Whether we’re talking about a 5-person team at a small agency or hundreds of creatives at a company like Apple, there are seven key ingredients that evoke potential for greatness.

Over the past 13 years, I’ve seen the gamut—from a solid group of talented people handcuffed by rampant ego and money-hungry leadership to amazing teams empowered to do work that moves the needle. If you’re team sees continued success, I guarantee you’ll find these 7 ingredients at the heart of your achievements.

1. Talent

The most important element of a great creative team is talent. The trick is to attract the best and most inspired creative thinkers, collaborators, writers, designers and artists. Outside creative, spot-on project management ensures the creative people can focus on what they do best.

2. Passion

If you don’t love what you do and thrive on being better everyday, the work suffers. Passionate people infuse energy into the team. They set trends and strive to do something unique. By nature they are driven to create. Proficient and ambitious, they don’t wait around for things to happen. And they don’t just get it done. They make you say, “wow.” Enthusiasm is catchy and compels a team’s synergy.

3. Trust

When focused on delivering the highest-quality work possible, it makes all the difference to know you’re surrounded by people who will push you and help spring you up when you falter. Let’s be real, even the best and brightest thrive with input. The best creative teams are completely open and brutally honest, eliminating inadequacy immediately and helping each other act on creative energy. Trust is at the heart of collaboration. Teamwork is a necessary ingredient that takes the work to the next level if team members trust their leader and each other.

4. Respect

Respect is earned. Nothing entitles you to it. The best teams don’t tolerate egos, but foster an environment of mutual respect. Respect ties directly to accountability—it says that you value each other’s time and space when you do what you said you would do. Respect also relates to the recognition of each other’s strengths and knowing that what you contribute isn’t more important than someone else’s work. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

5. Power

If company leadership doesn’t put creative first, then the team—no matter how talented, passionate, trusting and respectful—is doomed for demise. Creative people don’t bloom when they’re relegated to order-taking. Great work is led by great ideas and the best results come with creative in the driver’s seat. The team needs to be empowered to make the work the best it can be, as our reputation and credibility are our greatest assets. Creativity is power.

6. Growth

Voltaire said, “judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers.” Curiosity feeds growth. If you’re challenging yourself and learning new things, you won’t get bored. Push yourself and your teammates. If a company has a vested interest in the personal and professional development of the team, the long-term benefits of working relationships really take form. ­­­Growth fuels the talent, the trust, the respect, the power and the leadership. Strength and growth come through continuous effort and struggle.

7. Leadership

Great leadership starts with a big picture view—making secret sauce from the teams’ collective ingredients and curating the right energy. A great leader has a knack for timing—knowing when to push the team and when to let ideas bake. Henry Kissinger said, “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” Steve Jobs demanded excellence and inspired his team to do better work than they thought they could do.

If you’re team is flailing or you feel unsatisfied, try adding a helping of talent, passion, trust, respect, power, leadership and growth. If you find roadblocks, move on to a place that makes the secret sauce or one that’s ready to whip up a fresh batch of awesome.

So, needing a quick solution, I began digging around to see what I could find. And there was nothing! What? how could it be that in this day and age there isn’t a readily available solution to my problem on the internet? Bummer. So I started playing around with UCM and some inline javascript. I knew I couldn’t access the header and put the script there, so I tried some inline scripting and it worked straight away. From there, I knew I just had to write the script in the right manner and I should have some jQuery-like functionality right there in UCM. As it turns out, it was a simple solution and it works great.

So, if you need a quick and easy Oracle UCM expandable regions solution, just download the attached zip file and copy and paste the code into the page UCM Content Contributor and edit the text. Simple solutions are sometimes elegant as well.

Download Oracle UCM Dropdown here

No discussion of programming and or design is complete without touching on one of my personal favorite subjects, Call of Duty. Perhaps the most anticipated video game of all time, the latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise is due to be delivered in only 5 more days!!! Needless to say, I, along with about a million other people, am completely stoked and salivating at the chance to play it. The reviews have been stellar, and there are some new features as well.

A little online research tells us that the game will immediately follow the events of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where the Russian Federation continues its invasion of the United States of America, and has also expanded its offensive to Europe, including England, France and Germany. Campaign stages are also planned for Somalia, Sierra Leone, Moscow and Dubai. Gameplay videos from E3 2011 in Los Angeles showed Delta Force soldiers helping Navy Seal Teams force a Russian submarine to surface in the East River and boarding it to destroy the other boats in the harbor. Before this, Delta Force soldiers are on a mission to destroy a radar jamming installation on top of the New York Stock Exchange. On Episode 502 of GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley, footage was shown of SAS soldiers fighting terrorists in the streets of London, eventually chasing them through a subway and killing them. They proceed to a subway station and eventually end up on the streets of London once again. Michael Condrey, Co-Founder of Sledgehammer Games, explained that the SAS are tracking a package belonging to ultra-nationalist Vladimir Makarov and is considered deadly and must be found and captured. Sounds great huh? Well it gets even better!

In Campaign Mode the player assumes the role of various characters during the single-player campaign, changing perspectives throughout the progression of the story. Each level is a mission that features a series of objectives that are displayed on the heads up display, which marks the direction and distance towards and from such objectives. Damage to the player is shown by blood shown on the screen. The player’s health regenerates as time passes. Tasks vary in their requirements, having the player arrive at a particular checkpoint, eliminate enemies in a specified location, stand their ground to defend an objective, or plant explosive charges on an enemy installation. The player will be accompanied by troops who cannot be issued orders.

Further reading has also revealed that Modern Warfare 3 will feature a new Survival Mode. Survival Mode features one to two players fighting endless waves of enemies with each wave getting more difficult. Despite being much compared to the World at War Nazi Zombies mode, enemies do not spawn at fixed locations like the zombies do, but instead, at tactical positions based on the current location of the player. The mode will be available on all multiplayer maps in the game and in the mode, players can earn “cash” for items such as weapons, upgrades and ammo. Spec Ops will also be returning from Modern Warfare 2 and will feature up to 48 stars, unlike Modern Warfare 2, which featured 69 stars.

Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have confirmed that they revamped the entire killstreak reward system. They have stated that while Treyarch had slightly improved the system, it was not enough to make the system feel perfect. Killstreaks are now known as pointstreaks, and kills are no longer the only way to increase the player’s pointstreak. Completing objectives such as planting the bomb in “Search and Destroy” or capturing a flag in “Capture The Flag” will award points towards the player’s pointstreak. Pointstreaks rewards are organized into three different “strike packages” called Assault, Support, and Specialist. The Assault strike package works the same as the killstreak reward system in Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops, offering rewards like the predator drone and helicopters. The Support strike package offers support-style rewards such as UAVs and SAM Turrets. Rewards from the support strike package do not reset when the player dies, but accumulate over the course of a match. The Specialist strike package rewards players with perks of their choosing after every second consecutive kill. After eight kills, they will receive every perk in the game, but will reset back to none upon death. Players are allowed to choose which pointstreak rewards they want to use when they gain it during the match, rather than choosing them between rounds.

Along with revamping the entire killstreak reward system, Modern Warfare 3 will also have a completely revamped ranking and unlocks system, and will not use a currency system for unlocks.The player’s primary weapon will level up alongside the player, and unlock a number of “Proficiency” perks such as Kick (reduced recoil while aiming down the player’s sight) and Focus (stay focused under fire). Only one Proficiency can be put on each weapon. Another new addition is the ability to equip Hybrid Scopes on a weapon, such as a Red Dot Sight and ACOG Sight on a single weapon, and the player can switch between the scopes. Modern Warfare 3 will introduce a “Prestige Shop” which will unlock only after the player has selected the option to prestige for the first time. The “Prestige Shop” will allow prestige players to use tokens they gain from using the prestige option to buy exclusive features such as double XP and a extra custom class.

Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have also revealed that they are attempting to balance perks that make players rely less on skill, by removing certain perks that give players a major advantage over others who do not possess the same perk. “Quick-scoping” has returned, while diving to prone or “dolphin diving” has been removed due to balancing issues.The teams have also revealed that to fix bugs and glitches, they will utilize Treyarch’s hot fix system. Modern Warfare 3 will feature a local and online split-screen option.

Several new game modes have also been added. “Kill Confirmed” requires players to collect floating dog tags from the corpse of a downed enemy before the kill can be registered. However, the opposing team can pick up the dog tag as well to deny the other team of a kill. In “Team Defender”, both teams must try to cap a flag dropped by the first person who gets killed when the match starts, and hold it to accumulate points. Private matches also now include pre-made game modes including “Infection” (where the infected kills enemies to recruit them to their team), “Drop Zone” (where the player must hold a drop zone for points and care packages), “Team Juggernaut” (each team plays alongside an AI Juggernaut character), “Gun Game” (be the first to get one kill with every gun in the game) and “One in the Chamber” (in which players are only allowed one pistol with one bullet and three lives where they can only get more bullets by killing other players). Along with this, players are allowed to create their own game modes with customized settings such as number of players and time limit.

His family, in a statement released by Apple, said Mr. Jobs “died peacefully today surrounded by his family.”

The company didn’t specify the cause of death. Mr. Jobs had battled pancreatic cancer and several years ago received a liver transplant. In August, Mr. Jobs stepped down as chief executive, handing the reins to longtime deputy Tim Cook.

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being,” Mr. Cook said in a letter to employees. “We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.”

During his more than three-decade career, Mr. Jobs transformed Silicon Valley as he helped turn the once-sleepy expanse of fruit orchards into the technology industry’s innovation center. In addition to laying the groundwork for the industry alongside others like Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, Mr. Jobs proved the appeal of well-designed products over the power of technology itself and transformed the way people interact with technology.

“The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come,” Mr. Gates said in a statement Wednesday.

The most productive chapter in Mr. Jobs’s career occurred near the end of his life, when a nearly unbroken string of successful products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad changed the PC, electronics and digital-media industries. The way he marketed and sold those products through savvy advertising campaigns and Apple’s retail stores helped turn the company into a pop-culture phenomenon.

At the beginning of that phase, Mr. Jobs described his philosophy as trying to make products that were at “the intersection of art and technology.” In doing so, he turned Apple into the world’s most valuable company with a market value of $350 billion.

After losing considerable weight in mid-2008, Mr. Jobs took a nearly six-month medical leave of absence in 2009, during which he received a liver transplant. He took another medical leave of absence in mid-January, without explanation, before stepping down as CEO.

Mr. Jobs is survived by his wife, Laurene, and four children.

Mr. Jobs turned Apple into the largest retailer of music and helped popularize computer-animated films as the financier and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which he later sold to Walt Disney Co. He was a key figure in changing the way people used the Internet and how they listened to music, watched TV shows and movies, and read books, disrupting industries in the process.

“Despite all he accomplished, it feels like he was just getting started,” Disney CEO Robert Iger said in a statement Wednesday.

Mr. Jobs pulled off a remarkable business comeback, returning to Apple after an 11-year absence during which he was largely written off as a has-been. He went on to revive the struggling company by introducing products such as the iMac all-in-one computer, iPod music player and iTunes digital-music store.
Beyond PCs

Apple now produces $65.2 billion a year in revenue compared with $7.1 billion in its business year ended September 1997. Apple dropped the “computer” in its name in January 2007 to underscore its expansion beyond PCs.

Although Mr. Jobs officially handed over the reins of the company to Mr. Cook, his death nevertheless raises a question for Apple of how it will sustain its success without his vision and guidance. Other companies, including Walt Disney, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and International Business Machines Corp., experienced some transitional woes before eventually managing to thrive after their charismatic founders passed on.

But few companies of that stature have shown such an acute dependence on their founder, or have lost the founder at the peak of his career. Several years after Mr. Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985, the company began a steady decline that saw it drift to the margins of the computer industry. That slide was reversed only after Mr. Jobs returned in 1997.

Mr. Jobs also leaves behind many tales about his mercurial management style, such as his habit of calling employees or their ideas “dumb” when he didn’t like something. He was even more combative against foes like Microsoft, Google Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. When Adobe Systems Inc. waged a campaign against Apple for not supporting Adobe’s Flash video format on its iPhones and iPads in April 2010, Mr. Jobs wrote a 1,600-word essay about why the software was outdated and inadequate for mobile devices.

He maintained uncompromising standards for the company’s hardware and software, demanding “insanely great” aesthetics and ease of use from the moment a shopper walked into one of Apple’s stores. His attention to detail shaped some of the distinctive features of Apple’s products.

Mr. Jobs enforced strict secrecy among employees, a strategy that he believed heightened anticipation for new products. News of his death came a day after Apple unveiled its newest device, the iPhone 4S, without him on stage.

Mr. Jobs, the adopted son of a family in California, was born on Feb. 24, 1955. A college dropout, he established his reputation early on as a tech innovator when, at 21 years old, he and friend Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer Inc. in the Jobs family garage in 1976. Mr. Jobs chose the name, in part, because he was a Beatles fan and admired the group’s Apple records label, according to the book “Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders” by Wall Street Journal reporter Jim Carlton.

The pair came out with the Apple II in 1977, a computer that was relatively affordable and designed for the mass market rather than for hobbyists. It went on to become one of the first commercially successful PCs, making the company $117 million in annual sales by the time of Apple’s initial public offering in 1980. The IPO instantly made Mr. Jobs a multimillionaire.

Not all of Mr. Jobs’s early ideas paid off. The Apple III and Lisa computers that debuted in 1980 and 1983 were flops. But the distinctive all-in-one Macintosh—foreshadowed in a TV ad inspired by George Orwell’s novel “1984″ that famously only aired once—would set the standard for the design of modern computer operating systems.

Even then, Mr. Jobs was a stickler for design details. Bruce Tognazzini, a former user-interface expert at Apple who joined the company in 1978, once said that Mr. Jobs was adamant that the keyboard not include “up,” “down,” “right,” and “left” keys that allow users to move the cursor around their computer screens.

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Ingredients:
1 normal, everyday Photoshop
1 set of real 3D text.
1 large black canvas (1600—1200px)

Step 1: First, we’ll need something written in 3D. We have two possible variations:

If you prefer a bit of Mac spice, use the command “Extrude and Bevel” in illustrator. This tutorial from PSDUTS may help you through it.

If you swing more toward a Windows flavor, Xara3D is another. If you don’t have Xara 3D, have no fear. We always come prepared: click on the thumbnail below to download a sample.

Step 2: Place the 3D text and rename it as “3D Text”. Then, with the Magic Wand Tool select the face of the letters and cut that part as you can see from the screnshoots below.

Step 3: With me so far? Now comes the fun part. Make two copies of this layer, one for backup (“3D Text Copy”) and another one (“3D Text Blur”). Set the backup copy aside to cool for a bit (aka, Hide). Leave the other two layers (“3D Text” and “3D Text Blur”) on the fire and easily accessible. Turn down the heat a bit on 3D Text Blur let it simmer for a while and come back to it later.

Step 4: Next, create a new layer group, rename it “Effects”, and change the blending option of this group to “Color Dodge”. Now, being careful not to disturb the other layers, reach inside this new layer group and, with a flick of the wrist, create a new layer, applying the filter “Clouds” (Filter -> Render -> Clouds) to give it that nice, puffy consistency that weave all come to know and love.

