Interface Design Trends for 2009

As time goes by, designers keep on improving interfaces for better user-experience. In this article, we try to single out some interface design trends going on in 2009.

Multi-touch everywhere

The rise of the iPhone made the multi-touch technology very popular. Now many devices are using it: MP3 players, GPS devices, laptops,… This brings much more intuitive interfaces, making it so easy that even one year old children can use it. In 2009 we will for sure see new multi-touch devices appear.

Web applications get out of the browser

Mac OS X or Yahoo Widgets have already gotten the internet out of the browser for quite a while, but the trend is getting bigger. Think of Twitter and Twhirl, and you’ll get a good example of how a website’s usability can be improved by taking it to an independent interface. Many external apps now support web services like Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed or Seesmic, will we see smaller websites getting out of the browser in 2009?

New controllers for improved usability

The Wiimote and the Logitech MX Air mouse are good examples of the way our interaction with interfaces will be changed through new intuitive navigational controllers. Removing the wires to the mouse was a first step towards more freedom of movement, being able to handle it in the air is a second step. The gaming industry has already been revolutionized by it, professional usage should be next.

Buttons go away for minimalist designs

The new iPod Shuffle recently stirred up controversy because it was considered too minimalist. The product is really easy to use, but some would argue that it loses functionality by over-simplifying the design. Another great example of simple minimalist interface would be Mino, the coolest video camcorder.

The trend of minimalist designs doesn’t only apply to products design, but also to web design with grid-based designs getting popular. In every aspect of design, the ease-of-use becomes the ultimate goal.

The mobile Web gets bigger, interfaces get smaller

The mobile Web has been trying to develop for a few years without being able to extend its reach. The first iPhone came out in 2007, it was a huge success from the start with its revolutionary multi-touch interface. However, the iPhone’s potential really expands with the release of the iPhone 3G and the App store. Over 20′000 apps are now available in the store, and this number keeps growing, giving mobile design more importance everyday.

With Safari for the iPhone, Apple’s mobile device has also popularized mobile browsing. Many major websites have created a mobile version just because of the iPhone. Other mobile phones constructors have also been forced to improve the usability of their phones and to make their devices more attractive.

Blog engines and CMS are also starting to release plugins to make it easier to publish for the mobile web. For Wordpress, you can try the iWPhone WordPress plugin and theme or the WordPress PDA & iPhone plugin.

7 Totally Unique Flickr Search Tools

Sometimes it’s simply overwhelming how many gorgeous photos there are on Flickr () - sifting through them to find a picture to use on your blog or to just admire can be a chore. Luckily for us however, Flickr has an API, meaning that some creative developers have built alternative Flickr search engines.

Whether you’re just looking for a more feature-rich version of Flickr search or want to perform search in a completely different way, these seven Flickr search tools will serve you in finding that perfect photo.

Do you have a favorite Flickr search tool? Be sure to share it with us in the comments.

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1. Compfight

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Compfight is a visual Flickr search tool that displays searched photos based on tags or text. Beyond showing you pictures that match your search, the other cool thing about compfight is that it makes it dead simple to search for creative commons pictures that you can use for your blog. It’s a simple and fast-loading interface for Flickr searches.

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2. Flickr Color Selector

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Are you looking for cool pictures, but you really need them to match your website’s color scheme? Flickr Color Selectr searches through images on the popular photos site by differentiating by color. Just pick your color on the RGB chart.

Note: this search engine is partially in Japanese, but it doesn’t impede you from using this particular tool.

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3. FlickrBabel

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FlickrBabel is a mash-up of Flickr search and Google Translate. If you find a cool image but can’t understand the underlying text, FlickrBabel uses Google () translate to interpret the message. It also supports location-based searches. Heck, FlickrBabel even has its own Twitter account

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4. FlickrStorm

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The Flickr search engine is smart, but it isn’t perfect when you’re looking for photos related to a topic? FlickrStorm comes to the rescue. FlickrStorm divides search into multiple columns and suggests search refinements with additional related keywords.

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5. Picishare

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If you’re just looking for a straight-up alternative to Flickr search, then PiciShare may be one to look at. It has all of the meat - tag search, relevance, whether it’s “interesting”, and more. It also allows you to limit the number of photos that appear if you’re on a slow web connection.

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6. Flickrriver

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Flickrriver is a search tool that focuses on recent and interesting pictures - specifically ones uploaded in the last day or two.

