When the World Wide Web was in its nascent stage, websites consisted of simple, static pages which were straightforward to create and edit. In the time since, websites have evolved into complex, dynamic entities. Even seemingly basic website functions like password-protection can involve tremendous complexity, requiring hundreds or thousands of lines of code (and many thousands of dollars) to develop. Without open source web frameworks to address this complexity, most companies wouldn’t be able to afford the development of a truly modern website.

What is a Web Framework?

A web framework is programmer-speak for a reusable, solid foundation for a website or web application. Much like a wooden frame of a house supports its functional requirements while still providing nearly limitless customizability, a web framework addresses many programming requirements of modern websites, without getting in the way of the creation of a custom site. It allows your site’s developers to focus more time and effort on your specific needs, and less time and money on the needs of the Internet, servers, databases, and other stuff you probably don’t care about.

Most modern websites are built on open source web frameworks, from huge web applications like Twitter, all the way to obscure blogs. Open source frameworks are simply frameworks that are developed and improved by communities of programmers, and that are freely distributed for use around the web. Using an open source framework allows you to reap the reward of millions of dollars of professional programming, for free.

The Benefits of Open Source Web Frameworks

Using a web framework for your web project offers numerous benefits which can be broken down into a few main categories:

• Affordability – Since developers don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time they start a new web project, you only pay for the work specific to your particular needs. And since you don’t need to spend money on the boring stuff, you can afford more functionalities than you may have originally anticipated.
• Security – How can code that everybody has access to be more secure than private, custom code? Since so many developers are constantly scrutinizing and improving open source frameworks, security flaws that do exist are detected early and fixed before they ever become a problem. One study has suggested that private code may contain over 100 times the number of errors as open source code. ¹
• Extensibility – Because so many developers use the same web frameworks, there is a good chance that any problems associated with particular functionality requirements have already been solved by others. Entire communities tend to develop around open source frameworks, through which solutions to common problems and code to provide new functionalities flow freely. (This is the concept behind the very popular ‘Plugin’ for WordPress.)
• Maintainability – Since many developers are familiar with the same popular web frameworks, finding somebody willing and able to maintain your site is significantly easier. And since most web frameworks follow best programming practices, the likelihood that you’ll ever encounter a problem that needs to be fixed is significantly reduced.

Popular Web Frameworks

The most popular open source web framework in use today is WordPress, which is estimated to be powering more than 1/5th of all new websites in the US². Originally designed to specifically address the needs of blogs, WordPress has since evolved into an extremely powerful and popular multi-use framework with an estimated development pricetag of $2.3 million³. We’ve found WordPress to be an extremely effective solution for addressing the specific needs of the majority of our clients.

When our clients requirements exceed the capabilities of WordPress, we turn to another open source framework, CakePHP. With an estimated development cost of $8.9 million⁴, CakePHP is designed to power high-complexity, data-heavy web applications. (Keep an eye out for our future posts on CakePHP.)

While both WordPress and CakePHP are written in the PHP programming language (which many clients prefer to use for their websites), web frameworks exist for nearly every programming language out there. Other popular non-PHP frameworks include the immensely popular Ruby on Rails, written in the Ruby language, Django, written in Python, Express, written in Javascript, and Struts, written in Java. Each framework carries with it certain benefits and drawbacks. Your developer should be able to help you find the right framework to suit your needs.

I’m Sold. Where Do I Get Started?

We recommend WordPress for people just getting started with web frameworks. WordPress is well-suited to individuals with little or no programming experience because unlike many of the other frameworks mentioned above, it provides a functional website right out of the box. And while WordPress certainly has its limitations compared to more robust frameworks like Ruby on Rails and CakePHP, it can be customized and extended to meet the requirements of the vast majority of websites. Additionally, most hosting providers offer support for PHP (the programming language in which WordPress is written), and the WordPress community contains a lot of great resources for those new to the framework. You can find the official Getting Started documentation on WordPress.org.

If you want to take advantage of the power of open source web frameworks, but would rather not spend your time learning new programming languages, give us a call or contact us through our website.

