This is Part 2 of the series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches.

What if someone copies your awesome business idea? About twenty people on Answers OnStartups have asked this question in one form or another: When I meet an angel investor, he may ask: "What if a big company copies your idea and develops the same website as yours after your website goes public?" How can I answer this question? No, the question is: What are doing now knowing that a big company will copy your idea? No, wait, the real question is: What are you going to do when another smart, scrappy startup copies it, and gets $10m in funding, and is thrice featured on TechCrunch? No, wait, I'm sorry, the real question is: What are you going to do when there are four totally free, open-source competitors? No wait, I forgot, actually the question is: What happens when employee #2 makes off with your code and roadmap and marketing data and customer list, moves to Bolivia, and starts selling your stuff world-wide at one-tenth the price? The good news: There are good answers to these questions! The bad news: Almost no one I talk to has good answers, but they think they do. And that's fatal, because it means they're not working towards remedying that situation. Which means when one of the above scenarios happens, it will be too late. The first step is admitting you have a problem. Last week I detailed the most common misconceptions about competitive advantages, so go read that if you haven't already. To summarize: Anything that can be copied will be copied, including features, marketing copy, and pricing. Anything you read on popular blogs is also read by everyone else. You don't have an "edge" just because you're passionate, hard-working, or "lean." The only real competitive advantage is that which cannot be copied and cannot be bought. Like what? Insider information They say the only way to consistently make money on Wall Street is to have insider information. Unfortunately it's not a joke, and although it's illegal (and people occasionally go to jail for it), those in the know will tell you it's the norm.

Fortunately, using intimate knowledge of an industry and the specific pain points within an industry is a perfectly legal unfair advantage for a startup. Here's a real-world example of how this advantage manifests. Adriana has been a psychiatrist for 10 years; she understands the ins and outs of that business. During a lull in her practice she got a serendipitous opportunity to shift gears completely and ended up leading software product development teams.  (Turns out that for big-business project management it's more valuable to be a sensible thinker and counselor than to be an expert in debugging legacy C++ code.) Now Adriana has an epiphany: Traditional practice-management software for psychiatrists totally sucks; she knows both the pain points and the existing software first-hand. But now she has the vision and ability to design her own software, capitalizing on modern trends (e.g. a web application instead of cumbersome installed applications) and new interpretations of HIPPA regulation (which allows web-based applications to store medical records like patient histories). Adriana holds a unique position: Expert in the industry, able to "geek out" with her target customer, yet capable of leading a product team. Even if someone else saw Adriana's product after the fact, it's almost impossible to find a person — or even assemble a team — who has more integrated knowledge. At best, they could copy. Of course by then Alicia has moved on to version two. Single-minded, uncompromising obsession with One Thing A popular comment on the previous post was that a "Unique Feature" could be a competitive advantage in some circumstances. Some examples of a feature being a company's primary advantage are:

Apple compromises everything in the name of design. Their products are over-priced, buggy, lacking features, and every experience I've had with their tech support has been atrocious, but man their stuff looks and feels nice! (I'm typing this on an Air and there's an iPhone in my pocket, so no Apple fan-boy mail please.) Google's search algorithm was just better, therefore they won the eyeballs, therefore they were able to monetize. Sure Bing and Yahoo are good now, but the advantage lasted long enough. Photodex is a little company you've never heard of I worked for in Austin in the 90's. We made an image browser with thumbnail previews so you didn't have to open each file individually to see what it was. (In the 90's, y'all, before that was built into all the operating systems!) Our advantage was speed. Not the best, not the most stable, didn't read the most formats, didn't have the most features, just "fastest." For many users of that product, speed wins; Photodex now makes tens of millions of dollars a year, and "speed" is still the only point on which they will not compromise.

However it's not enough for a feature to merely be unique (like my mini-browser) because it's still easily duplicated. Indeed, most of the innovations we've made at Smart Bear in the art of code review have already been duplicated by both commercial and open-source competitors. Rather, this requires unwavering devotion to the One Thing that is (a) hard, and (b) you refuse to lose, no matter what. Google has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their search algorithm, the single biggest focus of the company even today, a decade after they decided that was their One Thing. They refuse to be beaten by competitors or black-hat hackers, whatever it takes. 37signals can build simple — almost trivial — software and earn three million customers because they absolutely will not compromise on their philosophy of simplicity, transparency, and owning their own company, and that's something millions of people respect and support. Competitors could build trivial web applications too (as Joel Spolsky is fond of saying, "Their software is just a bunch of text fields!"), but without the single-minded obsession it's just software with no features. To remain un-copyable, your One Thing needs to be not just central to your existence, but also difficult to achieve. Google's algorithm, combined with the hardware and software to implement a search of trillions of websites in 0.2 seconds, is hard to replicate; it took hundreds (thousands?) of really smart people at Microsoft and Yahoo years to catch up. 37signals' ranting platform — a blog with 131k followers and a best-selling book — is nearly impossible to build even with a full-time army of insightful writers. "Being hard to do" is still a true advantage, particularly when you devote your primary energy to it. P.S. For more, here are detailed examples of how this mindset also sets up your sales pitch. Personal authority Chris Brogan commands $22,000 for a single day of consulting in an industry (social media marketing) where all the information you need is already online and free. Joel Spolsky makes millions of dollars off bug tracking — an industry with hundreds of competitors and little innovation. My company Smart Bear sells the most expensive tool of its kind. How did we earn this powerful authority, and how can you earn this overwhelming advantage? I'm a great example of someone who wasn't an authority on anything, but built that authority over time to the point where now my company (Smart Bear) is untouchable as the leader in both revenue and ideas in the area of peer code review. Not only was I not an expert on code review prior to building a code review tool, I wasn't even an expert on software development processes generally! I didn't give lectures, I didn't have a blog, I didn't have a column in Dr. Dobbs magazine, and most interesting of all, I didn't even know "code review" was going to be what made the company successful! Unfortunately all this "authority" crap takes years of expensive effort, and even then success is probably due as much to luck as anything else, so is it worthwhile? Yes, exactly because it takes years of effort and a little luck. Authority cannot be purchased. You can't raise VC money and then "have authority" in a year. A big company cannot just decide they want to be the thought-leaders in their field. Even a pack of hyper-intelligent geeks cannot automatically become authorities because it's not about how well you can code. But how does authority convert to revenue? Here's one tiny example: I give talks on peer code review at conferences. My competition pays thousands of dollars for a booth, then spends thousands advertising to attendees begging them to come to that booth, then gives sales pitches at the booth to uninterested passersby who are also being bombarded by other pitches and distracted by the general hubbub. Whereas, because I'm a known authority on code review and software development, I get to talk for an entire hour to a captive, undistracted group of 100 people, self-selected as interested in code review. After the talk typically 5-20 people want to chat one-on-one. Some head straight to the booth to get a demo; for many I give a private demo of the product on sofas in the hallway. It's not unusual to get $10,000-$50,000 in sales over the next three months from people who saw me at that talk. That's just one example!  Now add to that: What's the effect of a blog that tens of thousands of people read? What's the effect on sales of my writing the book that's the modern authority of code review? Authority is expensive and time-consuming to earn, no doubt. But it's also an overwhelming, untouchable competitive advantage. (P.S. I'm hoping that the authority I'm slowly earning from this blog will help when I launch my next venture. That's not why I blog, but I certainly will leverage it when the time comes!) (P.P.S. I apologize for blatantly abusing the word "authority," considering I just lambasted everyone who does things like that.) The Dream Team The tech startup world is littered with famous killer teams: Gates & Allen, Steve & Steve, Page & Brin, Fried & DHH. In each case, the founders were super-smart, had complimentary skill sets, worked together well (or well enough to get to important success milestones), and as a team represented a unique, powerful, and (in retrospect) unstoppable force. Of course that's easy to see in retrospect, and retrospect is a terrible teacher, but the principle can work for any startup, especially when your goals are more modest than being the next Google. Take the success of ITWatchDogs, the company I helped bootstrap and eventually sell (before Smart Bear). The elements of our Dream Team were obvious from the start:

Varied skillsets. One experienced startup/business/salesman (Gerry), one proven software developer (me), one proven hardware developer (Michael). Common vision. We agreed what the product ought to be and that the ultimate goal of the company was to sell it. Insider knowledge. Gerry had done another successful startup in the same space, I had deep experience with the language and tools for embedded software, and Michael had decades of experience building inexpensive circuits and processors.