Step 5: Dropping just below that group in your palette, create another group, this one named “Colors”. Remember that little wrist-flick technique from Step 4? Didn’t get it quite to your satisfaction the first time? Well, we’re going to give it a go again. As before, within this new group you’ll need to create a new layer; add a sprinkle of pink, and with the gradient tool (in Radial Mode) draw a soft edge glow. After that, set the layer blending mode to the Low mixer setting, or “Soft Light”.

At this point, you might see a strange pink cloud, but don’t worry. All part of the plan.

Step 6: Repeat the previous step with two other bright colors, but placed differently.

Step 7: Now, for the secret ingredient.
Do you remember the “3D Text Blur” we set aside way back in Step 3?
Well, it’s been simmering long enough! Select it now and apply a Gaussian Blur of 13 pixel radius (Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur)

Step 8: Now the creative part. Add a new layer in the “Effects” group, immediately above the “Clouds”. Download a cool brush from DeviantArt and use white to trace around the inside face of each the letters.

Step 9: Still with me? We’re almost there! Carefully slide yet another new layer between the two groups (Effects and Clouds).
Reach for your trusty Gradient Tool (this time in Linear Mode), choose White and, holding down the Shift key, drag the Gradient tool from the outside edges of the canvas to the middle of the image.
Set your blending mode to “Saturation” and see what happens.

Step 10: Ready for another layer? We’ll need a new one in the Effects group; name it “Abstract Lights”.

Step 11: Then ctrl-click (command-click for you Mac lovers) the “3D Text” layer icon in the layer’s palette and paint inside the new selection with a custom abstract brush as we did in Step 8 (remember, use WHITE).

Step 12: You’ve made it. The final step. The icing on all of these layers. Create…one…last…layer above the “White” layer we just did.

Use a nice LARGE custom brush, like this, and draw a single Cloud above the text. Apply a Motion Blur (Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur) with an Angle of “-11? and a distance of “200? pixels.
Change the Opacity to “30%” and apply a gradient overlay with the following settings:

Voila!

There you have it. A quick, easy way to spruce up any old 3D text into something to set anyone’s mouth watering. Serve hot or cold to your friends, and watch them drool!!!

Enjoy!

For a bit of a twist if you’re feeling a bit adventurous–above all the layers, try new custom brushes (like smoke) and repeat the last step to apply cool lights. Experimenting can be fun!

The absolute best cases, in my opinion are made by SLAPPA. Here are some of their offerings:

The HardBody PRO “Checkered Past” is sexy inside and out, featuring a rich outer checkered weave nylon and a soft tan interior. “Checkered Past” comes in 3 different sizes; 10″ for iPad, BlackBerry Playbook and most all other tablets as well as Asus, Acer, Dell, Toshiba and most other 10″-12″ netbooks; 13″ is ideal for MacBook PRO and MacBook Air, and 17″ is perfect for large gaming and professional laptops (yes it fits beasts like the Asus G73 and Alienware m17x). The HardBody PRO “Checkered Past” cases are tough, rugged and lightweight, and feature SLAPPA’s award winning molded Duro-Shock xEVA shells, which are water resistant and fire retardant. On the inside, all 3 models feature super-cush lock down straps for your device, keeping it securely in place and highly protected. The 10″ and 13″ version have 3 storage pockets to store cords, power bricks and small gadgets (like iPhone or BlackBerry). The 17″ version has 5 storage pockets for cords, power bricks and devices, and also a document pocket and a key chain clip. The 17″ version also has a honeycomb frame to add maximum shell stabilization.

All 3 cases utilize industrial strength zippers, molded alloy zipper pullers, alloy rings for shoulder straps (the strap is included on the 17″ case and is optional for the 10″ and 13″ cases) and a domed alloy SLAPPA logo.

CHECK IT OUT

The HardBody PRO “Carbon Elektra” is sexy inside and out, featuring a rich outer carbon laminate and a crimson red interior. “Elektra” comes in 3 different sizes; 10″ for iPad, BlackBerry Playbook and most all other tablets as well as Asus, Acer, Dell, Toshiba and most other 10″-12″ netbooks; 13″ is ideal for MacBook PRO and MacBook Air, and 17″ is perfect for large gaming and professional laptops (yes it fits beasts like the Asus G73 and Alienware m17x). The HardBody PRO “Carbon Elektra” cases are tough, rugged and lightweight, and feature SLAPPA’s award winning molded Duro-Shock xEVA shells, which are water resistant and fire retardant. On the inside, all 3 models feature super-cush lock down straps for your device, keeping it securely in place and highly protected. The 10″ and 13″ version have 3 storage pockets to store cords, power bricks and small gadgets (like iPhone or BlackBerry). The 17″ version has 5 storage pockets for cords, power bricks and devices, and also a document pocket and a key chain clip. The 17″ version also has a honeycomb frame to add maximum shell stabilization.

All 3 cases utilize industrial strength zippers, molded alloy zipper pullers, alloy rings for shoulder straps (the strap is included on the 17″ case and is optional for the 10″ and 13″ cases) and a domed alloy SLAPPA logo.

CHECK IT OUT

The rest are pretty nice too. Some weird, some cool.

1- iGotaBigAssPocket Concept

OhNo!Doom currently have no plans to produce the iBap apparel line.

2- Convertible Book Jacket for iPad

This case seems the most tempting so far… for complete iPad protection. When open, it converted to a stand with multiple viewing positions with secure elastic closure.

3- iPad DODOcase

classic limited edition made by hand cases is inspired by the artist Moleskine in San Francisco, California.

4- Portel handmade iPad case

Made from high quality natural materials like felt, leather. It’s handmade product with high functionality.

5- drawCase for iPad

The new iPad cases designed by Draw made from a solid block of recycled aircraft grade aluminium. This High protective case will be available in a range of durable anodised colours.

6- Gameboy iPad Sleeve

Fun iPad case with 2 layers of cozy felt for more protection and safety. It has a gray screen, a black keypad, A&B buttons and start&select.

7- All leather iPad Case

The all leather iPad case will only grow more impressive with time and use. Very Cool Design case that only protects, but enhances the experience.

8- iPad Squish Skin

Unique protection for iPad. Hard Candy provide Form-fitting silicone feature for maximum protection. With Air-filled chambers deliver extraordinarily cushioning. Also you will able to access all iPad Buttons And Input/Output.

9- Vers iPad Wood Case

Handmade from wood and bamboo. Design by Vers Audio.

10- ColcaSac iPad Sleeve

This green iPad cases perfectly fit your iPad and hand made in Salt Lake City, UT, and made from materials that are easy on the environment.

11- Ryan Frank iPad Cover

The Cork iPad Sleeve Designed by artist Ryan Frank.

12- SkoobaWrap iPad Case

Ideal for extra measure of carrying protection. Wrap up anything like iPad you want to protect and pack it.

13- iSockit™ iPad Case Army

Handmade With a old US Army combat jacket, military patches, and uniform buttons.

14- F23 iPad Sleeve

FREITAG will launch the F23 iPad sleeve in beginning of August 2010 in many colors options: CMYK, RGB and mixes thereof, And also individual design for who want different. To protect iPad from scratch it using truck traps and with velvety lining fingerprints remove from iPad.

15- iPad cover by Kenton Sorenson Leather Products

These iPad covers handcrafted in Wisconsin native Kenton Sorenson. The Covers made from 4oz Vegetable Tanned Leather and oiled with beeswax. While in use, the strap can be wrapped around to keep the portfolio open, or to close, it can be looped. Dimension is: 10″ X 7.5″ X .5″.

16- iPad ClamCase

Must have all-in-one bluetooth keyboard, case and stand with compact design for iPad. Come in fall 2010 and no price has been announced yet.

17- WATERWEAR for iPad/Tablet PC

Think if you can see videos, browse web and hear your favorites musics while bathing or cooking or while go outdoors. Tunewear WATERWEAR is a case made from durable and transparent material with triple zipper to protect your iPad from water and dust. You can touch screen without worrying about getting iPad wet or dirty.The strap is removable and the length of it can be adjusted.

