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Fernwartung: Google stellt Chrome Remote Desktop zum Download bereit

2011-10-08T09:30:00Z

Google hat eine Betaversion des Chrome Remote Desktops zur Verfügung gestellt. Damit ist es möglich, auf einen fernen Computer direkt in Chrome zuzugreifen. So lassen sich Rechner auch von einem Chromebook aus fernwarten. (Google, Chrome OS)

Smarter Content Aware Fill in Photoshop

2011-09-21T14:41:26Z

If you’re like me, you’ve tried out the new Content Aware Fill feature in Photoshop CS5 and you’ve been left just a little bit disappointed.

What Content Aware Fill does is to replace unwanted areas of an image in a smart way. It can reduce the amount of time you spend working with the Clone Stamp and other fixing tools when you have something you need to get rid of in an image. However, where the Content Aware Fill feature appears to fail is when you want to remove a large portion of an image – those very times you wish it would work perfectly.

Well, last week I learned a cool technique to use with Content Aware Fill that solves these problems, thanks to Adobe’s Bryan Hughes. So here’s a way to make Content Aware Fill behave a whole lot smarter.

In this balloon image, if I want to remove the trees at the bottom of the image, I would make a selection around them with, for example, the Lasso tool.

Then, in Photoshop CS5 – even though the bottom layer of the image is a Background layer I would press Delete to open the Fill dialog. Here I can choose Use: Content Aware Fill and press Enter to have Photoshop remove the trees for me.

The problem is, that as often as not, part of one or more balloons will appear in the filled area. What I want is blue sky and not balloons. I could repeat the “Select and Delete” process until the image looks as I want it to but there is an alternative way to use the Content Aware fill feature. This way of working is great when you are trying to remove a large object and where there is not a lot of clean image data for Photoshop to use to do the fill with.

This solution involves removing any part of the image I don’t want the content aware fill feature to use – here that is the balloons – temporarily leaving only the content I want it to use – here that is blue sky. To do this I converted the background layer to a regular layer by double clicking it and pressing Enter.

Then I added a layer mask using Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All and painted on the mask in black to remove the balloons – a hard edge brush is a good choice here.

Now I’ve reselected the image – not the mask – and made a selection around the trees again using the Lasso tool. Pressing Delete this time won’t work – it just deletes the selection so, instead, I need to press Shift + F5 or choose Edit > Fill to open the Fill dialog. Make sure that Use: is set to Content Aware and click Ok.

This time Photoshop uses only the visible content to fill the area and because the balloons aren’t visible they aren’t used to fill the area when the trees are removed.

Once you are done, you can bring back the balloons by dragging and dropping the layer mask into the trashcan – select Delete when prompted so you remove the mask – don’t apply it.

Now the content aware fill tool works as you would expect it to – allowing you to remove large portions of an image and have the area filled in an intelligent way.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Smarter Content Aware Fill in Photoshop

Chainfire creates Android tethered control app for Canon DSLRs

2011-08-06T07:51:50Z

Shared by Sven
Finally! It was about time. Another reason to consider buying a Android tablet.

App developer Chainfire has created a program for tethered shooting of Canon DSLRs using Android 3.0-powered tablets. Its 'DSLR Controller' app uses a USB connection to provide a high level of control over Canon DSLRs. In addition to Android 3.0 (also known as Honeycomb) tablets, DSLR Controller can also be used on Samsung's Galaxy S2 smartphone. Beta version 0.5 of the app is currently available for around $8.50 from the Android Market and offers a wide range of control options, including touch focus, histogram, bulb capture and the ability to change many of the camera's shooting settings. Additional functions, including time lapse, video recording and image playback are still being worked-on. Chainfire says it plans to provide Nikon support once the Canon features are complete. (via PetaPixel)

Animating CSS3 Transforms with MooTools Fx

2011-07-28T14:56:10Z

I recently posted an awesome (if I may say so myself) CSS3 / MooTools tutorials called Create a Photo Stack Effect with Pure CSS Animations or MooTools. The post presented two ways, a pure CSS method or MooTools-powered class, to duplicate Google+’s elegant photo stack animation. The MooTools method took a bit of Fx exploration since MooTools doesn’t animate CSS transform out of the box, and this exploration reminded me of just how amazing MooTools’ Fx classes are. We all know MooTools features the smoothest effects of any JavaScript toolkit, and now I’m confident in saying the Fx class is as flexible or more flexible than any toolkit available. Let me show you how simple it is to override a Fx instance’s set method to animate any CSS property you’d like!

View Demo

Quick Fx Primer

JavaScript animations work by animating an element’s style properties over a defined duration. Throughout that duration, however, the styles are updated at varying time increments (not as simples as division of style points over duration) based on the transition (Fx.Transitions) used.

Fx Out of the Box

MooTools’ Fx class is the base for many classes in MooTools, including Fx.Tween and Fx.Morph. Fx's role is to provide a solid base for all types of animations, as well as managing style values over time. Fx defines several base methods for animating as well, including start, cancel, set, pause, and resume methods. The Element.Styles and Element.ShortStyles objects aid in parsing styles. These objects look like:

Element.Styles = {
	left: '@px', top: '@px', bottom: '@px', right: '@px',
	width: '@px', height: '@px', maxWidth: '@px', maxHeight: '@px', minWidth: '@px', minHeight: '@px',
	backgroundColor: 'rgb(@, @, @)', backgroundPosition: '@px @px', color: 'rgb(@, @, @)',
	fontSize: '@px', letterSpacing: '@px', lineHeight: '@px', clip: 'rect(@px @px @px @px)',
	margin: '@px @px @px @px', padding: '@px @px @px @px', border: '@px @ rgb(@, @, @) @px @ rgb(@, @, @) @px @ rgb(@, @, @)',
	borderWidth: '@px @px @px @px', borderStyle: '@ @ @ @', borderColor: 'rgb(@, @, @) rgb(@, @, @) rgb(@, @, @) rgb(@, @, @)',
	zIndex: '@', 'zoom': '@', fontWeight: '@', textIndent: '@px', opacity: '@'
};

Element.ShortStyles = {margin: {}, padding: {}, border: {}, borderWidth: {}, borderStyle: {}, borderColor: {}};

['Top', 'Right', 'Bottom', 'Left'].each(function(direction){
	var Short = Element.ShortStyles;
	var All = Element.Styles;
	['margin', 'padding'].each(function(style){
		var sd = style + direction;
		Short[style][sd] = All[sd] = '@px';
	});
	var bd = 'border' + direction;
	Short.border[bd] = All[bd] = '@px @ rgb(@, @, @)';
	var bdw = bd + 'Width', bds = bd + 'Style', bdc = bd + 'Color';
	Short[bd] = {};
	Short.borderWidth[bdw] = Short[bd][bdw] = All[bdw] = '@px';
	Short.borderStyle[bds] = Short[bd][bds] = All[bds] = '@';
	Short.borderColor[bdc] = Short[bd][bdc] = All[bdc] = 'rgb(@, @, @)';
});

With this format, static styles can be processed and translated from one value to another regardless of whether shorthand or longhand syntax is used. Note that these styles all have strictly defined value formats.

A Problem

One problem with the format provided in Element.Styles (and the problem isn’t MooTools-specific) is that the transform property has no standard value signature. You can incorporate translate, rotate, scale, and so on, thus no set format can be reliably nailed down, much less parsed efficiently. So how can we utilize MooTools to to animate transforms and other properties which have no absolute value format? Damn easily.