¹http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2004/12/66022
²http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/wordpress-now-powers-22-percent-of-new-active-websites-in-the-us/
³http://www.ohloh.net/p/wordpress/estimated_cost
⁴http://www.ohloh.net/p/cakephp/estimated_cost

Overview

Electronic books were originally designed to display text with minimal images. For that reason, children’s books, cookbooks, comics, etc. do not translate well and often have trouble displaying correctly across platforms. A good rule of thumb is that eBooks work best for text-heavy novels and long, narrative articles (think best seller lists and The New Yorker). That being said, readers are constantly evolving and expected to soon support graphic-heavy books. In fact, Apple’s iOS devices already support fixed-layouts, so it is safe to assume other readers will soon do the same. Either way, eBooks still require a strong cover design to attract interest in the book.

eBook Formats

Any electronic book is considered an eBook, but over 90% of all eBooks are read on Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iOS devices (iPad, iPhone and iPod) and the Barnes & Noble Nook using these formats:

• EPUB: This is an open standard adopted by Apple (iOS), Barnes & Noble (Nook) and many other makers of eBook readers (such as Sony).
• Kindle: This is a proprietary format that Amazon uses for its Kindle, which is a modification of the Mobipocket format.
• PDF: PDF is inherently made for print and doesn’t display well on digital devices. But if you really need to get data out to an iOS or Android device now, then it’s a useful format.

Making Your eBook

There are multiple ways to create your eBook. Some of the most popular methods are:

• Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (kdp.amazon.com): KDP is a fast, easy self-publishing tool that lets you publish your digital text content for the Amazon Kindle.
• Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign: Create Kindle books in-house using a free Kindle Plugin that converts your file to a Kindle format. You can download the plug-in at www.amazon.com/kindlepublishing.
• Outsourcing: Services such as Lulu and Smashwords will translate your Word document into an eBook format. In addition to creating your book, they will also submit it to Apple and Amazon bookstores for a small fee.
• Hand Coding: More on this in a future JakeIntel post.

eBook Covers Formats

Since eBooks are used on various platforms and purchased online, they require a few different cover formats:

• Embedded eBook Cover: The cover embedded inside your eBook that displays as the first page. This can and should be separately sized to each store’s specifications.
• Catalog Cover: The cover that shows up in the eBook store on Amazon, B&N, ect. Generally uploaded separately, and also used at a thumbnail size when displaying search results.
• Publicity Cover: This cover is used on your website, ads and other marketing materials. Size vary based on the application.

Cover Specifications

In addition to the various cover formats outlined above, each reader has slightly different size requirements. You can reference the chart below when creating your covers:

If you are unable to produce multiple covers, your best bet is to create a 600×800 JPG. This isn’t the optimal cover size for each reader, but it should cover all your bases. In addition to the sizes noted above, remember to convert all graphics to RGB. Any files submitted as CMYK will be rejected.

Designing Your Cover

In most cases you can simply resize your printed cover to fit the required specs, but occasionally a redesign is needed since not all covers translate well on screen or at smaller sizes. For example, a cover that uses gold leaf or embossing will not display well on screen. When redesigning your cover, it is best to stick with simple, but bold graphics and strong type treatments. Jake’s design for Supreme Decisions: Great Constitutional Cases and Their Impact is a perfect example of strong graphics and type that convert well to the Amazon Kindle and other e-reading devices:

CSS Media Queries are not new, but CSS3 is making them considerably more practical for every web developer, and designer to know. They are new ways to serve CSS styles to the browser, with a particular emphasis on targeting mobile devices.

For the Non-Developers

CSS or “Cascading Style Sheets” are what make a website look the way it does. They can control the size of everything on the page from images to text. They control colors, fonts and the overall layout of a site. What Media Queries do, is let us specify change those settings under certain conditions. These changes can be as simple as changing the color of a link, to changing the whole layout.

Now and Then

The most common use for Media Queries up to this point has been the creation of a Print Stylesheet. A Print Stylesheet allows developers to specify how a page should look when it is printed, such as to remove a background color from the page. There are other uses, including ways to create styles for Braille printers, audio devices, handheld devices and even projectors and TVs. The CSS3 guidelines expand on the options that are already available to us, allowing developers to target devices based on the following criteria:

The CSS3 specification includes a few extra new options, but those will be the most useful for developers and designers right now.

What It Means

All of these things can be combined to create different layouts depending on how the user is viewing the site. Obviously we can’t afford to make a website for every device, but we can use the above properties to change the site layout in stages. For instance, the iPad has a width of 768 in portrait mode. We can call a media query that will execute for all devices with a width of 768 and a width of 480, which will get used on any device that is not as wide as an iPad.

