In a few short months, it is rumored that T-Mobile will be releasing the first Google Android-based phone. The HTC Dream. And while open-source fans may be rejoicing, here are some reasons why Android will only be competing with Windows Mobile OS and not helping to deliver the next iPhone.

The Dream = The Fail

While I applaud Google for creating a multi-phone OS, I have to wonder what T-Mobile and Google combined are thinking by releasing Android’s debut in the form of a SideKick-type device? Honestly…the HTC “Dream” looks more like a hallucination. It won’t be that slim, it will be cumbersome, and I just can’t believe they would mar initial public impressions of Android with a device that looks 3 years old.

The Public Wants Flashy

You can say that looks aren’t everything and that a non-touch screen keyboard may be nice, but let’s be honest. It won’t gain massive public appeal because it’s not offering anything “shiny” or that isn’t already in the marketplace (talking at large).

Remember: The general public is fickle. They want status and they want emotions sold to them, not functionality in a wonky looking device (those people are called baby boomers…and they don’t wait in lines for 7 hours).

Given, it has only been about a week or so since the FCC approved the HTC Dream for T-Mobile, but with about 2 months until launch, why no word on their sites? Why no word from T-Mobile? To market a product you want anticipation for, you have to create the anticipation. Show something that people need to have. Give me a reason to not buy an iPhone or a SideKick now.

Sadly…they haven’t started down that road, I believe T-Mobile is counting on Google for this. Now in comparison you can say that’s what Apple and AT&T did. You’re right, it was. But Apple was selling the phones. And they sold more than AT&T did. They created the anticipation. Google isn’t selling Android, T-Mobile will be. They need to start selling it to my eyes and brain. Make me need it already.

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Having a good site design and content that people enjoy is important. Even more important are the subtleties of your site. A handful of minor details that can add up to make a big impact…in your favor or against it.

Subtleties are how software designers create such great interfaces and products, they’re how famous designers make purses people will pay insane prices for, and they’re probably the reasons behind why you hate or love your car. There are many details to be aware of, but here are a few simple ones that can help you give a pleasant and appealing experience to your users.

Make Your Text Stand Up

Text is what you communicate to the user through. This is why it’s important to have clear and concise text that makes sense to the user within the current context. Let’s look at an example:

Looking at Cork’d, we can see that the text existing on their site (the Good side) is very to the point and attractive, making the user want to join the community. The text on the right side (the Bad side), while clear and concise, lacks any lipstick to make the user want to initiate action.

The text on the right is, unfortunately, text that we see in many cases. This shows how easy it is to tweak your existing text to create a little bit more draw. The basic rule is to give the user a little more than the facts, but not a short-story. This is part of your site’s marketing, don’t assume your developers know how to write properly.

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There seem to be a lot of vague answers behind how to make Mac OS X icons. What programs to use, how to make them correctly, and so on, so here’s an easy tutorial on how to make yourself a Mac OS X icon for free!

Things We’ll Need

Before we start we’ll need a couple of programs. No worries though, they’re all free.

• A graphics program. I’ll be using Adobe Photoshop CS3, but you can use any layer-based graphics program (a great free program for Mac is GIMP).
• Icon Composer. You can get Icon Composer free by downloading Xcode from Apple. You have to sign up as an ADC Member, but again, it’s free. Go here to get it!
• Icns2Icon. Go here for this free handy utility.

Ready? Let’s make some icons!

Read on…

Developing mobile websites is common these days. Devices like the iPhone allow us to have an almost desktop-like experience and devices like the Motorola Razor allow us to get basic information on the go.

In developing these sites, we must be mindful of what we are trying to accomplish with the site, but more importantly, what the user is trying to accomplish with our site in a mobile setting. These 5 tips are helpful reminders and methods to keep your mobile sites user-friendly and task-oriented.