A Solution

The key to managing transition value settings is customizing your Fx instance’s set method. The set method is called several times over the course of an Fx animation to update the style to the proper value at that point in the animation. The set method with signature is:

set: function(value) {
	// MooTools works with that value here
}

The focal point of what I’ve illustrated is the value argument which is provided by the Fx instance. The value argument represents the state within the animation, between 0 and 1, that the style should be set to. Zero represents the animation lower value, the one value represents the larger value possibility of the animation. So what value does value have? Loads. As long as you know the origin and destination value for the current animation, you can multiply the value by the destination state and get the desired result. Take the Fx piece of my PhotoStack class for example:

myFx.set = function(value) {
	// Calculate image settings specific to this instance
	var index = image.retrieve("photostack-index"),
	targetRotation = (this.rotationStart + (index * this.rotationIncrement)), // deg
	targetTranslation = (this.translationStart + (index * this.translationIncrement)), // px
	targetTranslationPx = this.translationPx; //px

	// Create the style string for this spot in the animation
	var style = "rotate(" + (targetRotation * value) + "deg) translate(" + (targetTranslation * value) + "px, " + (targetTranslationPx * value) + "px) scale(" + (1 + (value * (this.options.scaleMax - 1))) + ")";

	// Update those styles accordingly
	image.setStyles({
		"-webkit-transform": style,
		"-moz-transform": style,
		"-o-transform": style,
		"-ms-transform": style,
		transform: style
	});
}.bind(this);

The style variable animates the transform of rotate, translate, and scale. Note that the state of each translation property is calculated by multiplying the destination value by the value provided to the set function, and thus the style is changed to its appropriate fractional value! If we were to log the value and resulting style calculation to the console, it would look like:

// Subsequent text is from: console.warn(value," / ", style);
// Remember that the style values are (value * destinationValue), calculating the fractional value or state of animation

0 / rotate(0deg) translate(0px, 0px) scale(1)

0.003942649342761062 / rotate(0.023655896056566372deg) translate(0px, -0.011827948028283186px) scale(1.000394264934276)

0.06490812266523716 / rotate(0.38944873599142293deg) translate(0px, -0.19472436799571147px) scale(1.0064908122665237)

0.16465721173163989 / rotate(0.9879432703898393deg) translate(0px, -0.49397163519491966px) scale(1.016465721173164)

0.35448191658586403 / rotate(2.1268914995151844deg) translate(0px, -1.0634457497575922px) scale(1.0354481916585865)

0.3726146371583089 / rotate(2.2356878229498536deg) translate(0px, -1.1178439114749268px) scale(1.0372614637158308)

0.39399644503897263 / rotate(2.363978670233836deg) translate(0px, -1.181989335116918px) scale(1.0393996445038973)

0.6364759677586626 / rotate(3.8188558065519755deg) translate(0px, -1.9094279032759878px) scale(1.0636475967758663)

0.6545084971874737 / rotate(3.9270509831248424deg) translate(0px, -1.9635254915624212px) scale(1.0654508497187474)

0.8235279807847222 / rotate(4.941167884708333deg) translate(0px, -2.4705839423541667px) scale(1.0823527980784724)

0.9238389680425416 / rotate(5.54303380825525deg) translate(0px, -2.771516904127625px) scale(1.0923838968042543)

0.9858158664573369 / rotate(5.914895198744022deg) translate(0px, -2.957447599372011px) scale(1.0985815866457338)

0.990545258721667 / rotate(5.9432715523300015deg) translate(0px, -2.9716357761650007px) scale(1.099054525872167)

1 / rotate(6deg) translate(0px, -3px) scale(1.1)

Tip: the longer the duration, the more the set method will be called.

The frequent set calls over the course of the animation create the animation. In our example, we’ve updated the transform style; of course, you could animate any style within your custom set function. What if you want to animate multiple CSS properties with an animation, including both properties supported and not supported by MooTools? Simple:

// Assuming myFx is an instance of Fx.Morph or Fx.Tween....

var oldSet = myFx.set;
myFx.set = function(value) {
	// Run the "old"
	oldSet.apply(this, arguments);
	
	// Do your custom animation stuff here
};

You “save” the instance’s initial set method and call it within your custom set method.

View Demo

Hopefully the examples and explanation about MooTools’ Fx presented above help you to understand some of the underlying code that allows you to animate element styles with MooTools. The amount of customization to animations you can create by customizing the set method is unreal. Happy animating!

Animating CSS3 Transforms with MooTools Fx is a post from: David Walsh :: Legendary scribbles about JavaScript, HTML5, AJAX, PHP, CSS, and ∞.

Lets Play Chess

2011-07-21T13:23:41Z

I hear Canon won.
A couple of gents at LensRentals.com got bored during their move to new digs and decided to play some chess!

Canon won the game with a Fischer like performance.

I know what you’re thinking. Can you rent this chess set? The answer is yes!

For $7654.75 you can rent this chess for a 4 days, this will include the damage insurance for when you knock your king over after a terrible loss.

What about buying it? Sure can! $151,202.17 you can buy the pieces necessary to do this at home. As LensRentals.com mentions, buy now before the new Canon supertelephotos hit the market. The price will skyrocket. To entice you even more, they’ll throw in a free t-shirt!

17 steps for securing your Joomla web site

2011-07-19T11:30:00Z

There could be several reasons for hacking or any other security threat to a Joomla-powered web site. Hackers/intruders have the power to enter, from any way, inside the File System or Database of your web site and hack it.

Each Joomla release is tested many times for security loopholes and these are covered before the release. In various cases, the Joomla security experts have noticed that it has been the administrator's fault or ignorance in keeping his/her web site secure and watching it being hacked.

In this write up, we'll discuss few things to keep your Joomla web site secure and highlight the measures to protect it.

This is a guest post by Pratima Paliwal, a technical writer with CreativeWebLogix.

1. Hosting environment

The web site security completely depends upon the selected Web Hosting plans. If you1re going for shared web hosting then it does not offer you complete security. You'll be running your web site shared with others' sites. If their web site(s) gets hacked then hackers have ample amount of opportunities to hack yours web site as well because the database of shared sites are interconnected with references. Suppose you1ve selected the dedicated web hosting but it doesn't support SSL, SFTP, mod_security firewall and namp database security. Then what will be its use? We know that web site Hosting solely depends upon the budget. If you're earning good from your web site then there is no harm to spend more bucks to buy a fully secured Web hosting. Ask your provider whether they will:

provide SSL certificate
support https
provide complete access to httpd.conf through SSH (secure shell access)
support SFTP (Secure FTP)
support nmap databse security tool and mod_security application-layer firewall
has Virus Scanner utility to scan your web site

2. Joomla security checklist

If you're going to install Joomla to host your web site or already running your site on it, then make sure to follow the Joomla Security Checklist. We advise you to follow all six documents one by one. Follow the complete checklist regularly.

3. Change the default database prefix

The default database prefixes for all Joomla-powered web sites remain same, i.e. jos_. The hackers take benefit of such common things to hack the database. You should change it at the time of installation to prevent any SQL injunction. If you're already running web site on Joomla then you can take help of a Web Developer to get the default database prefix jos_.

You can also use the phpmyadmin software to change the prefix or use Akeeba Backup to copy your site and change the prefix in the same process. More about these procedures in a later post.

4. Check your customizations

Joomla is completely secured as a Content Management System, but when you customize it either by adding themes/extensions and modifying the secure code then your web site becomes vulnerable. Check the code of installed themes, extensions, and customization consistently to count the loopholes and plug them properly. You can also take help of a Security Advisor/Expert for this work.

You can also check the Vulnerable Extensions List at joomla.org.

5. Permissions

The permissions of files and folders must be set adequately. Open your FTP client, access your web site, select the files, right click and select Permissions. This will display the permissions assigned to the files. It is set to 777 for all files and folders by default, which means Owner, Group, and users have complete access to Read, Write and Execute all the files. This indicates how insecure is your web site that anyone can access its files anytime and hack it.

Set the File Permissions to 644 that means owner can read/write whereas Group and Public can only read.
Set the Folder Permissions to 755 that means owner can read/write/execute whereas Group and Public can read/execute.
Avoid the extensions and themes that require 777 (full control) to run.
Set the configuration.php file (in your site root) to 444. If you need to make changes to the Configuration through the administrator, temporarily change the permissions for configuration.php to 644, do the changes needed and set permissions back to 444.