Why It Matters

The web doesn’t just live on computers anymore. People access websites from their phones, tablets, and TVs. Sadly the web doesn’t always look the same on different devices. A site that looks great on your laptop, might be too hard navigate on your phone.

People love the iPad, and the tablet market is exploding. Windows 8 is expected to be launched in 2012, and Microsoft is trying to make its mark with the first operating system that will be available on both tablets and desktop computers. It is no longer good enough to have your website display well in the latest browsers, it needs to look good on the latest devices.

Good coding can take care of most of that. If your website is coded properly, it should display more or less as intended on most devices. Media Queries come in to expand on that. Looking at a website on a 23” monitor and a 4” phone are not the same thing, and the design should reflect that.

A Level of Support

All of the latest versions of Chrome, Opera, Safari, Firefox and even Internet Explorer support media queries. The Android and iPhone browsers have supported them from the beginning. Unfortunately, the Windows Phone 7 browser was built around IE8, and therefore does not support them. But never fear, if you have a mobile stylesheet that is separate from your main stylesheet, the WP7 developers have graciously added a conditional comment that will only be registered by the Windows Phone browser.

How to Use It

There are a few ways to integrate media queries into your website. The first is to include the query in the media attribute of a link tag.

<link rel=”stylesheet” media=”(max-device-width: 600px)” href=”small.css” />

The other main way is to include a media query in your CSS file itself. This can be done by wrapping the styles in a @media call.

@media screen and (min-width:900px) {
     .class { background: #666; }
}

Lastly, to render on Windows Phone 7 devices, you will need to use a separate stylesheet, and link it in an IEMobile comment.

<!--[if IEMobile]>
<link rel="stylesheet" media="(device-width: 600px)" href="mobile.css" />
<![endif]-->

Benefits and Drawbacks

The primary benefit of this is that we can display our content in a mobile friendly way without having to deal with the hassles of a mobile site. We can easily create better looking experiences on both large and small screen devices with as little or as much effort as is needed.

On the other hand, unlike a full mobile site you can’t change the structure of the page. You can only change the design. We can still hide or minimize some elements of the page, and even change the order in which they appear, but we can’t add something just for the mobile site. In many cases you can use a different stylesheet to serve up smaller images to mobile users, improving load time. Even an image that is not controlled by the CSS, can be hidden by the stylesheet. You won’t receive the performance boost, but it can help make a more streamlined design.

In the simplest technical sense, cloud computing refers to the use of a network to provide on demand access to data and data processing applications. But this definition differs little if at all from the concept of the World Wide Web as it has existed for almost two decades. Indeed, the websites, email, and online database interfaces that we use every day all qualify as cloud computing in this sense.

Much like ‘blogging’ or ‘Web 2.0’, ‘cloud computing’ is a buzzword that is more indicative of an evolving approach to how the Internet is used rather than a technology unto itself. What defines the cloud computing trend is the migration of data storage and application services that have traditionally resided on end-user hardware to the Internet. From an end-user perspective, this represents an evolution of the Internet from a ‘dumb network’ simply linking user to user, to a highly configurable and ubiquitous source of data and services.

With this in mind, the National Institute of Standards and Technology provides this definition:

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

This trend will have powerful ramifications for many industries, including hardware manufacturers, software developers, data security and privacy providers, IT consultants, online communications professionals, and others.

What do people mean when they refer to the cloud?

The concept of the “cloud” originated in the telephone industry and was used to distinguish the line between the responsibility of telecommunication provider and that of the customer.

With respect to computing, “the cloud” really has no different specific technical definition but ostensibly, it may be used to describe the entirety of data, applications and other resources available throughout a particular network. It is also increasingly being used as a marketing term when referring to advanced services.

The “Intercloud” extends the concept of cloud computing globally. This refers to a “cloud of clouds” sharing data, applications and resources, similar to the Internet as a “network of networks.”

How does this differ from the traditional concept of the Internet?

How does cloud computing work?

Cloud computing structure has two major components, the front-end and the back-end, which correspond with the end user and network-based service providers.

Front End

• Computer terminals: Hardware devices need not possess the processing power or range software packages that they have in the past, because they’ll be getting these from the network. Netbooks and smartphones are examples of devices that are cloud-oriented.
• Access software: Software to access the data, applications and other services provided through the cloud. Web browsers, email clients, and phone apps are examples of such software. A fully-cloud enabled device would theoretically use just one web browser to access all online services.