Of course a Dream Team doesn't guarantee success but it significantly reduces the risk of the startup, and furthermore is difficult for the competition to duplicate. This is especially true when someone on the team is already successful in their field, e.g. with a massively successful blog or a big startup success under their belt or a ridiculous rolodex. Since those are the kinds of competitive advantages that can't be bought or consistently created, having that person on the team is by proxy a killer advantage. P.S. This is the primary competitive advantage in a new startup I'm working on right now (to be announced soon), so shortly you'll see another example of this theory and — better yet! — you and I both will witness over the subsequent months whether or not this really resulted in a killer advantage! (Yes of course I'll share details!) (The right) Celebrity endorsement Hiten Shah's third company is KISSMetrics. On the surface, it's yet another "marketing metrics" company. This is a crowded, mature market with hundreds of competitors in every combination of large/small, expensive/mid/cheap/free, and product/service/hybrid. But Hiten has something none of those competitors has: Investors and mentors who are celebrities in exactly the market he's targeting. Folks like Dave McClure, Sean Ellis, and Eric Ries, all of whom not only help via conference call but actively promote KISSMetrics on their blogs, Twitter, and personal appearances. How much advertising will it take for competitors to overcome Hiten's endorsements and exposure?  Even if a competitor also wanted celebrity endorsement, these guys are taken, and in any field there's a limited number of widely-known and respected authorities. Many competitors have more features than KISSMetrics has. I can see the sales pitch now... The customer objects: "Gee it would be nice to have all those features," and Hiten responds "Well not really, because Dave, Sean, and Eric all say that those features are actually distractions and don't add to your bottom line. Our features are the right ones, as evidenced by these 20 companies that have shown increases in revenue." Just on the basis of these advisors, Hiten will get hundreds if not thousands of customers. You can't buy that kind of jumpstart, not even for millions of dollars, because it's not about faceless leads who saw KISSMetrics in an ad, it's people who trust Hiten because of his association with other people they already trust. P.S. If you're raising money, investors love to see a co-founder or even just an advisor who has been successful before. The VC game is more lemming-like than most care to admit. Existing customers ...or as Frank Rizzo says: Open your ears, jackass! Everyone you've ever sold to (and those who trialed but abandoned) possess the most valuable market research imaginable, and it's the one thing a new competitor absolutely will not have. This is kind of a cheat, because everyone says "I listen to my customers," which (nowadays) is just as bullshit as "We're passionate," but it's true that if you're actively learning from your customers and you never stop moving, creating, innovating, and learning, that puts you ahead of most companies in the world. As a company becomes successful it gains momentum, which means that it's going in one direction with one philosophy. Like physical momentum, change becomes harder to affect. It's logical; for example at Smart Bear we have 35,000 users, so making a drastic change to the user interface or typical workflow would mean too much retraining, even if the end result is better. Even "cool, agile" companies like 37signals are trapped. They've been so clear and confident in their philosophy of "do less," they cannot go after markets where "less" is not more but, actually, just less. For example, with more than a few sales people in a traditional sales organization it's impossible to use Highrise — the folks-of-many-signal believe pipeline reports and geographic domains and integrated campaign management are unnecessary complications, but actually it's Highrise that is unnecessary. Of course the world is changing, and in particular your customers are changing. Normally this leaves room for the next competitor, but if you're already entrenched you can leverage your existing status, insider knowledge, and revenue stream as long as you're willing to change too. You have more money, you're better known, you have existing happy customers to help spread the word, you have employees to build new things, and you have more experience with what customers actually do and actually need, which means you should have the best insight. Any new competitor would kill for just one of these advantages. If you're not using them, how silly is that? Zoho made exactly this argument to explain why they're not terribly worried that Microsoft is now a direct competitor: Companies don't get killed by competition, they usually find creative ways to commit suicide. Office 2010 will be the end of Zoho, if we stop innovating, stop being nimble and flexible in our business model. Then again, if we stop all that, Zoho will die anyway, no Office 2010 needed to do the job. 37signals is trapped inside their self-imposed philosophy, but you don't have to be. Go git 'em Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but it's still sucks when someone does it to you. Of course you can still battle it out in the marketplace, but you need something that can't be duplicated, something they could never beat you on, then hang your hat on that and don't look back. Don't despair if you don't have an unfair advantage yet. I didn't either when I started Smart Bear! But I built toward having some, and eventually earned it. What else? What other competitive advantages can't be easily copied, or if they are copied it doesn't matter? Leave a comment and join the conversation.

I remember "disruptive" when it was called "paradigm shift." That phrase died during the tech-bubble along with "portal" and "think outside the box," yet the concept has returned. Don't follow along.