6. Change the Super Administrator name

Everyone knows the name of administrator of a Joomla web site. It is 'Super Administrator' for all. The hackers/intruders can use this common thing to target your web site. Create a user-defined Super Administrator for your web site with any name, set the default Super Administrator as Manager, and then delete it.

7. jSecure authentication extension

All web sites running on Joomla using similar and default URL for Joomla backend. You can install the jSecure Authentication Extension to change this URL.

8. Disable the FTP layer

As soon as you enable the FTP Layer, its entry gets added in configuration.php file. If hackers target your web site through a script then it yields the details to access the web site File System without any delay. To be on safe side, disable the FTP layer in Joomla.

9. Verify extensions and templates before usage

We suggest you to install the extensions and themes only from known/trusted publishers. Avoid using the add-ons from unknown companies. Make sure to check the ratings, reviews, and compatibility of extensions with Joomla version being used.

10. Mod_Security

If you're getting desired benefits from your web site and want to it to be completely secured, then install latest mod_security module to your site. Mod_Security is an application layer firewall that saves your web site from hackers/intruders. You can download it and read its documentation at http://www.modsecurity.org/. Before using mod_security, please check whether your Web Host supports it or not.

11. Hide database

Most of the times we do not change the default port for our web site's database. The hackers often target the default ports and perform an SQL Injection. You can use Network Mapper (NMAP) Tool to hide the default database ports. The download and documentation of latest NMAP release are available at http://nmap.org/.

12. Favor SSL

We suggest you to use SSL means let your web site go on https if you're using it as a Membership Directory. It is noteworthy that you've to obtain a Security Certificate from a trusted third-party company like VeriSign, Thawte, GoDaddy, StartSSL, etc.

13. Configure Apache

Most of the Joomla web sites are based on Apache Web server. You can modify its few default settings to make your web site rock solid. One cannot rely on the basic authentication even if it stores password in encrypted format but the password is passed from a client to server in plain text format. If you need some real security then switch to a SSL connection, in which everything will be encrypted even on transfers.

htpasswd

You can make use of Apache htpasswd utility to give more security to Apache. For more information on it, please refer to Apache htpasswd documentation. We advise you to place the .htpasswd and .htgroups files in a separate folder other than the root folder.

.htaccess

Joomla comes with preassembled .htacess file, which is stored in the root installation folder. You can modify it to hide the storage path of .htpasswd and .htgroups files. In addition, you can use it block the unsecured IP Addresses from where you receive spam (this will, however, put a strain on your server as it's processor intensive. Do this with causion, as it can slow down your site). You can visit WebMaster Toolkit.com to generate .htaccess files. We advise you not to backup or copy the .htaccess in the public folders and set its file permission to 644. For more information on .htaccess, please visit Joomla Security FAQ Page.

14. Passwords

Please apply a good combination of alphabets, numbers, and special characters to create your passwords. We suggest you to create the passwords manually yourself instead of using any product or web site to generate them. Do you know hackers have a huge library of such automated passwords and who knows if they're behind the creators of tools you are using to generate passwords? Avoid using the pet's, family members' or favorite person's name to create passwords. We advise you to change your passwords after a fixed duration of time say 30 days and not to disclose old/new passwords to anyone.

15. Stay updated

The Joomla Developer Team works hard to develop new versions and releases them from time to time. Each update includes various fixes and security patches to make your web site more secure than before. You should upgrade Joomla for your web site to get the benefits of these security patches and fixes.

Secure your local computers first

You should secure your computers first, which have direct access to your web site. Install branded Firewall, Antivirus, and AntiSpyware at computers and scan them periodically at least twice in a month. Download the latest updates of Operating Systems, Security Software, and other software being used.

16. Backup and recovery

Always believe in, 'precaution is better than cure'. You should have backup of the web site content like its files and folders along with database periodically at least once in a week (Akeeba Backup is what we recommend). You can also take services of trusted third-party companies to get your web site backup and restore in case of any failure.

17. Scan your web site

Most of the dedicated Web Hosting providers offer Virus Scanner through cPanel. If it is available then scan your web site at least twice a month. In case it is not available, then you can take services antivirus tools like McAfee, Symantec, etc. to scan the file system and database of your web site periodically. These tools will provide real-time protection to delete the threats as soon as they are detected.

Conclusion

Security of your web site is essential, especially when you're running it on a famous CMS like Joomla. You can follow above steps to keep your web site secure and running. We invite our readers to add more steps for securing a Joomla-powered web site. Please share any ideas in the comments section below.

About the Author:
Pratima Paliwal - A Technical Writer with CreativeWebLogix, she writes for its specialized divisions WordPressIntegration, XHTMLJunction, and LinkBuildingWorks. Having expertise in the field of Web designing, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization, she has covered a wide range of topics including techniques, tips, tricks, tutorials, and so on.

Google: DOM Snitch zeigt Sicherheitslücken in Websites auf

2011-06-22T08:20:00Z

Mit DOM Snitch hat Google eine experimentelle Chrome-Erweiterung veröffentlicht, die helfen soll, unsicheren Code von Webapplikationen auf Clientseite aufzuspüren. (Softwareentwicklung, JavaScript)

It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring Pete Collins!

2011-06-22T04:01:09Z

Introductions are in order…

I am Pete Collins…”The New Photoshop Guy,” or, as I am called around the office, “Monkey Boy.” I have done a bunch of stuff in the past… from surviving cancer, teaching tennis, competing in Disc Golf tournaments in the U.S. and overseas as well as living in Bangkok, Thailand for over 6 years. I have a Fine Arts degree and I have been a graphic designer for the last eight years. I am a Canon shooter and I have shot just about every type of photography you can imagine. The sole reason why I got this job is because Scott lost a bet and I was the booby prize. Can I use the word booby in this blog? I guess following after Jay Maisel and Moose Peterson, I can get away with it.

Ok, so once I was given the privilege of writing this post, I had to decide what I was going to say. This is big stuff! My plan was to write this hilarious post where you would laugh and think what great a guy I am and my name would become synonymous with cool. My picture would be put into dictionaries next to the word cool, and people around the world would talk to their friends and say, “Did you read that super cool blog post by Pete?” Isn’t that the goal? Isn’t that what we all want?

The truth is… we all long for acceptance and will do almost anything to avoid rejection. I will try to become the person that everyone will like, and I will easily compromise my principles if it means that they will think I am cool. And I bet just about every one of you reading this is the same way. Our lives are lived behind masks that we project to the world and we live in fear that someone will see the real us behind the illusion and reject us. Being rejected is one of our most painful experiences, because it says that we are not worthy and there is something inherently wrong with us. Once we feel rejected we just want the hurt to go away, but unfortunately, the heart remembers that pain so we seek out ways to distract ourselves from the pain and do things to ensure we are not rejected again in the future.

However, the very things that we are doing to cover up our hurt and our pain are causing a greater sense of isolation. We have traded our pain for numbness, but the cost is loneliness. We are so alone and we are not truly alive. The crazy thing is that we think we are the only ones who feel this way. I know because I am one of them… I know I am screwed up, but I am pretty sure that you have your act together… and since you have your act together I must pretend I have mine together too so you won’t think I am worthy of your rejection. So we pose and pretend and act like everything is ok, and yet inside both our hearts are dying. So in order to numb the loneliness, I stay busy, I find things to entertain me, I strive to find that perfect niche in society, or that perfect photograph that will validate my life. I put on a fake bravado, I make people laugh so that they won’t see my fear, or I spend countless hours trying to craft my words in a blog so that it will give people the impression of how important and smart I am. But, all that does is strengthen the masks that hide my real heart from you.

Have you ever watched a child get lost in the joy of a moment? They are not burdened with any sense of shame and they are not concerned with what others will think… they are free and full of life.