Back End

• Servers and data storage devices: Hardware within the cloud that provides access to data, applications and processing power. A website server is a very basic example of a back end resource, however in most cases cloud computing will be utilizing a network of devices each playing a particular function.
• Administrative servers and protocols: Communication between network elements must still be organized as it has been on the Internet through a network of servers that handle traffic management according to IP protocols.

Devices and the Cloud

Examples of cloud-based services

Applications provided in a cloud-based environment are also know as Software as a Service (SaaS). Some examples are:

• Google Apps: Word processing, spreadsheet and other productivity applications.
• Amazon Cloud Drive: Online file storage, including for media files purchased through the Amazon store, thus creating a cloud-based music collection that can be played through Amazon Cloud Player.
• Mint: A personal money-management service that integrates daily budget data with bank accounts, investments and other financial information.
• Facebook: Personal networking program which provides data and media storage and distribution as well as applications.
• Microsoft Sharepoint: Online work collaboration system.
• Salesforce: Cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software.
• Carbonite: Online automatic file-backup system.

Cloud Computing Costs and Benefits

The move towards cloud computing has at least in part been driven the pursuit of more efficient hardware implementations by larger operators such as Amazon, Microsoft and AT&T, as well as by product innovation by end-user providers such as Google. Combined, some of the perceived benefits of cloud computing include:

• Potentially ubiquitous access to data and applications regardless of location of user;
• Potentially reduced costs for both consumers and providers, including hardware, software and IT services;
• Opportunity for device innovation due to reduced need for onboard computing power;
• Opportunity for innovation in end-user applications (e.g., mobile application markets);
• Shared-processing power/grid computing system processing power.

But cloud computing is not without its potential drawbacks, which may include:

• Threat of major security breaches due to consolidation of data and services;
• Risk of widespread application outages;
• Reduced ability for end users to maintain privacy;
• Increased reliance on network connectivity for productivity;

Unanswered Questions

In addition, the evolution of cloud computing raises some as yet unanswered questions:

• Who owns the data in a cloud system, the end user or the service provider?
• Is there a need for standardization in order to facilitate integration of data and apps, and if so, how will that come about?
• Increased centralization of data and software is a move away from the original philosophy of the World Wide Web. Will this move ultimately limit the de facto ability of end users to participate as more than consumers? What long term effects on innovation and security will this have?

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing.htm
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372163,00.asp
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html
https://www.mint.com/
http://www.facebook.com
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031?page=0,0
http://cloudtimes.org/top-7-cloud-based-service-offerings/

The Jake Group recently produced a series of rich media ads for placement on TalkingPointsMemo.com, one of the millions of websites that are members of Google’s Display Network.

The Google Display Network is the non-search-related portion of Google’s AdWords advertising platform. The Display Network is comprised of millions of websites, blogs, and email newsletters and has a total reach of about 80% of all internet users. Websites can opt-in to be a member of the Display Network, allowing Google to manage some or all of their ad sales and placements. Advertisers can use the familiar Google AdWords interface to buy inventory on any or all of these member websites.

Most major websites are members of Google’s display network, from Facebook to Amazon, from Yelp to The New York Times. This fact offers AdWords the most extensive and diverse reach of any existing online advertising platform.

Display Network Ad Formats

The Display Network serves all industry-standard ad formats:

• Text Ads
• Image Ads
• Video Ads (In-Stream or Click-To-Play)
• Rich Media Ads (Flash)

Note that the standard AdWords interface does not allow for the use of fully custom rich media ads. Custom rich media ads must be served through third-party ad servers.

Buying Ads on the Display Network

To buy placements within the Display Network, an AdWords campaign must have the Display Network enabled under the Campaign Settings tab.

The process of adding a Display Network ad to an ad group is very similar to that of adding a Search Network text ad. Click the “New Ad” button within an ad group, and select your desired ad format. Ad groups within AdWords can be set up to serve ads for both networks simultaneously.

As with Search Network ads, maximum bids can be set for either CPC or CPM (or CPA if using conversion tracking) for Display network ads. Since the performance of Display Network ads varies greatly from their Search Network counterparts, the quality scores of each type of ad are maintained independently of each other, even when housed within the same ad group. Bids for each type may also me set independently.

Display Network Ad Setup

Non-text ads for placement within the Display Network can be setup in AdWords by selecting “Image Ad” or “Display Ad Builder” after clicking the “New Ad” button.

For image ads, simply upload an image, name it, and provide a URL destination.