When I get pitched — usually by someone raising money — that they "have something disruptive," a little part of me dies. You should be worrying about making something useful, not how disruptive you can be. "Disruptive" is the in-vogue word for the opposite of "incremental improvement." A disruptive product causes such a large market shift that entire companies collapse (the ones who don't "get it") and new markets appear. Disruptive is fascinating, disruptive changes the world, disruptive makes us think. Disruptive also sometimes generates billions of dollars, which is why venture capitalists have always loved it and always will. But disruptive is rare and usually expensive. It's hard to think of disruptive technologies or products that didn't take many millions of dollars to implement. Most of us don't have access to those resources, and many of us don't care, because we'd rather work on an idea we actually understand and can build ourselves, an idea that might make us a living and be useful to people. There's nothing wrong with incremental improvement. What's wrong with doing something interesting, useful, new, but not transcendental? What's wrong with taking a known problem with a known market and just doing it better or with a fresh perspective or with a modern approach? Do you have you create a new market and turn everyone's assumptions upside down to be successful? Should you? I'm not so sure. Here's my argument: 1.  It's hard to explain the benefits of disruption. Have you tried to explain Twitter someone? Not the "140 characters" part — the part about why it's a fundamental shift in how you meet and interact with people? Hasn't the listener always responded by saying, "I don't need to know what everyone had for lunch. Who cares? What's next, 'I'm taking a dump?'" They don't get it, right? But it's hard to explain. There are ways to elucidate the utility of Twitter, but even the good ones are lengthy and require listeners with patience and open minds — two attributes in short supply. "It's hard to explain" should not be a standard part of your sales pitch. "You just need to try it" and "trust me" don't cut it. That may be OK for Twitter — today — but what about the 100 other social-networking-slash-link-sharing networks that didn't survive? Ask them about selling intangible benefits. 2.  It's hard to sell disruption, because people don't want to be disrupted. If you're reading this you're probably more open to new ideas and new products than most, because you're inventing a new product, starting a company, or you're just ruffled because I'm pissing on "disruptive" and you're looking for nit-picky things to argue with me about. But most people are creatures of habit. They don't want their lives turned upside down. They launch into a tirade of obscenities if you just rearrange their toolbar. When they hear about a new social media craze they cringe in agony, desperately hoping it's a passing fad and not another new goddamn thing they'll be aimlessly paddling around in for the next decade. Change is hard, so a person has to be experiencing real pain to want change. Selling a point-solution for a point-problem is easier than getting people to change how they live their lives. Identifying specific pain points and explaining how your software addresses those is easier than trying to tap into a general malaise and promising a better world. 3.  Most technology we now consider "disruptive" wasn't conceived that way. Google was the 11th major search engine, not the first. Their technology proved superior, but "a better search engine" was hardly a new idea. In retrospect we say that Google transformed how people find information, and further, how advertising works on the Internet. Disruptive in hindsight, sure, but the genesis was just "incrementally better" than the 10 search engines that came before.  (Or 18.) Scott Berkun gives several other examples in a recent BusinessWeek article. He highlights the iPod — an awesome device, but not the first of its kind. Rather, there were a bunch of crappy devices that sold well enough to prove there was a market, but no clear winners. Here an innovation in design alone was enough to win the market. Not inventing new markets, not innovative features, not even improving on existing features like sound quality or battery life — just a better design, unconcerned about "disrupting" anything else. Setting your sights on being disruptive isn't how quality, sustainable companies are built. Disruption, like expertise, is a side-effect of great success, not a goal unto itself. 4.  The disruptors often don't make the money. The construction of high-speed Internet fiber backbones and extravagant data centers fundamentally changed how business is conducted world-wide both between businesses and consumers, but many of the companies who built that system went bankrupt during the 2000 tech bubble, and those who managed to survive have still not recovered the cost of that infrastructure. They were the disruptors, but they didn't profit from the disruption. Disruptive technology often comes from research groups commissioned to produce innovative ideas but unable to capitalize on them. Xerox PARC invented the fax machine, the mouse, Ethernet, laser printers, and the concept of a "windowing" user interface, but made no money on the inventions. AT&T Bell Labs invented Unix, the C programming language, wireless Ethernet, and the laser, but made no money on the inventions. Is it because disruptors are "before their time," able to create but not able to hold out long enough for others to appreciate the innovation? Is it because innovation and business sense are decoupled? Is it because "version 1" of anything is inferior to "version 3," and by the time the innovator makes it to version 2 there are new competitors — competitors who don't bare the expense of having invented version 1, who have silently observed the failures of version 1, and can now jump right to version 3? "Why" is an interesting question, but the bottom line is clear: Disruption is rarely profitable. 5.  Simple, modest goals are most likely to succeed, and most likely to make us happy. It's not "aiming low" to attempt modest success. It's not failure if you "just" make a nice living for yourself. Changing the world is noble, but you're more likely to change it if you don't try to change everything at once. I made millions of dollars at Smart Bear with a product that took an existing practice (peer code review) and solved five specific pain points (annoyances and time-wasters). Sure it wasn't worth a hundred million dollars, and it didn't turn anyone's world inside-out, but it enjoys a nice place in the world and it is incredibly fulfilling to see people happier to do their jobs with our product than without it. Had I tried to fundamentally change how everyone writes software, I'm sure I would have failed. I made less money personally at ITWatchDogs, but the company was profitable and sold for millions of dollars. We took a simple problem (when server rooms get hot, the gear fails) and provided a simple solution (thermometer with a web page that emails/pages you if it's too hot). There were many competitors, both huge (APC with $1.5 billion market cap), mid-sized (NetBotz with millions in revenue and funding), and small (sub-$1m operations like us). We had something unique — an inexpensive product that still had 80% of the features of the big boys — but nothing disruptive. Had we tried to fundamentally change how IT departments monitor server rooms, I'm sure we would have failed. There's nothing wrong with modesty. Modest in what you consider "success," and modest in what you're trying to achieve every day: My daughter convinced me that insisting something be Deeply Meaningful With Purpose can sometimes suck the joy from it.  --Kathy Sierra Of course it's wonderful that disruptive products exist, improving life in quantum leaps. And it's not wrong to pursue such things! But neither is it wrong to have more modest goals, and modest goals are much more likely to be achieved. You must have your own thoughts on this subject! Leave a comment and let's continue the conversation.

Nothing clarifies things quite like a hyperactive, all-knowing, all-seeing, real asshole of a devil's advocate beating the living crap out of you. (Cartoon by Andertoons)

Baseball players swing heavy bats before going up to the plate; acclimating to difficult working conditions makes it easier to hit the ball out of the park. What's the equivalent of the heavy bat for honing your skills at pitching your product and raising money for your company? For years I've been a fan of Scott Berkun's concept of Rude Q&A: What would the meanest, nastiest, but smartest people in the world grill you on when you show your work? A Rude Q&A is a list of questions [about your work that] you don't want to hear. When you're contemplating an exciting new idea, you don't want to hear questions that might contradict your concept. And of course, that's exactly when you need the biggest, baddest, smartest, devil's advocate to challenge all your assumptions. It's not just about testing the mettle of your ideas, it also forces you to refine and clarify your marketing messages, your target customer profile, and your feature set. When you're being grilled there's no room for being generic about how you're different from the competition, no leniency for not knowing exactly what customer pain you solve, and no clemency for wavering on your company values and what compromises you're willing to make. Scott goes on to explain just how unfair the questions need to be: Make sure to include questions that are unfair or based on erroneous information. Reporters, clients, and the public all have their share of unfair questions and erroneous information, and you want to be ready for them. These answers take more time as the responses need to be more polite and mature than the questions. They also need to carefully refute assumptions in the questions without being dismissive. I love it; now we're deep into "heavy bat" territory. So how do you go about writing your Rude Q&A? Oddly, the hardest part can be coming up with the questions. To get you started, I've assembled a laundry list of questions common to many startups:

Your biggest competitor just dropped their price to $0. How do you continue to justify your price point? If your idea is any good, you'll have competition from multiple players, both funded and bootstrapped, both smart and stupid, both large and small. How will you persevere? If the economy stays bad for two more years, how will you survive? The last thing anyone needs is another damn tool. What's the overwhelming reason I should even bother looking at you? Technorati reports one million new blog posts appear every day. Why should I read yours? What are the top three features your competitor has that you lack? How do you address that today, and what are you doing about it in the next six months? How can you call yourself an expert when you've only been at this for a year? What are three tangible, undeniable ways in which your product/company saves more money than you cost and saves more time than you consume? Truly great products and companies are rare, even when smart people are at the helm. What makes you think you have what it takes? There are thousands of consultants who make the same basic claims you make: high-quality, on-time, on-budget, good service, happy customers. What makes you any different?

These are generic; you'll need to come up with more specific attacks. For example, if I were defending this blog and answering the question about why anyone should read it, I would make the question more specific: There are already too many blogs about startups, especially high-tech startups. Those blogs are far more popular than yours, their authors far more famous, and their advice is excellent. Smart Bear is a success but it's nothing like the success earned by someone like Steve Blank. Why should anyone listen to you? And here's my answer: I read those blogs; they're great! But the world needs more perspectives, not fewer. For every Jason Fried who says "simple design is better than complex features," someone else needs to point out that they've (I've!) made millions with poor graphic design and too many features. For every Seth Godin who says a tribe of 1,000 followers is all you need, someone else needs to point out that it's not true in practice. The biggest reason to read is that my advice and perspective, while not a massive thought-revolution in the universe, is "unique enough" that I constantly meet intelligent, capable, thoughtful entrepreneurs who haven't heard it before, haven't thought of it themselves, and whose lives and companies are improved after they've heard it, even when they disagree with my point of view. I know this because of the comments and wonderful emails I receive. As long as people keep saying that I've lifted a burden off their chest or produced invaluable customer feedback or prevented them from wasting time and money, or even if they just get a laugh, that's my answer to why anyone should listen. Don't get discouraged if you're not happy with all your answers. That's a good sign — it means you're being honest about the exercise and you're not yet satisfied. Keep it in the back of your mind and look for answers while you forge ahead. Discuss the hard ones with other people to get more ideas. This is all just another way of being introspective, but it's a technique I've found to be particular useful. Do you have more Q&A to contribute? Leave a comment!