I want my life to be like that, and I bet you do too… I am trying to regain that joy… I want to be stirred to tears by the beauty that surrounds me, and not be so critical of others. I want to let go of my masks and let you see the real me, and have you accept me despite my warts and my fears. We have this awesome power to come alongside each other and encourage one another yet we don’t do it because of fear. If we will dare to allow those close to us to start getting glimpses behind our masks, I bet they would start to do the same, and before you know it… we might all be living real lives and with real joy. Imagine how much more wonderful our art, or music, our relationships would be if we were really alive and not caught in the self-imposed Matrix. What if I did things because I loved doing them rather than doing things based upon whether or not it would be accepted by the masses? Am I going to live a life of fear or joy…? That is the $64,000 question.

One final question before I go…

How comfortable are you with love? Are your masks keeping you from really being honest and intimate with those around you? I bet someone near you could really use a loving word from you right now… and the crazy thing is when you push past the fear inside and say it to them, it chips away at the masks in your own life and opens your heart to be free a little bit more. At the end of life, do you want people to say? “He was a great photographer, but his life was a mess” or would you rather them say… “He was full of life and look how that showed in his relationships and his work.” Do me a favor, instead of taking time to comment on this post, which will do you no good… since I can’t read; call up someone you love and just let them know they are special to you. Then go take some pictures, or draw or sing or dance and do it with a sense of wonder as if you were a kid again. Give yourself permission to be real and alive!

You can find Pete on Facebook, and keep an eye out for him on Photoshop User TV, Photoshop User Magazine, and other random places he might pop up

3 Stupidly Simple Reasons Why Most People’s Photography Does Not Improve

2011-05-27T14:05:50Z

Image by Darwin Bell

I’m presuming that this article will not apply to most of us… but after 3 conversations in the last week which revealed the same photography problems in 3 different people – I thought I’d better jot them down.

Warning: none of this is rocket science sometimes the basics need to be said!

1. You don’t Take Your Camera With You

If you don’t practice using your camera you’re unlikely to ever grow in your understanding of and skill in photography and if you rarely have it with you – you’ll not get that practice.

Does that mean you need to lug your DSLR and all your cumbersome gear around with you all the time?

Maybe – I have friends who are never without their main camera – but if that’s just not practical, at least make sure you have a smaller point and shoot or even a decent camera phone with you at all times. While the quality of the images you take might not be as great with these cameras – at least you’ll be practicing your composition, thinking about light, color and other aspects of photography.

2. You’re Going too Fast

Many of us lead life at such a fast pace that we rarely stop to see the opportunities right before us to take wonderful images.

You can carry your camera around with you 24/7 for the rest of your life but unless you learn to slow down and to look at the world a little differently you may never actually use it.

As a result – I guess one of the tips I find myself giving to some that I talk to is to find ways to slow down – or at least slow down temporarily to set aside time to be a bit more intentional about photography. It might start by taking a walk with the main objective of doing some photography but could also be something bigger like a weekend away with your camera or even taking a photography class or tour.

For me its about building photography into your daily rhythm and in time it starts to become a more natural thing as you get in the habit of seeing life a little differently.

3. You are Worried what Others Will Think

I’ve come across quite a few people lately who suffer from ‘framing paralysis’.

They take their camera with them and they even slow down enough to see the photographic opportunities around the – but there’s just something that stops them lifting their camera up to frame the shot.

When I dig a little I’ve found in most of these instances the person is simply worried about what others around the will think if they use their camera. Will they look stupid? Will people think that they’re photographing them?

Its a feeling I’ll admit to having myself in the past and when I asked about it on our Facebook page the other day it seems that it’s quite common.

I guess the key to moving through framing paralysis is to grow your confidence as a photographer. For me the more photos I took and the more I began to exercise the discipline of taking images the easier it got. Another friend of mine got over his paralysis by finding a photography buddy to go out with – two of the taking shots somehow seemed less confronting than him doing it alone.

What do You Think?

Of course the above are very simple things that hold many people back and there are bound to be others that readers here at dPS might have experienced. I’d love to hear from you on two fronts:

what other simple things hold you (or other photographers) back from improving?
what tips and solutions would you give others facing these problems?

I’m looking forward to hearing more from the dPS community on this!

Post from: Digital Photography School's Photography Tips. Check out our resources on Portrait Photography Tips, Travel Photography Tips and Understanding Digital Cameras.

3 Stupidly Simple Reasons Why Most People’s Photography Does Not Improve

Other Photographers Stealing your Moment? Tell them to back off!

2011-05-13T20:26:11Z

I noticed a thread on a forum today about a wedding photographer getting frustrated with an amateur stealing their set-ups and taking photos behind their shoulder. And these weren’t just the group photos, either, but the shoe shot, the individual portraits, the bride-getting-ready shots, etc.

It won’t be easy to voice your feelings at first. It takes time. But the more and more you’re made to feel uncomfortable by other photographers stealing your work, the more you’ll get the sense that you really need to have some lines prepared for the next time that happens. Eventually, you’ll get so fed up that you’ll just come out and say what needs to be said so you can do your work in peace.

{Portrait Sessions}

My contract says “there will be no other cameras allowed during the session. If someone whips out a camera during the session, I will have to ask them to put it away and this is an awkward moment that I would love to avoid.” Now, obviously during a one-on-one portrait session, you have every right to ask Grandma to please put her camera away. I would say it like this, “ooh gosh I’m really sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you not to take photographs during the session.” I think it will be obvious why. No need to explain. You’ll have asked them in a super sweet way to please put on their thinking cap and not take pictures and they will probably feel a little dumb for even thinking that was ok. But ya know…we’re educating people, too, and by showing them that that’s not ok, you’re setting the precedent that this session is about being hired and paid to take images which are making you money. Hopefully that will carry throughout the whole process and minimise them also thinking that it’s ok to scan and reprint the prints they’ve bought from you. Hopefully. But ya know…probably not.

{Weddings}

So as in the first part of this post, the photographer was experiencing a copy cat shooting directly behind her. If this were happening to me, I would have absolutely no problem whatsoever looking back and saying, “excuse me, could you please give me some space? Thanks.” You could even say, “Hi. I can’t help but notice that you’re very keen to take photos and you’re totally welcome to. Just let me get the shots I’ve been hired to do and then you’re welcome to have at it.” And of course, if you feel more comfortable throwing in apologetic lingo like “gosh sorry I’m going to have to ask…” then do that. Don’t be rude. They’re just excited. But there’s no reason you need to hide the fact that you’re confused/surprised that someone would think it’s ok to do that. Heck, hand them your business card and tell them that you only charge $1,000 a day to shoot along with you as a professional photographer. Lol…that’d go down well!

Now, a wedding IS a free for all and everyone will have a camera. So I wouldn’t have any problem with that, only when they try to horn in on my private session with the couple or the shots that I have to use all of my experience ad expertise to set up and execute.

During the group photos, the problem lies in the fact that with so many cameras around, the guests will have trouble knowing where to look. Make sure that everyone knows to look at you and you might need to turn around and say, “hey guys just let me quickly get these shots and then you’re totally free to take whatever pictures you want.” This is usually a pretty jovial and joyful moment for everyone so you can say it with a laugh and it will be received well.

I have a go-to guy who has been appointed by the couple to hold the groups list and gather auntie and uncle so-and-so when it’s time. He might just be the bossy, booming voice you need to get the whole thing over and done in a decent amount of time with little interference from other photographers.

What’s your approach to others taking shots during your sessions? We’d love to hear your thoughts below in comments!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips. Check out our resources on Portrait Photography Tips, Travel Photography Tips and Understanding Digital Cameras.

Other Photographers Stealing your Moment? Tell them to back off!

