Except the new release of Bosquet really turns things around. This is a much more simple application compared to others that access Forrst or Dribbble. It provides all the default features you would expect with a third-party API connection. Plus, the app is fun to use and only comes with a $0.99 price tag! Let’s get into it after the jump.

Getting Started

After first launching the app you’ll be presented with a gorgeous splash startup image. The whole theme for Bosquet fits perfectly with the tones of Forrst — wood, trees, leaves, mulch, nature.

Bosquet splash screen and login form

The first view you’re dropped into will load all of the most recently popular posts. To get your own custom feed based on users you’re following, you need to log into an account. If you have one, tap the gear icon in the top right corner to bring up the settings menu. Then the second link in the list should open the login page.

Notice that you do not need to have an account to browse posts on Bosquet. You won’t be able to check notifications or follower profiles, but this is a very limited scope out of all the user activity.

Once you’re in, the app should automatically redirect you onto the main posts view, except now you have a tab bar accessible at the bottom of the screen with three options. The center tab, Posts, is displayed by default. If you’re logged into an account the posts will filter from your followers list, otherwise it will just pull from all recently popular submissions.

Newest Forrst posts feed

The left tab will load recent account activity such as new followers, mentions, comments, or likes on your posts. The right profile tab displays some basic info about your account, along with some external links if applicable.

Going Through the Media

From the posts screen you should notice four wooden buttons near the top title bar. This is a simple navigation menu where you can sort out different post types. These include external links, photos (or shots), source code, or member questions.

Snap photo and post details view

Each media type will have a similar display view with some slight adjustments. For example, shots are displayed inline with the option of bringing them into fullscreen. Code is not fully displayed until you tap on the post details.

Listing source code and syntax highlighting

One feature about the code I really enjoy is how Bosquet will color-code the syntax. Regardless of language, from HTML to Ruby or Objective-C, it all looks wonderful. And on posts with responses, you can load the comment threads directly inline within the same view. This makes browsing for a solution much easier.

Pretty Profiles

Another wonderful feature is the access to user profiles. You can view your own from the profile tab button, however you also have the option of tapping on a user’s avatar to access their own Forrst profile. This will include general user statistics, as well as links to their website and twitter account.

My Forrst profile view and latest posts

From the menu select screen you can only open up more information on the user’s previous posts. It is strange how you can’t display a list of other followers/following, or even post comments, but this is a quick way of checking a user’s history to see which topics they are knowledgeable about.

These profile pages should not change whether you are logged in or not. The Design is impeccable; I love the paper textures and the use of icon-specific links. It goes to show how Bosquet is a rich and fully detailed Forrst app.

Gathering Additional Details

From any of the post listings you can tap on a block to open up the details view. This provides much more information about the submitter and custom metadata. You can still work with every section in the post details, even as a non-member.

Most all links should contain a “copy URL” button in the right corner. Some posts are private per the author’s user settings, and these cannot be shared. But for public posts it’s very simple to tap and paste links into Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, wherever.

More post details, about the app

There are some other details you can find based on the type of post media. Links will display a large external URL button to open up in Mobile Safari. On similar grounds, you can tap any snap thumbnail image to bring up the fullscreen view. This lets you pan around and zoom closer into areas on the screen.

No User Interaction

The only big downside I have with this app is how you cannot do anything from the mobile interface. Even when logged into an account you cannot vote on posts or post comments, or even follow/unfollow users. I’m not sure if this is a limitation with the Forrst API or if Bosquet just doesn’t include these options.

However, I am optimistic we could see this functionality at some point in the future. Many of the Dribbble apps for iPhone and iPad do not allow for users to post comments, either. It just feels like a tease that you can read through discussions yet have no ability to respond from your device. Although admittedly, users will still browse the app even without an account, so this issue should not be a dealbreaker!

Conclusion

I have enjoyed my time playing around in Bosquet. The name is peculiar, but don’t judge this app by its title alone. Anybody who loves Forrst will feel very comfortable with Bosquet — and even more for its cheaper price tag.

The team behind the app is small, consisting of  designer Anthony Aubertin and developer Maxime Bornemann, who are both based out of France. But ultimately, Bosquet is usable, looks visually pleasing, and comes at the cheapest price tag currently in the App Store.

Read later apps are no different, since the original iOS apps were released by Read It Later (now Pocket) and Instapaper in 2008, competition to be the de facto standard has been fierce. Cue the release of Readability in March, another competitor and another piece of the pie to fight for. Want to know which app is best? How do their features compare? Stick around to find out.

What’s the Deal?

Instapaper is currently the only paid app of the three contenders, costing $4.99. At first glance, this may seem expensive but after using the app it soon becomes clear that it is a relative steal. The fact the app is almost completely managed by one man, developer Marco Arment, is impressive and is becoming a rarity in today’s iOS App Store.

Pocket, the reincarnation of Read It Later, is the result of a major top-down revamp signaling a move away from the traditional text-based article. In dropping many of it’s predecessors features, Pocket has streamlined it’s service and now focuses upon video and imagery — hence the name change. The app is also now free to use.

Being the proverbial “new kid on the block,” Readability has caused quite a stir after it’s release in March. Introducing itself as a free download, it undoubtedly influenced Pocket’s decision to re-release for free. Given the quality of the app overall and the quality features offered, Readability is worth trying.

Interface and Design

After logging into all of the apps, you are presented with the list of previously saved content and articles, in chronological order, ready to be consumed. Sorting the list is possible from both Instapaper and Pocket, though Readability doesn’t yet support the action. Instapaper’s sorting options are very rudimentary, sorting content by “newest” and “oldest” is the best the app offers.

Left: Instapaper — Centre: Pocket — Right: Readability

Pocket excels at sorting content and features a button on it’s menu bar that allows to sort by content type, Articles, Video or Images thus allowing easy sifting through the list. The app also features neat thumbnail images for all of the saved items allowing for easier identification, a unique feature that works very well with video content.

Pocket and Readability employ similar navigation capabilities by providing a simple menu bar on top of their respective reading lists. Access to archives and favourites items is from the menu’s as is Pocket’s sorting system. However, Readability’s menu extends by tapping the “…” button, which reveals the above menu options including the in-app web browser and settings.

Left: Instapaper — Centre: Pocket — Right: Readability

Instapaper, on the other hand, is more feature-rich than it’s rivals and requires a dedicated page to list it’s navigation options. By tapping Browse above the reading list you are presented with the above screen enabling access to the standard archives etc, and also unique options such as The Feature.

Reading Experience and Style Options

Despite Pocket’s decision to move away from the common article, read later apps are still dominated by text-based content, and as a result, the way in which apps present words is a key issue. All of the apps have customisation options (some more extensive than others) and the ability to read in “Full-Screen Mode” without the presence of menus.

Left: Instapaper — Centre: Pocket — Right: Readability

The best Full-Screen mode is presented by Instapaper; any distractions are removed by the absence of the iOS status bar at the top and this allows for the reader’s full attention to be on the text. To navigate back to the reading list or to toggle the app’s options is possible by simply tapping the screen to reveal a minimalistic menu.

Pocket also removes the status bar from the top but leaves behind the option to read in Web View which can be distracting even though this disappears as you scroll down the page. The presentation of an article’s primary image is also well done compared to it’s rivals, though personally I prefer a clean, text-only page.

Readability on the other hand, is not bad per se, but the fact the status bar remains throughout the article is slightly annoying whilst reading. Where Readability excels in the reading experience is when put into Dark Mode.

Left: Instapaper — Centre: Pocket — Right: Readability

Despite the promise of Pocket, when it comes to style variation and customisable content it falls flat — really flat. Only two font variations and text-resizing are available and hopefully, in an update, this will be remedied. In the meantime, Pocket struggles to keep up with it’s rivals with regard to the basic expectations of a user, which will hinder the uptake of the app.

