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In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, author Mark Mayers will create a post-apocalyptic photo composition that will take inspiration from movies such as Planet of Apes, where an astronaut finds himself marooned on Earth thousands of years in the future only to find scattered relics of mankind. This tutorial is available exclusively to Tuts+ Premium Members. If you are looking to take your photo composition skills to the next level then Log in or Join Now to get started!

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We hereby declare 2012 as the Year of the WordPress Meetup. You’ll want to get in on this action.

meet·up mēt-əp noun A meeting, especially a regular meeting of people who share a particular interest and have connected with each other through a social-networking Web site: a meetup for new moms in the neighborhood; a meetup to plan the trip; a meetup for WordPress users.¹

So what is a WordPress Meetup? Basically, it’s people in a community getting together — meeting up — who share an interest in WordPress, whether they be bloggers, business users, developers, consultants, or any other category of person able to say, “I use WordPress in some way and I like it, and I want to meet other people who can say the same.” Meetups come in different shapes and sizes, but they all carry the benefit of connecting you with potential collaborators and friends, and helping you learn more about what you can do with WordPress. Here are some of the common types of WordPress meetups:

• Hang out and work on your WordPress sites together
• Social/happy hour type gatherings
• Mini-lectures/presentations
• Developer hacking meetups
• Show & tell of how group members are using WordPress
• Formal instruction on how to use WordPress
• Lecture series (possibly with visiting speakers)
• Genius bar/help desk

There’s no prescribed format, as each local group can decide for itself what they want to do. Some groups mix it up from month to month, while others have multiple events each month to satisfy the needs of their community.

The tough part? Running a popular group takes time and money. Just as we worked last year to remove the financial burden for WordCamp organizers and provide logistical support so they could focus more on their event content and experience, we want to start extending that kind of support to meetup groups as well. We don’t want it to cost anything for someone to run a WordPress meetup, or to attend one — building local communities should be as free as WordPress itself!

Since there are so many more meetups than there are WordCamps, we’re going to start with the cost that is the same for every group: meetup.com organizer dues. We’re setting up an official WordPress account on Meetup.com right now, and over the next couple of weeks will be working with existing meetup group organizers, people who want to start a new meetup group, and the helpful folks at Meetup.com to put this program in place. WordPress meetup groups that choose to have their group become part of the WordPress account will no longer pay organizer dues for that group, as the WordPress Foundation will be footing the bill.

This is exciting for several reasons. First, it means local organizers who are giving something back to the project by way of their time won’t also have shell out $12-19/month for the privilege. That alone is a big step. Second, it will open the door to more events and leaders within a community, since leadership and event planning won’t need to be tied to “owning” the meetup group. Third, more active meetup groups means more WordCamps, yay!

In addition to the financial aspects, we’ll be working on ways to improve social recognition of meetup activity by incorporating feeds from the official meetup groups into the WordPress.org site, and including meetup group participation in the activity stream on your WordPress.org profile.² I’m also hoping we can do something around providing video equipment to meetup groups (like we already do for WordCamps) to record presentations and tutorials that can be posted to WordPress.tv, helping meetup groups offer WordPress classes in their community, and getting involved with mentoring WordPress clubs at local schools and universities. Oh, and we’ll send out some WordPress buttons and stickers to the groups that join in, because everyone loves buttons and stickers.

We’re also putting together some cool resources for people who want to start a new meetup group. There will be a field guide to getting started and some supplies to help you get your group going, and a forum for organizers to talk to and learn from each other.

Over time, we’ll be talking to organizers and looking at what other expenses we can absorb and what other support we can provide to local groups. For now, we’re starting with the organizer dues. If you currently run a WordPress meetup group (whether you are using Meetup.com or not) or would like to start a WordPress meetup group in your area, please fill out our WordPress Meetup Groups survey. Filling in the survey doesn’t obligate you to join the official group, it just gives us a starting point to a) find out what groups are around/interested, and b) get some information on existing groups and their expenses and needs. Meetup.com will contact the group organizers who’ve said they’d like to join the new program, and will walk them through the logistics of the change and answer questions before helping them to opt-in officially.

So, if you currently run a WordPress meetup group, or you would like to start one, please  fill out our WordPress Meetup Groups survey. I can’t wait to see more meetups!