Google Products You Probably Don’t Know

2011-05-03T21:00:42Z

Google search engine is one of the best product by Google, but there are many other innovative products as well that Google is developing them in their so-called Google Labs. Many of these products are still in beta stage, but are really useful. Today I’m going to share some of the lesser known products from Google, which can help you. Some of them may even surprise you as you might not even heard about them and yet they’re so useful.

1. Related Links

In WordPress you have used various plugins to show related pages to your post, Related Links from Google does the same thing it generate the list of related pages to the current page & display it to the user. Related Links works using Google search, it uses keyword for your title to search your site for related content & display them on your website. Currently this product is in limited to invited users only & you can ask for invitation by sending mail to relatedlinks@google.com

2. Follow Finder

There are many to tools to find followers on Twitter, but very few tools to find users with similar interest. Follow Finder helps you to find users on Twitter, based on similar interest, mutual followers, users with similar followers & users following similar list to help you identify potential Twitter followers you should follow.

3. Browser Size

Browser Size is a really useful tool for web designer & developer, as it helps them to visualize what part of their websites it getting maximum attention from users. You just need to enter your URL & your website will be segmented using a semi-transparent color layer describing users attention to different segment of your website.

4. Page Speed

As website loading time becomes one of the factors in ranking your websites in Google search engine, you need to know how fast your websites loads. There are many tools for doing that but you surely want to consider what Google thinks. Page Speed is such tool recently made available online by Google where you can check the loading time for your website.

5. Aardvark

Last year Google acquired Aardvark, It’s not just question-answer site for professional, but anyone get help here, the best thing about Aardvark is you get answers to most of the questions in few minutes, I have tried it my self & was surprised to see how fast was my questions got answered. Another great feature about Aardvark is it will deliver you answer to your mail or GTalk.

6. Experimental Search

Google Experimental Search have offers three services +1 Button, Keyboard Shortcut & Accessible view. The only problem with all this features is you can’t use them all at once, that is you use this feature one at time.

+1 Button

+1 Button is a kind of recommending Google search results to your friends, so when anyone in your friend searches Google, your recommendation will appear in search results.

Keyboard Shortcuts

This is really useful feature, I think Google should implement it to the normal search results, as it helps users to navigate between searches using keyboard shortcuts.

Accessible View

Accessible view adds to more feature to Keyboard Shortcuts it does everything the Keyboard Shortcuts does in addition to that it help you to navigate from one page to other using keyboard & magnifies the search results as you browse through them.

7. Google SketchUp

Google SketchUp is 3D modelling software which helps you to create 3D models easily or you can just download available 3D models from Google 3D warehouse & start editing them

8. Image Swirl

Most of you have used Google Image to find some quality images, but when it come to searching similar images using a standard keyword it get difficult. Image Swirl uses your generic query & group down images related to those queries into different search results, as for example if you are searching for “Design” it will groups images in website design, logo design & graphic design, hence making simpler for user to search for related images with a single query.

9. Art Project

This tool is helpful for artist around the world, as it let them explore museums from around the world & view hundred of art work from the comfort of their home. You can view various paintings in detail & explore various museums.

10. Google Scholar

Want to do some good research? Then forget conventional Google search and use Google Scholar, as it will search for scholarly literature from various sources like

academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories & more so you get more prevalent results & find really things that are really useful.

11.Google In Quotes

Google In Quotes uses Google News to find quotes of political figures. You can search for different keywords & see what have been quoted about it by different political figures.

12. YouTube 3D Video Converter

Create your own 3D videos using YouTube 3D Video converter, its easy & simple you just need to two camera to capture the video & upload them it’s that easy. You can also find the detail guide on here

13. Transit

Using Google Transit you can find about various public transit available in your area, with information about schedules, timing to reach the destination & route the transit systems takes.

14. Google APIs

Want to know about various APIs Google offers, here the periodic table of different APIs offered by Google.

15. Google Apps

Work Smarter with Google Apps as it offers easy communication & sharing data. I have been using Google Apps for more than 2 years now & it has been hassle free operation. The free package is boon to small businesses as it offers 50 free custom emails setup, but after 10 May it’s going to change to 10 users only.

If you have been using any of the above listed products, then do share your experiences on working with them in the comment section.

5 Cool CSS Hover Effects You Can Copy and Paste

2011-05-08T07:01:11Z

http://designshack.co.uk/?p=19746

Measure page load time with Google Analytics

2011-05-05T18:30:00Z

Zhiheng

Phil

By Zhiheng Wang, Make the Web Faster Team, and Phil Mui, Google Analytics Team

At Google, we’re passionate about speed and making the web faster, and we’re glad to see that many website owners share the same idea. A faster web is better for both users and businesses. A slow-loading landing page not only impacts your conversion rate, but can also impact AdWords Landing Page Quality and ranking in Google search.

To improve the performance of your pages, you first need to measure and diagnose the speed of a page, which can be a difficult task. Furthermore, even with page speed measurements, it’s critical to look at page speed in the context of other web analytics data.

Therefore, we are thrilled to announce the availability of the Site Speed report in Google Analytics. With the Site Speed report you can measure the page load time across your site right within your Google Analytics account.

Uses for the Site Speed report

With the Site Speed report, not only will you be able to monitor the speed of your pages, you can also analyze it along with other analytics data, such as:

Content: Which landing pages are slowest?
Traffic sources: Which campaigns correspond to faster page loads overall?
Visitor: How does page load time vary across geographies?
Technology: Does your site load faster or slower for different browsers?

Setting up the Site Speed report

For now, page speed measurement is turned off by default, so you’ll only see 0s in the Site Speed report until you’ve enabled it. To start measuring site speed, you need to make a small change to your Analytics tracking code. We have detailed instructions in the Site Speed article in the Analytics Help Center. Once you’ve updated your tracking code, a small sample of pageviews will be used to calculate the page load time.

Bringing the Site Speed report into Google Analytics is an important step of the Make the Web Faster effort, and we look forward to your feedback on Site Speed.

Zhiheng Wang spends most of his time at work building stuff so others can serve the web better. He spends the rest of his time at home fixing stuff so his family can surf the web better.

Phil Mui is the Group Product Manager of Google Analytics and has been leading its development since its early days. He has a Ph.D. from MIT and a M.Phil. from Oxford where he was a Marshall Scholar.

Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor

Fundamental Guidelines Of E-Commerce Checkout Design

2011-04-06T11:20:59Z

Here is the harsh reality of e-commerce websites: according to recent e-commerce studies, at least 59.8% of potential customers abandon their shopping cart (MarketingSherpa puts it at 59.8%, SeeWhy at 83% and MarketLive at 62.14%). The main question is why do customers abandon their shopping cart so often? Is there some fundamental mistake that designers of e-commerce websites do very often? Are there any common guidelines or rules of thumbs that make it more difficult for our users to purchase products? And is there some meaningful way to improve the conversion rates for our products?

Well, that’s exactly what we wanted to find out. In 2010, we recruited a batch of Web users and conducted a usability study, focusing only on the checkout user experience, from “Cart” to “Completed order.” The study was conducted using the “think aloud” protocol and was documented by recording everything that happened on the computer screen. The behavior of the test subjects was then analyzed by scrutinizing these recordings at a later date.

The study has shown that it is often difficult to lead customers to the final step in the checkout process when the only thing left is to submit their credit card details.

The 15 e-commerce websites that we tested were: 1-800-Flowers, AllPosters, American Apparel, Amnesty, Apple, HobbyTron, Levi’s, Newegg, Nordstrom, Oakley, Perfume.com, PetSmart, Thomann, Walmart and Zappos.

In total, the test subjects were given more than 500 usability issues, ranging from being distracted by animated graphics to being thrown off course by an illogical checkout flow. These issues were then analyzed and distilled into 63 checkout usability guidelines in a report titled “E-Commerce Checkout Usability.” In this article, we’ll share 11 fundamental guidelines from that report with you.

1. Your Checkout Process Should Be Completely Linear

Issue: Having steps within steps confuses and intimidates customers as it breaks with their mental model of a linear checkout.

