Reviews
My Favorite Pomodoro Timers
The Pomodoro Technique is a simple system for helping you stay focused throughout the work day.
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that can be used for any kind of task. For many people, time is an enemy. The anxiety triggered by “the ticking clock”, especially when a deadline is involved, leads to ineffective work and study habits which in turn lead to procrastination.
The aim of the Pomodoro Technique is to use time as a valuable ally in accomplishing what we want to do in the way we want to do it, and to enable us to continually improve the way we work or study.
Paper Prototyping vs. Balsamiq Mockups
Our process of designing mockups directly influences the quality of our finished design. Great design isn’t just in pixels and colors, it is also in the interaction design. We can’t design graphically until we have designed and tested wireframes.
Paper Prototyping with Paper and Marker
My design tools are primitive. They include a stack of paper, a Sharpie marker, and a wastebasket. Sketching wireframes on paper is very fast. It takes only a few seconds, and the result is always disposable. Drawing and trashing concepts is the interaction designers way of brainstorming for ideas. Continue →
Review: Easy PHP Websites with the Zend Framework
About 6 months ago a good friend of mine, Jason Gilmore, came to visit and brought along his new book Easy PHP Websites with the Zend Framework. He’s the author of the already bestselling Beginning PHP and MySQL on the Apress label.
His new book doesn’t disappoint. It’s an easy read and has easy to follow examples. At around 300 pages, it’s easily digested.
The book is a great introduction to the Zend Framework and walks you through building simple database applications, Facebook applications, applications which integrate with web services such as Amazon Web Services, Google Maps and others.
You can buy the book from his website, or Amazon.com.
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Latest Comments
- Nate Klaiber → “ The design industry is plagued with the misconception that product manuals are evil. These designers believe that your product should be intuitive enough to use without a manual. While there is a certain truth to this, there are many viable reasons for product manuals to be used. There needs to be a certain…”
- Joe Fiorini → “ The design industry is plagued with the misconception that product manuals are evil. These designers believe that your product should be intuitive enough to use without a manual. While there is a certain truth to this, there are many viable reasons for product manuals to be used. There needs to be a certain…”
- Roger F Carver → “ The Google Charts API is an excellent way to add high quality charting to your web application. We first started working with the API as part of the Simpli5 dashboard development, and were quite impressed with its functionality and ease of use. Wrapper classes were developed and added to our Sandstone Application Framework to make…”
- Nate Klaiber → “ The “I agree” checkbox has become an interface standard on registration forms. “I agree to the terms and conditions.” While it’s purpose is generally understood by the consumer, it is a key source of frustration for people registering for accounts. eBay's Registration, as an example Why it’s overlooked: Checkboxes are small, particularly ones which aren’t grouped…”
- Josh Walsh → “ Most of the value you gain from a usability testing session comes from the analysis after the session is complete. I have been involved in a few sessions recently where no formal analysis has been conducted. I believe this is a mistake. Traditionally, the analysis portion of a usability session takes quite a long…”