Rich media and video ads are setup through the Display Ad Builder. Video ads of multiple formats are able to be created by selecting “Video” from the Media and Channels section. AdWords provides a number of (ugly) templates for interactive/rich media ads that can be configured with custom text and images. Further customization requires a third-party ad server.

Display Network Placements

There are two main types of ad placements within the Display Network: automatic and managed.

If an advertiser opts for automatic placements, Google will automatically place their ads where it sees fit within the Display Network. If the ad group has keywords (as it should), AdWords will use those keywords for contextual targeting to place your ads on relevant pages. (Automatic placements are made on the page-level, not the site level, for maximum relevance.)

Choosing the managed placement option provides considerable control over where ads appear. Advertisers can select the specific webpages, websites, or categories that they would like their ads to appear on without the need for keyword relevance. With managed placements, an advertiser can also set unique bids for particular placements. When using managed placements, placements can be added or edited under the “Networks” tab in Adwords.

Using either placement option, advertisers can always choose to exclude certain websites or categories from your ad placements.

The performance of individual placements can be monitored by running URL reports, found under the Networks tab in AdWords.

Links and References

Here are a few useful links to learn more about the Display Network and to aid with ad campaign research:

• Display Network Homepage: http://www.google.com/ads/displaynetwork/
Learn more about the Display Network or get started as an advertiser.

• DoubleClick Ad Planner: https://www.google.com/adplanner/
Research statistics and demographics for most websites, and see if they are part of the Display Network.

• Google AdWords Education Center: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=examstudy.cs&rd=1
Learn more about properly executing Display Network ad campaigns.

• Highest-Traffic Websites: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=examstudy.cs&rd=1
Browse the 1,000 most popular websites within the DoubleClick Ad Planner.

For an introduction to Google Analytics, see my earlier post. In this entry I will focus on an advanced feature of Google Analytics: Advanced Segments.

What are segments?

Segments are non-destructive filters that you can apply to your data for advanced analyses. Segments are non-destructive in that they do not affect the actual process of recording data from your website. Actual filters applied to a particular website profile, on the other hand, permanently affect the data that is recorded. For example, if I want to know statistics related to visitors from South America, I can create a segment that will display only information for these visitors. Data from all visitors in all countries is still recorded. By creating a filter for the same purpose, I could also see information related only to South American visitors, however Analytics wouldn’t record the data for any visitors outside of South America. In short, segments are filters that are applied after all the data has already been collected. Both segments and filters are valuable for particular applications, however this post will focus solely on segments.

How are segments used?

Segments are extremely powerful for running comparative analyses. Segments allow you to split up your Analytics data into different groups, and you can in turn compare these groups with each other. Google Analytics includes several basic segments like New and Returning Visitors. Your segments can be accessed and applied by clicking the “Advanced Segments” box in the upper right hand corner of the screen. By splitting your data between visitors that have previously been to your site and those who haven’t, you can discover important behavioral differences.

Example:

Our website OnlineStore.com just redesigned the checkout process. Without segments applied, the data looks good. The number of visitors exiting the site after adding items to their cart has dropped… good news? When we split our data into new vs returning segments, we find that the number of new visitors exiting from the cart page has dropped a fair amount, but the number of returning visitors exiting from the cart has risen dramatically. Our changes to the checkout system have clearly alienated our returning customers. Further analysis shows us that our returning customers’ purchases are about twice as large as purchases made by new customers. While a basic analysis would suggest that our changes were positive, analysis with segments has shown us that our cart redesign needs further consideration.

Google Analytics also features the following preset segments:

• Paid Search Traffic
• Non-paid Search Traffic
• Search Traffic
• Direct Traffic
• Referral Traffic
• Visits with Conversions
• Mobile Traffic
• Non-bounce Visits

The “Visits with Conversions” segment is an important tool that allows you to track usage statistics for your most valuable visitors.

Custom Segments

Google Analytics’ preset segments are valuable and easy to use, however custom segments are necessary for more complex analyses. To create a custom segment, click on the advanced segments box in the upper right hand corner of the screen and click on “Create a new advanced segment”. The following page lets you choose any dimension or metric as the basis for the segment. If you are unfamiliar with metrics and dimensions, see my post on custom reporting in Google Analytics. Your custom segment isn’t limited to one metric or dimension; you can create segments combining two or more different criteria for specialized data analysis.