18- Louis Vuitton’s iPad case

Louis Vuitton’s iPad case is simple and luxury case for apple fans, available in signature monogram and the monochrome Damier Graphite. The lightweight, ultra-portable attaché cases will come the stores in 2011. Price is 366$.

19- Gucci iPad case

Dress up your iPad with Gucci. Frida Giannini designed this case with soft suede. Available in black leather and neoprene rubber Guccissima GG.

20- CrystalRoc Swarovski iPad covers

Get the most fashionable iPad accessory.World’s first iPad covers made with 5000 individual Swarovski Crystal Elements in CrystalRoc’s London studios. The cases made from durable and lightweight chrome finish hardshell plastic.

Are you a disgruntled PlayStation Network gamer? At least you’re not alone — there are more than 100 million PSN users who’ve had their data nicked by shadowy digital thieves. Sony’s (probably) working hard to get the service back online before everyone throws their PS3s in a canal, but with the only date we have to go on still nearly three weeks away, we thought we’d rattle through a few suggestions of what to do in the meantime.

1. Go outside

Just kidding. We hate the outdoors as much as you. Seriously, it’s full of bugs and pollen. Besides, everyone knows you can get a decent tan simply by turning your monitor up really bright.

2. PC gaming

We’re not about to suggest PS3 owners rush out and buy an Xbox 360 just because PSN goes down for a few weeks — apart from the cost, such a suggestion is liable to raise the blood pressure of Sony fans to lethal levels. But you don’t need to splash out on a whole new console to get some online gaming kicks.

If you own a mid-range laptop or computer that’s less than a year or two old, it’s probably got enough computational clout to run some online games. And the good news is, you can do it on the cheap!

First, download Steam, the excellent games store from Valve. Next, download something that’ll give you some online jollies. We’d recommend the excellent Team Fortress 2, which is currently available to buy for an astonishing £7, or Left 4 Dead 2, which is going for a reasonable £15, both with free online play. You might never go back to your PS3.

3. Social gaming

You could see the PSN outage as an opportunity to reconnect with old friends. Fire up Facebook, navigate to your school network, and cruise through the profiles of all your old buddies. Then remember you never liked any of ‘em, and head directly to FarmVille. In the three weeks or so it might take the PlayStation Network to get up to capacity, you could have constructed a farm so beautiful it would make Father Hoggett weep.

If you feel the need to trample your opponents underfoot, consider doing so in Words With Friends — a Scrabble clone for iOS and Android devices. Award yourself bonus points if you can construct rude words, and there’s a chat function too, so you can let random scrabbling strangers know just how much you enjoyed smacking a ‘z’ on a triple letter with a double word multiplyer. Trust us, it’s just as satisfying as landing a tactical nuke killstreak.

4. Minecraft

If you’re addicted to PSN, you just need to transfer your addiction while it’s down. And rather than hitting the sauce, we’d recommend the eye-twitchingly addictive Minecraft. The indie-developed creation game costs €15 (£13) while it’s in beta, which is a small price to pay for the opportunity to dig to the centre of the Earth, construct a monument to your own brilliance out of glass in the middle of the ocean, or build a zombie-proof torchlit bunker and cower inside listening to their horrible groans.

It’s not as flash as blockbuster PlayStation titles, but we reckon when a corporation as large as Sony loses its customers’ personal data, it’s the perfect time to show indie game developers some support.

5. Finish those left over games

If your gaming behaviour is anything like ours, your shelves will be packed with games you started ages ago and totally meant to finish but oh hey look a shiny new game let’s buy that one! Take this opportunity to tie up those loose ends and do a bit of videogame housekeeping. It’s more fun than real housekeeping (also an option).

6. Change your passwords

Yeah, you should probably do this. If you use the same password for your PSN account as you do for other services, it’s a good idea to switch up. It’s a pain, but you can’t put a price on peace of mind. Sony’s also warned its customer base to be wary of phishing scams, so if someone gets in touch seeming to know a lot about you (possibly even pretending to be Sony), be extra wary before giving your credit card details or any other info away. While you’re at it, a call to your credit card company wouldn’t go amiss.

7. Get Spotify

Spotify? Huh? It’s not just Sony’s online gaming services that have gone down. Qriocity, the music- and movie-streaming service with the Qriously stupid name is also kaput for the time being. We’re not sure how popular this service is, but we imagine anybody who suddenly finds themselves bereft of tunes might appreciate some Spotify goodness.

You can get Spotify Open for free, though the amount of music you can stream is limited. The Unlimited service (which works on your desktop computer, ad-free) costs £5 per month, or for £10 per month you can go Premium and enjoy Spotify on your mobile and offline playlists. Whether or not you stick with it after Qriocity comes back online is up to you, but it should tide you over.

All right, that should be more than enough to keep you all busy.

We utilize the latest in Adobe’s Creative Suite technologies, combined with our own creative approach, to produce visually appealing websites, applications, content managed systems and media that will give your business the recognition it deserves. Our development and marketing professionals aim to create a sense of excitement and enthusiasm around your product or service that will translate to bottom line results.

Our main service offerings include Graphic Design and Branding, Website Design and Development, Video and Streaming Media services, as well as complete Online Marketing solutions. We also offer Content Management Systems, Interactive-Training, Documentation and Knowledge Archive design and development services.

We focus on creating engaging designs that blend the very best of design and function for the web. Our cutting-edge approach to the user experience sets us apart from our competition. We enjoy working on “Unique” projects where creativity is a valued commodity. So please, take a few moments to look around the site. If you like what you see, please feel free to contact us and let us know how we can help you.

San Francisco (CNN) — Google announced plans to bring out notebook computers running the company’s new operating system, called Chrome OS, on June 15.

Samsung Electronics will sell a version with a 12.1-inch screen and Wi-Fi for $429, and another model with Verizon Wireless 3G connectivity for $499. Acer will also make a Chromebook with prices as low as $349.

Google will also lease the laptops to corporations and schools, a deal that includes the hardware, support services and management software, executives said at the company’s annual I/O conference here on Wednesday. Monthly subscriptions will start at $28 per user for businesses and $20 per user for schools.

The new operating system is based on Google’s Chrome Web browser but adds some extra features for connecting digital cameras and offline usage. Google says 160 million people actively browse the Web using Chrome, up from 70 million a year ago.

Because the laptop runs on a stripped-down system, first-time setup takes three minutes, and the computers boot up in 8 seconds, Sundar Pichai, an executive for the Chrome group, said during the presentation.

“Chrome is tremendously valuable to Google,” Pichai said afterward in an interview with reporters. “It serves as a platform for some of the most important applications we provide: Gmail, Google Maps, et cetera.”

The notebooks will run Web-based apps and store files in the cloud instead of on a hard drive. “Your apps, games, photos, music, movies and documents will be accessible wherever you are and you won’t need to worry about losing your computer or forgetting to back up files,” Google said in a blog post announcing the computers.

The Chromebooks will go on sale next month at Best Buy and on Amazon.com in the United States, Google said. On the same day, the laptops will also be available in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. Google launched the Chrome Web Store, which is a directory and marketplace for web apps, in several new countries on Wednesday, encompassing 41 languages.

In the current economic climate, Google and its business partners may have a tough time launching a new brand of netbooks — the portable, lightweight and inexpensive computers that thrived during the recent economic downturn.

Stacy Smith, Intel’s financial chief, told CNET recently that it hasn’t seen an increase in demand for its processors optimized for netbooks. Microsoft observed in its recent earnings call that netbook sales have declined dramatically in the last few months, a far cry from their surge in 2009.