1 – Adapted from “meetup” definition at dictionary.com. 2 – Didn’t know about profiles? Check out http://profiles.wordpress.org/users/yourwordpressdotorgusernamehere (put in the username you use in the WordPress.org forums) to see yours!

We just relaunched the Mixel blog yesterday along with a refresh of our main Web site. The main goal was to bring the look and feel of both in line with one another and, specifically for the blog, to create a more editorial-friendly presentation. As I explained in this post, the Mixel blog turned out to be a more text-intensive product than we anticipated, and so we needed a design that would accommodate that. We also needed to switch to a publishing tool that was more suitable for that kind of content. Tumblr wasn’t doing it for us.

I wrote about Tumblr a while ago with great admiration in this blog post, and I still think it’s an amazing company and one of the best social content products out there. As a ‘traditional’ blogging tool though, I’m more ambivalent about it.

The Writing Kind of Blogging

It’s true that many folks, like my friend Cameron Moll, use Tumblr to publish their text-heavy blogs and are very happy with it, and so I don’t argue that it can work great for this purpose. But we found it to be less reliable than we’d like; the editing interface is unpredictable, to put it politely.

To be fair, we were also using it in a way that wasn’t a truly good fit for what Tumblr is good at; the first rule of digital content is that it must be true to the native characteristics of its delivery channel, and we weren’t doing that. We’re not giving up on Tumblr though; its network effects are truly amazing, and we have some ideas for a different editorial product that will hopefully be a much better fit for that network.

In place of Tumblr, we’re now using a WordPress blog hosted over at Page.ly. The theme was developed by my friend and amazing WordPress guru Allan Cole. In spite of having developed a premium WordPress theme of my own (Basic Maths, which was designed and developed with Allan), I’ve never been a heavy WordPress user until now. I have to admit, its most recent version is full of the fun, geeky features that I like as a blogger, stuff that allows designer-editors to fully tweak the way content is output. It’s great.

Other Stuff Posted at Other Places

All this fooling around with hosted publishing solutions has reminded me that Subtraction.com is getting long in the tooth, and very much represents an old school way of thinking about blogs. (It’s published with ExpressionEngine, which is quite powerful but has been trying to rejuvenate itself after some recent stumbles.) In fact, I’ve always wanted to fold Tumblr-like features into this site, and have played on and off with both Tumblr and Posterous for several years to see what those modes of blogging feel like.

My Tumblr experiments have largely been for naught, but I took to Posterous pretty well and have kept two blogs there for some time, more or less privately. I’ve been writing a log of really short (and, be prepared, somewhat stuffy) reviews of movies I’ve recently viewed at delayedreaction.posterous.com. And I have an ongoing image blog at Subtraction.posterous.com, where I collect a bunch of somewhat Subtraction-y images that don’t quite fit into this main blog.

The latter blog has been really interesting to curate, because it bleeds over to the stuff I’ve been keeping at Pinterest too. My boards at Pinterest are not a form blogging, necessarily, but they’re very similar to the image collecting and curating that I do at Posterous, yet even further afield from what I would normally post on Subtraction.com. (By the way, we’re collecting lots of really amazing work from Mixel on these Pinterest boards.)

Of all of these third party services, I feel least inclined to bring the activity from Pinterest back under the Subtraction.com umbrella, mostly because it’s the least blog-like. But what I’m doing on my two Posterous blogs, as well as what I would theoretically do at Tumblr, is very much the stuff that I would like to integrate into this site, if I had the time. Ultimately, I think I’m just the kind of user who will always want everything blog-like to be clearly a part of this blog, hosted on my own server, customized just the way I want. It’s not the trend of things in the world at large now, I know, but even bloggers get old.

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Controlling who is able to view a post is a simple task once the system is established. Limiting access to certain users has several applications, such as enabling a design studio to distribute artwork to its various clients, or enabling a small school to arrange for homework to be posted online using a cheap and easy solution.

The easiest method to get this system working is to make the recipients of the information “subscribers” (since they need not be able to post) and the distributors of information “authors” (since they should only be able to edit their own posts). This system eliminates several headaches for the webmaster by managing who has access to particular posts. The username would be used to identify who is allowed to view certain posts, since it is unique and, for the most part, constant.