Instapaper’s 4.0 update brought with it an extensive array of fonts and is now the top dog in this regard. Coupled with the fact that every aspect of an article can be moulded and re-sized to your own specifications, it is hard to look anywhere else but Instapaper for quality. Readability however, given it’s free price-point, is not far behind. The app features five custom fonts and re-sizable text and once again is a tempting, cheaper alternative.

Welcome to the Dark Side

Like to read at night? Struggle with a bright LCD display? Scared of waking up your partner? If so, dark mode reading is built with you in mind. By flipping the standard white background to a shade of grey, not only is the ambient light reduced, the impact on your eyes is minimized making reading that much more comfortable.

Left: Instapaper — Centre: Pocket — Right: Readability

Instapaper offers a disappointing dark mode option that is just as bad to use when reading at night, as compared to the normal white background mode. The contrast of the straight black background and white text is off putting and makes reading that little bit less enjoyable. However, a “twilight sepia” tint is also available (pictured below) and is magnificent to use.

Reading in the sepia tint is almost akin to an old library book, stained and tanned over time which gives a real authentic reading experience. Speaking of authentic, Instapaper’s 4.2 update brought with it iBooks-esque pagination animation (see below), allowing you to flip pages naturally. Swiping to change pages is quick and intuitive, though it is possible to change page without the animations.

Readability was the first app to offer such a refined dark mode experience and offers a masterclass in presenting the feature. The white text is presented against a subtle grayscale background that is a joy to use when reading at night, reducing the fatigue an LCD screen can cause.

Left: Instapaper Pagination — Centre: Instapaper Sepia — Right: Pocket Sepia

Pocket, courtesy of a recent update, has caught up with the opposition and actually improves upon Readability’s offering. Featuring a true full screen and a grayscale background, Pocket’s developers have raised the bar and the feature is genuinely a pleasure to use. Another feature in Pocket, inspired by Instapaper, is the sepia tint background option which is almost identical in implementation as Instapaper, and is the default background for me in both apps.

Finding and Adding New Content

The traditional means of saving content are still in use and for any of the apps a bookmarklet is available for your computer’s browser allowing you to save directly to your reading list. However, as the differences between computers and mobile devices become increasingly nuanced, read later apps must find new ways of adding content.

Left: Instapaper — Centre: Pocket — Right: Readability

Pocket, again, lacks compared to it’s competitors and is sorely behind the time. It has no way of actually finding new content from within the app itself. The web-view reading mode is shown above but is not an actual browser — quite the disappointment. Readability and Instapaper on the other hand boast built in web browsers allowing you to search your favourite websites and save them for later without the need for a computer.

There is huge third-party support for all of the apps, and it is possible to add content to your content lists directly from other apps such as Twitter, Reeder, Zite and hundreds more. However, Instapaper once again steals the show with some great unique features for adding new content.

Unique Features

Sharing content is possible in all of three of the apps, detailed in the next section, but Instapaper takes this one step further. By linking your account with Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, the “Friends” page in Instapaper acts in an RSS-like fashion and collects all links in one place for you to read. Nifty.

Left: Instapaper "Friends" — Centre: Instapaper "The Feature" — Left: Pocket Video

The Feature is another great presence within Instapaper and offers handpicked articles from around the web and those that are most popular amongst users, then presents them in a list ready to be read. A dedicated editor curates the content, thus guaranteeing reliable and quality pieces.

Despite its many flaws, Pocket is truly at home when handling video content; videos are played from within the app rather than re-routing to the source through Safari like Instapaper does. Though video cannot be saved for offline viewing, it is still a great feature and, as of yet, unsurpassed.

Sharing

After reading a great article it is useful to share the piece with others and/or take snippets from it for other use. Instapaper and Pocket have great sharing functionality and allow for sharing articles across a multitude of other apps on your iPhone. Readability, rather disappointingly, is restricted to using Facebook, Twitter and email to share articles.

Left: Instapaper "Friends" — Centre: Instapaper "The Feature" — Left: Pocket Video

Pocket is actually the most generous app in this sense and allows for sharing to sites such as Reddit, Pinboard and Evernote whilst also linking to apps such as Things and OmniFocus natively on your iPhone — access to these options is possible by tapping More. Instapaper acts in a similar manner and by tapping Accounts on the above screen you can link up to Tumblr, Evernote and the standard social networks.

And the Winner is …

Instapaper is, without doubt, the best read later app there is. It currently sits proudly in both my iPhone and iPad’s dock and I have recommended it to every friend looking for a read later app. However, for those who think $4.99 is too steep a price to pay, Readability is not a bad substitute and provides a great service. It may be a surprise, but Pocket is also present, rather than Readability, on my devices by virtue of it’s tremendous video handling capabilities so if you save a lot of video it could be the app for you.

In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, author Wojciech Magierski will explain how to create a Red Riding Hood themed photo manipulation in Photoshop. This tutorial is available exclusively to Tuts+ Premium Members. If you are looking to take your photo manipulation skills to the next level then Log in or Join Now to get started!

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Combining photos isn’t something new. You’ve probably seen your friends doing it on Facebook and Instagram for ages but with so many different apps out there to choose from, how do you know which one is best for you? In this post we’ll take a look at three of the more well-known photo combiners (PicFrame, Diptic and Frametastic), investigating the pros and cons of each, so that you can easily see which is the best one for your needs.

PicFrame

As photo combiners go, PicFrame is pretty complete. You can select your frame of choice from five pages of layouts. You also have the option of changing the ratio (1:1, 3:2, 4:3, 2:3 and 3:4). Photo labels are possible but at an additional add-on price. One of the pros of PicFrame is that you can adjust the frame areas simply by dragging the borders that separate them, something that is often forgotten about or costs extra in other apps.

Once you have picked your frame and slotted your photos in, you still have the ability to adjust the colour, corners and shadows of your overall image. However, it is there that your photo editing controls end, so if you were expecting (or wanting) to spend a decent amount of time on photo editing, you will be disappointed with that aspect of PicFrame.

Sharing is simple and includes export paths to email, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter amongst a few others. The instructions are simple yet complete and easily accessible whenever you have forgotten how to do something.

Some of the PicFrame layouts and one of the help screens

Pros: PicFrame has great instructions and a wide variety of frame choices. It is also the only app of the three in this post that allows you to adjust the frames without having to pay more.

Cons:  Processing and sharing can sometimes be a bit slow when using PicFrame.

Details: PicFrame in the App Store ($0.99)

Diptic

At first glance, Diptic looks promising. Nine pages of layouts give you plenty of opportunity to find a combination that suits your purpose and if you really can’t choose, you can also let the app select for you by pressing the “random” button at the top right of the screen. Once you have found your layout, you can select your photos from not only your camera roll but also from your Facebook and Flickr albums — a clear bonus if you store a lot of your photos on either.

Adjusting the frame borders to fit your photos better is possible, but it is going to cost you extra in the form of an add-on purchase. The transform button is not as transforming as it might initially sound, only providing the chance to mirror your image or rotate it 90 degrees. The effects tab lets you adjust the photo’s brightness, contrast and  saturation via three sliders and the boarder button at the top right gives you some flexibility when it comes to the colour shape and roundness of your frame and the photos inside.

Exporting pathways mainly include Facebook, Flickr, Posterous, tumblr, Twitter and Instagram. If you are one of those people that likes to throw out the instructions and jump right into a product, then you and Diptic are going to gel well as the help button almost takes up more space than the help that it displays. You can glimpse a bit more info in the FAQ accessible from the front page, but not too much.

Colour adjustments and help in Diptic

Pros: Diptic allows you to select photos not only from your camera roll but also from your Facebook and/or Flickr albums. Diptic also has the cool “random” button, meaning no more hard decisions on which frame and/or photos to use.

Cons: Diptic comes with only a very basic set of instructions, plus you’ll pay extra if you want to be able to adjust the frames

Details: Diptic in the App Store ($0.99)

Frametastic

Finally we come to Frametastic. With only two pages of free layouts (you can purchase more) you might be ready to close the app before you even get started but hang on in there. Not only is Frametastic currently free, it has a secret weapon that makes it a bit more useful.