Example:

OnlineStore.com has gone global. We need to know how our customers in Japan are finding our website. We create a custom segment with the dimension “Country” “matches exactly” “Japan”. We then add an “AND” statement, and include the metric “Goal1 Completions” as “Greater than or equal to 1″. We’re done. When applied, our segment will now show us all statistics related to Japanese visitors who convert Goal1, which in this case would indicate a purchase.

There’s no limit to what custom segments can show you. Test out the many available metrics and dimensions to gain a fuller understanding of how your analyses can be improved using custom segments.

What are Photoshop Scripts?

Scripts serve as a great tool to assist designers in increasing their workflow by automating repetitive tasks, customizing commands and even adding new features. Although they debuted way back with version 7, it is surprising how few people even know they exist. Originally scripts were an optional plug-in available via download, but today they come built into the program with a few useful scripts preloaded.

Scripting allows you to combine the power of Photoshop’s tools with custom programming. The feature allows users to write scripts using JavaScript, VB Script, or AppleScript, to do what you can’t with your mouse and keyboard—or simply don’t feel like spending your time on. The scripts are fairly basic, but for those of us not up to the challenge of learning to write custom scripts—there are plenty of freebies available online.

Why Scripts, Not Actions?

Photoshop Scripts are way more powerful than actions or batching and can be as smart as you make them. Some examples of the powers of scripting include:

• You can add conditional logic, so that the script automatically makes “decisions” based on the current situation. For example, you could write a script that decides which color border to add depending on the size of the selected area in an image: “If the selected area is smaller than 2 x 4 inches, add a green border; otherwise add a red border.”
• A single script can perform actions that involve multiple applications. For example, you could target both Photoshop CS2 and another Adobe Creative Suite 2 Application in the same script.
• You can open, save, and rename files using scripts.

Installing a Photoshop Script

Installing scripts is super simple. First download the script (or create your own), then save it into the specified scripts folder.

• PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Presets\Scripts\
• MAC: Applications > Photoshop > Presets > Scripts.

After copying a script to this folder you’ll need to Quit and then Restart Photoshop before the script appears in the File> Scripts menu.

Examples of Pre-loaded Scripts

Photoshop comes with a few useful scripts right out of the box. Once the program is installed, you can find them under File > Scripts. One example includes:

Layer Comps to Files
This one does exactly what it says, outputting your Layer Comps to separate files. Layer comps are an easy way to create “snapshots” of your comps in various states. Using the script, you can output the comps to various files types PSD, JPG, and GIF. If you have clients who like to see everything in PDF format, there’s also “Layer Comps To PDF” which outputs the layer comps into a single PDF document with multiple pages.

Examples of Free Add-On Scripts

As mentioned previously, you can find tons of free scripts online. Some scripter sites will even write custom scripts for you on request. A few timesaving scripts include:

Remove Copy From All Layers
If you create multiple comps and layers sets in your files and are anal like me, having the word “copy” in half your layers is an annoying Photoshop feature. It takes time to go through each layer and manually remove the word “copy”. Luckily, someone else thought the same thing and created a script to remove them all at once. It removes the word copy and also the number next to it, so “mylayername copy 12″ becomes simply “mylayername”.

Download the script here

NOTE: CS5 now has a built in option to turn this off, so you don’t need the script. You can set it in your layer palette options.

Text Export
This script will export all your layers to a text file so you can easily convert to HTML without having to copy and paste. For example, if you have 3 text layers:

(Layer 1) Lorem ipsum
(Layer 2) This is a headline
(Layer 3) Submit

You run the script and you get a text file with these contents:

Lorem ipsum
This is a headline
Submit

Download the script here

Links and References

Here are a few useful links to learn more about Photoshop scripts:

Trevor Morris Photographic

Jeff Tranberry

Adobe, Photoshop Scripts

PS-Scripts

Kirupa Tutorials

In my previous post, I reviewed how to get started using Google Analytics. In this entry I will discuss how set up and use custom reports.

Custom Reporting

Custom Reporting is a powerful tool that allows you to quickly analyze any metrics of your choosing by nearly any dimension.

Creating a New Custom Report
Clicking on the “Create new custom report” link brings you to a page with lots of blue and green boxes. Anything in blue is referring to a metric, and anything in green refers to a dimension. The easiest way to think about metrics and dimensions is to think of metrics as numbers, and dimensions as text. Anything that can be represented by a number, like pageviews ,or bounces, or clicks, is a metric. Anything that can’t be described by a number, like visitor language, or keywords, or sources, is a dimension.