The Basics

What Will You Need?

• WordPress 3.1 or later
• Members of various roles
• The ability to modify your theme’s files
• Basic knowledge of PHP and MySQL

What Is a Username?

In general, a username is a means by which to identify and verify a user. It is not the only way to identify a user, but remembering a username is easier for the person logging in than having to remember a random user ID. A username can be made unique to an individual, unlike a person’s name or email address (family members may share the same name, or even the same email address). This ease of use and uniqueness is why usernames are used on most websites that require people to sign up in order to access the website or certain of its features.

To WordPress, a username is means of identifying a user. Paired with a password, a username enables someone to access their profile and, depending on their permissions within WordPress, to access to the administrative pages of the website. A username can be used for many functions in the operation and management of a website, such as karma, prestige, user roles and expulsion.

A WordPress username is unique and impossible for the average user to change. Thus, the system is a potentially reliable means of identifying individuals. This reliability is important for a system in which a post must be visible to only a few people. The permissions of a post should not alter merely because someone has changed their name or email address.

The user page in a WordPress installation. Note that “Usernames cannot be changed.”

Setting Up The Back End

In order for an author to be able to set permissions for visibility, a method of selecting users must be set up on the post editing page. We could accomplish this by one of several methods, one of the easiest and most efficient of which is to create a meta box (or widget) in the post editing page that allows the author to add custom information, as required by a theme or plugin. This information enables us to tell the theme which members should have viewing rights to particular posts.

A Basic Custom Meta Box

Justin Tadlock’s article “How to Create Custom Post Meta Boxes in WordPress” explains how to create meta boxes, and we’ll reuse that code here.

Let’s assume we’re dealing with a website for a music school named “Smashing Magazine’s Fancy Flautists.” We will use the name smashing_flautist_access in the code for the back end to distinguish it from other custom functions. Justin’s code is a great starting point for this project, but it needs a little customization for our purpose. Place the following code in your theme’s functions.php, and modify the various labels according to your project.

/* Fire our meta box setup function on the post editor screen. */
add_action( 'load-post.php', 'smashing_post_meta_boxes_setup' );
add_action( 'load-post-new.php', 'smashing_post_meta_boxes_setup' );

/* Meta box setup function. */
function smashing_post_meta_boxes_setup() {

        /* Add meta boxes on the 'add_meta_boxes' hook. */
        add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'smashing_add_post_meta_boxes' );

        /* Save post meta on the 'save_post' hook. */
        add_action( 'save_post', 'smashing_flautist_access_save_meta', 10, 2 );
}

/* Create one or more meta boxes to be displayed on the post editor screen. */
function smashing_add_post_meta_boxes() {

        add_meta_box(
                'smashing-flautist-access',                     // Unique ID
                esc_html__( 'Post Viewing Permission', 'smashing_flautist' ),           // Title
                'smashing_flautist_access_meta_box',            // Callback function
                'post',                                 // Admin page (or post type)
                'normal',                                       // Context
                'default'                                       // Priority
        );
}

/* Display the post meta box. */
function smashing_flautist_access_meta_box( $object, $box ) { ?>

        <?php wp_nonce_field( basename( __FILE__ ), 'smashing_flautist_access_nonce' ); ?>

        <p>
                <label for="smashing-flautist-access"><?php _e( "Enter the username of the subscriber that you want to view this content.", 'smashing_flautist' ); ?></label>
                <br />
                <input class="widefat" type="text" name="smashing-flautist-access" id="smashing-flautist-access" value="<?php echo esc_attr( get_post_meta( $object->ID, 'smashing_flautist_access', true ) ); ?>" size="30" />
        </p>
<?php }

With Justin’s code, modified for this project, we should have a custom meta box that looks like this:

A basic meta box positioned below the post editing box.

Adding Ease to the Selection

This box can be used as is, and the author would simply input the members who they want to allow to view a post. This would work well if each author had very few usernames to remember; but if the author has long list of usernames to choose from, then a list of members would have to be displayed, and there would have to be a system that allows the authors to choose members from the list. Add the following code to the area just below the original box, just after the closing paragraph tag, to display a list of users with their names, along with radio buttons to grant one of the users access to the current post.