Related posts:Distinguishing constructive criticism from bad business adviceGiving it awayYour idea sucks, now go do it anywayStartup Therapy: Ten questions to ask yourself every monthUncommon Interview: Bob Walsh, Digital Entrepreneur

   When designing a large website, especially one that contains a store, you may be required to design a system for ordering online, or a multi-step process of another sort. Walking users through this process by making it easy and intuitive is key to helping increase conversion rates. Any frustration along the way may cause them to leave and pursue other options. Progress trackers are designed to help users through a multi-step process and it is vital that such trackers be well designed in order to keep users informed about what section they are currently on, what section they have completed, and what tasks remain.In this article we will look at various uses of progress trackers and see how they’ve been implemented, what they are doing well, and what they are not doing well.What are Progress Trackers?You may not be familiar with the term ‘progress tracker’, also called a ‘progress indicator’ — but chances are good that you have encountered one at one time or another. They are used in online stores when placing an order, signing up to an online product or service, or even when booking a holiday online. Progress trackers guide the user through a number of steps in order to complete a specified process. An example of a progress tracker at GameThe Difference Between Progress Trackers and BreadcrumbsAs we have detailed previously in Breadcrumbs In Web Design: Examples And Best Practices, breadcrumbs are a way of enhancing navigation by revealing a user’s current location. Initially, breadcrumbs and progress trackers may seem very similar and in many ways they are, however, there are significant differences.Breadcrumbs show you only where you have been (or what sections are above the current section in the application’s hierarchy), whereas progress trackers indicate a set path that a user follows to complete a specific task. Progress trackers show you not only where you are currently located, but also what steps you have previously taken, and what steps you are about to take. Example of breadcrumbs at CoolspottersProgress trackers are best used when there is a specific goal to achieve. They are synonymous with conversion and are used as a way of improving usability — which is key when optimizing conversion rates. Conversion is all about selling online so you will see a progress tracker in some form in almost every online store.Now that we’ve reviewed what a progress tracker is, let’s look at situations that would require or even benefit from the implementation of a well-designed progress tracker.Uses of Progress TrackersAs mentioned previously, progress trackers can be used in a variety of contexts. The following three are the most common.1. Online Ordering By far the most common application of progress trackers is in conjunction with online purchasing, since this usually involves multiple steps. The progress tracker used by HMV. The progress tracker used at Etsy.2. Feature Tour Guides Progress trackers are also used to guide users through the features of online products and services, as demonstrated in the following examples: Progress tracker as used by Search Inside Video. Flickr’s tour page provides a look at the features of their service.3. Multi-Step Forms If a form requires a lot of user input, it may be best to split the form into multiple steps. Livestream’s progress tracker design. The progress tracker used on Buffalo’s Project Planner formBest Practices in Progress Tracker DesignIndicating a Logical Progression Most progress trackers are designed to display the steps from left to right. In most lands, people read from left to right, so it makes sense that progress trackers follow that pattern. That isn’t enough though — there has to be something that informs the user that they are performing a multi-step process. Blockbuster have included both arrows and numbers in their progress tracker, thus clearly communicating a logical progression.Keeping the User Informed of their Location One key aspect of good progress tracker design is keeping the user informed of where the user is in the process. This complements the logical progression because the user will know where they are in relation to where they have been, and what sections are to follow. Mr and Mrs Smith indicates the user’s current location by clearly highlighting the current step and turning the arrow downwards.Positioning Since progress trackers are a form of navigation, it is best to place them below the primary and secondary navigation (such as breadcrumbs) and above the content that the progress tracker relates to. Also, while a progress tracker can act as a page title, it is best to place the title of the current section underneath the progress tracker, to reinforce the current location. Gamestation places their progress tracker clearly below the primary and secondary navigation.Implementations of Progress TrackersPlain Text Below is an example of a plain text progress tracker on Media Temple’s website. One benefit of a plain text progress tracker is that it can be edited easily.Sprite-Based Sovereign uses the popular CSS sprites technique to build their progress tracker and reduce HTTP requests going through the online booking process.Design Mistakes to AvoidIndistinguishable from Breadcrumbs TypePad’s Design Assistant can be very easily confused with a breadcrumb navigation system.Not Enough Information easyJet’s old progress tracker on their booking path was poorly executed. Although it gave you the total number of steps in the process, it didn’t indicate which steps you’ve completed or which were remaining.Their new progress tracker, launched within the last few weeks, is a big improvement, indicating current location, past steps, and steps to come. They now also make good use of the page title which has descriptive wording to complement the current progress tracker label.No Sense of Progression daniblack incorrectly uses a tab system for their progress tracker. The problem with this is that tabs don’t offer any visual representation of progress. The addition of numbers or arrows would give at least some sort of indication of progression in this example.Progress Tracker ShowcaseNow that we know what a progress tracker is, how it is used, and the best approach to its design, let’s look at a number of well-designed progress trackers currently in use.Battle.net uses the method of incrementally filling a bar as you progress through the steps in their sign-up form.IkeaAmazon has a shopping trolley travelling across their progress tracker, leaving an orange line marking where it has been.Organic SupermarketThreadlessUrban OriginalsFireboxAppleVitradirectMouse to MinxCafePressTopshopJohn Lewis uses an image of a truck travelling along their progress tracker.Comet ticks off sections that have already been completed.Boots‘ Progress tracker spans the width of the page.Web MD uses a progress bar and percentage values as a way of tracking progress on their health check questionnaires.ArgosAltrecSurfRideiWorkwearZumiezToys”R”UseBagsFoot LockerThe Ultimate Green StoreCrate and BarrelPistol ClothingAmerican ApparelPC WorldAbel & ColeEcco USADesign PublicGolfsmith uses a combination of numbers and a progress bar with an arrow.PETCOFootball FanaticsThe Habitat CompanyWalton Garden Buildingslookfantastic uses icons to visually enhance their progress tracker.B&QRelated postsYou may be interested in the following related posts:Showcase Of Modern Navigation Design TrendsDesigning “Coming Soon” PagesCall to Action Buttons: Examples and Best PracticesSearch Results Design: Best Practices and Design Patterns© Tom Kenny for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: progress, showcases