But in addition to the consumer market, Google sees significant revenue potential in providing combination hardware-software packages to businesses, where Microsoft makes a great deal of its money. Chrome OS, in many ways, is a direct challenge to Microsoft.

“I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with Windows, and Windows 7 has some great security features,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin told reporters on Wednesday. “Chromebooks are a new model that doesn’t put the burden of managing your computer on yourself.”

He added: “Companies that don’t use that model, I don’t think will be successful.”

One of the most significant elements of a good user interface is visibility of the system’s status. Users must notice immediately what’s going on behind the scenes and whether their actions have actually led to the expected results. To achieve a more sophisticated level of system visibility, Web applications these days use AJAX (of course), which allows users to update portions of a Web page at any time without having to refresh the whole page. AJAX brings the level of responsiveness and interactivity of Web apps much closer to desktop-grade applications.

Yammer applies not one but three effects on all new messages in a feed: fade in, slide down and highlight.

However, this dynamic nature means that when you click on a button, the page doesn’t refresh but something does happen. The majority of websites still don’t use AJAX extensively, so some users may not be sure whether anything has happened at all or whether the button was properly clicked. To fix this, you need to provide some visual feedback for each of the user’s interactions.

Backpack applies a highlight effect to all new items in a task list, which lasts for a second before fading out.

One great way to do this is with animation. The human eye can notice movement fairly well, especially if the rest of the page is static. Playing a highlight animation when users add items to their shopping carts, for instance, will attract their eyes to those items. They’ll see that their action has worked. Animations can be implemented with JavaScript and are a nice way to provide visual feedback. Just be sure to not overdo it; adding too many animations could cause interface friction because the speed with which the user performs each action will be slowed down by the duration of the animation.

2. Enable keyboard shortcuts in your Web application

As the advanced features of modern Web applications (such as dragging and dropping, modal windows, etc.) steadily gain on those of desktop apps, developers of these applications are trying to offer users more responsive and interactive user interfaces. One of the techniques used to achieve this is the integration of keyboard shortcuts or navigation. Just as with classic applications, this little feature can significantly improve the workflow of your users and make it easier for them to get their tasks done.

In fact, various Web applications already use shortcuts (for example, Google Spreadsheets, MobileMe, etc.), and even regular websites, such as Ffffound or Boston.com, allow visitors to use them for basic navigation. Ffffound enables users to use shortcuts to switch from the thumbnail view to list view and vice versa (using “v”), go back to the top (“h”) and navigate to the previous (“k”) and next (“j”) image. Boston.com also uses “k” and “j” for the same functions.

It’s worth mentioning that your shortcuts should be intuitive and self-explanatory. For instance, it wouldn’t make sense to make the shortcut letters for “Previous” and “Next” navigation too far apart from each other on the keyboard; rather, pick ones that are close together. The reason is, if a user makes a mistake and jumps to a page she doesn’t want to visit, she can immediately return to her page without looking at the keyboard. The “j/k” configuration is one option. It would actually make perfect sense to have some common conventions for keyboard shortcuts used throughout various websites, but we haven’t been able to detect such conventions thus far.

How do you implement this? Essentially, you just have to use the onKeyPress-DOM event and manipulate the appearance of the document using the window.scrollTo function in JavaScript.

Ffffound.com uses an onMouseDown effect in its markup, which is not a good solution because it doesn’t adhere to the main guideline of unobtrusive JavaScript coding: Thou shalt separate JavaScript functionality from CSS style sheet and (X)HTML markup.

<a id="float-navi-prev" href="javascript:void(0);"  	onmousedown="try { move_asset_auto(-1) ;} catch (e) { }"  	onclick="return false;">prev(<span class="shortcut">k</span>)  </a>

Here it would make more sense to use a JavaScript library instead (like jQuery) and call the element via its identifier or class. That’s (almost) what Boston.com does. All of the images in its gallery are labelled with the class bpImage in the markup, with the JavaScript pointers to them added to the array. The onKeyPress event triggers the scrolling window in the background, and the window’s browser is manipulated using the window.scrollTo() function.

Here is the (X)HTML:

	...    	<img src="[url]" class="bpImage" />  	<div class="bpCaption">...</div>    	<img src="[url]" class="bpImage" />  	<div class="bpCaption">...</div>    	<img src="[url]" class="bpImage" />  	<div class="bpCaption">...</div>    	...

And the JavaScript:

	function bpload(){     		// put pointers to all images with the class "bpImage" in an array  		imgArr = getElementsByClassName(document.body,"bpImage")  		isLoaded = 1;  	}     	document.onkeypress = function(e) {  		if (!e) e = window.event;     		// Pick up what key was pressed  		key = e.keyCode ? e.keyCode : e.which;    		// 107 is the ASCII code for 'k'  		if(( key == 107 ) && ( isLoaded ) ) {    			// if there are images...  			if ( currImg > 0 ) {    				// decrease the counter for the current image  				currImg--;    				// offsetTop returns the vertical coordinate of the  				// upper-left corner of the image  				// (we are not sure why the script adds 174px. Any idea?)  				window.scrollTo(0,imgArr[currImg].offsetTop+174)    			}  			else {  				if (currImg==0) {  					currImg--;  					window.scrollTo(0,325)  				}  				else  				{  					if (currImg<0) {  						window.scrollTo(0,325)  						}  					}  				}  		}    		if ( ( key == 106 ) && ( isLoaded )) {  			// a similar code snippet for 'j'  			...  		}  	}     }

But you need to make sure that you clearly communicate that 1) keyboard shortcuts are available, and 2) they can be used to perform certain tasks more efficiently. If a user can easily manage his tasks with your application, he is less likely to switch to another application, if the feature set is more or less similar.

3. Upgrade options from the account page

If your application features several subscription plans, make sure to remove any interface friction for customers deciding to upgrade. Most users like to try the basic version of an application first to get a better sense of what it offers and how it works. If they are convinced the application meets their expectations, they will consider upgrading to a more advanced plan. It’s the designer’s task to make sure this transition is as simple and intuitive as possible.

CrazyEgg integrates the option “Change plan” in its main navigation.

In fact, a lot of Web applications put upgrade options right on the user’s account page, making them easily accessible. This design choice has the simple advantage of providing users with an overview of available options and supported functionalities right away.

Bigcartel‘s upgrade plans are available in the app itself.

Note, though, the importance not only of featuring the available upgrade plans, but also of identifying the plan that the user is currently using and the features that are currently available to her. It is vital to provide users with precise information about what advantages they gain by upgrading their account. Take a look at our article Pricing Tables: Examples and Best Practices as well.

4. Advertise features of the application

Even though you’ve created a detailed marketing page, outlining your application’s every feature, and crafted a thorough help section on your website, your users are unlikely to have read it all. They’re probably not familiar with all the features of your product and would benefit from little tips inside the application itself.

Advertise new features in your application. These would usually go in the sidebar, out of the way of the main functions. If a user is nearing the maximum capacity of a certain feature for her chosen subscription plan, you should point this out and give her an option to quickly upgrade.

The Freckle time-tracking app tells you when you’ve run out of people on your current plan. The message also links to actions you can take if you need to upgrade.

Wufoo highlights its new form gallery feature at the bottom of the form creation page, making sure customers get the most value out of the app.

5. Use color-coded lists

Some applications feature feeds that aggregate various types of content. For example, you may have a project management application that shows you all the latest messages, tasks and files on the home page. If these items all appear together in one list, it may be difficult to tell what’s what. Many applications use color coding to help visually distinguish between different types of entries. A simple way to do this is to place a text label inside a colored box. This way, the list becomes easily scannable.

It’s important not to use various colors for the same task or similar colors for completely different tasks. The color scheme should not be random but should implicitly indicate the function each item serves.

The Lighthouse issue-tracking app has color-coded labels on the right-hand side of each item on the overview page, which helps you quickly scan the list.