One of the worst usability violations that we discovered in our testing was non-linear checkout processes. Websites with a non-linear checkout process left several of our test subjects confused and intimidated. At the time of testing, both Walmart and Zappos had a non-linear checkout process.

The typical way to “accidentally” end up with a non-linear checkout process is to create steps within steps. This happens, for example, when the customer has to set a “Preferred shipping address” (Walmart’s violation) or “Create an account” (Zappos’ violation) on a separate page, and is then redirected to a previous checkout step upon completion.

Below, you can see Walmart’s checkout flow in thumbnails (click image for larger view). Notice that it’s non-linear because the “Preferred shipping address” sub-step directs the user to a previous step:

Walmart’s non-linear process. Large view.

Luckily, making the process completely linear is easy. In this case, a sub-step such as “Account creation” should never redirect to a previous step in the checkout process, but instead direct the customer to the next step in the checkout process.

This is critical because the mental model of most customers dictates that a checkout process should be linear. Upon seeing the same page twice, most customers would conclude that the website has an error, because this is what happens with validation errors.

As one test subject said, “This looks suspiciously like the page I was on before. Is there something I didn’t do correctly?”

2. Add Descriptions To Form Field Labels

Issue: Without descriptions, many form field labels can be ambiguous.

“What does this “Address line 2” mean?” a test subject mumbled. Other test subjects were confused by “Billing address.”

The vast majority of test subjects had problems understanding certain labels. They varied in which labels they had trouble with. The problem was critical in a few cases, and one subject gave up a purchase because she couldn’t understand the label for a required field, making it impossible for her to complete the checkout process. Therefore, always provide clear instructions for each field.

One form that caused confusion belongs to HobbyTron, where test subjects had to guess what “First” refers to:

On Apple’s website, the majority of test subjects started typing their zip code in the field labeled “Area code”:

When you have form field labels without any explanation, some of your customers will likely be confused about what information is being asked of them. Alleviate this by adding short descriptions and examples next to labels. Because not all customers need the extra help, you may want to hide these instructions behind a “What’s this?” link, or perhaps slightly fade its color or reduce the font size.

Below are examples of how descriptions below form field labels can help customers understands what inputs are required of them:

Even unambiguous fields, such as “Email address,” are great opportunities to explain what you’ll use the data for. “Email address” may be a sufficient description, but most people would want to know how you’ll use their email address. Why do you need it?

Finally, for fields that users have to fill in by referring to a paper or card, illustrations can enhance the descriptions a lot (for example, an image of an expiration date from a credit card).

3. Avoid Contextual Words Like “Continue”

Issue: Contextual words such as “Continue” are ambiguous and tend to confuse customers.

Depending on the customer’s state of mind, a button labelled “Continue” in a shopping cart could mean one of two things:

Continue shopping
Say, if the customer is also looking for a shirt to go with those jeans.
Continue to checkout
If the customer has all the products they need and just wants to pay.

Another example is “Back.” Back to the last page? Back to the search results? Where? And how about “Proceed”? These are all contextual words that change in meaning depending on the context (i.e. the page) and the customer’s state of mind.

HobbyTron was one of the websites on which multiple test subjects clicked on the “Continue” button thinking they would continue to the checkout section:

Hobbytron’s Continue button. Large view.

After clicking a wrong button, one test subject said:

It was confusing because I thought, “I want to continue.” I didn’t think about continuing shopping, but rather I was continuing to checkout.

This is a good example of how contextual words, being open to interpretation, can confuse customers. Roughly half of the test subjects at least once clicked a wrong button because of contextual words.

Instead, use words that aren’t open to interpretation, such as “Check out now” and “Shop more.”

4. Visually Reinforce All Sensitive Fields On The Payment Page

Issue: Customers might hesitate if credit card fields don’t appear secure (regardless of actual security).

Many test subjects didn’t think about security until they had to enter their credit card details. In fact, several test subjects talked about certain parts of the checkout page in terms of being “secure” and “insecure” (typically related to credit card details).

Parts of the page with security icons, badges or text and a general “robustness” were perceived as being more secure, while parts without these visual cues inspired less confidence, despite the fact that these fields were all part of the same form on the same page. Technically, there was no difference in security. However, most customers don’t understand the technical workings of forms. All they know about your website is what their gut feeling tells them.

There is a clear divergence between the customer’s mental model of form-field security and the actual security.

As one test subject who had just abandoned their purchase said, “It didn’t look safe enough.” Her reaction wasn’t based on the technical security of the website, but rather on the perceived security of the fields.

Below is a quick mock-up I made to illustrate how you can visually secure your credit card form fields (version B). Notice the background color, padlock image and placement of the GeoTrust seal:

Mock-up of a visual reinforcement. Large view.

By adding visual cues (such as borders, background color, and security icons and badges) around the form fields for credit cards, you can increase their perceived security for non-technical customers.

5. Don’t Use An “Apply” Button In Your Form

Issue: Customers don’t understand “Apply” buttons for distinct sections of a form.

More than half of test subjects were confused by websites with an “Apply” button somewhere in the form; for example, to apply a shipping method to an order.

In almost every case, these buttons were either:

Not clicked, even if the relevant input field was filled out;
Mistaken for the main form submission button.

Test subjects simply didn’t understand the purpose of having a separate “Apply” button in a form.

Below is Newegg’s checkout, where only half of test subjects who filled in their zip code also clicked the “Go” button (problem 1 from above):

NewEgg’s Apply button. Large view.

The consequence of mistaking “Apply” for the main form submission button is that customers will be redirected back to the same page in order to apply the change, thwarting their expectation of moving to the next step and likely leading them to think that there’s an error on the page (as we saw in guideline #1). This happened to two test subjects, who were left to guess what the error was because no error message was displayed (since a technical error never actually occurred on the page).

Below is a form for American Apparel, where test subjects mistook the “Apply” button for the main form submission button (problem 2) and consequently couldn’t proceed with the purchase.

American Apparel’s Apply button. Large view.

If you really need to update a value before moving on to the next step, then auto-update the value using AJAX or the like, without showing an “Apply” button.

6. Format Field For Expiration Date Exactly As It Appears On Credit Card

Issue: Fields for credit card expiration dates can be tricky to decipher if they aren’t written exactly as they are on the credit card.

Some websites use month names, while other websites use a combination of month names and numbers, while still others just use numbers. Which is best? The correct way to format a field for an expiration date is to match what the customer sees on their credit card (i.e. numbers only). This minimizes confusion and misreading because the user can easily verify the field against their credit card.

Below are four examples of how not to format the fields for expiration date. Example D, with the month written as text and the year in four digits, is the worst.

The correct way to format the month field is to use numbers and to prefix all single-digit numbers (i.e. 1 to 9) with a 0, so that they appear exactly as they do on credit cards (for example, 03 for March).

The correct way to format the year field is to use just two digits, to match the number on the credit card (for example, 14 for 2014).

Our test subjects didn’t have any difficulties when month names were included, as long as they came after the digits. So, “03 – March” is okay, but “March – 03” is not. Whatever is on the credit card should appear at the beginning of each option.

You could put a forward slash (/) between the month and year fields to further match credit cards (so, 03 / 14 for March 2014).

7. Use Only One Column For Form Fields

Issue: Customers have an amazingly difficult time understanding the relationships between form fields in two columns.

Half of the test subjects had problems when form fields were in two columns. There were two typical scenarios:

One of the two columns of form fields was missed. It was either dismissed as unrelated or simply overlooked by test subjects.
Unrelated form fields were filled in and/or submitted, often causing validation errors.

Below is Perfume’s form for signing into and creating an account:

Perfume.com’s shipping form. Large view.

This form was interpreted in three ways:

All form fields should be completed in order to create an account.
The “Email address” field and the fields in the right column should be completed to use “Guest checkout.”
Either the left or right column should be filled out.