1. The Lowest Common Denominator

Deciding which devices your site will run on is hard. As far back as last year, research showed the iPhone claiming nearly .1% of all internet traffic (including desktop browsers). Even more research showed it claiming almost 28% of the smartphone marketshare in February.

My recommendation? Develop for smart devices first (iPhone, Windows Mobile, etc.) and then, depending on your audience, support lesser browsers with a gracefully degrading presentation of your site. This keeps your advanced users happy and coming back, as well as keeping basic info available for casual mobile users.

2. Don’t Try To Do It All

You know what tasks users perform on your site. You know the pages they visit and the functionality that they need. For your mobile experience, start with the most used features of the site and leave the rest for the desktop.

The most common aspects of mobile sites that I see unused are commenting, ratings, and profiles. This could be due to users logging in to get more personalized information, but when it comes to interaction, if they’re on the go, they’re most likely not interested in contributing to the site at that moment. Keep this in mind when deciding which aspects of your site to take mobile. It can save you unnecessary effort and time.

3. The Environment

The most important aspect to keep in mind when developing a mobile experience is the environment of the user. Where are they? What do they intend to accomplish in that setting? If you’re walking downtown and trying to use a mobile site, the last thing you want is confusing navigation, lengthy pages, or to have to login for some basic information. Many sites forget this when developing their sites though, they imagine someone sitting in a cafe with nothing but time on their hands so that they can navigate a site and (maybe) get what they’re looking for.

This point pulls back in the idea of not trying to do it all on your mobile site. Having a task-oriented mobile site will ensure your users are kept first priority in the experience and it also ensures that they won’t have a hard time finding what they need. If you find that they do need more features, consider what platform they are mainly using and think about creating a native application (Windows .NET, Java, or Cocoa)

4. Mobile Advertising

Do it well or don’t do it at all. Mobile advertising is getting a bigger push as content becomes more and more mobile-centric. Google has announced more solutions for mobile adsense and more advertisers are seeing its use to get someone’s attention on the go. Ok, so mobile ads make money, but do they make sense? Not always…

I believe that in order to have effective mobile ads, the page that clicking on the ad takes you to must support the mobile experience too. I have seen many mobile ads that take you to a normal homepage that is not enhanced for a mobile experience, talk about inefficient. The ad must also act as an incentive for the user, like a coupon for a place they might be close to. To get users wanting to click on ads, we have to offer them something for doing so, not just take them somewhere pushing something new to them. It has to make them want to act.

5. Address The Address

Getting to the mobile version of a site can sometimes be a pain. Is it m.site.com? or www.site.com/m? or www.site.mobi? If you’re only catering to one address, ask yourself why. Ensuring that the user gets to where they want to go is essential and making it that much easier for them to get there is what your philosophy should be.

If your site is running PHP, you can catch the user and re-direct them based on their browser in the htaccess file. Javascripts also can lend this feature to other types of sites. Though as standard, when you set up a mobile site, set up m.site.com, www.site.com/m, and buy a .mobi address for it. It will make sure that however your user is used to getting around mobile sites, they won’t have a problem finding yours! (This also applies to iPhone sites, make it easy for them, set up iphone.site.com and www.site.com/iphone)

Quick + Easy = Great Mobile

Some of these tips may seem obvious, but the point that I’m trying to make is that a lot of times we get overloaded with feature requests for mobile sites and end up trying to do too much with them. People that are on the go need information quickly and remembering that is important and often times forgotten. Making your mobile experiences quick and painless will lead to happier users and help solidify your mobile presence.

Wireframes are an essential part of the project process that many developers tend to leave out. Wireframes can speed up project development times, create more meaningful user testing, and get programmers and designers on the same page. They create a great balance of initial function design and graphic design that gives both design and programming teams something to go off of. If you’re not using wireframes yet, my hope is that after reading this, you will!

Benefits!