  The navigation menu is perhaps a website’s single most important component. Navigation gives you a window onto the website designer’s creative ability to produce a functional yet visually impressive element that’s fundamental to most websites. Because of their value to websites, navigation menus are customarily placed in the most visible location of the page, and thus can make a significant impact on the visitor’s first impression.The design of a navigation menu has to be outstanding in order to sustain the user’s interest. As the adage goes, “Content is king,” but getting to the content requires navigation. In this post, we’ll be explore some of the more recent trends in navigation design. We’ll look at the aesthetics that recur in today’s best Web designs. The focus here is on the visual direction that leading designers are taking.You should also read the following related posts:Navigation Menus: Trends and Examples50 Beautiful And User-Friendly Navigation MenusCSS-Based Navigation Menus: Modern SolutionsBreadcrumbs In Web Design: Examples And Best Practices3-D NavigationLately, we’ve seen a trend towards design elements that sit on a higher z-plane; that is, they appear closer than other elements on the page. This trend is commonly applied, no surprise, to navigation menus.DelibarThe content area on the Delibar website looks like a pile of two pieces of paper, with the navigation items holding them together. It also features a subtle JavaScript effect that smoothly moves them up when you hover over them.Blue Door BabyThe Blue Door Baby navigation bar is styled like a ribbon that is laid over top of the feature area. The menu items are text-image replacements that have a subtle inset-text effect. (Learn how to create the inset-text effect).Mystery TinThe Mystery Tin navigation menu is arranged vertically. The active menu item has a background that wraps around the side of the content area. Similarly, hovering over a menu item shows a smaller 3-D ribbon.psdtowpThe navigation menu bar on this website is designed to look like it’s on a higher plane. Additionally, mousing over a menu item shows a speech bubble with a description of the item.Harry BissettHarry Bissett’s navigation is made to look like it’s popping off the page.Sower of SeedsThe navigation bar on Sower of Seeds looks like it wraps around the content area, making it stand out for the user.Speech BalloonsDesigning menu items in the shape of speech balloons, or speech bubbles, appears to be another popular trend. It’s a great way to break out of the conventional rectangular menu.AlexartsAlexarts features a background of a city waterfront. Navigation menu items are in large speech bubbles that point to different elements of the scene. Hovering over a navigation bubble propels it slightly upward, a subtle indication that it is interactive and is the current target.Bush TheatreBush Theatre uses thought bubbles instead of speech balloons, which in comic books denote the subject’s thoughts.TiendaThis colorful illustrated website depicts a scene of an alien and kids connected to a rocket ship. The vertical secondary menu is creatively integrated into the illustration: they’re spoken by the alien protruding from the top-right of the page.Rob AlanIrregularly shaped speech balloons make for a distinguished look on Rob Alan’s website. The speech bubble opens a groove in the main content area, which visually connects them.SproutBoxThe active item in the SproutBox menu is highlighted with a darker green, and the corners of the rectangular speech bubble are rounded. Placing your mouse over an inactive menu item displays a similarly shaped speech bubble.Kingpin SocialKingpin Social’s primary navigation menu is hard to miss, with its big size, rounded corners and copious padding. The active menu item is highlighted with a speech balloon.ContrastThe Contrast website features rectangular speech balloons that have a sketched look. The speech balloon is repeated throughout the design, denoting a clickable element (such as the “Archives” link on the side and the “Read More” link for blog posts).Design SpartanDesign Spartan’s primary navigation bar highlights the current page with a colorful and textured round-cornered speech bubble, which pops out because it’s set against a dark background. Each menu item has a different color, making each section of the website easily discernible.Definitely DubaiThe Definitely Dubai design features rounded rectangles; drop-shadows give them depth. The active page is highlighted with a white rounded speech bubble.Robin James YuSpeech bubbles are usually rounded, but Robin James Yu opts for rectangles on his portfolio. Speech bubbles recur throughout the design, including for the box of recent tweets in the footer and a more traditional elliptical speech bubble saying “Hi” on the home page.GIANT CreativeBright colors against a dark background and a generous size makes GIANT Creative’s navigation stand out from the rest of the text. Hovering over a menu item reveals the speech bubble’s pointer.Yellow Bird ProjectThe navigation menu on Yellow Bird Project’s seems simple and conventional at first, until you hover over it. Hovering over an item reveals the tip of the balloon, a simple enough technique but one that makes the menu slightly more engaging than before.Rounded CornersRounded corners are often used to soften sharp rectangles. The trend has carried over from call to action buttons to menu items, whose appearance as buttons is meant to entice users to click on them.BallparkBallpark’s navigation menu in the top-right uses CSS background text replacement to add round-cornered buttons to the text.NOSOTROSThe round-cornered navigation buttons of NOSTROS have pressed and unpressed states, which borrows the functionality of actual buttons. Additionally, JavaScript is used to smoothly animate the transition from unpressed to pressed state.New Look MediaNew Look Media’s blue navigation buttons are striking because of the dark background.LemonStandLemonStand’s primary navigation features rounded dark-gray buttons with a slight gradient.MetaLabRounded corners with graphic icons to the left are featured in this popular website’s menu bar.VistracVistrac’s rounded buttons can only be seen in modern versions of Web browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome and Opera because the developers have implemented the working draft specifications of the CSS 3 border-radius property. In other Web browsers (i.e. IE 8 and lower: the browser that’s hindering the progress of Web design), the menu items appear as normal rectangles.gugafitgugafit’s navigation buttons change to green on hover. The active item is given a dark-blue pressed look.PeepNotePeepNote has beige rounded buttons, with the active menu item in blue. It also uses the CSS 3 text-shadow property to add drop-shadows in most modern Web browsers.Viljami SalminenWeb designer Viljami Salimen gives the active items in his navigation menu a rounded button look.Icons In NavigationElaborate and highly visual designs are now widespread because bandwidth is no longer much of a concern. Over a year ago, we noted that visually appealing icons are increasingly being used, and this trend has continued. Icons not only are eye candy but help create visual recognition for users. Having said that, one should keep in mind that it’s always important to keep the loading time as short as possible, thus making the page as responsive as possible. In general, it’s more important than additional visual clues; however, used properly and moderately, the latter can assist users in their scanning process and make the content of the page easier to perceive and navigate.Adii RockstarAdii Rockstar has a blog whose navigation is fixed to the bottom of the page. The menu items are complemented by icons above the text, making for a beautiful navigation scheme. In addition, the text is given the CSS 3 text-shadow property for depth (at least in browsers that have implemented the current draft of the W3C’s CSS 3 specifications for the Text module).SourcebitsSourcebits uses small icons for its menu and sub-menu items. They add intricacy to the navigation.CarsonifiedCarsonified uses icons to indicate the active menu item; and upon hovering over an inactive menu item, its icon is revealed.marcusKThe portfolio of marcusK has a large navigation menu laid out vertically along the left, making it a big part of the design and difficult to miss. Large icons are featured above menu text, reflecting the vivid character of the design.MobileMySite.comThe company behind this website specializes in creating mobile versions of websites, so the designer made the navigation look similar to the iPhone’s UI, making it seem familiar to first-time visitors.mesonprojektKarl Francisco Fernandes’ portfolio has a hand-drawn-themed navigation menu. Icons make the menu items more visual, giving the website a distinguished look.Dreamling.caThe Dreamling.ca website displays icons and text that look hand-sketched with a black ink pen. It gives the design a personable quality.nadamastristenadamastrite’s website is eye-catching because of the cartoonish heads that represent menu items by emotions (e.g. sadness, surprise, puzzlement, anger).RedVelvetart.comThis website features hand-drawn elements, and the navigation menu continues that theme with hand-drawn and -sketched icons above the text.Custom TorontoCustom Toronto has a vertically oriented secondary navigation menu, containing sub-menu items. Icons help users quickly locate product categories.JavaScript AnimationWith JavaScript frameworks making it easier for Web designers to create animated page elements using just a few lines of code, designers have been using JavaScript lately for more aesthetic than functional purposes.Andreas HinkelThe primary navigation of Andreas Hinkel is large and presented as polaroids. When hovered over, the menu item rises.Jon White StudioJon White Studio’s navigation menu is visual and the focus of the page. Hovering over a menu item pops up a card with the word “Click,” calling the user to action.VotawVotaw’s navigation is a simple design (text-image replacement) with a JavaScript effect: upon hover, the text fades slightly. The effect is subtle but makes an impression.Utah.travelThe items in Utah.travel’s vertical navigation menu pop out to the right when hovered over. Sub-menu items reveal a brochure map in the background.RUDEWORKSThe beauty of RUDEWORKS’ navigation menu is its simplicity. Noticing it at first glance may be difficult because of the menu’s low contrast with the background. When a menu item is hovered over, it fades to dark red.MULTIWAYSThe primary menu of MULTIWAYS has a simple effect: a blue bar follows your mouse as you hover over items.Bert TimmermansBert Timmbermans’ portfolio website is laid out like a notebook, with the primary navigation menu designed like ribbon bookmarks. The menu has only icons; when you mouse over an item, it animates to reveal the text.Dragon InteractiveDragon Interactive’s primary menu items smoothly transition to a colorful state when hovered over. (Learn how to create a similar effect using jQuery on a tutorial I wrote.)Unusual ShapesBecause most websites have straight edges and sharp corners, irregular shapes give you a chance to break from the norm. One current trend is to give menus an amorphous shape to make them really stick out.BoomaBooma has roughly sketched items in a random alignment for its main navigation, making it different from what you see on most other websites.Kutztown UniversityThe main menu for Kutztown University is unusual in many ways. First, it’s positioned in the middle of the page, towards the bottom, whereas primary menus are typically located higher up. The alignment of menu items is staggered, not the usual left aligned. Finally, the lettering of the menu item text is randomized.YorkdaleIrregular shapes and variable alignment of menu items give this website design a memorable look. The design fits the theme, too.The Crazy Love CampaignThe menu bar of this website is slightly tilted and not perfectly horizontal.Carnivale du Vin 2009The navigation menu on the Carnivale du Vin website is shaped like brushstrokes. Hovering over certain items reveals sub-menus, making it look like the artist has swiped a brush across the page.Wrangler Face OffThis website’s vertical primary menu items are designed as tickets that stick out of the side, shuffled up.HTOHTO’s navigation bar is a strip of aged paper angled down and clipped to the background photograph.smriyaz.comsmiriyaz.com shuffles its primary menu items, and the text is written vertically.Think UpThink Up’s menu items are crumpled post-it notes, and the navigation follows the tabbed navigation user interface design pattern. Hovering over an item changes the color, and clicking on it brings it forward on the z-plane.f claire baxterThe menu items on this website stick out like bookmarks. The vertically written text and the varied color and size all help the website stand out.Inner Metro GreenThis menu bar has an irregular shape, contributing to the disorganized grunge theme of the website.Custom Tshirts UKThe navigation items on this website are flare buttons pinned to the corner of a t-shirt background.Pirata LondonPirata London has a unique and beautiful navigation menu: overlapping and semi-transparent ellipses. The text is given the CSS 3 text-shadow property for a bit of drop-shadow.koraykibar.comThe navigation bar of this website is oriented vertically as stacked ellipses, an unconventional structure that uses a single image with <map> elements for the links.Idea.orgIdea.org’s primary menu has an odd shape: sub-menus seem to drip from their parents.Paging For Primary NavigationSome websites have dropped the standard list of primary menu links. You’ll often see magazine-style (or blogazine) websites do this, to give users an interactive experience, similar to flipping through the pages of a magazine or book.Jack ChengJack Cheng opts for individually styled blog posts, and his navigation bar is a chronological timeline of posts. Each post appears as a dot, and hovering over one reveals more information in a speech bubble.gregorywood.co.ukGregory Wood also custom-styles his blog posts so that you can flip through them using the left and right arrows. To help users get to important pages, he has small icon links for the home, about, RSS and contact pages at the top-left.The Rich And PowerfulDustin Curtis’s custom-styled blogazine posts can be navigated using the “Next” and “Previous” controls that are centered in the masthead.72nd Ave.This website features custom-styled posts that you can navigate using the “Next” and “Previous” links in the bottom-right.Related PostsNavigation Menus: Trends and Examples50 Beautiful And User-Friendly Navigation MenusCSS-Based Navigation Menus: Modern SolutionsBreadcrumbs In Web Design: Examples And Best Practices(al)© Jacob Gube for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: navigation, showcases

