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Email usability: The science of keeping it short and sweet You’ve probably heard the advice, ‘Keep your email campaign short and sweet’, often followed by, ‘… because no-one’s going to read loads of copy, anyway’. As much as this seems like commonsense, we’ve all seen clients attempt to cram in as much information as possible, oblivious to reason. I believe this is largely due to another school of thought, which goes along the lines of, “My subscribers have signed up because they obviously want to read all about my brand values and 5 year plan.” With a lack of hard evidence to the contrary on hand, this can be an frustrating argument to dismiss. See no email… I was skimming through Jakob Nielsen’s research recently and came across a little gem in the form of an eyetracking heatmap. From: ‘Email Newsletters: Surviving Inbox Congestion’ - Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, June 12, 2006 Note the emphasis on reading the first two words of the headlines, followed by diminishing interest in the body copy. Ouch. What can we learn from this?

Comfort Keyboard Systems - ErgoMagic Keyboard - Ergonomic Split Keyboard with Programmable Key Mapping Top rated, programmable, adjustable, and separated keyboard — Money Magazine (2001). ErgoMagic Sections can be separated up to 6' apart, It can also be rotated & tilted in order to allow users find their most comfortable position — for user convenience, pre-set angles are installed at 20, 30, and 45 degrees of declination. Each section is separated with a completely distinct base which allows the ErgoMagic keyboard to conform to people's differing shoulder widths. Each of the three sections can be placed at any angle on the desktop, providing user-defined rotation to the left and right. By providing rotation (to accommodate ulnar deviation) and tilt (to accommodate pronation), each section of the keyboard can adjust to an wide number of positions which allows it to be set in a position that is comfortable for each hand of the user. Mapping and Key Map Functions Remapping (a.k.a. Individually programmable macro keysA macro is multiple keystrokes stored in a single key.

RIM’s Plans for 2011 Leaked 28 January '11, 02:34am Follow BGR has just posted leaks from Crackberry.com of what appears to be RIM’s plans for 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. The images below highlight confidential roll-out plans for devices such as the Sedona, Malibu and Monaco. The leaked Montana (Bold Touch) specs show the device will sport a 5mp camera and will do HD recording at 720p. The Monaco Touch is one of the sexiest BlackBerry we’re seen and it seems to have a thin and light curved body.

Ink the Movie by Jamin Winans Infinite Scrolling Best Practices by anthony on 12/23/10 at 1:06 am Infinite scrolling is a new interface technique you’ll find popping up on various websites. It allows users to browse through content without clicking on pagination links. Keep the navigation bar persistently visible When you scroll down a normal web page, the navigation bar gradually loses its visibility. Give users feedback when loading new content When new content is loading, users need a clear sign that the website is doing this. Show how much content has loaded and how much is left With infinite scrolling, users will inevitably load a lot of content on their page. Use a More button if you have a footer If your site has a footer and you’re going to use infinite scrolling, use a More button to load new content. Bring users back to their previous spot when they click back When users click back they not only expect to land on their previous page, but their previous spot on the page. Infinite scrolling has its benefits when it’s done right.

The Square Grid - A simple CSS framework for designers and developers SharonTanPF® Illustrator Template Toolbox for Web, Mobile and App Developers | Speckyboy Design Magazine For today’s post we have an extensive selection of UI templates, all in Illustrator format, and all perfect if you are a web, mobile or app designer who prefers to use Adobe Illustrator rather than the more commonly used Photoshop. It was mildly surprising how difficult this post was to put together, I really did expect to find a lot more. What is clear from this is that generally most designers would not even consider Illustrator for UI design, which was an even bigger surprise. So, if you are a UI designer who does prefer Illustrator over everything else, then you may consider this post as your treasure chest. iPad Wireframe Template (.eps) License: This file must not be hosted on any other site but you are free to use it. iPad Vector GUI Elements (.ai) iPhone Sketch-Like Elements (.ai) iPhone UI Vector Elements (.ai) Illustrator Template for iPhone Design (.ai) Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License”> iPhone 4 Vector Template (.ai & .eps) Touch Notation (.ai) Yahoo Design Stencils

London 2012 Olympics Map Points to the Future of Cartography One challenge faced by any city ramping up its local services in advance of hosting the Olympics: You can't put any old company's logo out there for the world to see unless they've inked a hefty sponsorship deal and/or been named as an official contractor. That means even the lettering on the side of the construction vehicles building your new stadium will get painted out in press photos. Online, where almost everything is branded, from YouTube to Flickr, this gets tricky, especially when it comes to mapping--yep, you guessed it--no using Google Maps. So LOCOG (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) tapped SF-based collective Stamen Design to build a custom map for the London 2012 website, a beautiful and radical departure from off-the-shelf mapping programs that makes full use of that pupil-rattling logo. Poke around a bit on the map and you'll start to notice the impressive navigational capabilities that have you zipping into central London in no time.

What inspires the UK’s top digital production companies? In putting together the list of the top UK digital production companies, I asked each agency what really inspired them over the last 3 months. Here is what they said: Your Mum Unit9 The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo. Stink Digital The quite fantastic Utweet campaign Rehab Make your own IS Parade here. Pirata Check out the site here. Disqo B-reel What has inspired you the most in the last three months? Hey, like this post?

10 Cool Crowdsourced Music Video Projects What better way for an artist to engage with his or her fans than by collaborating with them? Although just 10 years ago this would have been an arduous undertaking, collaborative music video projects are now possible thanks to social media and the wonders of the web. From asking fans to record themselves singing along to a song, to getting fans to draw frames of film, there have been some really interesting crowdsourcing ideas emerging of late. Here we bring you 10 examples of such musical projects, both completed and ongoing. 1. C-Mon & Kypski have turned to the web to help make the music video for their song "More is Less." 2. Shawn Madden invited his friends and fans via YouTube to send in footage of themselves having fun. 3. Described as a unique, global, communal work of art, the Johnny Cash Project is an amazing tribute to the man in black. 4. "I've Got Nothing" is the result of a project from the BBC and YouTube to try and create a crowdsourced single to raise money for charity.

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