<table class="smashing-flautist-access">
<tr align="left">
<th>Username</th>
<th>    </th>
<th>Visiblity</th>
<th>    </th>
<th>Name</th>
</tr>
<?php
global $post;
        $users = get_users('role=subscriber');
        foreach ($users as $user) {
                        $user_info = get_userdata( $user->ID );
                        if(get_post_meta( $object->ID, 'smashing_flautist_access', true ) == $user->user_login) $ifchecked = 'checked="checked" ';
                        echo "<tr>";
                        echo "<td>$user->user_login</td><td>    </td>";
                        echo "<td align="center"><input type="radio" name="smashing-flautist-access" id="smashing-flautist-access" value="$user->user_login" " . $ifchecked ."/></td><td>    </td>";
                        echo "<td>$user_info->last_name, $user_info->first_name</td><td>    </td>";
                        echo "</tr>";
                        unset($ifchecked);

        } ?></table>

If everything goes well, you should end up with a box underneath the post editor that looks similar to the image below. The form containing the radio buttons gets a list of users that are listed as subscribers and makes the selection of the student with viewing permissions easy, all without the post’s author having to remember any usernames.

A meta box that contains a method to select the particular name and information of each user.

Saving the List

Now that we have generated a list that makes it easy for the authors to pick which members they want to be able to view particular posts, we have to create a system to add the list to WordPress’ MySQL database so that we can retrieve it later. We also need a way to tell WordPress to update this list of usernames in case the author decides later to add or remove someone from a particular post’s list of authorized viewers. The code provided by Justin does excellent work; place his code below in your theme’s functions.php, just after the function that sets up the custom meta box.

/* Save post meta on the 'save_post' hook. */
add_action( 'save_post', 'smashing_flautist_access_save_meta', 10, 2 );

/* Save the meta box's post metadata. */
function smashing_flautist_access_save_meta( $post_id, $post ) {

        /* Make all $wpdb references within this function refer to this variable */
        global $wpdb;

        /* Verify the nonce before proceeding. */
        if ( !isset( $_POST['smashing_flautist_access_nonce'] ) || !wp_verify_nonce( $_POST['smashing_flautist_access_nonce'], basename( __FILE__ ) ) )
                return $post_id;

        /* Get the post type object. */
        $post_type = get_post_type_object( $post->post_type );

        /* Check if the current user has permission to edit the post. */
        if ( !current_user_can( $post_type->cap->edit_post, $post_id ) )
                return $post_id;

        /* Get the posted data and sanitize it for use as an HTML class. */
        $new_meta_value = ( isset( $_POST['smashing-flautist-access'] ) ? sanitize_html_class( $_POST['smashing-flautist-access'] ) : '' );

        /* Get the meta key. */
        $meta_key = 'smashing_flautist_access';

        /* Get the meta value of the custom field key. */
        $meta_value = get_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, true );

        /* If a new meta value was added and there was no previous value, add it. */
        if ( $new_meta_value && '' == $meta_value )
                {
                add_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, $new_meta_value, true );
                $wpdb->query($wpdb->prepare("UPDATE $wpdb->posts SET post_status = 'private' WHERE ID = ".$post_id." AND post_type ='post'"));
                }
        /* If the new meta value does not match the old value, update it. */
        elseif ( $new_meta_value && $new_meta_value != $meta_value )
                {
                update_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, $new_meta_value );
                $wpdb->query($wpdb->prepare("UPDATE $wpdb->posts SET post_status = 'private' WHERE ID = ".$post_id." AND post_type ='post'"));
                }
        /* If there is no new meta value but an old value exists, delete it. */
        elseif ( '' == $new_meta_value && $meta_value )
                {
                delete_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, $meta_value );
                $wpdb->query($wpdb->prepare("UPDATE $wpdb->posts SET post_status = 'public' WHERE ID = ".$post_id." AND post_type ='post'"));
                }
}

The three MySQL queries are in place to prevent unauthorized users from viewing protected posts and to hide the posts from the RSS feeds. The first query runs only when new data populates the previously empty custom field, while the second query runs only when the data in the custom field has changed. The third query runs only if the custom field is emptied, and it sets the post’s visibility back to “Public.” All three are protected from SQL injection attacks by using $wpdb->prepare() to validate the data entered into the username form field.