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7. Tag Galaxy

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I can’t even explain to you how “out there” Tag Galaxy is as a Flickr search engine. It represents Flickr tags as the solar system. The keyword you use is the sun, related keywords are planets, clicking on any shows you a planet full of pictures. It is, by far, the most dynamic way to search Flickr.

10 ways to Supercharge Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer has been designed to make real-world web browsing easier, and it's packed with useful features such as easy web searching, one-click access to Windows Live services and Web Slices to keep on top of your favourite sites. But it's capable of even more.

There's a huge range of accelerators, add-ons and toolbars that make Internet Explorer 8 even more useful. From social networking to shopping, document handling to downloading, these ten add-ons mean much better browsing. They're all free, and you'll find all ten - and many more - at www.ieaddons.com.

1. Research and shop for products

You know that shopping online can save you a packet, but how do you find the best deals - and make sure the product you're looking at is worth the cash? The Research and Shop For Products accelerator enables you to highlight a product name and look it up on the shopping engine Ciao!, which features unbiased user reviews and a constantly updated list of the best online prices.

2. Access your bookmarks anywhere

Foxmarks was about to change its name to Xmarks as we went to press, but no matter what it's called it's still very handy. The add-on stores your Favorites on the Internet, which means you can access them from any internet-enabled computer that you install Foxmarks on. It's particularly useful if you tend to use shared computers, if you have multiple PCs at home or if you'd like to use the same Favorites at home and at work.

3. Login quicker

One of the more annoying things on the Internet is when sites demand you register just so you can read an article or forum post. If you'd rather not hand over your details, BugMeNot can provide usernames and passwords that should let you in.

4. Get Facebook on your toolbar

You can use Web Slices to stay up to date with your Facebook friends' status updates, but the OneRiot toolbar takes things a step further by adding notification buttons below the Address Bar. These enable you to visit the various bits of Facebook (Home, Profile, Friends and so on) but more usefully they also let you see when somebody's sent you a friend request, whether you've any new messages in your inbox or whether anybody's tagged you in a photo. A version for MySpace is also available.

5. Get connetced

If like us you're on loads of different social networks, Yoono can save you a great deal of time and effort. In much the same way that multi-chat software enables you to connect to different instant messaging services simultaneously, Yoono can connect you to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and FriendFeed, as well as AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, MSN Messenger and Yahoo. You can also share content with other Yoono users, for example by tagging web pages with "like" or "hate".

6. Book a holiday

Booking a holiday? Save yourself a lot of time, money and heartbreak by using this accelerator to look up resort or hotel names on TripAdvisor, where holidaymakers and travellers tell the truth about the places they've stayed - good and bad.

7. Define anything

If you've ever encountered an acronym and wondered what on Earth it meant, the Define Acronym accelerator will make your online life much more comprehensible. Simply highlight the acronym, select the accelerator and see definitions from the fields of IT, government, science, business and even slang.

8. Make the web sexy

Ever wished the Internet looked more like it does in Hollywood movies? With Cooliris, it does. Once you've installed the browser add-on it's just a matter of carrying out a web search at www.cooliris.com - but instead of text links, you'll see a wall of images that you can sweep through, zoom in and generally muck about with. It's fascinating, gorgeous and makes us feel that we're living in the future.

9. Go Pro

Don't let the number seven fool you: most of IE7Pro's features already work in Internet Explorer 8, and the program's next incarnation will be called IEPro to reflect that. As we went to press you needed to manually Enable IE7Pro from Internet Explorer's Manage Add-ons screen, but that should be fixed by the time you read this. So is it worth it? Oh yes. IE7Pro blocks adverts, enables you to navigate the Web by waggling your mouse and provides handy features such as closing tabs by double-clicking on them.

10. Search visually

If you're a shopping addict on a tight budget, ASOS.com's search plugin will be right up your street. Simply use the arrow in the Search box to select ASOS, type in the kind of item you're looking for, and you'll see stacks of results including pictures and prices. It's a simple and very useful tool, so expect lots of other retailers to offer similar search tools for their own shops.

10 things to put on your web design to-do list

Web design is a competitive business and a good designer needs to stay on top of current trends.

So what do you need to be doing to stay ahead of the game over the next few months?

We asked designers from some of the top agencies what they reckon should be on every designer's to-do list.

