Semiconducted

Omnigraffle 5.0 - New Features Summary & Tips n Tricks

Preface – some tips on what I’ve come across from playing with Omnigraffle v 5.x., and some other general tips to enhance your productivity.

BIG CHANGES for version 5.x:
Shared Layers
Pros:

• Enables multiple shared layers per canvas
• Can edit any shared layer in place at any time
• These shared layers can be stacked in any order (Master Pages were always behind everything else)
• Old Master Pages are automatically converted into shared layers

Cons:

• Page numbers not shown in canvas list anymore. (They will probably change this due to popular demand.)
• Many layers can get unwieldy
• Selecting layers could be easier – one can select objects on any layer, but will paste within the ‘active’ one, so be mindful to know which layer you are pasting into!
• Layers cannot be collapsed into single ‘layered masters’ like in Visio
• All shared layers must be placed in a canvas, so ‘unused’ master pages from 4.x and earlier templates will not exist if opened in version 5.x.

Faster Tool Access

• Mini inspectors in the ruler area allow for adjusting stroke, fill, drop shadow, dimensions
• Bottom bar inspector allows for easier copying of object styles to other objects.
• Goodbye drawer! Now see Canvas and List view simultaneously
• Can turn “extras” on/off

Others:

• Bezier Lines
• Visio Import (.vsd)
• “Paste and Match Style” for text, e.g. from a copy deck. Just make sure you have the text cursor active.

Tips and Tricks for all versions:

Shapes

• Moving things around – The ‘snap to’ grid allows for easy alignment, but sometimes conflicts with the smart guides. When ‘snap to grid’ is on, arrow keys move objects by one ‘minor grid step’ (e.g. 10 px) while shift-arrow increments in single units (e.g. 1px). With ‘snap to grid’ turned off, this key combination is reversed.
• Select an object, then several more objects to make them all the same size as the first: right click > size > make same <width, height, or size>
• Edit > Shapes to combine shapes into weird shapes or make a shape editable (e.g. make that half-roundy tab you’ve always wanted)

V5 stencil browser

• Now you can search for specific stencils locally or on graffletopia!
• Harder to scale than previous UI; encourages smaller stencils
• Put stencils, templates, etc into their appropriate folders within:
• “/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/OmniGraffle/”

Images

• You can get images into the canvas by ‘file > place image’, dragging it to the canvas, object, or image inspector ‘bucket’. To link to or replace an image, use ‘file > place’ or ‘select image’ from the image inspector.
• To crop; in the image inspector, use ‘natural’ image display and the enhanced scale and shift sliders (previously you had to paint by numbers).

Using outline mode

• The v5 layout engine is easier than before - shech
• Magnets
• Saving styles

Bezier Curves for lines

• There’s a new connector in town and it wackier than ever. Bend it just like you would a freehand shape.

Pasting tips

• Pay attention to the scaling ratios!
• When pasting to new layers / canvases, make sure the last thing you clicked on is the item you are copying. If you click elsewhere on the canvas, the pasted item will appear at those coordinates but always within the ‘active’ layer (the one with the pen icon, not just highlighted).
• Copy as pdf is useful to scale everything at once (text and boxes together) but removes editing ability.
• Resize all, then quick keys to enlarge or shrink text (Cmd/+, Cmd/shift/-)

Multiple Windows

• See the big picture with multiple views at different zoom levels

Behaviors / Presentation Mode

• Clickthrough prototypes can be created by attaching links and visible states to shapes using the ‘actions’ tool.
• You can export these to imagemap-based HTML prototypes, or use them in ‘presentation mode’

Export images for powerpoint etc.

• Suggest PNG, 150 dpi at 100%, then crop using a script in photoshop

Print / canvas size

• You can now select multiple canvases and “print canvas” that way.
• Watch for that little print icon on layers – if it is turned off, that layer will be seen, but won’t print. This is useful for comments or guide layers.
• “Print canvas on one printer sheet” checkbox on canvas size inspector.
• Useful for sitemaps and large canvases. Allows them to display at normal size yet still print out to one page. It works in combination with the “Auto-adjust the canvas size” checkbox, so the canvas will grow to accommodate new content.
• “Size is multiple of printer sheets” checkbox will add a new whole page (and a lot of white space) instead of growing continuously.