By Mike Takahashi Recently, there have been a lot of creative ideas and uses of online ads that have been pushing the traditional medium. Takeover ads, where ads takeover the entire site design have become more common. Apple has taken banner ads into a new dimension by creating ads that appear to interact within the design of a site. While others have been able to leverage platforms such as YouTube and Twitter to create an interactive experience. Here are some creative and unique trends that have been showing up in advertising online.

1. Interactive Ads Samsung Follow Your INSTINCT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoOCiaxIZF4

To promote their new phone Instinct, Samsung created an interactive online video campaign on YouTube called “Follow Your Instinct.” Using YouTube’s annotations feature, which allows clickable links embedded in the video to other videos, users can follow multiple story lines by choosing where to go next. At the end of each short clip you are presented with two choices. For example: 1) Follow you Instinct or 2) Go to your desk TurboTax http://look.daileyads.com/omma_submissions/twitteralpha/

TurboTax created a live Twitter banner ad that showed the five most recent tweets featuring responses to consumer questions and comments on taxes, product use and feedback. 2. Synched Banner Ads By now you’ve probably seen one of the many creative and witty Apple ads featured on sites such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and Pitchfork. By breaking the traditional mold of static banner ads and utilizing synched ads, an interactive experience is created using elements within a site’s layout to grab the users attention. Apple

Appeared in the Wall Street Journal

Appeared in the New York Times 3. Takeover Ads Takeover ads takeover a sites existing layout, changing the normal flow and convention of what the user is normally accustomed to seeing. Nintendo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSU-z-t9Ku4 Image source To promote their new game Wario, Nintendo created what at first appeared to be a standard YouTube page showing a video of the game being played. However, as the video progresses, elements within the design of the page start to interact with the game. The entire screen shakes, items begin to fall down, YouTube’s navigation starts to crumble, and the page eventually becomes unrecognizable. Apple

To show the features of the iPod Touch, Apple was able to create an interactive experience that interacted with Pitchfork’s design. This has also appeared on sites such as ESPN. Madden NFL 10

To promote the game Madden NFL 10, YouTube’s home page was taken over by an ad that interacts with elements the home page as football players break outside the ad space and into the design of the site. Star Trek http://avatarclient.com/extranet/awards/2009/startrek/mtvtakeover/index.html

For the release of the new Star Trek movie, MTV’s home page was taken over to give the effect that the site’s content was being sucked into the warp of the Enterprise as it zoomed into the page toward the viewers. Quiksilver http://skate.quiksilver.com/thespot

As the video begins to play, the skaters start to jump outside the video and become part of the website, interacting with elements of the design by skating and doing tricks on the photos, video player, etc. 4. After Click Ad After click ads expand and interact with the design of the page only when a user had clicked on it. Braquo

Braquo is a crime TV series in France. BMW Korea

1. Social Media Traditional advertising has been able to successfully incorporate and leverage social media to create interactive experiences that can only be done online. Designers have been able to leverage the concepts and ideas of sites like Twitter to create an interactive experience with users that allow them to engage with the audience. Jack Johnson Twitter Promotion for Live Album http://twitter.jackjohnsonmusic.com

A simple, yet effective concept that was done using Twitter to promote Jack Johnson’s live album En Concert. It allows you to Tweet up to 24 characters while the other 116 characters are reserved to retweet the message. Once it is sent, a link is given to download a free mp3 from the album. I Wear Your Shirt http://iwearyourshirt.com