After selecting your layout, make sure you pay attention to the theme at the bottom of the screen. These themes show up in your exports, so while the grass background might look cool when you are selecting your photos, it may seriously affect your street cred when you export it to Facebook (you’ve been warned).

Frametastic lets you adjust the format (again you can unlock more options for a fee) but the secret weapon I mentioned comes in the form of the “apply effects” option when you tap one of your photos. From here you have a nice selection of colour effects (from bright to lemonade) that help to add a little creativeness to your photos in an easy and quick way.

Like the other two apps you have the ability to adjust corners, change the frame colour and the instructions screen, while not as complete as PicFrame, it provides the essentials. Export options are in the form of email, Twitter, Facebook, tumblr and Instagram.

Frametastic might not have many free layouts but it has colour effects

Pros: Frametastic comes with a nice selection of “effects” that you can easily apply to your photos. Whether you want to convert your photos to black and white or just add a sepia tone, you can unleash your inner artist.

Cons: Of the three apps, Frametastic has the fewest frames to choose from. You can always unlock more, but you’ll pay extra for that privilege.

Details: Frametastic in the App Store (Free)

In Conclusion

No longer is it good enough to just display your photos one by one. Luckily, the wide range of apps in the App Store, which let you effortlessly combine multiple photos into one, makes the job easy. If only selecting which app to use was as simple!  We’ve taken a look at three of those apps in this post and which one is the best? That depends on what you are looking for.

With a good selection of creative effects and a price tag of free, Frametastic is well worth downloading. However, the rather small free selection of frames isn’t going to keep you entertained for long. But instead of splurging on an additional set, you’d probably be better to take your hard earned cash and turn it in for one of the more extensive apps and if you really want to know, my choice would be PicFrame.

In this article we will take a look at the work of Mike Lim. Lim is a concept artist who has worked for several well-known clients including Mythic Entertainment, Blizzard, and more. His artwork is full of scary monsters, dwarfs, knights, and even a skull or two. Let’s take a look!

Mass Effect 3 and Kingdoms of Amalur Promo

Hero’s Call

Black Fire Pass

Nicodemus

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Omens of War

Skaven Master Moulder

Dark Sun

Signs of Faith

A Deadly Encounter

The Edge of Night

Poised

Dwarf Slayer

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Then an iPhone app called Signature came along a little while back and it intrigued me because it gave you the capability to create your own signature right on your iPhone. Once I saw the app, I knew I had to try it out and see if it could actually help me solve my problem of customizing my email signature. Did it? Let’s find out after the break.

Adding Content

When you first open up Signature, you are going to want to fill out some details about yourself. You can choose to add as much or as little as you want, it really all depends on what you are comfortable with people seeing. There are five different categories that you can fill out and add to your signature.

Signature Homepage (left) Adding Content (right)

The first one is called Contact Details and this is where you fill out all of the personal information about yourself, your name, address, phone number, etc. Secondly, you can put in a digital signature by actually signing your name on the iPhone like you would a letter. If you don’t like signing your name on the small screen, you can also scan in your signature and import to the app as well.

Filling out your personal information and digital signature

Next, you can add your social networks and instant messaging services to your customized signature. The app provides you with a good amount of services to connect to and to be honest, a handful of them are really not necessary, in my opinion. Then lastly, you have the option of adding a note which can be used for those of you that like to write famous quotes on your signature or something to that effect.

List of social networks and instant messaging apps to connect to

Creating Your Signature

When you first start to build your signature card, you are given two options to either create a custom one or using a template that is provided. When you choose to create your own, you basically select what information you want people to see based upon what you filled in earlier. This is a great option if you want something simple, but if you want to spice it up a little, you are going to want to go with using one of the templates.

Creating a New Signature

There are ten different types of templates that are broken up into four different categories (General, Social, Basic, and Work) for you to choose from. Each one has it’s own subtle differences and they are all really clean looking templates to use. Depending on the one you choose will decide what information you need to show.

Templates for your signature

Using Your Signature

Once you are done tinkering and creating your own template, you can now use it for your emails. Signatures has an option where you can create an email from within the app with your new template. It uses your address book so you don’t have to necessarily remember who you need to email, you can just look them up. You can also copy your template and paste it into another email application that you may be using, like Sparrow or the Mail app for example.

Creating an email with your customized signature

Thoughts

I am still undecided if I really like this app or not because although it fills a need, there are some limitations to it. For one, you are limited to using it just on your iPhone, which for some people may be okay, but I would like to use it when I sending email on my computer or iPad as well. Secondly, although the templates I create look really good on the app, when I use them in an email, they don’t look as good. For example, for one of the templates I used a picture of myself, but when I tried to use it in an email, it wouldn’t work.

Outside of these limitations, I really like the design of Signatures and how easy they make it to create your own template. I think it can be useful for people that tend to use their iPhone a lot for email on the go, but I am not sure that the masses will use this on a regular basis. The app itself costs $2.99, which is an okay price. Unfortunately, Signatures has left me wanting more; they have a good foundation for an app and if they could fix some things I think there might be great promise for it.

Would you use something like this? If not, do you have any other recommendations for an app that is similar to this?

Come on in and get ready to give your thumbs a workout!

The Sandbox

We’re going to start strong with an incredible open world creation tool called, obviously enough, The Sandbox. It’s something like Minecraft meets Sim City, except you’re building an entire world and basically sets you free.

Needless to say, it’s one of those games that offers creative players a gigantic dose of happiness as they collect new materials and learn to grow, build, and develop their own unique worlds. Destruction balances things out and gives you the power to undo what you’ve created, or re-shape the landscape, or just play wrathful deity — no matter what your goals, The Sandbox offers a way to satisfy them in the context of pixel-perfect world building.

For now, you can share your levels with others and browse a gallery of their creations, but you can’t yet leave comments — that’s coming in an update, along with some more interactivity. There are missions, but they’re really only a guide track to help you master the powers at your disposal. The Sandbox is a fresh and exhilarating love letter to creativity, and it will be exciting to watch it grow as development progresses and people master the tools. It’s free, so grab it and be your own deity!

Price: Free
Developer: Pixowl Games
Download: App Store

N.O.V.A 3 — Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance

The App Store has seen a few stand-out titles that nearly everyone recognizes. Infinity Blade was the third-person fantasy masterpiece, Angry Birds was the physics puzzler, and in the realm of first-person shooters, the title to beat has always been N.O.V.A. Now that the third game in the series is out, we can safely say that there’s a reason it keeps its throne: this game is incredible.

Pushing the limits of what you’d expect to be able to see on your phone, N.O.V.A. 3 — Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance is a tremendously attractive shooter with sophisticated physics, gorgeous lighting, detailed models, and a well developed plot that propels you through its ten varied and large levels. The presence of vehicles that you can pilot adds another dimension of play, and now your allies can join you in the vehicles in the same kind of multi-seat destruction we know and love from console FPS games.

Be aware that this is one of the largest games you’re likely to be putting on your phone — it takes a monstrous 1.57GB to install — but the result is worth it, and you’ll forget about things like space when you’re immersed in one of the iPhone’s greatest showcase titles. It may not revolutionize the gameplay from previous titles in the series, but N.O.V.A. 3 is way ahead of the game even still.

Price: $6.99
Developer: Gameloft
Download: App Store

LostWinds 2: Winter of the Melodias

As the well-received LostWinds series continues to make its re-appearance on the App Store (after making a splash on WiiWare initially), a new chapter is available: Winter of the Melodias.

In the sequel, you not only have power over the wind, but can switch between summer and winter at will to help you navigate through the stunningly rendered world of Mistralis. Forming clouds, diving into formerly-frozen pools, and crafting snowballs are just a few of the techniques you’ll find yourself using this time around as you search for the protagonist Toku’s mother.

If you enjoyed LostWinds, then you’ll clearly enjoy the sequel, but you’ll also notice that the controls have been refined and are more comfortable, and that the newly opened areas of the world offer a huge variety of enchanting environments in which to explore your powers. It’s a very rewarding game to progress through, and is among the most charming and colourful titles we’ve seen since the original. Don’t miss it!

