Advertise here via BSA

For those of you who spend hours at your computer (who reading this blog doesn’t?), you probably remember the time you thought your desktop looked awesome. Maybe you found a cool wallpaper or a neat icon. But it’s time to take it to the next level. NerdTool is a nice little enhancement for Mac users who want to move past a static desktop. Sure, we know VLC can play a video as your desktop background… You might even know about GeekTool, which is kind of the grandfather of NerdTool. Cool thing about this one is that it has a pretty good following. You can display the results of a shell script on your desktop, and refresh by the second. Check out the Github wiki tips and tricks, or if you’re one of those guys who knows terminal better than correct English grammar, jump in and experiment. Also, all of the GeekTool scripts will naturally work, so digging through forums will provide for pretty easy copy-and-paste scripting to get cool results like these:


(Check out the cool iTunes progress bar on the one above)




Thanks to this blog post full of awesome scripts for Geektool and a quick Flickr search for the first several of those shots, and my friend @JamBoud for the last one.

There’s a ton of these little applications floating around to change up your desktop. Check out Bowtie for iTunes, TinkerTool for a bunch of cool hidden preference tweaking for things like shifting your dock around from it’s normal centered position.

This doesn’t even touch the surface, but I found this stuff over the course of the past few days and thought it way too interesting to not share.

A cool idea

Nerdtool actually allows you to use a snippet of a website as part of your background. As I was looking through the program, I thought of a cool idea for those of you who have a domain and hosting; with a little bit of time and work, you could set up your own little networking, blogging, or RSS home right in your “wallpaper”.

So what have you done with your desktop? Show us by posting in the FYI Flickr group!

Advertise here via BSA

There’s no doubt that 2009 was the year of Social Media. Just look  at this Top 9 of 2009 list. It’s dominated by Interface and experience improvements for the topic.  There were so many to choose from but we could only pick 9. I mean come on,  Top 14 of 2009? Seems a little odd, huh? Anyway, without further ado, here are the Top 9 UI Enhancements That Improved User Experience in 2009!

Whether you are a light user wanting to transfer your twenty-something kilobyte documents between computers across town, or you run a multi-national business and want to transfer large presentations, video files, and many other things between you and hundreds of co-workers, Dropbox has an account for you. It’s like a jump drive that gets to where you’re going before you do… and also, doesn’t ever take up space on your keychain. Oh, did we mention it has a mobile interface and a dedicated iPhone application? There’s way too much to say about Dropbox. Just go check it out here.

It’s pretty obvious how big of an impact Twitter has had on the world of Social Media, and therefore the entire web, and therefore interface design. Twitter began this year, however, with some experimental things (a la Google); one of these experiments is Twitter Lists. Obviously, because of the immense number of people who tweet daily, you can quickly end up with quite a few folks on your Follow list. How do you keep track of them? Some apps implemented lists before Twitter finally caught on. And, of course, because Twitter now supports lists, they are going to be a lot more functional (and universal) for Twitter users. Check it out here.

Everyone has wasted time on Facebook. If you haven’t, then maybe now is a good time to start. Why, you ask? Well, instead of wasting time pressing the refresh button, you now can waste time stalking your old classmates from ‘95. Or, perhaps you just want to watch the feed, as if it were a tv show. Thanks to Facebook implementing real time updates, you can do that. Thanks for making us more productive at being less productive, Facebook!

Also, don’t forget those wonderful Facebook iPhone applications. Not only are we more productive at wasting time when we’re supposed to be finishing up some spreadsheet or another… we also are able to have Facebook Chat at our fingertips while we drive! But seriously… Facebook really has taken some leaps and bounds in making the world more connected this year by changing the way we see the dynamic abilities of Social Media.