Another example is PetSmart. There, the most common behavior was to overlook the second column, with the “Credit card identification number,” resulting in an error message:

PetSmart.com’s payment form. Large view.

On two occasions, test subjects abandoned their purchase because they kept submitting the wrong data in the wrong column.

Our suggestion is to use a single column. None of our test subjects showed any difficulty with this.

8. Use Shipping Address As Billing Address By Default

Issue: Most customers order products to their home, so requiring both a billing and shipping address doesn’t make sense.

Customers typically order products to their home address. So, by default, you should use the same address for shipping and billing, unless you happen to record data differently for your store.

By defaulting the billing address to the shipping address, your checkout process will have many fewer fields, making it less intimidating for customers. Users also reduce the risk of misspelling their address if they have to enter it only once; they won’t rush through the form as quickly, and if there are errors, the customer will have to fix them only once.

NewEgg’s checkout. Large view.

Moreover, you should hide the billing address fields entirely. Disabling the fields isn’t good enough. On the one website that did this, most test subjects were confused by why the fields were grayed out, with some users clicking on them. Instead, show only the fields for the billing address, unless the customer explicitly asks to use separate shipping and billing addresses.

Some websites have a “Copy shipping address” button. The problem with this is that it also copies any errors, so the customer has to correct the same information twice. While the customer could just click the “Copy shipping address” button once they’ve corrected the error, all of the test subjects in this situation forgot to do so.

Apple’s copy shipping address feature. Large view.

Also, depending on the website’s layout, such a feature could be easily overlooked. On Apple’s website, half of test subjects overlooked the “Copy shipping address” link and ended up typing in the same address again.

A check box (or something similar) is better for this purpose because errors will have to be corrected only once. Amnesty International’s checkout page is a good example of how to do this right:

Amnesty International’s checkout. Large view.

9. Use Clear Error Indications

Issue: Customers overlook error messages, making them less likely to resolve the errors.

More than half our test subjects had serious problems finding or understanding error messages on the websites we tested.

When a customer has problems with a form, the likelihood that they abandon the purchase increases significantly. When a customer fails more than once, they will be inclined to leave the website altogether (whether because they assume they were blocked or the website has a bug or something else).

Below are four examples of a lack of a clear indication of error.

On American Apparel’s website, the yellow bar at the top is actually an error message, saying that the data in the phone field at the bottom isn’t valid:

On Walmart’s website, the two red arrows (next to “Ship to home” and “Site-to-store”) are actually error indicators:

On PetSmart’s website, the red of “State/Province” is not an error indicator, but rather just the style chosen for this particular label:

On Perfume.com’s website, the red does indicate an error in the “Phone” field:

Unless placed in close proximity to the relevant fields, error messages were likely to be overlooked by our test subjects. Many websites present error messages only at the top of the page, not next to the form fields.

Without this proximity, error messages can be difficult to understand. Some test subjects, seeing nothing wrong with the fields, tried to submit the form again, assuming the page didn’t load properly the first time. This, of course, resulted in the same page being shown again with the same error message.

If a customer doesn’t notice or understand your error message, they will not be able to resolve the error or proceed through the checkout process. In such cases, abandonment is inevitable. So, put time and effort into designing and wording your error messages.

Make sure your error messages:

Are contextualized (that is, not at the top of the page but in close proximity to the relevant fields);
Are clear and concise;
Stand out so people notice them (provide high contrast and maybe even use arrows or other visual indicators).

10. Registration Should Be Optional

Issue: Customers strongly resent having to sign up for an account.

Customers dislike having to register for yet another account. This quickly became evident during our testing as every single subject showed great frustration when forced to do it. 30% of them ended up abandoning one of their purchases as a result.

There are many reasons for this resentment.

For one, customers already have a myriad of user names and passwords to remember and don’t want to create an entirely new account just to buy one or two products from an online store.

Another reason is that 40% of test subjects expected to be spammed with marketing material, even if they explicitly declined to sign up for a newsletter during the checkout process. These customers have a mental model in which Account = Newsletter. Or, as one subject described it: “If I create an account, they can send me spam from now on and forever.” Their prior experience on websites that check the newsletter box by default and obscure it likely led them to this conclusion.

Also, customers likely realize that you’re storing their information indefinitely. While most companies keep a customer’s information in their database regardless of whether they registered an account, most customers don’t think of this. It’s about perception, and some customers just don’t like the idea of a website storing their personal information.

Signing up for an account also takes time. It adds more steps and fields to the process—and complexity. Yet another reason to dislike it.

Finally, many customers just don’t understand why they need an account to buy a product. As one subject clearly put it, “I don’t need to sign up for anything when I’m buying a perfume in a regular [brick and mortar] store.”

Most test subjects didn’t mind having the option to create an account, but they found it illogical and annoying to be required to do so. Some said they would voluntarily create an account if they regularly bought from the website.

If you’re looking for an unobtrusive way to get customers to sign up for an account, then consider simply asking them after they have completed their purchase. “Would you like an account? Just enter a password in the field below.” You can set their email address as their user name and fill in the account information with their order details. This way, the customer isn’t forced to create an account but has an easy way to do so after completing their purchase. (Remember to explain the benefits of having an account.)

11. Don’t Require Seemingly Unnecessary Information

Issue: Customers feel that their privacy is being invaded when they are required to submit seemingly unnecessary personal information.

Refusing to give up their phone number, one test subject anxiously clamored, “Look, why do they need my phone number? What do they need that for? They don’t need it!” Every test subject at one point or another complained about a website that asked for too much personal information.

Being asked for a phone number when the website already had an email address was especially irritating when subjects were trying to make a purchase. The logic goes, if the store already has one way to contact them, why does it need another?

Apple’s checkout process.

If the information is necessary, at least explain why. What is obvious to you may not be obvious to the customer. They have learned to expect the worst when shopping online (usually spam email and phone calls).

Our test subjects were surprisingly forgiving, as long as the website explained why the information was needed. Here’s a tip: don’t hide it behind a link; state it directly in the field’s description. In fact, the test subject we quoted above provided their phone number to another website without any complaints because the store clearly explained that the phone number was needed so that it could contact the customer in case of delivery problems.

The more expensive the order, the more accommodating the customer will be. When buying a laptop, customers want you to be able to contact them. But this holds true only if you require the information in order to complete the purchase. On websites where the field was optional, our subjects weren’t comfortable giving their phone number and simply left the field blank. However, this means that required and optional fields must be clearly distinguished.

Designing A Better Checkout Experience

While there are many more subtleties to designing a good checkout experience, these 11 guidelines go a long way. If you adhere to them, your checkout process will perform well above average.

In a study that he conducted 10 years ago, usability guru Jakob Nielsen concluded that large e-commerce websites violated many basic checkout usability guidelines. It seems little has changed when you look at websites like AllPosters and Walmart.

While a lot of the big websites boast impressive features such as geo-targeting, address validation and state look-up, they don’t manage to get basic usability principles right, and they suffer greatly as a consequence.

With the latest improvements in Web technology and browsers, the potential to create an amazing user experience has increased dramatically. Yet, advanced features shouldn’t be the focus until basic usability guidelines are met. If we add the latest technology just because it’s new and exciting, then today’s abandonment rate of 59.8% is unlikely to decrease.

Things like meaningful flow (see guideline 1), good copywriting (2, 3), simple form design (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), and privacy considerations (10 and 11) go a long way to creating a great checkout experience.

Do yourself and your customers a favor by following these 11 guidelines. Once you’ve covered the basics, you can venture into more advanced territory.

You can find further checkout usability guidelines in our report titled E-Commerce Checkout Usability (not free).