Price: $3.99
Developer: Frontier Developments Ltd.
Download: App Store

Snabbit

Remember that little game you used to play on your phone (your ancient dumbphone)? The snake game that was all over the place? As simple as it was, it was incredibly popular and addictive, and TapCat has brought the same style of play to your iPhone with all the polish and visual glitz that today’s technology allows for.

In Snabbit, you’ll control the Snabbit itself: a mysterious intergalactic creature that eats stars and loves hidden treasure. The straight-forward one-tap gameplay lends itself well to the fast pacing of the many levels, and alongside those you’ll find an infinite mode that features auto-generated levels that change after every 6 hours.

The best part is the level editor, though. We have a lot of love for games that allow you to make your own content, and in the case of Snabbit, the editor is simple and rewarding and allows you to extend your time with the game and share your creations with friends, which is always a good thing. If you’re after something lighter than the previous titles we’ve mentioned this week, then have a look at Snabbit and munch some stars!

Price: $0.99
Developer: TapCat
Download: App Store

Gene Effect

Gene Effect is quite possibly one of the finest games we’ve reviewed in a while. This glorious space exploration game, like a cross between Waking Mars and the upcoming Prometheus film, is stunningly crafted (mostly by one man!) and technically ambitious.

In the not too distant future, mankind explores space and encounters an ancient race of aliens. The story spans several episodes and is well told, interspersed between extensively varied gameplay that ranges from combat, to exploring secret areas, to puzzles, to mining, to object hunting, and more. It’s enough to keep you busy for hours and, more importantly, impressed throughout. Lighting is moody, colours are well chosen and subtle, the physics feel true to life and keep the controls from getting too floaty, and the environments are detailed and alive, with many animated elements and layers of activity.

For fans of sci-fi, Gene Effect offers an experience unlike any other on your iPhone, and with more and more content and tweaks arriving via updates, it’s a good time to grab this game and start exploring its intriguing world. You won’t want to leave.

Price: $4.99
Developer: Lightstorm3D
Download: App Store

What Have You Been Playing?

That’s going to do it for this week, but don’t be a stranger — leave us your comments and let us know what you’ve been playing, what you enjoyed from this list, and what we might have missed!

  

Many dismiss copywriting as something that ad agency people do. Truthfully, all of us need to pay close attention to copywriting if we want to achieve our business objectives.

The goal of a “regular” text is to inform or entertain. The goal of Web copy (and ideally your website in general) is to get people to do something—to sign up, make a purchase, or something similar. Hiring a professional copywriter can be very expensive, which is one of the reasons why this is a valuable skill to have yourself.

“I don’t need to learn copywriting, I write based on how it sounds to me.”

Think you don’t need to learn copywriting?

David Ogilvy, the father of modern advertising, addressed this in his book Ogilvy on Advertising. One of his copywriters told him that he had not read any books about advertising; he preferred to rely on his own intuition.

Ogilvy asked him: “Suppose your gallbladder has to be removed this evening. Will you choose a surgeon who has read some books on anatomy and knows where the gallbladder, is or someone who relies on his own intuition?”

What distinguishes top experts from mediocre players is that the best know more. You can write better copy if you know more about it.

The Process Of Writing Great Copy

Everything is easier with the right process. If your approach to copywriting is “I’ll just try to be convincing”, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

You don’t even need to be a “natural writer” to come up with excellent copy, you just need the right process and some key principles about writing copy that sells.

The best processes are simple, as those are the ones you actually use.

Here are the six steps of effective copywriting process:

1. Research: customer, product and competition.
2. Outline and guideposts.
3. Draft copy.
4. Conversion boost.
5. Revise, rearrange.
6. Test.

And now let’s get to the details:

1. Research

This is often the most time-intensive part of your copywriting.

“You don’t stand a tinker’s chance of producing successful advertising unless you start doing your homework. I have always found this extremely tedious, but there is no way around it.”
— David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy had the task to do copywriting for a Rolls Royce ad. He spent three weeks reading about it before he came up with the headline and the rest of the copy. While he was talking about advertising, it equally applies to your website copy—the goal is to get people to do something.

Ogilvy’s famous Rolls Royce ad.

You need to figure out why people buy the product, how they buy it, what they use it for, and what really matters to them. If you don’t have this figured out, you really cannot write a copy that works. When it’s your own business that you’re writing copy for, things go much faster, of course, as you know the product and the competition.

Gauge the Competition

You need to be aware of your direct competition, how they present their product, and what claims they seem to be making. If you are not selling something unique, you are selling as much for your competition as you are selling for yourself. Being “like” others or choosing to be “one of the leading providers of” is a losing strategy.

Neuromarketing research tells us that differentiating our claims is the key to talking to the old brain, the decision making part of our brain. Our whole business identity should be different from the competition, and the claims we’re making about our product should stand out.

Get Out of the Office

The answers are not in your office and you won’t have eureka-moments at brainstorming meetings (working solo is far more effective anyway). You have to interview people. Don’t waste time interviewing random people, you need to talk to your ideal customers and find out what’s on their minds.

Find out what they think about your kind of product, what language they use when they talk about it, what attributes are important to them, and what promises would most likely convince them to buy it. Pick the last 10 to 20 customers (who still remember their purchasing experiences), and ask them these questions (recording the interviews is a good idea, but ask for permission):

• Who are you? What do you do? (customer profile)
• What does our product help you do? (helps you understand how they use it, tells you words they use to describe our product)
• Which parameters did you compare on different options? (which features matter)
• What were the most important ones? (key pains to solve)
• Which alternatives did you consider? (competitors we have to look at)
• What made you choose our product? (our key advantage)
• What were the biggest hesitations and doubts before the purchase? (things we have to address in the copy)
• Were there questions you needed answers to, but couldn’t find any? (necessary information to provide)
• What information would have helped you make the decision faster? (same as above)
• In which words would you recommend it to somebody you know? (words they use to describe our product)

Take note of the exact wording they use. Your copy needs to match the conversation in your customer’s mind. If you talk about “scribing devices” and he needs a pen, there’s a mismatch.

My point is that when customers see the product described in words they have in their mind already, then you’ve got their attention.

2. Outline And Guideposts

Next step: write the outline. Guideposts are the markers that help you write the content.

Writing an outline usually only takes a few minutes and provides a road map for the rest of the project. It allows you to complete the work faster and ensures that you stick to the flow.

The outline structure will depend on the page you’re writing the copy for. The main pages you need a well thought-out copy in place are your home page and product pages.

Here are outline templates I personally use, and you can copy them. I’ve tweaked and tested them over the years, and this model works the best for me.

Home Page Copy

Your home page copy structure depends a lot on your business. A nail salon would have a different approach from an e-commerce store; a website selling mobile app design courses is different from a hosting company. Hence, it’s basically impossible for me to give you an outline template for your home page.

What IS universal is the value proposition. Every home page needs one (unless you’re a very well-known brand)

A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. It’s the primary reason a prospect should buy from you. The value proposition is usually a block of text with a visual.

There is no one right way to go about it, but I suggest you start with the following formula:

• Headline:
  What is the end-benefit you’re offering, in one short sentence. Can mention the product and/or the customer. Attention grabber.
• Sub-headline or a two-to-three sentence paragraph:
  A specific explanation of what you do/offer, for whom, and why is it useful.
• Bullet points:
  List the key benefits or features.

Here’s a list of useful value proposition examples you can check out.

Product Page Copy Outline

Product page is where you sell the value of your product and where the user takes action (adds to cart, sign up, makes a purchase, etc.).

1. Name of the product.
2. Value proposition: what’s the end-benefit of this product and who is it for?
3. Specific and clear overview of what the product does and why is that good (features and benefits).
4. What’s the pain that it solves? Description of the problem.
5. List of everything in the product (e.g. curriculum of the course, list of every item in the package, etc.).
6. Technical information: parameters, what do you get and how does it work?
7. Objection handling. Make a list of all possible FUDs (fears, uncertainties, doubts) and address them.
8. Bonuses (what you get on top of the offer).
9. Money-back guarantee (+ return policy).
10. Price.
11. Call to action.
12. Expectation setting: what happens after you buy?

