Recently Adobe released the latest version of their Creative Suite software, CS5. There were a ton of upgrades and enhancements, but the one that is absolutely mind-boggling is the “Content-Aware Fill”.

It took 8 years to put a man on the moon after President Kennedy challenged the nation to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. But with CS5 it took less than 2 minutes to take the man off the moon.

For other videos of the “Content-Aware Fill” and some of the other new enhancements to CS5 check out this article.

Well, for the past week the web development community has been buzzing about the new, viable solution to this problem. Google has started a directory of open-source fonts that can be embedded on any page. This library of fonts is likely to grow with time, as font designers continue to donate fonts to the cause. Not only does this solution work well with browsers dating back to IE 6, but having the font hosted by Google’s servers increases overall site performance. Not to mention how easy it is to include on a web page.

If you’d like to browse the font directory, you can find it here.

One of the most exciting things coming out of HTML 5 is the new video element.  Just this past week at the Google I/O Conference, Google introduced a new open-source video format, now called WebM.   This new format is under an open-source license as well as optimized for the web, and it seems like it will help guide the direction of embeddable media on the Web.

There aren’t many projects that come through the door that don’t want to utilize some form of video, so we’re definitely excited to see some standardized rules come through in this next iteration.

Of course Steve Jobs isn’t a fan of the new format (read here), and he appears to have some viable points.  But regardless of that, it doesn’t really matter how the video codec turns out, HTML 5 is going to make the web a better place and I can’t wait to see how we can use it to take all of our projects to the next level.

Well, it all begins with options. In the user experience field it is understood that the more options a user has at one given time, the likelihood of them becoming confused increases exponentially. Certain tasks can become daunting if they’re overloaded with options or if the user interface isn’t easily understood. The problem is, as devices become increasingly complex with options, whether it be the addition of the internet, email, text messages, or apps (the list goes on…and will always go on) the user interface and experience of these devices becomes more complex to interact with and pick up for the first time. This is where Apple products shine compared to its competitors…

At any given time on an Apple product, you are only given a few options (more often only one) and a back button (the home button at the bottom). This keeps information organized and easy to navigate without confusing the user. Instead of some devices that give you drop down menus all over the place, Apple instead creates processes that usually only have two options: Move forward into the action or use the home button to go back to the main screen. This simplifies tasks into easily dissectible processes without confusing the user. Other mobile devices try to combine tasks but instead of making the user experience easier, it’s daunting and confusing to someone who’s never used the device.

Take the video below for example. A two and a half year old is easily navigating the iPad OS with intuitive hand gestures and the simplified ‘forward or back’ control system. Entering any type of action isn’t as daunting when you know that with one touch of a button, you’re back where you originally started. This cannot be said with most of the competitor’s handheld devices. For example, although a Blackberry has an abundant amount of options, they were often nestled into some dropdown that make them difficult to find. It shouldn’t be a matter of remembering where to find a particular option but instead, having it presented to you only when you need it.

Here’s to keeping it simple…if only other companies in this world would follow suit, it might just be a much more intuitive place.

A 2.5 Year-Old Has A First Encounter with An iPad

Wikipedia describes the term viral as: “…becoming extremely popular in a very short amount of time. Often for something to be considered viral it needs to make its way into everyday non-internet life.”

Entire seminars, conferences and marketing strategies are now dedicated to how to create something that will go viral. Something about that seems completely counter-intuitive. I don’t think you can ever truly set out for viral success, let alone define a formula for how to make it happen.

I think viral content happens due to a number of different reasons, but usually involving some combination of the following…

1. Really engaging or great content
2. A brilliant or creative idea
3. Something we haven’t seen before
4. Cute or funny kids
5. Something that’s truly laugh-out-loud funny
6. Something that happens completely by accident and is captured on film

I’m not saying that companies haven’t had great success creating viral videos as part of a marketing or advertising campaign…I’m merely saying I think it’s important to change the strategy and thought behind coming up with that content.

A “viral video” can’t be looked at as just another check on the checklist of planning a campaign, like a direct mail piece or a website. I think it’s important to take a step back and look at what you’re trying to accomplish and ask yourself or your client: “What are we trying to accomplish here?” “Who is our target and what interests them?” “Is this something that I would be so moved / entertained / [fill in the blank] by that I would actually forward this to my friends?”

In my opinion, those are the questions to be asking…not, would you like a viral video?

To close, I’d like to leave you with an assortment of some of my favorite viral videos, in no particular order…

1. The Cadbury’s Gorilla
2. Single Ladies Devastation (by Atlanta’s own Carlos Whittaker & family)
3. Charlie Bit My Finger
4. Toyota’s Swagger Wagon (This is the most recent on this list and yes, completely part of Toyota’s latest marketing strategy surrounding the Sienna…I say, bravo Toyota, job well done on this!)

What are some of your favorites?

My only skepticism towards this new release, is how many IE 6 users will actually install the plugin if they are yet to install a newer browser? Yet, a large number of IE 6 users are forced to use the browser at work, because IT doesn’t allow them to upgrade. Chrome Frame may be an alternative for such users. Google also plans to passively promote the plugin on any Google apps that may render better on Chrome than in IE.