If you haven’t watched Google’s super-long introduction video to Google Wave, you can do so here. That will tell you a lot of the details… but even Google doesn’t tell you everything in that video. The truth of the matter is, Google Wave’s long-anticipated arrival will slowly but (almost) surely become a big player in the game of collaboration and Social Media, as well as blogging, in the future. As it is currently in beta (what else do you expect from Google?), not everyone can use it just yet. Remind you of any other successful social networking stories? (Okay, in case you didn’t know… Facebook was limited to college students until 2005, and only in 2006 was it opened to anyone and everyone.) Get to Waving, folks – there’s a LOT of capability here, and the more people who use it, the more powerful and useful the platform will become.

For those of you who are iPhone users, you know why this is such a big deal. It made the list not because it’s groundbreaking or because it changed any game. No, it just changed hundreds of thousands of users’ experiences. Why is this genius (and, make no mistake, it IS genius)? Well, we can’t promise these things, but it’s quite likely that Apple knew from the beginning just how badly people would want this feature. So customers sit and wait on a “big feature” of iPhone OS 3.0, which, turns out, Apple knew how to do a long time ago. So a brand new selling point of the iPhone comes out of what is, for other phones, just a normal feature. This is just another great example of why Apple easily garners lasting brand loyalty that is built on excitement and buzz. I mean, what iPhone user didn’t get excited when they heard about cut/copy/paste for iPhone? Exactly.

CoTweet is a platform that helps companies reach and engage customers using Twitter. Or so it says on their homepage. And yet, it’s so much more! Do you have multiple Twitter accounts? Or one account that you need multiple people to post to? CoTweet is the tool for you. A gorgeous web-app in the purest sense. You can schedule your tweets to post at a later date, assign DMs to users, automatically repost your tweets to dozens of other social network sites like, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, monitor keywords and trends and even click tracking via Bit.ly integration. The list goes on and on! But don’t take our word for it, one look at the features page and you will easily see how this interface makes the list.

Alright, we lay down arms for a minute here to recognize the beauty of the new operating system from Windows. Sure, the editor of FYI (that’d be me) owns and uses two Apple computers, but for Christmas this year, it may just be time to spring for a dual-boot endeavor. Why? Well, there are simply a litany of really cool interface enhancements to make everyday workflow incredibly easier. It’s the little things, folks, and Microsoft has (finally) learned how little things can stack up to be quite huge. (For instance, the “Snap” feature may just make us Mac fanboys a little… territorial. Jealous is a strong word…)

Apple’s Snow Leopard fixes a lot of usability issues that have been around since Leopard (10.5). Stacks works better, Spaces and Exposé… oh, and did we mention the fact that it upgrades the entire operating system and all Apple applications to 64-bit? Just you all wait until CS5 comes out… if it finally supports 64-bit, it is expected that Mac users will see some enjoyable speed increases. The usability of every day processes has been laid out wonderfully by Snow Leopard, both for now and for the future.

There are also a lot of brand new features Apple introduced (for instance, GPU accelerated processing).

This tool can be seen in use on Abduzeedo; basically it allows all of these wonderful social networking tools that work on their own (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to be integrated together, right on a website, such as Abduzeedo. This tool is simply fantastic for bringing it all together; talk about usability! Not only can you drag photos straight from the page to the sharing tool, but you can also traverse across multiple chat clients (that’s what Meebo does best anyway). This made the top of our list for many reasons. One, it’s extremely powerful and time saving; instead of popping open seven tabs for each and every sharing service, you just drag and drop. It just simply rocks. And we like things (and people) that rock. It’s pretty simple, don’t you think? The only negative points so far is that it’s not available to the public just yet… hearsay says 2010 will bring it to your domains. UPDATE: Thanks to one of the comments below from Meebo for this update – there is now a version of the Meebo sharing bar available! Check it out here: http://bar.meebo.com

Now, what are your top picks of 2009?

WANT MORE?

Advertise here via BSA

If you haven’t already pre-ordered the new upgrade to the current OSX Leopard, it is officially out in the wild today. With that being said, there’s a good number of you who just simply are holding on to your $29 because you are afraid that Snow Leopard’s new bite isn’t worth the cash. Let’s take a look and see what the changes are to the interface, and why you should (or shouldn’t) shell out the bills. But first, a few notes.