By creating wireframes first, you outline the functionality (what has pagination, what happens when you click “this”, etc.) and basic layouts for pages (what goes where). You can easily move elements around and ensure that you’re creating a very usable product, while keeping everyone on the project informed. Let’s look some more at how wireframes can help.

• Users are emotional. Wireframes and prototypes are generally gray or monochromatic in color. This lends itself well to initial user testing. They/You can focus more on actual functionality than users’ reactions to colors, pictures, text, etc. User testing can be hard because people have biased and emotional responses to certain things, this helps alleviate those situations. Wireframes also help you test earlier on in the process. You can see what’s working and what needs some revising before the design is set in stone.
• Designers can make it pretty. This will give your designers a place to start, even if you both decide to move things around, it’s at least a non-blank canvas. Graphic designers typically don’t want to design forms, am I correct? This lets them do what they do best without wondering what needs to happen on the page.
• Programmers can program. Knowing what functionality needs to exist upfront will make your programmers happy and make teamwork easier for them. This allows them to breakdown what/where/when action happens and how to account for it, as well as how best to delegate the work among themselves.

Tools & Resources.

Hopefully you’re thinking, “this is great, how do I start?” Well, the good news and bad news is that there isn’t really a standard for how to draw wireframes. There are however, many people with good ideas and resources to go off of. Let’s start with the programs:

• OmniGraffle Professional - Link. This is by far my favorite. It’s very easy to get up and going with and offers many features that can save you time (manual guides, presentation mode, multi-page HTML export). Another plus is that it’s very easy to get some basic user testing done with it. There is one caveat though, it’s Mac only.
• Microsoft Visio - Link. I’ve used Visio extensively and it’s a great tool as well. It’s been the defacto standard for diagrams for a long time on the PC and a lot of people have continued to carry on with it for wireframing. You won’t get the same presentation modes that OmniGraffle offers, but you will find more stencils and templates available on the web. It’s a toss up, but Visio is PC only.
• Adobe Dreamweaver - Link. Although Dreamweaver isn’t really suited for wireframing, some people use it to easily mockup HTML and get the process going. It’s a good tool, but I think if you are serious about wireframing, you’ll have better luck with one of the two programs listed above. Dreamweaver is available for both PC and Mac.

So now that you have your tool picked out, how about some stencils and templates to get you going…

• Graffletopia is a great site with stencil kits of shapes you can use in OmniGraffle.
• Garrett Dimon has some great templates that you can start working off of, available for OmniGraffle and Visio.
• Yahoo! has an entire stencil set of their UI shapes that you can download. The nice thing about their package is that you can not only get it for OmniGraffle and Visio, but they also offer PNG and SVG versions. Great to hand off to your designers to get everyone on the same page.
• Urlgreyhot also has great stencil kits for Visio and Omnigraffle.

The thing to keep in mind is that not one stencil kit will have all the elements you’re looking for, but a combination of them will get you where you need to be. Anything else you need can be easily drawn.

A Better Start.

Since I’ve started using wireframes to start out projects, there’s been no looking back. They help to get ideas across to other team members, as well as ensure that everyone is on the same page. I’m sure you’ll find that as you move forward using wireframes, projects will get easier to get everyone moving on. There’s no waiting on comps or writing code that may not get used.

Let me know what your experience has been and if you have any tips to pass along!

Netflix is the best when it comes to movie rentals by mail. They have quick turn-around and their site is easy to use, but they sorely lack in one area…envelope design. It’s no big secret that the envelope they provide is awkward to use correctly. The envelope is upside-down when you put the movie in it from the right and it’s a toss up as to whether you have the barcode showing through the cutout on the back. It’s just plain bad design!

What’s Human Nature?

In most interaction, right to left is a common thing. Think about it…CDs, DVDs, books…heck, even the iPhone homescreen navigation makes you swipe right to left for more screens. The point is that it’s something that’s now ingrained in our culture and way of life.

When we do these actions, whatever is in front of us is still readable, right-side up.

The Problem!