Wishlist / Bug Fixes:

• Allow the format painter to work across different layers (am I experiencing a bug here?)
• Manage layer selection better. Objects get accidentally pasted in the different layer than the source object, making it very hard to manage components strewn across many layers.
• Autoselect the layer of the selected object?
• Allow for a keyboard shortcut that doesn’t rely on the Fn key?. I don’t have that key on my bigger apple keyboard, so selecting the layers only with the mouse = pain in the butt.
• Allow one to convert a regular layer to a shared one, or vice versa. This may be a very logical reason for this, but I keep finding the extra copy / paste / realign action a bit tedious.
• Paste in place context menu item! Especially between layers. This sometimes seems to work between canvases, but often pastes everything offset 10×10 px.

My New Favorite iPhone Productivity Apps - SMSNotify, Offline Wikipedia

One of those things that I thought would be built into the iphone that I sorely missed in my old phone - the ability to have the phone periodically remind you of an SMS. The iphone has a relatively quiet ring and not-so-feelable vibrate mode; so I am often unaware that I have missed calls and text messages for hours.

Not anymore!

SMSNotify - vibrates the phone every 15 seconds when you have an unread SMS. One caveat is that it won’t remain active if the iPhone is asleep until email polling triggers.

Need to settle that bar bet?
Offline Wikipedia Reader - download Wikipedia to your iPhone!

Enable Time Machine on a Network Drive

On Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.x), there’s a nifty built-in backup program called “Time Machine”. By default, it only works with drives that are directly connected or connected through an airport extreme. The hack below allows it to at least see network drives, although there is no guarantee that the backup will be successful, depending on the drive format and network.

The steps:

1. Mount your network drive (check step-5 if you are getting error in mounting).

2. Change the preferences by running following command in a terminal window:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

3. Now turn on Time Machine.

4. Select your network drive.

5. If you lose your network mount, you will need to reset your preferences by running the following:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 0

Cultural Drivers Behind Mobile Usage in China

This study includes some interesting cultural observations about mobile usage in China. In recent years, the world’s fastest growing economy has exhibited a decidedly technological bias as urban conventions start to cascade into the rural areas as necessity.

In China, not answering your mobile telephone is considered rude, no matter where you are, whom you are with, the time of day or what activities you are engaged in. And voice mail does not exist. Despite this cultural imperative to be available anytime and anywhere, there is a simple work-around practiced by hundreds of millions of Chinese. Manually removing the telephone battery creates a message to in-coming callers that the telephone’s owner is out of range and thus unable to answer the phone. This regular subversion of the cultural imperative functions as an open secret, even playing a prominent role in a popular 2003 Chinese film called Shouji (”mobile telephone”).
…
Beginning in 1979 out of concern for overpopulation, the Chinese government instituted a one child policy that effectively transformed the composition of the typical family. A massive nation of single children has created unprecedented social effects, with family structures now described as “4-2-1″ referring to four grandparents, two parents, and one child. There has also been much discussion about whether these single children, nicknamed “little emperors”, are stressed from being the sole locus of family concern and aspiration, or spoiled from the attention and indulgence provided by six adults. Without a doubt, both forces shape this unprecedented generation of youth and young adults.

With almost every Chinese person under the age of thirty having no siblings, the implications for communication technologies are clear. From the earliest age, Chinese kids seek peer companionship outside the nuclear family.

http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/china-and-the-next-billion-mobile-customers

Del.icio.us Bookmarks for April 29th through June 12th

• Human Computer Interaction - discussion grou
• Remember everything. | Evernote Corporation
• How to build community: 4 steps to defining a social network with value
• SynchStep (iPhone & iPod Touch) - Greg Elliott
• mobile karaoke - ITP project
• A Summary of User Interface Design Principles
• Information Design Patterns
• Graffletopia - iPhone Wire Frames
• Cell Surfing 2008, by Buongiorno - 2008 qualitative study of 18-34 UK mobile users

Preview of the Android OS

Here is a Google promo video of the Android OS:

Block spam SMS messages on your mobile

Not a new phenomenon, but increasing in prevalence is spam SMS messages, also known as m-spam or SMS spam. I’ve personally not received any, but per a post by David Pogue of the New York Times, here’s how you block them…

* AT&T: Log in at mymessages.wireless.att.com. Under Preferences, you’ll see the text-blocking and alias options. Here’s also where you can block messages from specific e-mail addresses or Web sites.

* Verizon Wireless: Log in at vtext.com. Under Text Messaging, click Preferences. Click Text Blocking. You’re offered choices to block text messages from e-mail or from the Web. Here again, you can block specific addresses or Web sites. (Here’s where you set up your aliases, too.)

* Sprint: No auto-blocking is available at all, but you can block specific phone numbers and addresses. To get started, log in at www.sprint.com. On the top navigation bar, click My Online Tools. Under Communication Tools, click Text Messaging. On the Compose a Text Message page, under Text Messaging Options, click Settings & Preferences. In the text box, you can enter a phone number, email address or domain (such as Comcast.net) that you want to block.