Further Resources

You may be interested in the following related resources:

MarketingSherpa, SeeWhy, MarketLive
The three different sources that document the 59.8% cart abandonment rate.
10 E-Commerce Checkout Strategies
Key strategies for making the checkout process easy for even inexperienced shoppers.
E-Commerce Checkout Page Design: Learn From Amazon.com
A walkthrough of an effective e-commerce checkout page.
Happy Customers Through an Improved Checkout
A collection of details to keep in mind when working on checkout forms.
One-Page Checkouts for E-Commerce Sites
Advantages of a one-page checkout, and how it boosts conversion rates.

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Cross-Browser HTML5 Placeholder Text

2011-03-28T16:13:14Z

One of the nice enhancement in HTML5 web form is being able to add placeholder text to input fields. Placeholder attribute allows you to display text in a form input when it is empty and when it is not focused (it clears the field on focus). This is a nifty feature, but it is not [...]

Advertise here with BSA

Griddle

2011-04-01T20:57:03Z

Get a gridded up background-image on-the-fly:

http://griddle.it/[total width]-[number of columns]-[gutter size]

body {
  background: url(http://griddle.it/960-12-30) repeat-y center;
}

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

Will it Blend? - iPad 2

2011-03-22T12:08:32Z

Asking “will it blend?” is a tech cliché by now, but we still can’t help but watch agog as Blendtec do their usual with the new iPad 2. The new Apple tablet may be so rare that online orders aren’t shipping for 4-5 weeks and queues outside stores trail round the block, but that hasn’t stopped Blendtec’s Tom Dickson from snapping a brand new white iPad 2 in half and then jamming it in his industrial-strength blender.

Video below...

Event Delegation with MooTools, Dojo, and jQuery

2011-03-15T14:21:02Z

I’ve covered the ins and outs of event delegation within JavaScript a few weeks ago but most developers utilize JavaScript frameworks so I thought I’d take a few moments to show you how to implement this wonderful event strategy with the MooTools, Dojo, and jQuery JavaScript frameworks.

The MooTools JavaScript

The Element.Delegation class with MooTools More allows for developers to user event delegation within their application. The syntax looks very much like MooTools’ Event class’ addEvent method with the exception that the :relay pseudo allows you to provide an argument which represents the elements which should answer to delegation:

// link-list is the parent, a is the child elements
document.id("link-list").addEvent("click:relay(a)", function(event,node){
	console.log("you clicked a link!",node);
});

The MooTools team used addEvent with the custom relay method to make adding event delegation to nodes very much like native event assignment. I hope you like it!

The jQuery JavaScript

jQuery uses the intelligently named delegate method for event delegation:

$("#link-list").delegate("a", "click", function(){
	// "$(this)" is the node that was clicked
	console.log("you clicked a link!",$(this));
});

The delegate method accepts three arguments: the selector to be matched, the event to be responded to, and the callback with which to run for the given node.

The Dojo JavaScript

The Dojo Toolkit’s event delegation capabilities live within the dojox.NodeList.delegate resource. Much like jQuery, Dojo uses the delegate method for event delegation:

// Require the resource
dojo.require("dojox.NodeList.delegate");

// *Sigh* When the DOM is ready...
dojo.ready(function() {
	// Assign an event
	dojo.query("#link-list").delegate("a","onclick",function(event) {
		// "this.node" is the node that was clicked
		console.log("you clicked a link!",this.node);
	});
});

The delegate method accepts the same arguments as jQuery: selector, event type, and callback.

Event delegation is especially useful for applications which dynamically create and remove DOM nodes. Imagine the nightmare in having to assign events frequently (to new nodes) and remove events from deleted nodes (to prevent IE memory leaks). Take full advantage of the delegation capabilities of each framework — they’ll come in use quickly!

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Event Delegation with MooTools, Dojo, and jQuery

How JavaScript Event Delegation Works

2011-03-07T15:31:45Z

One of the hot methodologies in the JavaScript world is event delegation, and for good reason. Event delegation allows you to avoid adding event listeners to specific nodes; instead, the event listener is added to one parent. That event listener analyzes bubbled events to find a match on child elements. The base concept is fairly simple but many people don’t understand just how event delegation works. Let me explain the how event delegation works and provide pure JavaScript example of basic event delegation.

Let’s say that we have a parent UL element with several child elements:

<ul id="parent-list">
	<li id="post-1">Item 1</li>
	<li id="post-2">Item 2</li>
	<li id="post-3">Item 3</li>
	<li id="post-4">Item 4</li>
	<li id="post-5">Item 5</li>
	<li id="post-6">Item 6</li>
</ul>

Let’s also say that something needs to happen when each child element is clicked. You could add a separate event listener to each individual LI element, but what if LI elements are frequently added and removed from the list? Adding and removing event listeners would be a nightmare, especially if addition and removal code is in different places within your app. The better solution is to add an event listener to the parent UL element. But if you add the event listener to the parent, how will you know which element was clicked?

Simple: when the event bubbles up to the UL element, you check the event object’s target property to gain a reference to the actual clicked node. Here’s a very basic JavaScript snippet which illustrates event delegation:

// Get the element, add a click listener...
document.getElementById("parent-list").addEventListener("click",function(e) {
	// e.target is the clicked element!
	// If it was a list item
	if(e.target && e.target.nodeName == "LI") {
		// List item found!  Output the ID!
		console.log("List item ",e.target.id.replace("post-")," was clicked!");
	}
});

Start by adding a click event listener to the parent element. When the event listener is triggered, check the event element to ensure it’s the type of element to react to. If it is an LI element, boom: we have what we need! If it’s not an element that we want, the event can be ignored. This example is pretty simple — UL and LI is a straight-forward comparison. Let’s try something more difficult. Let’s have a parent DIV with many children but all we care about is an A tag with the “classA” CSS class:

// Get the parent DIV, add click listener...
document.getElementById("myDiv").addEventListener("click",function(e) {
	// e.target was the clicked element
	if(e.target && e.target.nodeName == "A") {
		// Get the CSS classes
		var classes = e.target.className.split(" ");
		// Search for the CSS class!
		if(classes) {
			// For every CSS class the element has...
			for(var x = 0; x < classes.length; x++) {
				// If it has the CSS class we want...
				if(classes[x] == "classA") {
					// Bingo!
					console.log("Anchor element clicked!");
					
					
					// Now do something here....
					
					
					
				}
			}
		}
		
	}
});

The example above requires not only a tag match but also a CSS class match. While this is a bit more complex, it’s still fairly simple in the grand scheme of things. For example, if the A element had a SPAN tag in it, the SPAN tag would be the target element. In that case, we’d need to walk up the DOM tree to find out if it contained an A.classA element we were looking for.

Since most developers use a JavaScript library for their DOM element and event handling, I recommend using the library’s method of event delegation, as they capable of advanced delegation and element identification.

Hopefully this helps you visually the concept behind event delegation and convinces you of delegation’s power!

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: How JavaScript Event Delegation Works

Introducing the Google APIs Explorer

2011-03-07T20:00:00Z

Google is always looking for new ways to make it easier for developers to get started with our APIs. When you come across a new Google API, you often want to try it out without investing too much time. With that in mind, we are happy to announce the Google APIs Explorer, an interactive tool that lets you easily try out Google APIs right from your browser. Today, the Explorer supports over a half dozen APIs – and we expect that number to grow rapidly over the coming weeks and months.

By selecting an API you want to explore, you can see all the available methods and parameters along with inline documentation. Just fill out the parameters for the method you want to try and click “Execute”. The Explorer composes the request, executes it, and displays the response in real time. For some APIs that access private data you will need to “Switch to Private Access” and authorize the Explorer to do so.

To get you started, here are some sample requests; follow the links and press “Execute”:

Expand a goo.gl URL using the URL Shortener API
Translate a phrase to French using the Translate API
List your personal Buzz posts using the Buzz API (requires private access)

The Explorer makes it easier for developers to discover what APIs we offer and get started using them within minutes. If you have any questions or comments, visit the help page or the support forum. We’d love to hear your feedback.

Happy exploring!

By Anton Lopyrev and Jason Hall, Google Developer Team