If you’re trying to put the movie back in their envelope, intuitively, good luck.

First…it’s upside-down, if the address side is facing you. Then, the text on the white sleeve that the movie summary is on is facing away from you, this allows the barcode to show through their cutout, though, this is also assuming that you’re putting it in with the sleeve opening facing to the top…ugh, you see the design issues here?

Resolution.

If they would just change the way they’re printing information on the envelopes and the sleeves, this could all be avoided. It’s not a huge undertaking and it could even decrease their processing time (by a small margin probably, but hey, it helps). Here’s the change-up:

• 1. Flip what’s printing on the address side 180 degrees. This allows people to naturally put the movie in from the right-hand side. This just makes sense.
• 2. Print the barcode (the one that shows through the cutout) on the back of the white sleeve…for all 4 orientations (up, down, left, right). This would increase the chances that the barcode is showing through the cutout. It also makes it more natural for the person to put the sleeve into the envelope with the summary facing them.

People Don’t Notice Great Design

It’s true. People notice poor design, but when something just works, they’re too busy using it to notice how the design is working in their favor. It’s the same reason why companies like Apple do so well with their products and interfaces. It’s many small things that add up to make something great!

I do think Netflix is a great service, but I do think that they could spend a bit more time on making the interaction design more fluid and intuitive for people. Am I wrong?

The iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 firmware have been released and everyone has their top 10 lists of the apps they love so far. I decided to do a bit of a reversal on that and I give you the top 3 iPhone apps that I currently hate, but that are ironically the ones I use the most.

1. Twitterrific

My main problem with Twitterrific is that it lacks a lot of the functionality that Twitter offers, though this may be by design. I have tried Twittelator and Twinkle, but I didn’t like the cluttered look of Twittelator and I didn’t like the “identity” wonkyness of Twinkle (let alone the down time I was suffering with it).

Pros:
It has a superb presentation for looking at Twitter. It’s been the best I’ve seen so far, just enough detail, but just enough simplicity. I really like how the reply/user info screens look too, they just lack that little bit of functionality I’m looking for.

Cons:
You can’t find new people to follow, you can’t look at who is following you, you can’t look at who your friends are following, etc. The scrolling is a tad sluggish sometimes. I’m not sure why they don’t cache user pictures either…we have sqlite databases for apps now…people should be using them. The whole selling model is dumb (imho). Just take the ad out or give me much more for paying. I’m not spending $10 to get rid of a small ad that appears infrequently or to get the “light” background. Give me more ability and then we’re talking.

2. NetNewsWire

I actually wasn’t sure I wanted to include this, as most of the problems have been fixed by the developer but the Apple app store is just slow to getting the updates out. Nevertheless, here’s how it stands as of today (I’m looking forward to the updates coming, as much of the cons will be fixed).

Pros:
I love NetNewsWire for the Mac, so when I heard my favorite RSS reader was coming to the iPhone, I rejoiced. It allows syncing of your feeds across many platforms and is, in my opinion, the best reader I’ve found (even better than Google Reader). The UI is clean and it syncs to my account, but unfortunately, that’s where it stops in the current 1.0 version.

Cons:
Number one on my list is that I find it doesn’t download all the feeds associated to my account. I’ve tried resetting and re-syncing, but it’s just really gimpy each time and gets different feeds each time I retry it. I love that I can add articles to my “clips” folder, but there’s no way to see my clips folder. I was really confused by that one. I would also like to see collapsable folders, or at least an option for how the main navigation works, but I understand it’s a toss up on UI practice, so that’s not a huge deal. As well as on the desktop, I need search capability if I want to find something again. It’s just not there.

3. Bank of America

In day-to-day life, I keep close tabs on my bank accounts, so naturally when I saw this app coming, I was stoked. Once I opened it, my excitement lasted a whole 3 seconds.

Pros:
I can check my account balances and do some basic online banking.