* T-Mobile: T-Mobile doesn’t yet offer a “block text messages from the Internet” option. You can block all messages sent by e-mail, though, or permit only messages sent to your phone’s e-mail address or alias, or create filters that block text messages containing certain phrases. It’s all waiting when you log into www.t-mobile.com and click Communication Tools.

the kids these days…

MIT has release a great set of interesting FREE research reports on the intersection of youth culture and digital media. The following topics contain many more specific articles within.

Topics include:

• Youth, Identity, and Digital Media
• Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media
• Digital Young, Innovation, and the Unexpected
• The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning
• Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility
• Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth

http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/dmal?cookieSet=1

the kids these days…

MIT has release a great set of interesting FREE research reports on the intersection of youth culture and digital media.

Topics include:

• Youth, Identity, and Digital Media
• Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media
• Digital Young, Innovation, and the Unexpected
• The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning
• Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility
• Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth

http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/dmal?cookieSet=1

Enable php 5 on Apache 2 for Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.3

Notice: Mac OSX 10.5.3 Leopard uses Apache 2 and has different file paths from Mac 10.4.11 Tiger (Apache 1). The older instructions for Apache 2 / Mac OS X 10.4.11 are located here:
www.semiconducted.com/diy-tech/2008/enable-php-on-apache-without-modifying-the-default-httpdconf-file.html

————————–

With this method, you can create your own custom file which will override the default Mac Apache 2 server settings without modifying the original httpd.conf file.

Why not just change the httpd.conf file itself?

Well, Apache updates may overwrite this file with a new default if you reinstall and I find consolidating custom changes in one small file is easier to edit and troubleshoot. You may need admin editing permissions to do this.

How to:

1. Be sure web sharing is turned on from the “sharing” control panel in your System Preferences:

2. PHP is not enabled by default, so you need to switch this on. Open your user-specific .conf file located in the “users” directory:
/private/etc/apache2/users/.conf

The main apache config file (httpd.conf) loads its settings then will load any additional config files within the “users” directory.

3. Paste the following code into your config file:
#LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

This can also be copied and pasted from the original config file: /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
or merely de-commented (remove the #) from right there if you want to set that up for all users in one go.

4. That’s it! Save your file, restart web sharing, and you should be good to go.

68 percent of products returned because they do not meet expectations

The report by technology consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture pegs
the costs of consumer electronics returns in 2007 at $13.8 billion in
the United States alone, with return rates ranging from 11 percent to
20 percent, depending on the type of product.

Accenture estimates that 68 percent of returns are products that
work properly but do not meet customers’ expectations for some reason.
“Either they thought it was defective when it wasn’t, or there was an
expectation gap,” says Accenture executive Terry Steger.

Steger believes that the return rates for
functional products would decline significantly if vendors and
retailers in­vested more in making them easier to set up and use, and
in educating buyers.

From:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,146576-c,pcreliabilityservice/article.html

I sense that this is largely due to poor user experience. My personal
experience was with the Samsung Sch-u740. It was a flip phone with a
full querty keyboard. It SMS-texted well and was a decent phone where
it counts. BUT, it boasted many multimedia features which were
completely infuriating to use, when they worked. I won’t go into the minutia, but it seemed hastily built, half-baked, and completely inconsistent - as if <gasp&gt; several different engineering teams built them independently, without any overarching UX guidance.

The power of memes -or- How NOT to pick a slogan for your new business

This may come in handy when trying to convince a client to not follow tired trends. This is from team forty’s post combined with an old one from 37 signals, reorganized by affinity with a few personal additions of my own.