If you don’t like that WordPress precedes the post’s title with the word “Private,” then add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file. This custom function is called when your theme would display a post’s title; it finds any instance of the words “Protected” or “Private” at the beginning of the title and removes them. In the core of WordPress’ programming, the function get_the_title() adds those words if a post’s visibility is restricted and the person viewing is not an administrator. What the following code does is send a message to the action that get_the_title() hooks into, telling it to remove the terms “Protected: ” and “Private: ” from the title. So, you can set a post’s title to begin with either term, and the title will not be altered; this code only affects WordPress’ ability to add to your title.

function smashing_title_trim($title) {
        $title = attribute_escape($title);
        $needles = array(__('Protected: '),__('Private: '));
        $title = str_replace($needles,'',$title);
        return $title;
}
add_filter('protected_title_format','smashing_title_trim');
add_filter('private_title_format','smashing_title_trim');

To allow users at the subscriber level to see private posts, you have to give them that capability. As it happens, some of the code we’ll be using later frees us from having to worry about users at the subscriber level seeing the posts of others.

$subRole = get_role( 'subscriber' );
$subRole->add_cap( 'read_private_posts' );

You can also grant users at the subscriber level permission to view private pages, in case you want a dedicated page of information that subscribers should know.

$subRole->add_cap( 'read_private_pages' );

Setting Up The Front End

Now that we have a way to add members to the list of people who can view a particular post, we have to modify our theme to use this data, and to actually control the visibility of each post based on this list. First, we need a way to get the username of the person who can view a post. Secondly, we would compare the username of the member with viewing permissions to the user who is currently logged in. Finally, we would make the theme display either the post in the loop or an error message (or perhaps nothing at all).

Place this code just after The Loop starts. It goes in single.php, category.php and index.php if you will be displaying posts on the home page.

<?php
/* Get the post's acceptable viewer. */
                $flautist_access = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'smashing_flautist_access', true );
/* Get the post's current viewer, if he or she is logged in. */
                if(is_user_logged_in()) {$current_flautist = $current_user->user_login;}
/* See if the acceptable viewer and the current viewer are the same */
                if($flautist_access == $current_flautist || current_user_can('author') || current_user_can('editor') || current_user_can('administrator'))
                        {echo ''; ?>

Place this code just before the loop ends. Here is where you can show an error message telling the user that they may not view this post. Or you could leave this code as is to make it appear as though the current visitor is not missing anything.

<?php } else { echo ''; } ?>

This is what a hidden post looks like to the public or to a user who is not logged in. They would see what appears to be an error message and are redirected away from the post.

If a person is not logged in and tries to view a restricted post, they would get an error message.

If a user is logged in but not allowed to view a restricted post, they would see either nothing or an error message specific to members.

If a member is logged in and authorized to view a protected post, then they would see the post itself.

Conclusion

Being able to control who can view individual posts is a useful feature with a wide variety of applications. Third-party software can natively do this, but WordPress is widely supported and documented, which means that any security holes that might allow unauthorized users to view restricted posts would be shut in a future update. Plus, it allows you to run an actual blog next to posts with limited visibility. This system could be used by administrators to distribute personalized content, by professionals to send files to clients, or by bloggers to restrict the visibility of certain posts to certain members.

Enabling an author to control who can view their posts can help them tailor the blog’s content to the needs or tastes of certain users. Ultimately, you will have to factor in the purpose and content of your website when deciding whether to use this method. It’s not for everyone, but it suit the needs of owners of small websites who want to deliver certain content to certain people.

Resources

• “Function Reference/add meta box,” WordPress Codex
• “Function Reference/get users,” WordPress Codex
• “Roles and Capabilities,” WordPress Codex
• “Class Reference/wpdb,” WordPress Codex
• “How To Create Custom Post Meta Boxes In WordPress,” Justin Tadlock

(al)

---

© Chris Ellison for Smashing Magazine, 2012.

Assuming the want to use a shortcode named [my_shortcode], you'll have to do the following and use the do_shortcode() function:

<?php echo do_shortcode("[my_shortcode]"); ?>

Easy and super useful.