Cons:
This is not an iPhone app by any stretch of the imagination, other than you install it. This app is one of the reasons why I hate a lot of the day one apps from the app store. They cheated. It’s a native iPhone app with a huge web view control. This means that it’s just showing the website in it. Boo, BoA, you fail. It’s just plain text (like their mobile site) and offers no enhanced UI. They say it’s coming, but we’ll see. Final score: F-

There were a few runners up, but these were the top 3 I was excited about and they managed to disappoint me pretty well. Don’t get me wrong, a light saber for my phone is pretty awesome, but it doesn’t get me to where I want to be, which is doing a lot of my daily activities from my phone.

I think we’ll see some powerful apps come out soon and I’m hoping that Apple can get the process of pushing out updates figured out, but until then, we’re stuck with subpar apps that crash our phones.

Am I expecting too much from these apps? Tell me what you think and let me know what apps you have found to be amazing…or not so amazing.

Well I’ve finally made the push. I’m doing a full on RoR site. I’m pretty excited because I’ve wanted to for a long time and just not had the situation right for doing it, but now I’m on a great project and RoR is the completely correct way to go.

Things that I love so far…RESTful_authentication, scaffold, MVC - the whole point of RoR.

I’m just needing to flesh out the structure a bit more, but I’m well on the way. RoR rocks. 

Recently, I was approached by a friend about a new job that he may take. The problem is with the job he has right now, he’s only been there a month and he feels bad about the whole situation because they sent him to NY for training and now he’s leaving. This is what I told him:

1. It’s not a contract…unless it is.

When you go to work for someone, they pay for you to work, and you work for the pay. If you’re still employed then everyone is getting what they want out of the deal. When they feel the pay isn’t worth what you’re giving (or not giving) them, you got it, time for the unemployment line. You shouldn’t ever feel bad about leaving for a better situation, some circumstances can’t be helped and any smart employer knows this. These are the risks.

2. Are you dumb?

At my last job, I did the typical personal-sick day to interview routine. In my exit interview my boss gave me this lovely quote, “I think it was immature of you to lie about being sick, you could have just told us you had an interview.” Wow. I was shocked. Don’t ever let an employer pull that card. Anyone knows that you have to look out for yourself, and eventually your family too. Sneaking around is unfortunately part of the process of getting a new job and anyone who thinks you don’t have to is either too understanding or not to be trusted. Yeah, let me tell my employer I’m looking around, not get the job, and then get let go because they already cut me out in their minds because I was looking around.

Please.

In the end, looking around can make you feel bad because you may feel in debt to your current employer. Don’t. A good person will understand better situations come around and sometimes it’s sooner than later. Give them the 2 weeks for goodwill, make no promises, and get to your new life.

Good luck.

Motivation is tough when you’re working on a project that you loathe. It’s a typical scenario, you’re “Johnny DoGood” and offer up your help when your manager or co-worker asks you for it. Soon you realize that you’ve been duped into the worst project you can think of being a part of and you’re staring at your screen saying, “What have I done?” It’s ok. We’ll get through it.

Environment. Do you like it dim? Light? Find what works best for your productivity. Is your chair killing you? Steal the interns. Kill the clutter on your desk, having a clean work space will make you feel that this project is already on its way to finishing itself.

Distractions. Find a way to drown out other distractions, whether it’s your RSS feeds, Email, or co-workers blathering on to people about office gossip, put on some ear covering headphones, close your browser and treat lunch time as your catch up time.

Change. Getting sick of the logic you’ve been staring at for the last hour? Change it up. Work on something else. Having little projects around to pick up can be exactly what you need to get going again. A change of pace is great.

Lastly, break it up. Figure out what needs to be done and the smallest chunks that you can break it out into. Then start slaying that to-do list. If you hate paper…try out Ta-Da Lists. They’re a great way to keep track of what you need to get done.

How do you keep motivated? Share your tips and tricks to getting your work done in the comments.