Point. Click. Play. - Toys ‘r Us
Point. Click. Rent. - Apartmentguide.Com
Point. Click. Bank. - Usabancshares.Com
Point. Click. Close. - Salesforce.Com
Point, Click, Purchase. - Qpass.Com
Create. Share. Change The World. - Connect2Earth
Create. Share. Sell. - Hurox
Create. Share. Earn. - Open4
Create. Share. Discover. Connect. - Fraxi
Create. Share. Connect. - Factory Joe
Create. Connect. Share. - Matecube
Create. Vote. Share. - Twiigs
Create. Send. Share. - Mplix
Create. Attract. Engage. Connect - TM2
Create. Organize. Share. Connect. - Blist
Connect. Share. Live. - Kijig
Connect. Share. Care. - Uphs
Connect. Share. Grow. - Annese
Connect. Attract. Engage. - Xuropa
Connect. Engage. Innovate. - I-Open
Share. Connect. Grow. - 4marks
Share. Connect. Grow. Act. - Get Real
Share. Learn. Connect. Make A Difference. - Care2
Play. Create. Share. - Yuva
Play. Share. Connect. - Psc Site
Engage. Learn. Connect. - Teachtown
Dream. Create. Share. - Pod Collective
Think. Engage. Connect. - Opb
Experience. Share. Connect. - Geotract
Discover. Share. Connect. Discuss. - Infoaddict
Express. Share. Connect. Enjoy. - Gapuchi
Remember. Share. Connect. - Memoloop
Watch. Listen. Share. Connect. - Ruckus Network
Print. Create. Share. - HP Dp
Shop. Earn. Invest. - Stockback.Com
Gear. Insight. Performance. - Mvp.Com
Beauty. Inspiration. Shopping. - Gloss.Com
Inspiration. Imagination. Innovation. - Paper Chase
See. Look. Focus. - Ford Focus
Physical. Emotional. Complete. - Catchow.Com
Find It. Buy It. Live It. - Optimum Store
We’ve Got It. Online. Anytime. - Sports & Rec

For me, the best part of the 37 signals post is the icon. It is unsettlingly like a company I worked for during the dot-com heyday.

Compare the parody:

http://www.37signals.com/enormicom/index.html

To the real thing (set inside a TV tube graphic):

http://damonhamm.com/oldsite/video.html

Creepy…

- Damon

13 Tips for creating a successful new online product

13 Tips for creating a successful new online product
http://www.inter-sections.net/2008/05/07/13-tips-for-creating-a-successful-new-online-product/

Summary:

What to build
1. Build for someone specific
2. Don’t be afraid of targeting a narrow niche
3. Solve a real problem that costs money
4. Test the market with a working prototype as soon as possible
5. Develop iteratively
6. Get things right, and be decisive in correcting the wrongs
7. Don’t spend the time correcting until you know what you’re aiming for
8. Don’t let your programmers design the user interface

Who to build it with
9. Make sure every member of the development team is passionate about the product
10. Be sickeningly elitist about your development team and sickeningly inclusive about your users
11. The best hiring strategy is to hire no one
12. Include at least one target user on the development team
13. Ensure everyone on your development team understands the problem they’re solving
Conclusion and Bonus Tip: Break any and all of these rules rather than do something stupid

Wordpress Error 404 when modifying permalinks

While recently modifying Wordpress 2.5.1 to use the pretty permalink structure using the WP control panel has resulted in a “Error 404 - Not Found”.

I followed the instructions at the Wp codex here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks
with no luck.

The answer was hiding here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory

Not as easy or straightforward as I would have hoped, but I discovered an oversight when I installed the blog originally. I had created my own html redirect page for the root of this site which was causing some conflict with the way permalinks was supposed to function.

The proper way to handle this is to copy the .htaccess and index.php files from the install directory to the root.

Then you modify the following line of code to match your install directory.
require(’./blog/wp-blog-header.php’);

(replace the word ‘blog’ with your URL)

Also, here is a WordPress permalink migration utility to create any redirect pages you may need for the old URLs:
http://www.deanlee.cn/wordpress/permalinks-migration-plugin/

Simplicity versus features and the paralyzing trade offs

Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, Speaks about a study where people were asked to lower the price of a car with less safety features to make it equivalent in value as a more expensive car with more safety features.

“Since the alternatives were equivalent, you might expect that about half the people would choose the safer, more expensive car and half would choose the less safe, cheaper car. But that is not what the researchers found. Most participants chose the safer, more expensive car. When forced to choose, most people refused to trade safety for price. They acted as if the importance of safety to their decision was so great that price was essentially irrelevant…

Even though their decision was purely hypothetical, participants experienced substantial negative emotion when choosing between Cars A and B. And if the experimental procedure gave them the opportunity, they refused to make the decision at all. So the researchers concluded that being forced to confront trade-offs in making decisions makes people unhappy and indecisive…

Confronting any trade-off, it seems, is incredibly unsettling. And as the available alternatives increase, the extent to which choices will require trade-offs will increase as well.”

And in his post: http://www.uie.com/articles/simplicity/
Joshua Porter extrapolates to other products:

“Users face a trade-off when they must make a choice between a simple product or a complex product with more features. If they choose the product with fewer features and eventually need some functionality that is missing, they’ve made a bad choice.
…

Instead of focusing on adding features, design teams should focus on helping users find out what they really need before they purchase. When design teams understand that buyers want to avoid trade-offs, they can use this insight to their advantage.”