It will be interesting to see how web development evolves as the web continues to progress. As the capabilities of modern browsers improve, it becomes possible to make richer, more user-friendly web applications . With IE 6 lingering around, innovation in new web development techniques have been constrained to the capabilities of this ancient browser. Developers worldwide have been eagerly anticipating the eventual death of IE6. The release of Chrome Frame is just one more step in that direction.

Sure it may just be another ploy in Microsoft’s attempt to improve their image, but for two worthy causes, who cares?  Let’s feed the hungry!  http://www.browserforthebetter.com/

Most of us consider Twitter a promotional tool, but companies ranging from local burrito shops to Dell are using it to find leads and close business.

Connect with Customers
Instead of just announcing new products or promoting your blog on Twitter, reach out to your customers. Boloco, a local Boston burrito restaurant with 16 locations runs ads in local papers that include a $3 off coupon. The owner decided to take a picture of the coupon and post it on Twitter, he tweeted that they would accept a print out or even just showing the coupon on a phone. The restaurant usually accepts 350 coupons when they run one of these ads, after using Twitter they received 900.

On a larger scale, Dell Outet recently acknowledged that they had made $3 million in sales over two years using Twitter, primarily posting coupon codes. @DellOutlet has over 1,000,000 followers.

Track Mentions & Save Searches
Use Twitter to track what people are saying about your company. Many Twitter applications like Tweetdeck let you track “mentions” which will allow you to see what your followers as well as non-followers are saying about you.

But you will only get notified of a mention if someone uses @yourusername specifically. How do you track what people are saying about you in a simple post? What are they saying about your competitors or specific things relating to your industry? Create a custom search; Simply search for your desired keywords on Twitter and then save your search (see image). Twitter also has an advanced search feature: http://search.twitter.com/advanced. There are many widgets for tracking your search criteria as well as features built in to many of the popular Twitter applications: http://twitter.com/downloads.

Give your company personality, even deal with disgruntled customers
Give your company a human face by interacting when your company is being discussed. Boloco’s owner weighs in with his Twitter followers to encourage them to visit his restaurant when they are pondering where to go eat on a Friday night.

A Denver area Ace Hardware owner, uses monitter to search Twitter for both keywords and locations of tweeters. One day, he flagged a Denver man worrying about insects in his lawn. He was able to tweet to him about the benefits of using lady bugs to manage lawn pests. The man ended up coming in to the store and buying lady bugs.

The same Ace Hardware owner also caught a customer complaining about a broken tool. He reached out to him and informed him that Ace tools had a lifetime guarantee. The man went from angry to extremely impressed.

In conclusion, if you are not using Twitter there is no reason not to give it a try. It is free and it is not time consuming. If you are already using Twitter to promote your company, I’d encourage you to try taking advantage of Twitter in some of these creative ways.

As developers, we deal with technical limitations and licensing restrictions all the time.  Commercial and open-source licenses clearly spell out what you can and can’t do (legally) within a platform or framework.  This ensures that when we build applications that use an existing framework or integrate a 3rd party application, the copyright holder’s “program” is preserved and no laws are broken.

What if a platform’s restrictions weren’t disclosed entirely to developers?  Or worse, what if the owner of the platform arbitrarily decided which applications were allowed or restricted regardless of whether they followed the guidelines provided?  Wait, isn’t that what Apple’s doing?

Apple may finally be in over their heads after rejecting a perfectly legitimate app, Google Voice, and then lying about it!

There are a number of core iPhone apps that are powered by Google, such as Search, maps, YouTube, etc.  Apparently, Apple feels that Google is taking over too much core functionality of the iPhone.  Since the Google Voice app provides alternative functionality to the iPhone’s core phone application, perhaps Apple feared they would essentially be turned into a hardware manufacturer for a Google-dominated device.

You can read more about the insanity on techcrunch:
The Truth: What’s Really Going On With Apple, Google, AT&T And The FCC

I’ve had the idea of blogging about project planning for my next blog for a while now, so I was very interested to see Dan’s blog about adaptive development, or basically dealing with changes in project plans. As Dan mentioned in his blog, changes are inevitable and we enjoy brainstorming solutions for these changes and are very adaptive at managing them. While changes will always occur and can be handled efficiently, proper planning is still the most crucial step of a project and will add value from the start.

Before beginning development on a project, it is key to thoroughly plan out what the project requirements will be. Talk to the intended users of a system before beginning development to discuss what features they would like the system to incorporate, how they think things should flow, and how the system can create value for them. Mocking-up processes and flows is a great way to refine system requirements before the actual development begins. Planning a project well adds more value by allowing more time to add additional features and refinements (and make it even more “awesome”) rather than constantly having to rework sections of a project due to poor planning from the beginning.

Gathering technical requirements for a project is also a very important part of planning. While this is usually a very simple step, it can be the most frustrating when not properly planned for. As a developer, I know there is nothing more frustrating than having part of a system that works perfectly using standard best-practice techniques and then have to rework it because some special technical requirements were unknown and not planned for. It’s hard to add value to a project when a change is reworking something to do the same exact thing, just a different way.

Planning your project is nothing to be intimidated by though. We’re always here to meet with our clients to help properly plan and architect their projects from the beginning. When the inevitable changes do come, we will handle those and switch into adaptive development mode. And of course, if a project’s plan starts as a personal ‘About Me’ page and ends up being a system to drive our country’s healthcare system, we can still make it happen and we will make it awesome!