Jason has been able to take online ads in a unique direction by leveraging the social context of his every day life. He has sponsors pay him to wear their shirt for an entire day, taking pictures and then blogging about his interactions and experiences with people on his site. Days are sold at “face value,” so January 1 is $1 and December 31 is $365. It’s become quite popular, with 2009 already sold out, and 2010 quickly filling up. He’s also added a second person in a different time zone to help out in 2010. Red Bull http://www.facebook.com/redbull?v=app_123793864961

Brands are incorporating interactive experiences with consumers on the web in more ways than ever. Red Bull has taken the scavenger hunt concept one step further by teaming up with Facebook to incorporate a virtual scavenger hunt across the United States. Using the website, you type in your zip code to find the locations of places where cans of Red Bull are hidden. The general locations are shown via Google Maps with clues on where to find the exact spot. Once found, you "claim the stash." Users can make comments on each individual location and upload photos of their stashes through Facebook. 6. Something Unique The Million Dollar Homepage http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com

Not really a trend, but worth mentioning since it was something truly creative and completely different at the time. Conceived in 2005 by Alex Tew, a college student who needed to raise money for his tuition, he came up with an idea to try and make $1 million by selling 1,000,000 pixels for $1 each on a single web page. He ended up selling every single pixel making $1 million with several imitators copying his idea. Closing Thoughts The creativity in the ads shown have engaged the audience with something new and different. They break the traditional online advertising medium by creating new experiences that people have yet to become fully accustomed to. But how long will these trends continue to attract audiences before the novelty wears away and people start to ignore them? Banner blindness is already a known problem. It’s probably only a matter of time before some of these ideas take on the same fate. About the Author Mike Takahashi is the Web Strategies Manager for Communications and Public Outreach at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). He is passionate about every aspect of design and how technology can help influence our lives in meaningful ways. You can follow him on his blog at TAKA DESIGNS.

Over the last couple of years, mobile devices have managed to gain mainstream popularity. With iPhone, making mobile Web applications finally usable by broad masses, web design can now be applied to mobile applications as well. In this post we are focusing on designs that are specifically optimized for mobile devices, in particular iPhone. Though iPhone’s Safari browser is able to render any website just like you would see it on a desktop browser, the available screen area is much smaller than in common “classic” displays. This poses a new challenge for designers and developers who now can reach millions of users that use mobile Web. Websites that are specifically optimized for the iPhone utilize the screen to the fullest extent, and use less bandwidth (which is necessary, because the connectivity is not always optimal). The iPhone browsing experience is quite different than the regular browsing experience. The buttons and hyperlinks have to be bigger because our fingers are not as sharp as the mouse pointer. Optimizing a website for iPhone is not rocket science. It’s the same HTML, CSS and JavaScript that you already know. The only major difference is the screen size. In the showcase below we present some of the interesting, interactive and beautiful designs that are optimized for the iPhone. You will also learn about some handy tools that will help you optimize your website for the iPhone. Also consider our previous articles:

How to Create Your First iPhone Application iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Over-Blown Visuals 100 (Really) Beautiful iPhone Wallpapers

1. News / Entertainment Sevnth SinThe unique navigation makes this site very interactive. Nice concept, nice colors.

  Blip.tvPerfectly suits the theme: video entertainment! Clean and clear typography.

  NBCThe YouTube-style design makes it very easy to navigate and find shows.

  ZinioThat’s a kit of magazines, all one-touch away!

  Spin The BottleA simple bottle spinning game. Good use of graphics.

  Daily WallpaperSimilar to Zinio, but 2 thumbnails in a row make it more easy to navigate around.

  AOL HoroscopesVery well designed for a horoscope site. Matching color scheme throughout.

  Yahoo Omg!Fresh look, vibrant colors and lively typography make this design fun to browse and easy to read. The design also matches the celebrity gossip theme.

  2. Business / Corporate DPTODifferent tones of red make this design look very attractive on the iPhone. The 3D menu looks very nice — perfect for a marketing and design agency.

  Mind Medium CreativeThe use of gradients make the overall site look very shiny on the iPhone. The menu is very to-the-point. A nice composition and execution.

  Redhawk Investment AdvisorsThis design has a very corporate feel to it. Good use of colors.

  Nike LabJust what to expect from Nike. Sporty and energetic design.

  Procab StudioProcab studio showcases their work portfolio and other information about the agency. Well placed content. The font size is a bit too small, though.

  Hotel MonterillaThe design makes you want to go there for a vacation. The design has a very comforting feel to it. A perfect color scheme.

  Viget LabsA blue background, appropriate padding and rounded corners make this simple design look vibrant and attractive.

  Batali AssociatesThis is one of the good examples of design optimization for the iPhone. It clearly looks like it was really made for the iPhone, not just duplicated.

  Ready For iPhoneA company that provides iPhone optimized website solutions. The finger on the “Go” looks intuitive.

  Element FusionAnother showcase website that provides design services. Looks like a cut-down version of the actual website.

  VolkswagonA showcase gallery for Volkswagon. Easy to navigate around. Clean and clear content.

  3. Shopping / E-Commerce Torn RobesA nice example of a mobile e-Commerce site. Just touch your favourite design, have a look at it and buy it. Looks very vibrant.

  CooshA single-product e-Commerce site. Branded very well.

  WalmartThis design doesn’t really meet the expectations from WalMart — however, the design is still in beta. The usability is good, though: it is very easy to search for products and stores. You can also create shopping lists.

  4. Portfolio / Blog World Ending Blog (Japanese)Although we did not understand a word there, it is very well designed for the iPhone. Every page is optimized and provides a good browsing experience.

  Signal ElementSimple and clean design: just 3 pages, but very well designed.

  One Crimson SplashThis is the portfolio of James Finley. The choice of colors and content placement are very good.

  5. Education / Content MITWhat else to expect from MIT? Simple, clean, user-friendly.

  101 Cook BooksNot really a fancy design, but it’s the simplicity and clarity of content that makes it appear in this showcase.

  Please Fix The iPhoneA good design that provides the desktop browsing experience. It is very easy to find what you are looking for.

  1881The Norwegian telephone directory online. The combination of bright blue, orange and white looks really good.

  AOL FoodHeaven for those who love to cook. Just keep your iPhone with you in the kitchen, and let this nice design help you make a delicious dinner.

  Deviant ArtA nice way to browse art on the iPhone. The color scheme is good, and it makes the artwork look prominent. Very easy to navigate and search. Also, appropriately sized thumbnails.

  Last but not least, some words of wisdom…

  Tools to design a website for iPhone There are some libraries and kits available to help you iPhoneize your design.

iPhoneyiPhoney gives you a pixel-accurate web browsing environment—powered by Safari—that you can use when developing web sites for iPhone. It’s a perfect tool to see how your web creations will look on iPhone. Test iPhoneA web browser based simulator for quickly testing your iPhone web designs. iWebKit (Demo)iWebKit is a file package designed to help you create your own iPhone and iPod Touch compatible website or webapp. Comes with various ready-to-use themes. iUIiUI is a framework consisting of a JavaScript library, CSS, and images for developing iPhone web designs. It makes your web designs look and feel like iPhone’s native applications. Intersquash (Demo)Not really a helpful tool for designing, but you can instantly create an iPhone compatible site from your RSS feed url. WPtouchFor WordPress users: WPtouch transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from an iPhone or iPod touch. Jaipho Gallery (Demo)If your website features a photo gallery, Jaipho will optimize it for iPhone users.

