them. The less time you invest in these design ideas the better, because you'll need to change them all based on the test results.
5. Refine the design ideas that test best through multiple iterations, gradually moving from low-fidelity prototyping to high-fidelity representations that run on the computer. Test each iteration.
6. Inspect the design relative to established usability guidelines, whether from your own earlier studies or published research.
7. Once you decide on and implement the final design, test it again. Subtle usability problems always creep in during implementation.
The only way to a high-quality user experience is to start user testing early in the design process and to keep testing every step of the way.
Where to Test
If you run at least one user study per week, it's worth building a dedicated usability laboratory. For most companies, however, it's fine to conduct tests in a conference room or an office — as long as you can close the door to keep out distractions. What matters is that you get hold of real users and sit with them while they use the design. A notepad is the only equipment you need.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998
The original article by Jakob Nielsen: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-usability.html
The article was found through informationdesign.org in its ‘Usability’ category. And that site was found through informationweek.com that is not only an on-line version of Information Week magazine but a large news web site about information technologies.
In the article “Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998” posted on February 17, 2009 its author, Jacob Nielsen, a researcher on user interfaces, debates about the weaknesses of mobile web usability and that progress in it moved just at half pace of wired usability during the nine year period. Based on his research Mr. Nielsen finds that today mobile web user experience quality is really poor and for its improvement a lot of progressive changes should be done in both ways: mobile devices and mobile web sites. Sites must develop specialized designs that optimize the mobile user experience and the iPhone is a great starting point for mobile online-services access.
I find this article could be interesting for the class, because we all use mobile phones and internet. And I’m pretty sure that everyone was excited when the Internet became mobile and those features became more available. In my experience I was disappointed and turned the Internet features off on my T-Mobile Wing in 3 months (I would like to do that even earlier, but the contract didn’t let me). It was too slow and, because of that, unnecessary. I guess progressive improvements in this field will be the good news for a lot of people.
The article was found through informationdesign.org in its ‘Usability’ category. And that site was found through informationweek.com that is not only an on-line version of Information Week magazine but a large news web site about information technologies.
In the article “Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998” posted on February 17, 2009 its author, Jacob Nielsen, a researcher on user interfaces, debates about the weaknesses of mobile web usability and that progress in it moved just at half pace of wired usability during the nine year period. Based on his research Mr. Nielsen finds that today mobile web user experience quality is really poor and for its improvement a lot of progressive changes should be done in both ways: mobile devices and mobile web sites. Sites must develop specialized designs that optimize the mobile user experience and the iPhone is a great starting point for mobile online-services access.
I find this article could be interesting for the class, because we all use mobile phones and internet. And I’m pretty sure that everyone was excited when the Internet became mobile and those features became more available. In my experience I was disappointed and turned the Internet features off on my T-Mobile Wing in 3 months (I would like to do that even earlier, but the contract didn’t let me). It was too slow and, because of that, unnecessary. I guess progressive improvements in this field will be the good news for a lot of people.
The Web As A Part Of Our Life
Since yesterday I have a huge problem at home, even a catastrophe! No Internet connection! After not so successful upgrade of our building by the provider the half of it doesn’t have any Internet, TV or telephone connection. So, how can I do my homework assignments? They are all online and I need to be online to finish them. This is the reality: thanks to the high speed speed Internet and Web 2.0 we can store and share all the information somewhere in the Web.
Definitions:
Ajax – (technology platform) an intermediary between the user and the server. Makes asynchronous server communication possible.
AdSense – an advertising program that anyone who publishes a web site can use to generate income for their web site. Google must approve your site before ads are shown on your site.
DoubleClick – a company that develops and provides Internet ad serving services.
Orkut – social networking and discussion site operated by Google.
Ruby – dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity.
Sxipper – a free Firefox add-on that lets you log into any web site with a single click. It keeps track of all of your user IDs, passwords, etc.
Viola Web Browser – the first web browser with inline graphics, scripting, tables, stylesheet (first released around April 1992).
VoIP – voice over Internet Protocol – a technology for transmitting voice conversations via the Internet.
Web 2.0 web sites - current generation of web sites that make good use of HTML and CSS while improving their interface with Ajax and social networking tools.
Web application – application that is accessed via web browser over a network (Internet).
Webtop – online software applications (web-based apps) that are similar to the ones that we have on our desktops: Writely ~ Microsoft Word, Zimbra ~ Microsoft Outlook.
I’ve searched all those definitions through the Internet. I also asked some people about Ajax and site examples that use it as well as what do they think about Web 2.0. I even looked through the books (like “Google AdSense For Dummies”, “Practical Web 2.0 Applications WithPHP”). Anyway, in my everyday living I search through the Internet. Any question in my mind - I immediately type it in the Google Search and then (depends on what I’m searching for) I prefer to read the articles from Wikipedia. As a person whose native language is not English I use online dictionaries like dictionary.com (they have even a pronunciation for each word) and lingvo.ru (for a quicker understanding) to search the words’ meaning.
Definitions:
Ajax – (technology platform) an intermediary between the user and the server. Makes asynchronous server communication possible.
AdSense – an advertising program that anyone who publishes a web site can use to generate income for their web site. Google must approve your site before ads are shown on your site.
DoubleClick – a company that develops and provides Internet ad serving services.
Orkut – social networking and discussion site operated by Google.
Ruby – dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity.
Sxipper – a free Firefox add-on that lets you log into any web site with a single click. It keeps track of all of your user IDs, passwords, etc.
Viola Web Browser – the first web browser with inline graphics, scripting, tables, stylesheet (first released around April 1992).
VoIP – voice over Internet Protocol – a technology for transmitting voice conversations via the Internet.
Web 2.0 web sites - current generation of web sites that make good use of HTML and CSS while improving their interface with Ajax and social networking tools.
Web application – application that is accessed via web browser over a network (Internet).
Webtop – online software applications (web-based apps) that are similar to the ones that we have on our desktops: Writely ~ Microsoft Word, Zimbra ~ Microsoft Outlook.
I’ve searched all those definitions through the Internet. I also asked some people about Ajax and site examples that use it as well as what do they think about Web 2.0. I even looked through the books (like “Google AdSense For Dummies”, “Practical Web 2.0 Applications WithPHP”). Anyway, in my everyday living I search through the Internet. Any question in my mind - I immediately type it in the Google Search and then (depends on what I’m searching for) I prefer to read the articles from Wikipedia. As a person whose native language is not English I use online dictionaries like dictionary.com (they have even a pronunciation for each word) and lingvo.ru (for a quicker understanding) to search the words’ meaning.
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