What you now have in place is like a skeleton. Next step would be to start writing the draft version of the copy by filling in the blanks.

3. Draft Copy

Start filling in the blanks in the template above, and keep these points in mind for the style of your writing.

Avoid Jargon and Blandvertising

The goal of the copy is to connect with the reader, and guide them towards an action.

“Human relationships are about communicating. Business jargon should be banished in favor of simple English. Simplicity is a sign of truth and a criterion of beauty. Complexity can be a way of hiding the truth.”
— Helena Rubinstein

Using complicated, fancy words does not make you seem any smarter or your solution any better—it just turns everybody off. Who wants to read something that doesn’t feel like it’s written for them? Talk to people like a real human. If you wouldn’t use a phrase on your website in a conversation with a customer, then don’t use it.

In addition to fancy words, avoid meaningless phrases. What do “on-demand marketing software”, “integrated solutions” or “flexible platform” really mean anyway?

Or useless phrases like “changing the way X is done”, “paradigm shifting …” or “exceeding customer expectations”—stop the nonsense. These bland phrases have long lost any meaning, and you will just waste precious attention time. You can see a list of the top 100 most overused buzzwords and marketing speak in press releases here.

Another thing to avoid—superlatives and hype. Saying things like “the best”, “world leader”, “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” will just ruin your integrity. People don’t believe such claims anyway (even if they’re true).

What to do instead? Be specific.

Be Specific

Specificity converts.

“Clearer and more specific subject lines convert better.”
— Bob Kemper, Senior Director of Sciences, MECLABS.

While in that specific quote Bob was focused on subject lines, this principle applies equally well to all copywriting. Specific is believable, specific is attractive, specific is convincing. Don’t be vague, be specific.

“We have the best coffee in the world” vs “Our estate earned the ‘world’s best coffee’ title at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Roasters Guild for the third year in a row.” Which claim is more believable?

You can use a superlative if you back it up.

Here’s an example. Can you understand what they offer?

Specific headline. Specific call to action with a specific explanation of what they get when they sign up. Specific benefits listed. Specific image to show the product in action.

It Has to Be About Them

Remember the old brain I mentioned before?

Our brains have three layers, and the oldest part—the old brain—is the decision-making part.

The “Old Brain” is the part that humans and their predecessors have had the longest—like 450 million years or so. So the part of the brain that controls decisions is fairly primitive and mostly concerned with survival.

If your copy is about you (your product, your company) and not the prospect (his problems, his life), you will fail. Make it about them. Too many companies start by stating “our company was founded…”, “we offer …” or something especially useless like “welcome to your website”.

Instead of saying “we specialize in dog training”, say “train your dog in two weeks”—move the focus from you to the benefit they will receive. People care about themselves—not you—and whether your website can be helpful in some way.

How Much Information Should I Provide?

Tests have shown that 79% of people don’t read, they just skim. However, 16% read everything.

Those 16% are your main target group, the most interested people. If people are not interested in what you are selling, it doesn’t matter how long or short your sales copy is. If they are interested, you should give them as much information as possible.

Complete information is the best sales copy. A study by IDC showed that 50% of the uncompleted purchases were due to lack of information. They can always skip parts and click the “buy” button once they have the information they need. But if they read through the whole thing and they’re still not convinced, then you have a problem.

This is why you should always strive to say everything that can possibly be said about your product. You cannot be there in person to explain and answer the questions, so your copy needs to do it for you.

All at Once or Make Them Click?

Long form copy works just great, but it’s not necessary to provide all the information on a single page. It’s okay to move supplemental information onto a different page (layer, popup, etc.) and just link to it.

For instance, Amazon often hides full technical information of products behind a link—since it’s only interesting to the hardcore tech savvy customers (and most customers are not).

Full technical details available after clicking a link.

The important thing is that all the information needed to make the decision is on a single page. Don’t make people work click to read stuff that you want them to read anyway (like features, benefits, testimonials, pricing, etc.).

When, Where and If at All Should I Show the Price?

Some people think that the price drives readers away, and they should hide it somehow—or make it hard to get to. While there is truth in that sometimes, it’s mostly false.

Consider this:

1. People always want to know how much things cost.
2. If you don’t publish the price, have a “get a quote” form instead. But if your competition does, they may get the client.

You should always make the price easy to find, but for more complex / expensive products communicate the value before the price.

Let’s say you’re selling a copper vase. Price: $990.

Seems expensive. But what if you knew that it was designed by Andy Warhol and previously used by Kurt Cobain? If you know who these people are and respect them, this changes everything, and it might seem like a steal instead.

So communicate value before price.

If your price is cheap, you want people to know it. If it’s expensive, the price qualifies the right people who are convinced to buy your copy. Giving price details also convinces your reader of the image and brand value of your product.

4. Conversion Boost

Once you have the content in place, it’s time to give it a conversion boost. The goal of the website copy is to convert the reader into a buyer (or subscriber, lead, etc.). There are certain things we can do to improve the conversion rate (the percentage of readers that take action) of the copy.

We’ll use three guides here to make the copy sell better:

• Conversion frameworks.
• Science of persuasion.
• Neuromarketing research.

Conversion boost. Image credit APM Alex.

Conversion Frameworks and Why They Matter

Conversion frameworks are a structured approach for increasing website conversion rates. The most prominent ones have been fine-tuned over the years and have been proven to boost sales.

While the conversion frameworks apply to a website as a whole, they can also be used as frameworks to improve sales copy.

There are many conversion frameworks around, let’s use one of them as an example:

C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) – 2a

This is not a lesson in physics, but a conversion formula developed by Marketing Experiments. Translation:

C = Probability of conversion
m = Motivation of user (when)
v = Clarity of the value proposition (why)
i = Incentive to take action
f = Friction elements of process
a = Anxiety about entering information

Summary: The probability of conversion depends on the match between the offer and visitor motivation + the clarity of the value proposition + (incentives to take action now—friction)—anxiety. The numbers next to each character signify the importance of them.

How to apply this to your copy:

• Is your value proposition easy to understand and perfectly clear? Would everyone understand what you offer and how it’s beneficial to them?
• Go through your copy and see if there’s any way to make your statements clearer.
• Communicate value: don’t just list features, turn them into benefits.
• Make a list of all possible questions, doubts and objections that prospects might have in the buying process. Address them.
• Make the buying or signup process as easy as possible, remove everything that is not absolutely necessary.
• Add microcopy: explain why you need certain data and what happens after they give it to you.
• Provide full information: what happens after they buy, what can they expect, when is the product shipped, what’s the delivery time.
• Add risk reversal: what kind of guarantees are in place? What happens if they don’t like it, or it’s not what they thought, etc?

The Science of Persuasion

Persuasion has been researched thoroughly. Mr. Cialdini is undoubtedly the biggest authority on the field. His books are bestsellers and have been on the “must-read” list for marketers and copywriters for years.

In his research, Cialdini came up with six scientific principles of persuasion that will help guide you to become more effective at getting people to do what you want. In case you’re not familiar with those principles, then here’s the summary:

Principle 1: Reciprocity
People feel obligated to give back to others who have given to them.
How to use it: teach your prospect something useful in your copy, give away free stuff, and better yet—add value to your prospects long before you even start to sell them something.

Principle 2: Liking
We prefer to say “yes” to those we know and like.
How to use it: talk/write like a human, connect with the reader, share details about yourself. Blog. Be friendly and cool (like Richard Branson, Oprah, Gary V).

Principle 3: Social Proof
People decide what’s appropriate for them to do in a situation by examining and following what others are doing.
How to use it: show how many others are already using your product. Show off your numbers. Use testimonials. Link to 3rd-party articles.