Thanks to WP Snippets for the tip!

Vi tar en titt i EBDC, Lindalovisa Fernqvist, Gustaf Öhrnell och Magnus Klahrs portfolios.

Ko Yang har tagit fram ett koncept där mjölkförpackningarna ändar färg beroende på hur färsk mjölken är.

Celebrations nya webbplats är byggd med responsive webbdesign vilket innebär att layouten anpassar sig efter den skärmstorlek som besökaren använder. Oavsett om det är en iPhone, Android, iPad eller en datorskärm besökaren använder så får man en bra användarupplevelse och en fungerande layout. Det betyder att inga separata appar eller särskilda mobilanpassade sajter krävs för mobila enheter.

Den nya webbplatsen presenterar på ett tydligare sätt vad Celebration erbjuder och vilka kompetenser vi besitter. Att vi, oavsett om det är en fråga som rör strategi & kommunikation, koncept & design eller produktion & utveckling, finns där för dig. En stor del av innehållet utgörs av beskrivningar av vad vi gör för våra kunder, det vill säga våra uppdrag. Genom dem beskriver vi våra erfarenheter, hur projekten sett ut och givetvis resultatet.

Se resultatet: www.celebrationstudios.se

Projektgruppen: Projektledare: Vincent Högman Salzedo Webbstrategi: Minja Stark och Vincent Högman Salzedo AD: Markus Ojanperä Gränssnittsutveckling: Pontus Dreij Copy: Pontus Dreij och Minja Stark Webbutveckling: Vincent Högman Salzedo

Writer Connie Bruck wrote this piece that ran a few weeks ago in The New Yorker about the men behind a plan to build a new NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles. One of them, Phillip Anschutz, is a politically conservative billionaire seven times over, who made his fortune in oil and gas, real estate, railroads, telecommunications, and sports and entertainment. It’s a fascinating article, even though I’m not particularly sympathetic to his agenda or that of his compatriots. But I did really like this quote from him:

“It helps to have your back against the wall. Adversity is a huge advantage — as long as you think of it as an advantage — because it helps you do things you never thought you were capable of doing.”

Words to remember. You can read the full article here — but unfortunately, only if you’re a subscriber.

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UX practitioners, both consultants and in house, sometimes conduct research. Be it usability testing or user research with a generative goal, research requires planning. To make sure product managers, developers, marketers and executives (let’s call them stakeholders) act on UX research results, planning must be crystal clear, collaborative, fast and digestible. Long plans or no plans don’t work for people. You must be able to boil a UX research plan down to one page. If you can’t or won’t, then you won’t get buy-in for the research and its results.

This article addresses one key aspect of planning UX research: the one-page plan document. Before we get to that, we’ll briefly discuss the benefits of research planning and identify the audience of a research planning document.

(Image: Patrick Hoesly)

A word about stakeholders. A stakeholder in the UX world is a code name for the people who UX practitioners work with. These are our clients, whether internal or external to our organization. These are people who need to believe in what we do, act on research results, and fund and sponsor future research. We all have a stake in product development. They have a stake in UX research.

The Benefits Of Research Planning

Very generally speaking, UX research can answer two types of questions:

1. What’s useful? What do people need? Who is the target audience?
2. What’s usable? Does the design work for people, and how it can be improved?

Dozens of research methodologies could be implemented to answer these and more specific questions, and it is up to designers, researchers and their teams to decide what works best for them and when is the right time to answer their questions.

Here are the benefits of planning UX research:

• Get a better feel of stakeholders. A written plan helps you identify what works and doesn’t work for people, and what questions they are trying to answer.
• Engage stakeholders. A study plan ensures they are properly involved with the study and its results. If there’s no written plan, then there’s a greater chance that stakeholders won’t feel engaged.
• Writing things down helps you. When you put things in writing, they look very different than how you imagined them when they were just thoughts in your head. Always have a written study plan, even if you don’t share it with anyone else.

Now, let’s quickly identify the target audience for the research planning document.

Who Are You Planning For? Who Are The Stakeholders?

