Complete Beginner's Guide to Interaction Design. Web design has followed a long and winding road from it’s rather modest beginnings. Initially, the term “web designer,” described something much more akin to that of a graphic designer: a designer who concerns themselves with the presentation of text and pictures. Today, however, the majority of websites and applications online are interactive. In turn, modern web designers are called upon to make a number of considerations drastically different than those made by traditional graphic designers.
To bridge this gap, we call upon the discipline of interaction design. This article serves as a good jumping off point for people interested in learning more about Interaction Design. To that point, we’ll briefly cover the history, guiding principles, noteworthy contributors, tools, etc. related to this fascinating discipline. What is Interaction Design? Interaction design got its start only a few decades ago when the first interactive systems made their debut. IxDA What concepts drive IxD? IxEdit. A Tale of Two Clocks - Scheduling Web Audio with Precision. Introduction One of the biggest challenges in building great audio and music software using the web platform is managing time. Not as in “time to write code”, but as in clock time - one of the least well-understood topics about Web Audio is how to properly work with the audio clock. The Web Audio AudioContext object has a currentTime property that exposes this audio clock. Particularly for musical applications of web audio - not just writing sequencers and synthesizers, but any rhythmic use of audio events such as drum machines, games, and other applications - it’s very important to have consistent, precise timing of audio events; not just starting and stopping sounds, but also scheduling changes to the sound (like changing frequency or volume).
Sometimes it’s desirable to have slightly time-randomized events - for example, in the machine-gun demo in Developing Game Audio with the Web Audio API - but usually, we want to have consistent and accurate timing for musical notes. Conclusion. Watch Out Facebook, With Google+ at #2 and YouTube at #3, Google, Inc. Could Catch Up. 65 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed. Time passes quickly and change is relentless, particularly in the digital sphere. So, if your busy life kept you away from the Internet this week, there's plenty you may have missed.
But don't fret — Mashable, your cyber ally, is here to relieve your digital woes. Our staff tracked down every new gizmo, app, game, website and service they could find. Check them out in our weekly roundup of digital resources, below, and then visit the comments section to let us know which stories you found most interesting.
Editor's Picks AppAide Recommends Apps Based on How Often They're Actually UsedAppAide sheds light on some of the more overlooked apps in the App Store by tracking the apps that are actually being used in real time. 7 Digital Diet Solutions to Help You Lose WeightThinking about shedding some weight and getting fit before the New Year? Social Media. Roll Your Own Perfectly-Organized Printable Online Resume in Five Minutes. Ok ok. I don't like slamming ideas often, but this is kinda dumb. You clearly mention that building your resume is a tedious task and requires designing a layout properly.
Now you suggest that people learn how to code in PHP and find a web host in order to make their resume???! This is IMO much more time consuming AND more confusing than doing it manually!! Especially having to go back and edit this monstrosity afterwards! I myself know PHP very well among several other programming languages, as well as having my own hosting already and I would never waste my time with this. If you want to suggest a way to create a resume that's as easy as "filling out a form", then try actually making it as easy as filling out a form. On top of that, making your resume should be your own. Stop, Look, Click: Attention-Grabbing Elements in Web Design. There have been many studies on attention with very significant results coming from the area of cognitive neuroscience and psychology.
It is an interesting challenge to translate those results into the domain of web design and use it as a tool for creating a meaningful impact. There are many ways of how to grab a user’s attention in web design, from the choice of meaningful words to the placement of images that create an emotional response. We want to explore some website elements that can help do an important job: grabbing the user’s attention. High-impact words There are some words that will grab the user’s attention more than others. This is highly connected to some hard wired responses that our brain will have reading those words. Words can “turn on” our self-centered mind, imply familiarity or bring us into a state of alert. Here are a few examples that use the word “YOU” with a close spatial proximity to an action button: Southtree myownbike.de Pulpfingers Exclusive Reels Wagner Skis Xero. Couponing Guide For Beginners. There’s no doubt that coupon sales have been a hot topic over the last few years.