“Refined, not Reinvented”

64-Bit

Hence the simple addition of “Snow” to the title, Snow Leopard isn’t as big of a change as Tiger to Leopard was in the sense that you won’t see a lot of functional changes in the way you perform everyday tasks.
Snow Leopard has been re-worked to make use of 64-bit processing, which essentially allows machines that have room for more than 4GB (roughly) of memory to take advantage of that extra memory more efficiently, more often. In theory, 64-bit processing can use up to 16 exabytes of RAM (16 billion GB). Snow Leopard can also accommodate up to 16 TB (for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, that’s 16,000 GB) of actual RAM, in practice. Another really important point: All of the built-in applications (Mail, iChat, Finder, etc.) are now 64-bit. Also, all of your 32-bit applications will work with Snow Leopard. The security of 64-bit processing is also increased. Quick note – this is only for Intel Macs. Sorry PowerPC users. Looks like your final destination is 10.5.8.

Other Backend Enhancements

There are a few other back-end enhancements worth noting.

• OpenCL – uses computing power of GPUs to increase performance of other tasks
• GCD – “Grand Central Dispatch” – optimization of multi-core processing.

Both advancements will be based on whether or not each particular user-installed application is created or updated with the capability of utilizing the new technologies.
While these advancements are important to check out, we’ll let you read more in-depth at Apple about those. We’re here to talk about the interface. (note: the back-end of the computer ALWAYS makes a difference to the front end, hence why we mentioned the advancements)

So, what about the UI?

There are some cool enhancements to take note of in the UI overall.

Better Stacks

Perhaps the most important thing to me when using my OS is organization. While searching is already easy with Spotlight, I’d much rather know where something is. Stacks receives a much-needed upgrade with Snow Leopard. Now, you can navigate within folders AND you can have as many icons as necessary with the new addition of a scrollbar. Much better, Apple.

More Features for Finder

Good stuff here. With a new zoom bar at the bottom right of the Finder window, you can look at icons a little closer, a little easier. Also, faster icon refresh rates make Finder that much better. In Leopard, Apple introduced Quick Look, which allowed the user to look at a file easily without really doing much. Now, some of these QuickLook functions can be done inside a finder window icon. Particularly, you can check out a multipage document or preview a QuickTime movie. (It’s just one button less pushing, but hey… we all like to be a bit lazier, right?)

Brand New QuickTime

Apple introduces QuickTimeX with Snow Leopard. A couple of expected enhancements to QuickTime are also packaged with Snow Leopard, and a couple of not-so-expected enhancements have found their way there as well. Tip: QuickTime is also used across the entire OS, so an upgrade will more than likely bring along newer technology/plugins/enhancements within Safari and other programs that use QuickTime to display media.

Features

1. Audio/Video Recording and Simple Editing

Previously available to QuickTime Pro owners, you may now use your audio/video input to record in QuickTime. Equally exciting for anyone who does screencasts, you may also now use QuickTime to record screen activity. There is also simple video editing, ala the iPhone 3GS.

2. Slick Interface Enhancements

Cool little feature – when you roll your mouse out of the QuickTime window, the interface fades out so that you can focus on the video playing.

3. More Featured Video Export

Okay, not necessarily an interface enhancement, but nonetheless fairly important. You can now export directly to specified formats for iPod, iPhone, or AppleTV. Also, directly upload to YouTube or MobileMe accounts without wading through which codec is best for which service.

4. Takes Full Advantage of New Features in Snow Leopard

The features we mentioned earlier – Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL – are utilized in the display performance to help smooth out playback, especially of higher-quality video, which previously was apt to stutter.

Anything you don’t like?

Okay, okay… I admit, I am a Mac user/fan. I’m not one of those nutcases that burns PCs on the weekends as a recreational activity, nor as a psychological release… That’s my neighbor. But seriously, with everything good, there almost ALWAYS is something bad. In this case, it is a few of Apple’s newest Exposé tweaks. One cool part about the tweaks is that you can click and hold on any application in the dock to show the Exposé-ized windows of that application. Very intuitive. However, Exposé now shows all windows at much closer to the same dimension. Check it out.