As with every product or service, the best offering comes from carefully identifying the target audience, their needs and their wants. Different UX research stakeholders are interested in different aspects of a research plan:

• Product managers and software engineers are mostly interested in the study’s goal, research questions and schedule. In some cases, they are also interested in the criteria for participants. These stakeholders are usually interested in goals and questions because these determine the content of the study and its focus. They are interested in the schedule to make sure it enables them to make timely design, business and development decisions. Criteria for participants interest them when the product targets a very specific demographic and they want to make sure participants are representative of that demographic.
• Managers and executives are probably interested in the study’s goal and the overall cost of the study, because they are likely sponsoring the study. Usually, their bandwidth does not allow them more than that.
• You! The plan is mostly for you. As soon as you put your thoughts in writing, something happens, and you find holes in them. These holes help you improve the plan. A written plan also helps you focus and better prepare for the study. The fact of the matter is that if you can’t boil your plan down to a page, you probably don’t really understand it.

Now that we’ve discussed why a planning document is important and who it is for, let’s get to the nitty gritty of the document.

The Plan That Stakeholders Love: The One-Pager

The users of a research plan love brevity and appreciate succinct definitions of what will happen, why, when and with whom. Here are the sections that go in a one-page research plan:

• Title The title should combine the thing you’re studying and the methodology; for example, “Monster.com field study” or “XYZ Phone data-entry usability test.” Sometimes mentioning the target audience of the study is also appropriate; for example, “Whitehouse.com news page interviews with senior citizens.”
• Author and stakeholders State your full name, title and email address on one line. After you get the stakeholders’ buy-in for the plan, add their details as well — the research belongs to everyone now.
• Date Update it whenever the plan is updated.
• Background Describe what led to this study. Discuss the recent history of the project. Be brief, no more than five lines.
• Goals Briefly state the high-level reason (or reasons) for conducting this study. Try to phrase it in one sentence. If that wouldn’t make sense, create a numbered list of very short goal statements. If you have more than three to four goals, you are either aiming too high (meaning you have too many goals) or repeating yourself.
• Research questions These are the specifics, the core of your plan. Provide a numbered list of questions that you plan to answer during the study. It is extremely important that your stakeholders understand that you will not necessarily be asking the study participants these questions. As a rule of thumb, have no more than seven to ten questions, preferably around five. Later on, you will construct your study script to answer these questions. An effective way to think about research questions is to imagine that they are the headings in the study’s summary.
• Methodology In an academic environment, this section has one primary goal: to provide as many details as other researchers need in order to repeat the exact same study. In practice, the goal of the methodology section is to briefly inform the stakeholders of what will happen, for how long and where.
• Participants Provide a list of the primary characteristics of the people you will be recruiting to participate in the study. Have a good reason for each and every characteristic. If you have two participant groups, describe both groups’ characteristics in lists or in a table. Append a draft form that you’ll use to screen participants.
• Schedule Inform stakeholders of at least three important dates: when recruiting starts, when the study will take place, and when they can expect results. Large research projects require more scheduling details. For example, if the study involves travel to another city or country, more dates might be required for on-site preparation and meetings or for analysis workshops.
• Script placeholder When a full study script is ready, it will appear under this title. Until then, all you need is a heading with a “TBD” indication.

A Sample UX Research Plan

XYZ Phone Data-Entry Usability Test

By John Smith-Kline, Usability Researcher, jskline@example.com

Stakeholders: Wanda Verdi (PM), Sam Crouch (Lead Engineer)

Last updated: 13 January 2012

Background Since January 2009, when the XYZ Phone was introduced to the world, particularly after its market release, journalists, bloggers, industry experts, other stakeholders and customers have privately and publicly expressed negative opinions about the XYZ Phone’s keyboard. These views suggest that the keyboard is hard to use and that it imposes a poor experience on customers. Some have claimed this as the main reason why the XYZ Phone will not succeed among business users. Over the years, several improvements have been made to data entry (such as using horizontal keyboards for most features), to no avail.

Goals Identify the strengths and weaknesses of data entry on the XYZ Phone, and provide opportunities for improvement.

Research questions

1. How do people enter data on the XYZ Phone?
2. What is the learning curve of new XYZ Phone users when they enter data?
3. What are the most common errors users make when entering data?