Coupon websites have come and gone like tomorrow never mattered. Groupon, who has probably enjoyed the biggest success, just dropped under its $6 billion market cap on June 4th, and it seems that trend is not going to stop soon. However, coupons are still very popular, and with an economy like the one the world is in right now, I am sure couponing will not become any less popular. For a beginner, couponing can seem both a bit intimidating and a bit shameful. I have no idea why that is. There is definitely nothing shameful about saving money on the things you want to buy. It’s what smart people do, so it should be regarded as a good thing. Just last year, America saved $46 billion by couponing. In order to get started using coupons as a beginner, you could use a little bit of guidance, right? Click Couponing Infographic To Enlarge My Mommy Rewards. Looking to Hire Top Talent? Try Recruiting With Video. Josh Tolan is the CEO of Spark Hire, a video powered hiring network that connects job seekers and employers through video resumes and online interviews.
Connect with him and Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter. The typical recruiting process is inefficient. This is the best explanation for why so many recruiters are turning to platforms like Facebook to Pinterest and beyond to source candidates. In 2011 the average cost per hire was $5,054, and the traditional recruiting process takes an average of 45 days to fill a position. This is a lot of time and money disappearing. Is it any wonder why more recruiters are looking at the popularity and usefulness of online video? According to comScore’s 2012 US Digital Future In Focus report, 105.1 million Americans are watching online videos every day. Recruiters should take advantage of this growth in online video to shorten the hiring process and find great people. Brand Your Company Enhance the Job Description Interview Top Talent Josh Tolan.
Chirp app sends smartphone data via 'digital birdsong' 22 July 2012Last updated at 19:52 ET Rory Cellan-Jones tries out the new chirping method of communication An app that transmits data via a burst of "digital birdsong" aims to simplify the way users share images and other files between smartphones. Chirp plays a two-second long noise that sounds as if it was made by a robotic bird. When heard by other devices it triggers a download. The software was developed by Animal Systems, a spin-off business from University College London (UCL).
It is free to use, but companies will be charged a fee for add-on services. At the moment users are limited to sending pictures, website links or 140-character text messages. Other applications such as Android Beam, Bump, Datasync and Dropbox allow users to swap material via bluetooth, wi-fi or links to cloud-based storage. But Chirp has the advantage that it can quickly send data to multiple devices at once without them needing to be either paired or have a wireless connection. Continue reading the main story. Digit World View July 2012 | BridgeURL. Digit World View July 2012 | BridgeURL. Digit World View July 2012 | BridgeURL. Six Impossible Problems - The Artillery Blog. By Mark Logan 09 July 2012 Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Lewis Carroll We’re pretty optimistic about the possibility of bringing console-quality gaming to the browser.
There are already lots of turn-based resource-collection/”click-and-wait” games and plenty of casual puzzle games, but we believe the platform is ready to take a step forward. Despite these wonderful demos there are some really hard problems in front of us. Without further ado, here are six impossible problems we need to solve over the next few years to make our vision a reality: “Impossible! This is not an easy problem. 2. If you look at all the brilliant indie games being produced these days, it starts to look like it’s a new golden age of gaming. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Liquid Web | DDoS Attack Protection. The Sad Tale of "Shopping Guy" In this post, I'd like to share with you a cautionary tale. I'd like to tell you the story of a man named Shopping Guy. Shopping Guy isn't really his name. His family and his friends call him something else, no doubt; something closer to an actual name and less of a label.
But I know him only as Shopping Guy. I first learned of this unfortunate soul one night when my girlfriend came to visit. She has a number of men she's friends or acquaintances with, you see, who'd very much like to be more than friends or acquaintances of hers. And the stories she tells me about their tragic attempts to get together with her are enough to make a man cringe. Part of the reason I cringe when I hear these stories is because I can see everything these guys are doing terribly, awfully wrong. You may have been there before, or you might still be there right now – either way, the story of Shopping Guy, and a reflection on his mistakes, is, I think, well worth spending a few minutes of your time on. "Yes! " Think in Numbers: Talking to Lots of Girls. If you’ve ever looked at a pretty girl and suddenly felt a surge of nervousness at the idea of going to say hi to her, you’ll get something out of this article.
Because what you were doing when you felt that nervousness was you weren’t thinking in numbers. Most men who are successful with women have a number of similar traits you can distill and learn from. One of those traits is thinking in numbers. That is to say, thinking to themselves not, “I’m going to go meet that girl… I hope she likes me!” That difference in thinking about women while out to meet women has a tremendously big impact on levels of anxiety, anticipation, and desire to actually meet new women. Thinking in numbers applies to all aspects of your relations with women – meeting them, dating them, getting intimate with them, building and maintaining your relationships with them.