Further Resources Don’t stop here. Check out these other great tutorials and guidelines.

iPhone Reference LibraryApple’s official iPhone reference library for developers. It has everything you need to get started: guidelines, code-examples, tutorials, etc. How to build a website for iPhoneThis step-by-step tutorial includes everything you need to do when building a website for iPhone. Instructions for orientation direction also included. iPhone Compatible CSS layoutsFree website layouts which work in all the common web browsers including Safari on the iPhone and iPod touch. iPhone Interface SamplesThis includes samples for iPhone interface elements like buttons, fonts, text, design patterns, hacks 6 more. iPhoneWebDev ExamplesVery helpful examples for alot of things. Direction change, events, fonts, compression, etc. iPhone Application UI Design Patterns cssiphone.comA showcase of designs optimized for iPhone.

About the author Adeel Raza is a young entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience on the web. He specializes in user interface, user experience and beautiful design. He loves finding gems out of dirt and showcasing them on his gallery Inspire Mix. Follow him on Twitter to say hi!

© Adeel Raza for Smashing Magazine, 2009. | Permalink | 42 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine

Post tags: inspiration, iphone

Even if you’re an experienced Web developer, your next project doesn’t have to be a website. Sometimes doing something outside of the usual Web developer’s box is more fun and can even be educational. We’ll try here to give you some inspiration on what to do on your next rainy day. You can learn a lot by doing something other than building or designing a website. And if you stick with techniques that you can learn in a couple hours, you won’t burden yourself either. Think Work Outside The Box As a Web developer, you have to constantly summon creativity and empathize with users. If you have a natural flare for design and usability, that’s great. But our work can sometimes become inflexible and boring. We can lose our enthusiasm to try new things. To avoid this trap, we can strive to gain new insight by putting our common tools aside and exploring projects beyond the Web developer’s usual environment. Experimenting with new ways of creating applications and interfaces and even building a hardware controller will lend fresh insight into our own field and make us see the techniques we use day after day with new eyes. It is also a good way to become more sensitive to usability issues. If you work all day at the computer, you probably cannot understand how a technically inexperienced 85-year-old person feels when they visit your website for the first time. You can’t because your experience with using a keyboard and mouse is so natural. The best way to get that feeling back — to feel what it’s like to have to click and play around with an interface to figure out how to use it — is to build your own hardware controller or a new kind of interface. Being the one who has to fix these fundamental problems will make you much better at identifying what elements make for a comfortable interface. Your future Web development will surely benefit from the insights and innovation you bring back. So get out and play around with other tech stuff and recharge your batteries! We’ve put together some suggestions here for you. You may already have heard of some of them and perhaps even planned on taking action on them. If so, hopefully this article will motivate you to actually get on it! If you know of any interesting tools not listed below, please let us know in the comments. Write Your Own Desktop Application Doesn’t sound very exciting, but every developer should create a desktop application once in their life… even if the only lesson they learn is that they should stick to developing websites. If you are not familiar with any programming languages for desktop applications and are not interested in learning one, you could still create a local application using one of the following tools. Adobe AIR

Adobe Integrated Runtime enables you to write desktop applications using HTML, CSS, JavaScript or Flash. Popular applications such as Seesmic and Tweetdeck use it. Combined with frameworks like ExtJS (for JavaScript) and Flex (for Flash), AIR lets you create user interfaces that come pretty close to real desktop apps. See this round-up of resources for Adobe AIR that appeared on Smashing Magazine. Shoooes

If you are a Ruby-ist or want to become one, Shoooes (currently offline) might interest you. It’s an easy-to-learn cross-platform toolkit for writing small apps in Ruby. If you want to learn the joy of programming, this could be a good entry point. Extend Firefox

You don’t have to set up a standalone application, though. If you use Firefox, why not play around with Greasemonkey, Ubiquity or Jetpack? You can extend your favorite Web pages with AJAX functionality or even create your own toolbar with useful plug-ins. Hint: if you create a great Greasemonkey script, you can convert it to a Firefox extension on the fly. Create Interfaces For Your Favorite Gadget iPhone

The Safari browser on the iPhone and iPod Touch offers some JavaScript events that let you make use of the browser’s multi-touch interface. Combined with CSS Transforms, you can create online applications tailored to iPhone users, based mainly on your knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Two good starting points are this demo of multi-touch events and this example showing a more detailed usage case. With the possibility of GPS positioning and storing offline content, the potential for amazing iPhone-specific Web applications is huge. By the way, if you want to create an iPhone app, have a look at Phonegap: it’s like Adobe AIR for mobile phones. Nintendo Wii

The Opera-powered Internet channel of the Wii console offers a supplementary JavaScript object that holds information such as the position of the pointer and pressed buttons for up to four connected WiiMotes. If you want to impress your non-techie friends by bringing your own multi-player Wii game to the next party, try this out. There are also some code examples and a demo application. Nabaztag

The Nabaztag bunny is surely one of the best Internet-related gadgets around. Even though it’s a little unusual, no list of customizable gadgets would be complete without it. Nabaztag owners adore the little bunny so much, so it is common for them to tailor special gear and costumes for it. In case you don’t want to go this far, there’s also a Web-based API that you can use as a remote control for your little friend. Make Nabaztag speak and move with any programming language that can send an HTTP request. Play With Hardware WiiMote The WiiMote is an impressive piece of hardware. It’s able to track infrared light and has acceleration sensors for all three axes. Best of all, you can connect it to your computer via Bluetooth. There are libraries in many programming languages such as Java (here and here) and even Flash that let you use the WiiMote as a controller or receiver so that you can create features like multi-touch, gesture recognition and head tracking. Look on YouTube to see what’s possible. Arduino

If you want to create your own hardware, check out the Arduino boards. Whether you want to build a touch-screen device, a robot or an intelligent sweater, a lot of extensions are around that make it easy for you to assemble a hardware device that fits your needs. Of course, a lot of other solutions are around, including USB experimental kits (available at any electronics dealer). But the easy extensibility of Arduino’s components make for a relatively easy yet powerful start in hardware programming. Lego Mindstorms

Though made by the same company, Mindstorms does not have much in common with those miniature colored bricks you played with as a kid. Mindstorms is a collection of plug-and-play components, such as servo motors and light sensors, that you can use to build a robot or other device easily. The interesting part is that you can define the robot’s behavior using a visual interface, so you don’t have to do any coding at all if you don’t want to. Discover New Ways To Create And Visualize Visualizing data and creating virtual and augmented realities is a big challenge and also a chance to create something very personal and outstanding. Processing is a toolkit for creating visualizations in a simplified Java language. It is popular because it supports access to external devices via USB and Bluetooth. The combination of Papervision3D and FLARToolKit might interest Flash developers. They enable you to create augmented realities in Flash using a Web cam and printed barcode. Even developers who usually don’t work in Flash should check them out. These two libraries really make Flash worth another look. Other notable projects are the vvvv toolkit for visual programming and OSCulator for sound effects. Combine Everything! Keep in mind that these are not necessarily standalone suggestions. You’ll surely get more innovative ideas if you combine this hardware and software with each other or with tools you normally use. A lot of blogs out there may provide further inspiration, including Hacked Gadgets. About the Author Christian Bäuerlein recently obtained his degree in Media System Design. He is passionate about Web development and creating all kinds of projects with JavaScript, PHP, Ruby and Java. You can follow him on this journey through his Twitter profile. (al)

© Christian Baeuerlein for Smashing Magazine, 2009. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine

Post tags: gadgets, inspiration, tech