Custom reports tell you the metrics for a given dimension. If I want to know how many visits came from Europe, I select “Continent” as my dimension, and “visits” as my metric. You can also define subdimensions, which become the dimension that the metric is analyzed against once you click on an item from the primary dimension. In my example, logically I will select “Country” as my subdimension. When I access the report, it tells me that I had 50 visits from Europe. I click on Europe to drill-down to specific countries, and I see that England accounted for 49 of the 50 visits.

Sample Custom Report Structure
I want to know how many purchases my Google ads are driving, and how much it is costing me -
I select “Goal Completions” (assuming you set your goal to be a purchase), “CPC”, “Cost”, “CTR”, and “Cost per conversion” as my metrics, “AdGroup” as my dimension, and “Keyword” as my first subdivision.

Multiple usability studies have proven that today’s online users visit a website for two primary reasons: to get information and/or to accomplish a goal. In general, they are not reading for leisure, nor are they online to appreciate fancy writing or admire complicated graphics. Simply, they want to access content as quickly as possible and interact with the site, as needed.

Studies also show that website users interact differently with a monitor than they do with the printed page. Web users skim content, ignoring our ingrained left-right viewing habits in order to drill down more quickly. They also read about 25% more slowly on screen leading most users to scan a webpage rather than read it word-by-word.

Writers may be tempted to upload the same lengthy content contained in an annual report or firm brochure because they want to communicate as much to the reader as possible. Unfortunately, doing so is a surefire way to lose your online audience. Instead, you must write copy specifically for the online environment keeping in mind these ten essential rules:

• Know Your User. Identifying your target audience is essential. While this should be fairly obvious, make sure to write for your constituents, not the internal organization itself. All copy should be written at an appropriate level for the audience void of acronyms or jargon that may not be obvious to all target users.
• Be Concise. Get to the point, and remember users are not there to savor your fine writing skills. The general rule is to use approximately half as many words as you would in print. Aim for:
• Short headings: 4 – 8 words
• Short sentences: 8 – 20 words
• Short summaries: 30 – 50 words
• Short paragraphs: 3–10 sentences; 40 – 70 words
• Short pages: 2-3 paragraphs
• Use Headings. Since users skim webpages, they look at headings and subheadings first, then scan for hyperlinks, numerals and keywords. Make sure to use prominent headings and subheadings to partition your content.
• Use Lists. For optimal readability, keep sentences short and use bulleted or numbered lists where possible. (Just don’t use lengthy bulleted items!)
• Put Key Facts First. Begin with the most critical information, including Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Remember, web users are impatient, so you should prioritize your content. If you must include lengthy descriptions or documents, place them deep in the site and provide links where appropriate.
• Be Casual. Always write in first or second person whenever possible. Use “you” and “we” in a more conversational style, as appropriate. Remember, the more formal, the less inviting.
• Use the Active Voice. Never use the passive voice when you can use the active voice. The passive voice creates dull, lifeless content.
• Consider the Site Structure. With a proper website structure, your users should know precisely where they are on your site at all times. Still, it is good practice to write web copy that helps readers understand how each page relates to other content elements.
• Encourage Action. Ultimately, you want your website to encourage action, whether it’s registering for a newsletter, providing contact details, or buying your product or service. Always write copy that incites a call-to-action turning passive readers into active participants.
• Edit, Edit, Edit. A good rule of thumb is to edit your copy by 10% even at its last draft. Ask yourself, “Is my message condensed to as few words as possible?”, “Is my content formatted for easy readability?”, “Is this copy necessary at all?” Make sure to edit your content thoroughly before and after you upload it to your website (pre-launch, of course).

My previous post introduced Google Analytics. In this entry I will discuss how to start using the analytics tool. You may want to open Google Analytics in a separate window while you read this.

Overview

Every journey into Google Analytics starts in the same place: the Google Analytics sign-up page. Sign up, and follow the directions. Google needs a bit of code on your site to do the tracking, so if you don’t know how to edit your site’s HTML, you’ll need to enlist assistance. Note that if you plan on using Google Analytics’ e-commerce tracking, event tracking, or virtual pageview features, your code needs to be installed differently on particular pages. The specific instructions are beyond the scope of this post.

From here, the Google Analytics road branches and the possibilities are endless. This post will give you a quick tour of the interface, and will then outline a few sample uses.