Principle 4: Authority
People rely on those with superior knowledge or perspective for guidance on how to respond AND what decisions to make.
How to use it: Demonstrate your expertise. Show off your resume and results. Get celebrity (in your niche) endorsements.

Principle 5: Consistency
Once we make a choice/take a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressure to behave consistently with that commitment.
How to use it: Start small and move up from there. Sell something small at first (a no-brainer deal), even if you make no money on it. They now see themselves as your customer, and will most likely return to make a larger purchase.

Principle 6: Scarcity
Opportunities appear more valuable when they are less available.
How to use it: Use time or quantity limited bonuses. Limit access to your product. Promote exclusivity.

What Neuromarketing Teaches Us

Research in neuromarketing (put together in this book) reveals interesting things about our brains.

Neuromarketing study in action. Image credit: SMI Eye Tracking.

We’re usually trying to talk to the “new brain”—the sophisticated one—but it’s the brute “old brain” that makes all the decisions, so we need to dumb it down. Here’s the formula for talking to the old brain:

Selling probability = Pain x Claim x Gain x (Old Brain)³

1. First you need to identify the prospect’s pain and make sure they acknowledge the pain before you start to sell them anything. Then, you’ve got to differentiate your claims from your competitors. The strongest claim is the one that eliminates the strongest pain.
2. Next, you have to show convincing proof to back the claims up. The “Old Brain” is resistant to new ideas and concepts, so your proof must be very convincing. Show tangible evidence, data, before & after comparisons, testimonials, and case studies.
3. In order to reach the old brain, you need to start with a “grabber”—something that really gets the attention (“if you’re selling fire extinguishers, start with fire”, like Ogilvy said). Second—the “Old brain” is visual, so use a big picture to illustrate and reinforce your message. Visuals get to the brain much faster than words. Best visuals show contrast—before/after, beginning/end, then/now.

How to apply it to your copy:

• Start with a grabber—something that evokes emotion.
• Address the pain from the get-go.
• Use a big picture next to your value proposition, one that the prospect can identify with.
• Are your claims different from the competition?
• Add proof to your claims in all possible formats.

5. Revise And Rearrange

Done with conversion boosting? Now enjoy a full night of sleep and come back to the copy in the morning.

A fresh look a day later will help you spot inconsistencies, missing information, and flaws in the general flow of the copy. Use this time to add more information, rearrange the order of different blocks and fix the typos (spelling mistakes can cost you customers).

Before you publish the sales copy, it always pays to get two or three other people to read it and give you feedback. You want feedback from your ideal customers—do they get any questions that were left unanswered? Is there any part that needs to be made clearer? And peers—other marketers or entrepreneurs. What could make the offer better and more credible?

Once the editing is complete, you can make it live on your website. Don’t guess whether the headline or value propositions are as good as they can be, immediately launch two versions of the copy and test them.

6. Test

There is no good way to predict how well the copy will do. Sometimes the conversion rates can skyrocket overnight. Sometimes the new copy turns out to be a downright dud.

You need to test your copy. Image credit Horia Varlan.

Maybe it’s because the offer is weak. Perhaps the headline is the bottleneck. It’s impossible to put the finger on the problem as all you have are hypothesis. The only way to know is to test.

Don’t trust a copywriter who says he always writes killer copy on his first try. Nobody does.

Most common problems:

• Your value proposition is poor.
• The offer doesn’t match the audience’s needs.
• The headline is weak.
• It’s not clear how the visitor benefits from this.

Start with A/B testing value propositions, and go from there.

Conclusion

Writing great copy is a skill you have to learn just like anything else. Use the outline and the tips to get started on the right track. Stephen King, the famous writer, said that if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. I believe the same goes for writing great copy.

The best Web copy is not the one that uses sophisticated persuasion and mind manipulation techniques. The best copy provides full information about the product, its benefits, and makes it clear whether it’s the right one for the user.

(jvb) (il)

© Peep Laja for Smashing Magazine, 2012.

  

Responsive design is the hottest topic in front-end Web development right now. It’s going to transform the Web into an all-singing, all-dancing, all-devices party, where we can access any information located anywhere in the world. But does responsive design translate well from the text-heavy Web design blogosphere to the cold hard reality of commercial systems?

Rumors came through our office grapevine that management was looking to revamp our mobile presence. There was talk of multiple apps being built externally that could be used on some of the major mobile devices. Our team had been getting familiar with responsive design and put forward a proposal of doing away with device-specific apps and developing a single responsive website that could be served to both desktop and mobile users. After a few hasty demos and prototypes, the idea was accepted and we began work.

The brief: make our current website, Airport-Hotels.uk, responsive while retaining the existing layout for users on browsers of 1000 pixels and up.

The following is what we picked up along the way.

Starting With Desktop Is OK

The general consensus now seems to be “mobile first.” I agree. Starting with a single(ish)-column mobile website is the easiest way to get your CSS off to a great start. However, we use an external design agency, so the time and cost of a new mobile-first design was not feasible. It was left to the front-end developer to translate the existing design onto screens of smaller dimensions.

The solution was to break up the website into smaller blocks (or nuggets), which could then be positioned differently as the browser’s width increased. This led to our first base media query, which contained the main branding elements, with minimal layout information. Because the nuggets were of a fairly fixed size, we had a foundation for creating a grid for each of our major media queries. Anything that wasn’t deemed to be a “nugget,” such as a larger block of text, would be responsive and fill in the gaps that the nuggets couldn’t.

While this method is not as good a practice as “mobile first,” it does have the advantage of being faster and cheaper than a full redesign. And you pick up great knowledge along the way for when resources do become available for something more substantial.

Less Is More

When getting your feet wet with media queries, you’re tempted to go all out, but do you need to? Theoretically, you could serve a completely different design to each device. While this would be spectacular and self-satisfying, maintaining it would be a nightmare. We ended up using the default media queries in Andy Clarke’s 320 and Up framework, containing four breakpoints (1382 pixels was not in the brief). Looking back now, we could have removed at least one of those queries, possibly two.

We’ve been gathering statistics in the weeks since the website’s release, and by far the majority of our customers are running browsers either of 320 × 480 pixels or on full desktops. We could hit over 85% of our user base by focusing on these resolutions, while cutting down on development time and maintenance.

This was especially evident on our availability page, which easily contains the most information of any of the pages in our booking flow. In the end, rather than try to serve the perfect design to each device width, we moved much of the CSS for the largest media query to the size below: less maintenance, less fuss, and more time to work on the UX (and, importantly to the business, to make bookings).

Ability Sniffing Is Not Enough

When I first saw tools like Modernizr, I thought they would change everything. I suppose they have, but don’t rely on them too much. Mobile browsers have more inconsistencies than any desktop I have ever seen. Even WebKit-based browsers can render things completely differently. With debugging tools at a minimum, it’s like we’ve been thrust back into the pre-developer toolbar era of IE bug fixing. Luckily, that’s one of my favorite things.

Exploring this strange new world of bugs became one of the major aspects of the project. A few of my favorites are highlighted below. Hopefully, they won’t trip you up.

CSS Columns

I love CSS columns. I had been wanting to use them for a while; but, other than small personal projects, nothing with appropriate content came up. While trying to work out the best layout for our website on a 320-pixel device, I realized that, rather than generating columns using floats or inline blocks, we could reduce the layout CSS to just a few lines by creating CSS columns. With most major mobile Web browsers being based on WebKit and Opera, this seemed to be a fairly reasonable solution and appeared to lay out everything perfectly. Great!

Here is the original code for the 320-pixel media query:

.product {
    -moz-column-count: 2;
    -moz-column-gap: 5px;
    -webkit-column-count: 2;
    -webkit-column-gap: 5px;
    column-count: 2;
    column-gap: 5px;
}

And here is the updated solution (roughly speaking — the actual code was much longer):

.product>div {
    width: 49%;
    float: left;
    margin: 0.5%;
}

Unfortunately, the column specification isn’t quite ready yet. On BlackBerrys and some HTC Android phones, our form elements (specifically, the buttons) became unclickable. The layout was perfect — we checked that the CSS was accepted with Modernizr, and all the links worked — and yet you couldn’t click the “Book” button. Back to the drawing board with that one.