The Goplan dashboard uses similar color-coded labels to differentiate various items, like tasks, notes and files, so you can quickly find what you need.

6. Offer personalization options

Many applications provide custom workspaces for people and businesses. Personalization can help make your users feel more at home. This can be done by giving users options to customize the look and feel of the application interface. Let them select the color theme, the link colors, the background and so on. Even a small amount of customization will allow your users to make their pages their own.

Campaign Monitor lets you choose a color theme for your account and upload your business logo. This helps businesses infuse the colors of their brands into the Web apps they use.

Personalization is certainly one of the simplest and most effective methods of binding your customers to your service, but it’s important to understand that the various personalization options should never come at the expense of the core application’s functionality. The system should always be capable of performing its functions and thus meet users’ expectations, despite how exactly users have personalized the application.

One useful approach to finding a compromise between a website’s core functionality and the user interface is to introduce various levels of personalization, depending on whether the user is a novice or an advanced user. It is also a good idea to allow the user to revert his account to the default settings or restore the settings that he had saved in his previous session.

Twitter lets the user customize his profile page background and colors, allowing him to craft a unique spot on the popular micro-blogging network.

7. Display help messages that attract the eye

Every Web application is different and has its own way of doing things. If the function of a particular element isn’t immediately apparent, you can provide short help messages to get people started. One important thing to note is that if you want to help people who aren’t sure what they’re doing yet, you need to attract their attention to this message. One way to attract attention is with color — putting a yellow “sticky” message in the sidebar, for example, is sure to stand out.

Goplan puts help messages in bright yellow boxes resembling paper stickies. The bright color ensures that users don’t miss them.

Alternatively, if you are looking for a subtler solution that doesn’t require much space to display and isn’t obtrusive for regular users of your application, you can consider displaying vibrant visual graphics (for example, small icons) next to the design element needing explanation. For instance, pointing users to new, updated or useful features of an application’s search engine, as Wishlistr.com does, makes sense.

Classic: Wishlistr uses a light bulb to focus the user’s attention on the available search functionality of its system.

8. Design feedback messages carefully

Pretty much every application has some form of feedback messages. These are little messages that pop out when there is an error or warning or perhaps when an action is completed successfully. Designing these messages correctly is important because you don’t want to confuse or startle your users when there’s nothing to worry about.

A good practice here is to do a couple of things. First, color code the different types of messages. Messages that notify users of successful actions are usually colored green. These employ the traffic-light analogy of green meaning “Go.” Warning and error messages are colored yellow. Same traffic-light analogy here: yellow means slow down and wait. You can also distinguish between warning messages and error messages by coloring errors red and warnings yellow.

Mailchimp uses color effectively for its error messages.

The second thing to do is add a unique icon for each message type. Icons can convey meaning instantly, without the user having to read the message. For example, a tick icon can symbolize completion of a successful action. An exclamation mark in a triangle is a warning sign. People will instantly recognize that this message warns them about something and will pay attention.

GetSignOff allows you to close notifications by using the little button in the top-right corner of the message box.

Lastly, you should provide a way for users to close the notification if they are likely to remain on the page for a while.

9. Use tabbed navigation

Many Web applications have adopted the tabbed navigation approach for their main navigation menu. Tabbed navigation is a menu that looks like each item is a tab on a file folder, with the active tab connected to the body of the page. Tabbed navigation isn’t just eye candy; it provides a usability benefit.

Freckle uses tabbed navigation in a sub-menu relating to the time input menu.

Basecamp features the standard tabbed menu for the main navigation of its app.

If you make the menu look like tabs on folders, almost everyone will be able to figure out what it is and how it works. This is because the visual metaphor is strong and clear. The current page or section also becomes easy to see. Knowing where they are puts users at ease because they gain a greater sense of control.

10. Darken background under modal windows

In some applications, you may want to display a bit of information or quick input form that doesn’t really deserve a full page of its own. Some developers put that message or form in a modal window. Modal windows are little windows that pop up on top of the current page and that users need to interact with to proceed.

When editing things in the Squarespace website creation app, the background darkens to shift focus to the edit window.

To make this window stand out better, you can darken the content below it. The darker background will block out all the noise of the content behind the box and make the modal window the center of attention. This is very similar to using shadows around the window but is even more powerful in directing focus. The darker background also indicates that interaction with the content beneath is disabled and that the user should instead interact with the modal window.

11. Lightboxes and Slideshows

Some applications include a lot of images that users may want to browse. Displaying every image on its own page may not be the most efficient way to do it — both for your visitors and your server. Your visitors will need to navigate back and forth, and your server will incur extra hits that can be avoided.

SmugMug uses lightboxes to enlarge photos. (Photo by Kurt Preston.)

Enter lightboxes and slideshows. Lightboxes and slideshows are used to display photos without having to load a new page. For example, the lightbox method will enlarge an image and place it as a modal window above the rest of the page, allowing the user to focus on the image itself while the background is darkened. This means less noise interfering with the viewing experience.

12. Short sign-up forms

The sign-up form is potentially one of the biggest barriers between you and potential customers. The longer the form, the more effort your visitors will have to make before becoming members of your website or, perhaps, paying customers. To minimize the barrier, we’ve got to speed up the process. This means removing all optional elements from the form and leaving only the core essentials. The optional stuff can be filled in later.

Opening an Evernote account is easy, with only a handful of fields to fill in, all of which are grouped together in a compact box.

To fully appreciate the problem of registration, we should consider an annoyance that has led to the opinion that sign-up forms must die. This certainly doesn’t mean they should be completely omitted but rather that they should be only one part in the process of introducing users to a system, and should come late in the process. Such an approach is called “lazy registration” and relates to the account registration pattern.

When would you actually use lazy registration? Although it may seem like lazy registration could be used all the time, some circumstances are ideal:

• When users are allowed to try out your website product or service before making a decision (which not every website permits, though).
• When it is important to familiarize users with your system before they sign up, which can be a crucial step in their process of deciding whether to register.

Amazon lets you browse and add products to your shopping cart before signing up.

This pattern is meant to allow users to use your system and take action before registering. If satisfied with your service so far, users will regard this quick act of registration as just another small step in the entire process and not an obligation. The shopping cart is a good example of this pattern: users can browse and choose products and only have to register when they proceed to check out.

Picnik is another good example of lazy registration. Users can use all of the service’s functions to edit their photos online. They are asked to register only before saving their work.

2. Progressive Disclosure

This pattern is used to show only the information or features relevant to the user’s current activity and to delay other information until it is requested. By hiding more complex or infrequently used features, you de-clutter the user interface; by revealing them only as they are needed, you help users perform a complex, multi-step process on a single page.

The goal is to show only essential information in the first step and then invite users to take the next step. When the user completes a step, you reveal the information in the next step, keeping all previous steps visible. By keeping previous steps visible, you allow users to change what they have entered. And the data they input in the current step can affect the behavior of the next step.

Digg uses progressive disclosure in its comments section. Users can read a comment and, by clicking on the “Replies” link, see all of the replies to that comment. The link also tells you how many replies will be shown.

Once the replies are revealed, users can not only read them but also reply to and rate them. Comments below the viewing threshold are collapsed by default and are revealed by clicking “Show.”

Examples of progressive disclosure are everywhere. A simple “Show more” link that reveals more information is one of the simplest forms of progressive disclosure. But it can be used for more complex cases, such as filling out Web forms. Try to open an account on Picnik (which we mentioned in the lazy registration pattern) to see how progressive disclosure can be used at a more complex level.

YouTube uses progressive disclosure when users customize the look of the video player. When a user clicks the icon, customization features open up below.