Here are the 10 things you need to work on...

1. Understand the smaller screen
Tom Dougherty of Delete says: "Industry professionals must be aware of mobile technology and the integration capabilities offered. iPhone represents the future of mobile tech. The quicker we get to grips with designing for the smaller screen, the better."

2. Teach yourself new skills
Cennydd Bowles of Clearleft says: "If you can't already, learn to code – this is your last chance to avoid obsolescence!" Eric Meyer adds: "Continue to learn and diversify skills. Diversity doesn't assure your survival, but it's a safer bet than narrow specialisation."

3. Practice good typography
Simon Crab of Lateral says: "Type is one of the fundamentals of design, yet it's a factor that's often overlooked or marginalised in the online environment. Starting from a typographic point of view helps define a clear structure and purpose in a design."

4. Focus on what's important
Jeffrey Zeldman of Happy Cog says: "Standards will cause designers and agencies to focus on content, usability, user experience and design excellence. Those already focusing on these will work harder and rise to the top. Those who haven't will need to get in gear."

5. Investigate frameworks
Danny McClelland of DannyWeb says: "With the use of ready-made coding libraries, more time can be spent on other things and keeping your clients happy. For example, there's absolutely no sense in making a similar application to WordPress from scratch."

6. Continue innovating
Eric Jordan of 2Advanced says: "Stagnancy breeds mediocrity, and no one wants mediocrity. Re-invention enables designers to stay relevant, on the cutting-edge and fresh in the minds of the industry. Those who don't will fall behind."

7. Diversify your client base
Marcus Greenwood of Webjam.com says: "In the current climate, a company's web budget may be reduced or cut, leaving you in a spot of bother if this happens to your main client." Diversifying your capabilities means you can appeal to a wider client base.

8. Think 'refurb', not 'relaunch'
Marc Peter of on-IDLE says: "Support clients in their time of need with ideas for revamping existing designs rather than full-scale new designs that affect everything from corporate literature to signage. Keeping costs low could help you to grow."

9. Master JavaScript
Eric Meyer of Complex Spiral Consulting says: "JavaScript performance and capabilities, coupled with support, will be key to nearly everything, including pushing web standards' adoption rates forward. Everything else is just secondary."

10. Bring about catharsis
Paul Annett of Clearleft says: "Campaign for Adobe to align prices globally and stop ripping off customers. Prices outside the US are often doubled, even on downloads, an issue that's drawn fierce criticism on the Adobe forum at http://tr.im/adobe."

How to Manage Writing for Multiple Blogs

Many people who are attempting to either make a living online or simply just trying to enhance or add to their income online have turned to blogging. There is a lot of information out there on how to make money blogging. It is difficult to make significant money from running one blog, especially right after starting up. Whether the money that comes in is from paid blog posts, link sales, or any other source, one of the ways to make money online faster is to run multiple blogs. The problem with operating multiple blogs is, no matter how many you wish to run, coming up with quality content for each of them at a fast enough rate that they will also continue to be frequently updated.

A great writing strategy when you are writing for multiple blogs is to write ahead of time. While some people find it time consuming and difficult to switch from one topic to the next while writing for multiple blogs, a successful strategy might be to concentrate on just one blog each day. For example, start writing for blog number one on Monday. During the course of the day you can explore different aspects of the niche or subject you are writing about and hopefully come up with four or five good posts. When Tuesday comes, start writing for blog number two in virtually the same way. When Wednesday comes, follow the same process and do the same for Thursday and Friday depending on how many blogs you have.

While you are doing this, you are accumulating blog posts that can be published at future dates. Yours might be the type of blog that gets updated daily or maybe three or four days a week, if that is the case then you have your posts already written. Now you can either keep them saved in a file on your computer and copy and paste them in each day, or if you are using Wordpress there is another option. When using Wordpress, you can save the posts as you write them and change the post date and time so that it will just appear on the day and time you want it to. Using this method, you could write a months worth of posts, changing the posts dates so that they will come out naturally over the course of the next thirty days. You could essentially take a vacation and no one reading your blog would be any wiser.

Writing for multiple blogs is a sometimes daunting task. But using time delayed posts and pre-written content can make it a lot easier as well as more efficient. In doing so you can multiply the amount of money you make with each new blog you start and monetize. In the end whatever method works best for you will work best for your blogs.