We ended up using a more standard float-based column layout.

CSS Gradients

Gradients were another excellent instance of browser idiosyncrasies. We used a lot of CSS gradients in this redevelopment to replace some images. This should have saved the user’s bandwidth and made redesigns and maintenance faster.

On WebOS (with a WebKit-based browser), though, CSS gradients would render as completely black unless used on a form input element. It was baffling. In the end, we figured out that it was a bug in the implementation of -webkit-linear-gradient. We’ve learned that the bug has been fixed in the upcoming version, so this might not be an issue in the future.

Here is the offending CSS:

.ppcHeader {
    background: #73bff1; /* Old browsers */
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(left, #73bff1 0%, #009ff7 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
    background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, right top, color-stop(0%,#73bff1), color-stop(100%,#009ff7)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, #73bff1 0%,#009ff7 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
    background: -o-linear-gradient(left, #73bff1 0%,#009ff7 100%); /* Opera11.10+ */
    background: -ms-linear-gradient(left, #73bff1 0%,#009ff7 100%); /* IE10+ */
    background: linear-gradient(left, #73bff1 0%,#009ff7 100%); /* W3C */
    margin-bottom: 20px;
}

(Bear in mind that CSS gradients add a heavy load to the browser’s rendering engine, so if you are using a lot of them, switching them off for mobile might be wise.)

JavaScript on BlackBerry 5.0 and Opera Mini

Basically, JavaScript does not work on Blackberry 5.0. BlackBerry tries, but it’s so inconsistent and buggy that it’s not worth it. We were reliably advised by Peter-Paul Kochs to just resort to device sniffing and to turn off any JavaScript. This is another reason to make sure your websites are progressively enhanced by falling back to non-JavaScript versions.

Meanwhile, Opera Mini works fine with JavaScript, but each of a website’s pages is rendered on Opera’s servers and then essentially compressed into a big image before being sent to the mobile device. This is great for the user because it can reduce bandwidth to 10% of the normal browsing experience. On the other hand, if you have onkeyup validation in your forms, this can be a problem because each call to the JavaScript would require refreshing the entire page from the server.

Forms Drop Users

This was and still is one of the major problems with mobile browsing on our e-commerce website. In order to make a purchase on an average website, the user has to fill in a lot of information: names, addresses, credit-card details, the list goes on and on. While typing on mobile has gotten much easier, navigating large forms is a frustrating and laborious process.

Our mockup payment page had 22 form inputs that needed some kind of interaction. These were required either to make a successful booking, to provide information to the product supplier after booking or for our own sales and data purposes.

The question became (as it always seems to be with mobile), what could we remove and what did we have to keep? Well, we tried to take the middle path, which is currently in development or might even be live by the time you read this.

We chose to split our payment process into two stages. Because our users can save more on their purchase by booking early, our first payment stage asks for the very minimum of information required in order to confirm a booking: name, car registration and credit-card details. This gives the user the best price available and chalks up another booking for us. Part two of the payment process is to gather the rest of the information required to “complete” the booking. This second stage can be filled out at the user’s convenience, either immediately or later on using our online booking management system. This eases any frustration caused by having to fill out a large form.

Good UI != Good UI

A good user interface means something completely different on mobile devices — and even tablets for that matter. Many of the user-friendly features we have implemented on our desktop website would just be bad ideas on these smaller mouse-less devices.

Lightboxes

Lightboxes were all the rage a few years ago. They were a convenient and pretty way to display a small amount of content or something that wasn’t worth loading a new page for. In IE 7 and up, you can position lightboxes using position: fixed, which is great. On mobile devices, though, browsers do not implement position: fixed, or they implement it in an odd way to prevent non-mobile-ready websites from not working at all. This will ruin any lightboxes.

We recommend just loading a new page for lightbox content: less JavaScript, easier and fast. A new tab would also be fine, but due to the infancy of tabbed browsing on mobile devices, maintaining the flow is probably a better idea for now.

Hovers

Content that is only visible via hovering obviously doesn’t work on touchscreens. What used to be an easy way to hide content while keeping it accessible has become a bit of a nightmare to deal with. We tried just removing the hover and showing the content, to see what would happen. The iPhone actually handles hovers fairly well, translating them into tap events. On Android, you need to click and hold for a little while to prevent the default action of clicking the link (our links are anchor-tag-based).

In the end, modifying the code that handles the hovers (assuming it’s JavaScript) and adding a tap event seemed to be the best solution. This allowed us to preserve the design’s aesthetic, while keeping as much functionality as possible for mobile users.

if( document.createTouch ) {
    this.addEvent(c[j],'tap',this.tipOver,false);
} else {
    this.addEvent(c[j],'mouseover',this.tipOver,false);
    this.addEvent(c[j],'mouseout',this.tipOut,false);
}

Date Picker

Our date-picker calendar was one of the biggest hurdles to overcome in the UI. We have a text input that allows the user to enter a date. Prior to the date-picker, our solution was a dynamically generated select box, but that caused confusion among many users because they might have remembered the day of the week they were flying on but not the date. So, we added the jQuery UI Datepicker to make filling in the search form one step easier.

However, what was one step forward for convenience on the desktop was one step back on mobile. Focusing the text input would open both the date picker and the phone’s keyboard, thus obscuring the date picker.

Our next option was to use the HTML5 date input. Because this element was released so recently, browsers are still playing catch up, and implementations vary wildly. It’s just as rough on desktop, with Firefox still rendering it as a text input, Chrome adds an up/down selector and forces the date format, while Opera actually renders a calendar just like the jQuery UI Datepicker. This solution still requires the date-picker JavaScript, but it forces the format, which can actually make it less user-friendly. While the concept is great and the solution will be great once the bugs are ironed out, we found that the date type input is not yet ready for commercial use in this fashion.

Our eventual solution (not yet live) was to use a JavaScript “touch event” query to generate a more mobile-friendly date picker than the standard jQuery UI one. This creates an iOS-styled triple drop-down menu for day, month and year and is user-friendly on mobile devices. The no-JavaScript backup can be either a text input or a select drop-down menu. Have a look at the code for yourself.

Fix IE First

The final point, which reflects the complexity of mobile development, is how to fit old versions of IE into this new technology. IE 8 and below ignores media queries, which presents a rather sticky problem when your entire website is based on them. There are several solutions to this, which we’ll explore below.

JavaScript Polyfills

I can think of two great JavaScript polyfill options for media queries. The first is Respond.js, which continually monitors the browser’s width, parses the CSS and then serves the correct styles for that width. This is a great solution if you need the website to respond on IE 8 and below. The main issue is the time between the document loading and the JavaScript kicking in; the website is initially displayed using the base style sheet, usually the mobile view, before it “jumps” to the full desktop version. Obviously, this doesn’t look great on a desktop monitor, and if the user is on an old browser, then their computer and Internet connection will probably be slow, too, which means that the jump time could be even longer.

The other JavaScript option here is the Chrome frame, which achieves the same end and has the same disadvantages. This solution isn’t bad, but just not right for our implementation.

Include All Media Queries

This is one of my favorite options for responsive websites and is also used in the latest version of the 320 and Up boilerplate. Create a separate CSS file for each device width; and for IE, serve them all to the user, with no media queries. With a mobile-first approach and a couple of fixed widths in your IE style sheet, this will serve the full-sized version of the website to users of outdated browsers. This solution is fast, simple and easy to maintain.

A Separate IE Style Sheet Entirely

Finally, given the right conditions, you could just write a completely separate IE style sheet, full of conditional comments to load the full desktop version of the website. Theoretically, this need only contain small amounts of layout information; but given that many of these styles will be reproduced in your media queries for wider widths, it can cause maintenance issues down the line. Duplicating code is never a good idea, which makes me wary of this solution.