Look at these contrasts. And, how a guy who thinks in numbers is while out meeting women: Some fairly substantial contrasts, right? Best, Chase. Open a Padlock with an Aluminum Can. 50 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed. Summer storms got you down? Have you forgotten how we used to pass the time before the days of Instagram, Netflix and Pinterest? Here's an idea: catch up on Mashable's features coverage from the last week and check out some resources you may have missed. Saturday marks the third annual Social Media Day — so get in the spirit with stories on turning social media relationships into IRL ones, the state of social media in Europe and how the medium is impacting small communities.
Also be sure to check out our business coverage for hot tips on scoring those first 1,000 users, keeping an engaged audience online and mastering the art of Search Engine Optimization. Whether you work at a large company or are just sowing the roots of your start-up, we'll definitely have something to boost your productivity this week. And because we know you've been waiting for this with bated breath, we've rounded up six scented iPhone cases that are bound to tickle your senses. Editor's Picks Social Media. Travel News, Videos, Reviews and Gossip - Lifehacker. How to Get a Complete Workout with Nothing But Your Body. Top 10 Ways to Get Free Wi-Fi Anywhere You Go. Why Zynga loves the hybrid cloud.
FORTUNE -- About 54 million people play Zynga (ZNGA) games like FarmVille, Hidden Chronicles and Words With Friends each day. That level of activity adds up to a whole lot of virtual cows (and other imaginary goods) being sold, but it also poses a huge challenge for the social gaming company's back-end infrastructure—the hardware and software that power Zynga. The newly-public company's recently-launched online platform, Zynga.com, is adding yet another layer of complexity, as it will be open to games from third-party developers. We caught up with Allan Leinwand, CTO of infrastructure at Zynga, to find out what went into developing the company's "Z Cloud" and why he thinks the hybrid cloud is the answer to Zynga's demanding (and often unpredictable) traffic load. FORTUNE: In the past you've relied on Amazon Web Services. How has Zynga's infrastructure strategy evolved? Then we turned it into a hybrid cloud.
How have you gone about building your hybrid cloud? Yahoo's brilliant solution (Fortune, 2005) Editor's note: Every Sunday, Fortune publishes a favorite story from our magazine archives. This week, we turn to an August 2005 cover story on troubled internet giant Yahoo. The story chronicles the great dream behind Yahoo -- and its potential to become a major force in media. That dream didn't pan out. After a series of caustic executive departures, Yahoo is again at a crisis point. This week, its current CEO, Scott Thompson, announced a major restructuring that will bring with it 2,000 job cuts or 14% of its workforce. By Fred Vogelstein FORTUNE -- Julie Roehm has more than $2 billion to spend this year, and the way she's been spending it worries executives at News Corp., the Washington Post Co., and virtually every other media company on the planet.
Here's the scary part: Roehm rarely misses a chance to talk about how delighted she is with online advertising. No wonder media executives are concerned. So far, Semel has put together one of the web's hottest winning streaks. How many iPhone app developers can Microsoft buy? Snooki Launching Slipper Line for Children and Infants. Snooki’s little meatball is going to be sporting some outrageous footwear! The “Jersey Shore” star, whose real name is Nicole Polizzi, is expanding her slipper line to include products for kids. One month after Snooki confirmed she’s expecting her first child with fiancé Jionni LaValle, the company behind Snooki Slippers — Kentucky-based Happy Feet — announced that the reality TV star will be expanding her collection to include infant and children’s slippers.
The pint-sized fab footwear will go on sale this fall, which is around the same time she’s expected to give birth. [Related: See Snooki's Pregnant Bikini Body] Snooki’s love of slippers — as seen on her MTV series — landed her the footwear collection in the first place. It’s a time of transition for Snooki, who became known for her over-the-top partying lifestyle on “Jersey Shore.” [Related: Pregnant Snooki Practices Parenting With Doll] "She's pregnant, not dead," Sally Ann Salsano, creator of “Jersey Shore,” told Zap2it. Surprising Careers that Could Pay Six Figures. 14 Common Dog Behavior Myths Decoded | Pets.