The Overview Page

When you first log into Google Analytics, you are brought to your Overview page. This page shows you all of the websites your account is tracking, as well as some basic stats about your websites’ traffic and visitor behavior. The overview page is useful if you are managing multiple websites or want some quick stats, but the magic begins when you select a website and click “View report”.

The Dashboard

You are brought to the page referred to as the Dashboard. The point of the Dashboard is to give you a heads up display of all the statistics that you really care about. It is fully customizable, so you can add or remove stats or reports to your heart’s content. From here you can easily email or export your full dashboard report via the links on the upper grey bar.

Date Ranges

On the top-right of the page, you will find a box with a date listed. Clicking this box allows you to define the range for which your website’s statistics will be displayed. If you want to know how many visits you had in May, select the full month of May, and your dashboard will tell you.

Analytics even allows you to compare all of your statistics between two different date ranges. Just mark the “Compare to Past” checkbox, and highlight the comparison date range. Analytics will now show you the percentage difference between the two ranges next to your statistics. These comparisons may be the most valuable feature of Analytics, because numbers in isolation can mean very little. Knowing how many visitors your site had is useful, but knowing how that number is changing week-by-week is even better. It is the changes and trends in your website’s statistics that should guide your site modifications.

Intelligence

The second tab on the top-left navigation menu brings you to the intelligence page. Intelligence is a handy feature of Analytics that automatically alerts you to dramatic abnormalities in your website’s statistics. This feature is great for users who don’t want to check their analytics every day or week.
Let’s imagine that we have a website that averages 10,000 visits per week. Unbeknownst to us, our hosting service has been experience problems in the past week, and our site has been down about 50% of the time. Traffic drops to 5,000 visits, Google Intelligence emails us, we conduct an investigation, and we switch hosting services.

But this feature can have more important functions than just serving as an alarm for major problems. With custom alerts, we can tell Google to alert us when something important (that we define) happens.
For example: We have an advertising account set up with Google that automatically buys $1,500 of ads per week. We don’t want to pay for ads if every user who clicks on them immediately leaves our site, so we tell Google to alert us when the bounce rate of our ads surpasses 50%. Now, without ever checking analytics, we can rest assured that our ad dollars are not being spent in vain.

Visitors

The visitors page is your guide to the behavior of your website’s users. You can see where your users are from, what browser they are using, the speed of their connection, the time they spend on your website, whether or not they have been to your site before, and much much more. This page also contains a Benchmarking feature, which you can use to compare your website’s statistics with those of similar sites. There is a lot of information in the visitor page. Explore around to discover it all.

Traffic Sources

This page contains all the information about how people get to your website. It tells you whether the user typed in the exact web address (direct traffic), linked through from another site, linked through from an ad, or found your site using a search engine. You can even see exactly what keyword searches led to your site. This source information is paired with visit statistics, so that you can determine which sources refer your best visitors.

Content

The Content page gives you access to information about your websites individual pages. Here, Analytics can tell you how many users viewed a particular page, what percentage of users exited the site on a particular page, or how many users entered the site through a particular page. Knowing your top exit pages is an important first-step towards increasing your visitors’ interaction with your site. You can use Analytics’ Visualizer feature to see graphs of the number of exits from a each page divided by the number of total pageviews. If one particular page has a higher ratio of exits to pageviews, changing that page may help keep users on your site.

Goals

“Goals” is an extremely valuable tool that allows you to track actions of interest, such as downloads, purchases, or submissions of a contact form. Once you setup your goals, Analytics can start tracking your goals’ conversions, and you can start to analyze the behavior of your converting visitors.

For example: We are now running an online store. We setup the “Thank you for your order” page as goal that will let Analytics track our purchases. We can even tell Analytics that each goal conversion is worth $17.50, our average profit made on a single purchase. We can now analyze the visits that resulted in purchases. We see that almost all of the visits that resulted in purchase originated from two ads that we have been purchasing through Google AdWords. Furthermore, Analytics can even tell us how much we are making or losing off of our ads by keeping tabs of ad costs and conversion rates.

Once you have setup one or more goals, you can use a valuable feature called Funnels. Funnels are typical paths that visitors take through your website to the eventual completion of a goal. Once you have created funnels, you can see exactly where visitors “drop out” of the funnel, that is, you can see at what stage of the goal completion process visitors leave your site.

In my next post I will talk about a more advanced feature of Google Analytics…custom reporting.