Interestingly, we used this solution in the end, but with a twist. We used a PHP plugin in our template files to combine, compress and cache our CSS files. Due to some issues with the cache in IE, we were already generating a separate cached CSS file for IE users. We added a couple of lines to the PHP file to strip out media queries entirely as it combines and compresses the CSS. This method delivers the results of the “include all media queries” solution, while allowing the option for inline media queries in the style sheet. Because of the way we organized the CSS, this turned out to be the best solution for the project.

Conclusion

After all that, we finally have the first version of our responsive booking flow. I like to think that this epitomizes “mobile-ready.” We aren’t necessarily mobile-optimized, but our feet are on the bottom rung of a tall ladder that climbs to a great system that works perfectly on all devices. This is the starting point, if you will.

Was it worth it? It’s been a long journey, with a lot of head scratching and learning on our feet fast, but that’s what Web development is about, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. You can’t be perfect the first time round, and you don’t have to be. The point is that this technology is ready now, and the sooner you start using it, the better prepared you’ll be for the mobile market as it comes running at you. In the next few years, we’re hoping to see JavaScript network APIs that will allow Web users to add purchases directly to their monthly phone bill. I expect the mobile e-commerce market will explode at that point. Will you be ready?

(al) (da) (il)

© Gavyn McKenzie for Smashing Magazine, 2012.

  

In this article, we take a break from some of the more advanced ways to customize WordPress, and share some super-easy customization techniques for the WordPress Admin area.

If you’re just getting started with WordPress, or have been running with default functionality for a while and now want to dig in with some useful and easy ways to customize your WordPress site, a great place to start is the WordPress Admin area, or backend. One of the great things about WordPress is that each part of the backend is easily customized using simple PHP functions.

In this article, you’ll learn how to customize the login page with your own logo, add new widgets to the dashboard, add custom content to the admin footer, make it easier to get in and out of the Admin area, and more. When combined, these techniques can improve branding, accessibility, and usability of your WordPress-powered site.

Changing the Default WordPress Login URL

By default, logging in to the WordPress Admin area requires either /wp-admin or /wp-login.php in the URL, which isn’t a lot to type. You can, however, make it even easier by changing the login URL to something more memorable and better branded.

This technique requires .htaccess file manipulation. Usually, this is a file hidden in the root of your WordPress installation. It’s automatically created by WordPress after setting custom permalinks using URL rewriting.

First, check your SFTP/FTP client preferences to show hidden files—most FTP clients manage that. Then, check that the file .htaccess exists. If that is not the case, create it by using your favorite notepad. On Windows, use the Notepad++ software to create it. Open it and add this line on top:

RewriteRule ^login$ http://YOUR_SITE.com/wp-login.php [NC,L]

Just replace the login keyword with one of your choice and your website’s URL.

Now, open your favorite browser and go to http://yoursite.com/login. You’ll be redirected to the WordPress login page. Remember that your clients are not supposed to know everything about WordPress usages—a user-friendly URL is far better to remember than /wp-login.php.

Easy to remember, easy to teach, easy to learn!

Changing the Default External Link of the WordPress Login Page

When you log into WordPress, the default logo links to WordPress.org. Let me show you a quick tip for using your own link. Open the functions.php file. Then, add the following lines of code. And be sure to remember the PHP tag enclosure.

// Use your own external URL logo link
function wpc_url_login(){
	return "http://wpchannel.com/"; // your URL here
}
add_filter('login_headerurl', 'wpc_url_login');

Don’t forget to save the file. Log out to view the result. Better, no?

Customizing the Login logo Without a Plugin

Reinforce your brand by changing the default WordPress login logo. The logo is one of the most important elements of your brand! People will memorize it to find you quickly. Showcase it!

This is the default WordPress login screen:

To enhance it, add these lines of code in your functions.php:

// Custom WordPress Login Logo
function login_css() {
	wp_enqueue_style( 'login_css', get_template_directory_uri() . '/css/login.css' );
}
add_action('login_head', 'login_css');

The third line points towards a separate stylesheet. Even though it’s possible to use that of your default CSS theme, I advise you to use Firebug—a useful Firefox add-on—or any other Web development tool that allows you to edit your website in real-time. As you can see, just one line of code is needed to change the default logo.

#login h1 a {
	background-image: url("http://YOUR-WEBSITE.com/wp-content/themes/YOUR_THEME/images/custom_logo.png") !important;
	}

Feel free to change the logo URL if it’s not located in your theme folder. Now have a look at your login page: your custom logo appears!

If that is not the case, make sure that no white lines are present at the end of your functions.php file.

Changing the Footer of Your WordPress Administration

The default WordPress administration footer thanks you for using their content management system and links to WordPress.org. For professional use and website branding, you’ll want to customize this area.

Open the Appearance menu and click on Editor. Click on functions.php on the right side of your screen. You can also access the footer by using an FTP client to locate /wp-content/themes/NAME_OF_YOUR_THEME/functions.php.

Now, add the following lines of code, taking care to place them between PHP tags:

// Custom WordPress Footer
function remove_footer_admin () {
	echo '© 2012 - WordPress Channel, Aurélien Denis';
}
add_filter('admin_footer_text', 'remove_footer_admin');

To customize the content, just change the second line inside the echo, between the quotes.

Finally, refresh your browser to see the result.

Adding Custom Widgets to Your Dashboard

It can be useful to add your own widget to provide general or commercial information. Adding a widget to the WordPress dashboard can be done very quickly. Again, open the functions.php file, then, add the following lines of code:

// Add a widget in WordPress Dashboard
function wpc_dashboard_widget_function() {
	// Entering the text between the quotes
	echo "<ul>
	<li>Release Date: March 2012</li>
	<li>Author: Aurelien Denis.</li>
	<li>Hosting provider: my own server</li>
	</ul>";
}
function wpc_add_dashboard_widgets() {
	wp_add_dashboard_widget('wp_dashboard_widget', 'Technical information', 'wpc_dashboard_widget_function');
}
add_action('wp_dashboard_setup', 'wpc_add_dashboard_widgets' );

In this example, add the desired text between the echo tag, after the quotes. You could also insert HTML; an unordered list for example. Name your widget—this will be the widget title—by replacing “Technical informations” with your title of choice. This is what it will look like.

If you do not see your custom widget, click on the Options menu screen located in the top right of the window to display it.

Hiding Unwanted WordPress Dashboard Widgets

The WordPress dashboard displays multiple widgets that you can easily move by dragging and dropping. To mask them definitively, just add the following lines in the functions.php file:

add_action('wp_dashboard_setup', 'wpc_dashboard_widgets');
function wpc_dashboard_widgets() {
	global $wp_meta_boxes;
	// Today widget
	unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_right_now']);
	// Last comments
	unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_recent_comments']);
	// Incoming links
	unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_incoming_links']);
	// Plugins
	unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_plugins']);
}

You can choose what widgets you’d like to hide. In this case, “Right Now”, “Recent comments”, “Incoming links” and “Plugins” have been removed from your WordPress dashboard. To learn more about this feature, have a look at the codex.

Creating Your Own Custom Admin Color Scheme

If you’re not totally satisfied with the WordPress admin color scheme, this is how you can customize it. All you need to do is create a new CSS stylesheet. In this example, we’ll call it admin.css and place it in a folder entitled/css. Once again, edit the functions.php file and add this snippet:

// Custom WordPress Admin Color Scheme
function admin_css() {
	wp_enqueue_style( 'admin_css', get_template_directory_uri() . '/css/admin.css' );
}
add_action('admin_print_styles', 'admin_css' );

Your admin.css file must contain styles that are compatible with WordPress. Again, I recommend you use Firebug or Web Inspector to identify the right ones.

Conclusion

That’s all folks! I hope you have learned a few good tips to make WordPress act more like a white label CMS. Remember that customization is not just a branding technique, but also a way to boosting your productivity, by increasing user-friendliness.

If you’re not comfortable with PHP, you can make most of these changes with the White Label CMS WordPress plugin. Do you know any other great tips? Share them with us!

(jc)

© Aurélien Denis for Smashing Magazine, 2012.