3. Forgiving Format

Search functions can offer users various options and sometimes be complex. When searching weather and street maps, for example, users can use such criteria as city name, street name and zip code. To indicate to users that they can use several criteria, interfaces tend to show multiple options and become overly complex. Instead of adding clutter to the interface, use the forgiving format pattern, which lets users enter data in various formats and leaves it to the system to parse the data.

Yahoo weather search allows users to search by city or zip code.

To convey which formats are supported, give users hints on how to search, whether by listing all available formats, as in the example above, or by providing a link to a help page, as in the example below.

Google Maps allows users to search by city, street, zip code and even latitudinal and longitudinal values.

The forgiving format pattern significantly simplifies user interfaces. However, it may require a lot of work from back-end developers. The more options users have, the more difficult parsing becomes.

4. Clear Primary Actions

Simple Web forms often allow just one action (“Submit,” “Save” or “Send”). The user knows exactly what their final action in filling out the form will be, because they have only one option. However, users may sometimes be faced with several options and have to distinguish between primary and secondary actions.

Clearleft makes a distinction between primary and secondary actions with color.

What are primary and secondary actions? Primary actions lead to the completion of a form; for example, clicking “Save” or “Send.” Secondary actions usually do not lead to a form’s completion; these include clicking “Cancel.” There are exceptions, though. Which are the primary and secondary actions when you see “Save,” “Save and continue” and “Publish” buttons all in a row? When users have several options, highlighting primary actions and de-emphasizing secondary actions are good practice.

This can be done in two ways:

• By giving primary and secondary actions different colors; for example, giving primary actions a vibrant color and secondary actions a shade of gray.
• By styling primary actions as buttons and secondary actions as links.

Flickr highlights the primary action by putting the secondary action in a small label below.

Both ways clearly distinguish between primary and secondary actions, relieving the user from having to think about which option to choose in order to complete their task.

5. Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs show the path from the front page of the site to the current location of th users in the website’s page hierarchy. They are a form of secondary navigation that helps users understand the hierarchy and structure of the website. Breadcrumbs start with the home page and end with the page currently being viewed. Each label in a breadcrumb trail is linked to its respective page or section in the hierarchy, the exception being the one for the current page, which should just be an unlinked label.

Apple’s breadcrumbs are graphic elements that fit the overall design of the website well.

Breadcrumbs take up minimal space and are usually positioned at the top of the page, below the header and above the content. They would serve no purpose on the home page and so should not appear there. Breadcrumbs can appear simply as text links separated by the “>” sign, or they can be graphic elements, like the breadcrumbs on Apple’s website:

6. Account Registration

The definition of this pattern varies from place to place, but we can say that it solves three somewhat related problems:

• Certain content is accessible only to registered users,
• Users need to re-enter their personal data often,
• Users need to be able to access personalized content on a system.

The solution to allowing users to access protected content is to have them register for an account on the system and store their personal data, to be reused later. The benefits are numerous. For instance, users can be shown personalized offers, as seen on Amazon. Users could also perform tasks more efficiently if the system reused the information submitted during registration. Storing shipping details is just one example. Because filling out forms is not a favorite task of users, requiring only necessary information is important. Another important thing is to clearly highlight all of the benefits users will receive, so that they become more willing to register.

Vimeo has a simple but attractive sign-up form.

Tumblr requires only minimal information of the user to sign up.

7. Required Field Marker

Making the user interface obvious is essential. This applies just as much to Web forms. One of the best ways to make the interface of Web forms obvious is by marking required fields. The purpose of these markers is to alert the user to information they will need to provide. This way, users won’t feel they have to fill out the entire form to avoid seeing an error message.

Ideally, you should remove all optional fields and let the user type only the information that is necessary for the interaction. A rule of thumbs: the simpler and shorter a web form is, the better is the user experience. Another interesting idea is to make it possible for users to remove all optional fields – you can find more about how to implement it in practice (as well as a ready-to-be-used-script) in Andy Clarke’s article Trimming Form Fields.

Haveamint.com puts “Required” markers next to field labels on its contact form.

You can position required field markers in one of two places:

• Next to labels, allowing users to scan the form quickly,
• Next to or inside input fields; if the fields are the same width, users will be able to scan the form quickly.

When deciding on which fields to require, take into account the total number of fields in the form. If the form is complex and most of its fields are required, the user will likely see it as unnecessary clutter.

8. Steps Left

This pattern is widely implemented when users have to fill in data in multiple steps. The purpose of this pattern is to:

• Guide users,
• Explain the scope of the process by clearly stating how many steps are needed to complete it,
• Show the user’s current position in the process by visually highlighting the current step.

StatementStacker clearly shows the number of steps and highlights the current step.

Steps are usually displayed horizontally and connected by arrows, showing the order in which the steps will be performed. Also, each step is usually marked with a large number and very concise description of what users should do in that step. The important thing here is consistency: a progress indicator should always appear in the same position across the pages and show users where they are at.

This pattern is usually combined with the well-known “wizard” pattern to create a multi-step process, such as for registration or a shopping cart.

Delicious has a good-looking progress indicator that clearly defines the purpose of each step. It also highlights the current step by displaying it in a different color.

9. Subscription plans

This pattern is suitable if the website offers one product or service that comes in different plans and requires regular payments, usually monthly payments. Each plan should be descriptive and provide the following information:

• Name of the plan, such as “Basic” or “Professional,”
• Price of the subscription plan and how long it is valid for,
• List of features (the cheapest plan usually has the fewest features),
• Sign-up button.

Wufoo clearly shows its subscription plans, the prices and the differences between them.

Always show your plans in order. Plans are usually ordered from most to least expensive. You can highlight the plan you want users to buy by using a different color or size.

Crazyegg’s subscription table draws attention to the “Basic” plan.

10. Hover Controls

When a user interface has many elements in which the user can perform actions, the page can become cluttered and hard to scan. This is especially common in the administration section of Web applications, where users can change table data. A good way to handle this is to hide each element and reveal it when the user hovers over that area.

An “Edit” link is revealed as the user hovers over each section of their Facebook profile page.

Hiding controls and revealing them on hover significantly de-clutters the user interface without taking away functionality.

Twitter reveals “Reply” and “Favorite” links when the user hovers over each tweet.

X-Men: First Class portrays younger versions of characters from previous Marvel movies, as well as introducing mutants not yet seen on the silver screen.

Set during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, First Class shows Dr. Xavier (played by James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) as contentious allies, training mutants to harness their newfound powers and eventually intervening in the seminal Cold War conflict.

Even the casual X-Men fan doesn’t need the dialog from the movie trailer (above) to know that eventually Xavier and Magneto’s worldview on how to treat humans — coexistence versus elimination, respectively — drives them apart.

Besides these two Marvel figureheads, recent First Class character trailers (below) introduce other supermutant stars of the film, which hits theaters June 3. The clips offer a glimpse of the balancing act undertaken by the screenwriters and director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) as they tilt between artistic license and direct homage to the comics.

Mystique

Like Magneto, Mystique plays the role of X-man, not villain, in First Class. Jennifer Lawrence does her best to live up to Rebecca Romijn’s sexy on-screen rendition of the character from previous X-Men movies, but the trailer is unclear about what plot elements contribute to the shape-shifter’s eventual switch to villainy. The clip includes Magneto imparting wisdom as Mystique trains in the X-Mansion alone — a nice reference to alliances to come.

Mystique is also shown starting a romance with a still-human Dr. Hank McCoy, aka Beast. While a departure from the comic history of the two characters, one can perhaps understand a certain inherent kinship between two mutants fated with solid blue skin.

Banshee

Banshee’s introduction to the X-Men (in 1967’s X-Men No. 28) came by way of being captured by the evil Factor Three. He eventually teamed with the X-Men to defeat the subversive mutants.