Notice how the windows in Exposé are a little more proportional in the older interface. Sure, the grid-based interface idea is probably “better” – but sometimes, the chaos of Exposé is part of what made it easy to use (in my personal opinion). I know about how big my open windows are, even while shuffled. Knowing the size of the windows is a much faster determining factor when choosing which window to switch to, rather than having to read each and every label for the windows. Maybe there will be a tweak later, but for now, that’s one point for the anti-upgraders.

One more important feature…

Again, not so much aesthetic interface, but rather on a larger scale, Snow Leopard enables Microsoft Exchange compatibility with its included (native) applications, including Mail, iCal, and Address Book. This allows for a much more integrated experience for users who take their Mac to a Windows-based workplace every day, as well as users with iPhones who have taken full advantage of Google Calendar and Google Contacts by utilizing Exchange for calendar and contact synchronization (read how to do this here).

Final Verdict

Well, this one isn’t too tough to figure out folks. Minus the obvious facts (this isn’t for PC users, and only works on Intel Macs), this well-planned upgrade from Apple is easily worth $29. A good reference point is a QuickTime Pro purchase, which was $30… With Snow Leopard, you get the functionality of QuickTime Pro, plus a good number of other interface features (even more than what are listed here). On top of it, you get an extra dollar for Taco Bell. And you are kept up-to-date so that if your favorite software developer decides to take advantage of Apple’s new 64-bit, OpenCL, or GCD technology, you are ready to get the most out of their newest software. Not to mention the added security, speed, and Exchange support… It’s a no brainer.

Drop the $29, either now or later when your parents have had it for long enough to bug you about how to use Photo Booth.

Family pack upgrade, for 5 users who are currently using Leopard, is $44 on Amazon, while the single user upgrade is $29 straight from Apple. If you are using Tiger, you must buy the Mac Box Set, which is actually a very well priced deal itself at $169. It includes iWork 09 and iLife 09, as well as an install of Snow Leopard from Tiger, for $169. Check it out here.

Hopefully this has been somewhat educational, and will help you make your decision on whether to upgrade to Snow Leopard!

Note: Fuel is in no way affiliated with Apple Inc. All Apple logos and/or trademarks are property of Apple Inc. Fuel was not compensated for this review.

Advertise here via BSA

Introduction

As a UI designer / information architect, I’m often asked to create layouts that are ‘easy to read’ or ‘efficient’ or ‘more intuitive’ for a client’s digital audience. When I purchased Layout Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Using Grids by Beth Tondreau, I hoped that it would uncover new grid guidelines while avoiding redundancy with other grid styles publicly available on the web. Layout Essentials does that and more…

Not just a reference guide

Beth Tondreau makes very few assumptions about readers’ foreknowledge of grids and jumps right into the fundamentals in the first 20 pages. Tondreau provides a vocabulary for grids that might seem obvious at first (i.e. columns, modules, margins, spatial zones, and flowlines), but she also explains complex grid systems (i.e. hierarchical grids, modular, multicolumn) and methodologies for implementing them (i.e. typography, color, media forms, etc). What makes the book interesting and eliminates it from simply being a reference guide is the constant use of real world projects that demonstrate the relevant grid principle being addressed, and the projects themselves as a good source of inspiration. Tondreau makes a conscious effort to inform readers that there is a difference between ‘principles’ and ‘rules’ and designers should not ‘lock’ into a paradigm that stifles creativity.

Conclusion

I strongly recommend that this book be read not only by designers, but also by any person that builds interfaces (desktop, web, mobile) that will be viewed by large audiences. It can only improve the quality of the final product and make the information displayed more comprehensible.

Book Details:

• 208 Pages
• Hardcover (Full-color)
• Buy it on Amazon