First Class alters this history and shows a young Sean Cassidy coping with his sonic-scream mutation as a teenager — a theme that pervades each character in the movie. While Banshee was often portrayed as a strapping Irishman in the comics, faithful X-Men readers will have to get used to scrawny but endearing Caleb Landry Jones as the screaming wonder.

Havok

While it’s a little strange noting Alex Summers, who first appeared in X-Men No. 54, in the cast credits of an origins-themed X-Men movie without his older brother Scott (Cyclops), Havok’s plasma-blasting and personality traits in the trailer feel true to the comic’s character. The clips show a younger, brooding Havok (played by Lucas Till) in sleeveless shirts harnessing his deadly red projectiles, then grinning broadly as he cleaves dummy targets in half.

It’s worth remembering that Havok spent time as part of the Brotherhood of Mutants in the comic books. Till recently commented on the potential “dark side” of this particular Havok: “He doesn’t want to accidentally kill people, and that’s something he’s always got to deal with,” he told IGN. “He likes the power but he doesn’t like the lack of control he has over his ability.”

Polaris is also not listed in the cast credits of First Class, so we’ll assume Havok’s romance with her is being saved for another installment.

Beast

First Class couldn’t be complete without at least one original mutant, besides Xavier, from X-Men No. 1. Though Hank McCoy’s love interest in Mystique is a departure from his character’s history, Beast is otherwise portrayed in the trailer as the brilliant young scientist with the mutating gorilla-crossed-with-feline body that we all know.

Is his rather corny exchange with Mystique about feeling “normal” (they say the word together) indicative of their romance in the movie? With any luck, no. But either way, the X-Men rarely feel complete without Beast’s weighty intellect (previously voiced by Kelsey Grammer), keeping the fantastic action and wild superpowers grounded.

Let’s hope First Class maintains the contrast.

An observer of the Internet Relay Chat channel used by the hackers told CNET today that a third major attack is planned this weekend against Sony’s Web site. The people involved plan to publicize all or some of the information they are able to copy from Sony’s servers, which could include customer names, credit card numbers, and addresses, according to the source. The hackers claim they currently have access to some of Sony’s servers.

Should the planned attack succeed, it would be the latest blow in a series of devastating security breaches of Sony’s servers over the past month. The failure of Sony’s server security has ignited investigations by the FBI, the Department of Justice, Congress, and the New York State Attorney General, a well as data security and privacy authorities in the U.K., Canada, and Taiwan.

Several weeks ago the hacker group known as Anonymous targeted several Sony Web sites, including Sony.com and SonyStyle.com, with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in retaliation for what its members saw as Sony’s unfair legal action against hacker George Hotz. Two weeks ago Sony’s PlayStation Network, along with its Qriocity service and Sony Online, were the target of an attack that exposed the personal information of more than 100 million Sony customers. Sony was forced to shut down PSN, Qriocity, and Sony Online, and is currently working to bring them back online after rebuilding the security of its servers.

Sony says it doesn’t know who orchestrated what it’s calling a “highly sophisticated, planned” attack, but it has dropped hints that the group Anonymous is involved. Kazuo Hirai, chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, told a Congressional subcommittee in a letter yesterday that the intruders on its servers planted a file named “Anonymous” containing the statement “We are Legion,” part of the group’s tagline.

Anonymous issued a statement yesterday denying it was involved in the PSN breach. “While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our ‘leadership’ does not condone credit card theft,” the statement said.

Now it seems the same group of hackers that was able to infiltrate the PSN servers is planning to hit back against Sony.

Microsoft has agreed to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion.

“Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. “Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world.”

Microsoft says that it plans to integrate Skype’s technology with the Xbox game console and Kinect motion-sensing device, as well as its Windows Phone platform. It also will “connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live, and other communities.” Perhaps most importantly to Skype users, Microsoft said that it will continue to support “non-Microsoft platforms” with the communication service.

Though Microsoft didn’t offer any further details, it’s clear that the company has its sights set on Apple. The Cupertino, Calif.-based firm currently offers its FaceTime video chatting feature on its iOS-based devices, as well as Macs, delivering multiplatform communication over the Web. Microsoft could potentially best Apple’s offering by supporting Skype on a much wider array of operating systems.

Skype is no stranger to major acquisitions. The Luxembourg-based VoIP company, which was founded in 2003, was acquired by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion. Eventually, the online auction site admitted to investors that it had overpaid for the Internet telephony provider. eBay finally spun off Skype in 2009 for approximately $2 billion to a group of investors, led by Silver Lake. eBay retained a smaller stake in Skype.

As an independent company, Skype performed quite well. Over the last 18 months, Skype claims, it saw its “monthly calling minutes” increase by 150 percent. Along the way, the company also saw its revenue and profit figures grow, turning a $13.2 million profit through the first six months of 2010. In all of 2009, it lost $99 million.

Following those successes, Skype announced last August that it was filing for an initial public offering.

Last week, Reuters reported that both Facebook and Google were looking to acquire, or at least partner, with Skype. However, in just a few short days, it became clear that those companies were out and Microsoft was in. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft was nearing a deal with Skype that would be valued between $7 billion and $8 billion.

By paying $8.5 billion for Skype, Microsoft has struck its biggest acquisition bid ever. The previous top bid, Microsoft’s 2007 acquisition of online advertising firm aQuantive, was valued at $6 billion.

Microsoft hopes to close the deal at some point during this year. Skype CEO Tony Bates will be president of the Microsoft Skype Division.

Some screenshots for the new Mass Effect 3 Release. Should be AWESOME!!!!!!

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a story-driven adventure game, with seasoned hero Solid Snake drafted for one final mission. Set across stages including the Middle East and South America, the now aged Snake has been asked to assassinate his old adversary, Liquid Ocelot. To do this, however, he must make his way through a series of battlefields, using his legendary stealth abilities and all-new OctoCamo suit to avoid detection and to reach his target. With series favorites such as Meryl Silverburgh, Raiden, Hal ‘Otacon’ Emmerich, Eva and Roy Campbell returning, and with all new gameplay features including a remote-controlled Metal Gear Mk. II and enhanced CQC (Close Quarters Combat) system, Metal Gear Solid 4 rounds out the Metal Gear saga with a fittingly cinematic and gripping final outing.

From IGN

Gears of War 3 is the spectacular conclusion to one of the most memorable and celebrated sagas in video games. Developed by Epic Games exclusively for Xbox 360, Gears of War 3 plunges you into a harrowing tale of hope, survival, and brotherhood.

In Gears of War 3, fight on as Marcus Fenix, the grizzled war hero and leader of Delta Squad. Eighteen months after the fall of the last human city, the war against the Locust rages on. Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface, a fearsome new threat is infecting the planet from within. With survivors scattered and civilization in ruins, time is running out for Marcus and his comrades as they fight to save the human race.

More…

Super Monkey Ball 3D features three unique modes for all the monkey mayhem you can handle. There’s Monkey Ball, with the standard mode of play that you’ve enjoyed since the very first game, plus there are the Monkey Race and Monkey Fight modes that let you race at high speeds in three dimensions or fight other monkeys while defending your stash of bananas. We’ll provide hints for each stage in all three modes. With us by your side, you can be a better monkey!

Guide Here…

Designer : Niklas Wejedal

Text from Niklas Wejedal:
Get around town quickly and cleanly, go shopping or to work. The Kalisto meets your every-day needs, in style and comfort. Travel alone or with one passenger, watch the world trough the big panorama windows. Easy access, agility and a minimum of maintenance required combined with hyper sophisticated looks makes the Kalisto the perfect choice for modern city commuters.

Kalisto Measures:

• Length: 107.3’’ ( 2726 mm)
• Width: 66.2’’ (1682 mm)
• Height: 74.6’’ ( 1895 mm)
• Wheelbase: 72,6’’ (1845 mm)
• Wheels: 16’’ Rims