Methodology A usability study will be held in our lab with 20 participants. Each participant session will last 60 minutes and will include a short briefing, an interview, a task performance with an XYZ Phone and a debriefing. Among the tasks: enter an email subject heading, compose a long email, check news updates on CNN’s website, create a calendar event and more.

Participants These are the primary characteristics of the study’s participants:

• Business user,
• Age 22 to 55,
• Never used an XYZ Phone,
• Expressed interest in learning more about or purchasing an XYZ Phone,
• Uses the Web at least 10 hours a week.

[Link to a draft screener]

Schedule

• Recruiting: begins on November 12
• Study day: November 22
• Results delivery: December 2

Script TBD

Recap

A short plan that you and your stakeholders prepare together is key to a successful start of a UX research project.

• Boil down your collective knowledge, agreements and understanding of what will happen, why, with whom and when.
• Set the right expectations among stakeholders.
• Try to keep the plan to one page.
• Secure buy-in for the UX research by making it a team effort.
• The core of the plan is the list of questions you are trying to answer. Choose the right ones.

Happy planning!

(al) (fi) (il)

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© Tomer Sharon for Smashing Magazine, 2012.

Most of you probably know those awesome letters that were generated with 3D programs. But what about when you don’t have any particular program and you need to make 3D typography? This tutorial will show you how to create the 3D text shape and give it a high quality metal look using pure Photoshop. Check it out!

Editor’s note: This tutorial was originally published on Psdtuts in December of 2008.

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Step 1

Let’s start with a new document of 1500 pixel by 1500 pixel, and 300px/inch resolution. Create a new layer, name it "3D TEXT_first." Then grab the Type Tool (T) and type big letters of your desired text, in my case it’s written as 3D TEXT. Also don’t worry if your text goes out of canvas, it has to be very big. Because we’re going to rasterize this layer and distort it in the next step.

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Step 2

So now, right-click on the "3D TEXT_first" layer and select Rasterize Type. Then use Edit > Transform > Distort and create a nice perspective to our text by dragging the corners. Make sure your text is way smaller. This way you won’t lose its quality and the text won’t get blurry.

Tip: If you fail by distorting, and some text edges look fuzzy, use Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask, and increase the Amount.

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Step 3

Now that the text is way smaller and has a nice perspective, create a duplicate (Command + J) of this text layer and name it "3D TEXT_last." Switch to Move Tool (V) and use keyboard arrows to position the "3D TEXT_last" layer a bit above the "3D TEXT_first" layer. In my case this was 16 pixels up and 2 pixels right.

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Step 4

Create duplicates (Command + J) of both text layers and position them as you see in the image below. Make sure you have exactly the same order as shown, as it’s important!

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Step 5

Now turn off "3D TEXT_first" and "3D TEXT_last" layers. Select the "3D TEXT_first copy" layer and make around 60 copies (Command + J). Now, select "3D TEXT_last copy", go all the way down to the bottom of Layers Palette, hold Shift and left-click on the first "3D TEXT_first copy" layer – this should select all 60 layers. Next right-click on those layers and select Link Layers.

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Step 6

Switch to Move Tool (V), select "3D TEXT_last copy" layer. Go to the upper toolbar of the move tool. Click on Distribute Vertical Centers and Distribute Horizontal Centers. Then notice that our letters were perfectly distributed creating a nice 3D shape. Next, select all linked layers and merge (Command + E). Name this layer "3D TEXT_merged."

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Step 7

Go to Layers Palette, turn on "3D TEXT_last" and open this layer’s Blending Options. Apply a Gradient Overlay from #1a3236 to #cffffb. As for setting the Angle, try to make this gradient look darker on the top of letters, and lighter on the bottom of them.

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Step 8

In the Layers Palette select "3D TEXT_merged," turn it off, then hold Alt and left-click on this layer’s thumbnail to load the selection. Make a new layer, name it "3D TEXT_colored" and fill it with #a6e6fe. Deselect (Command + D).

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Step 9

Now go to "3D TEXT_colored" layer’s Blending Options. Select Gradient Overlay. Make sure you select the second preset in the Gradient Editor, that is Foreground to Transparent, and then set the color values starting as: #000000, #4a4747, #ffffff, #262626, #ffffff, and #000000. Next, depending on which direction your text is going, the Angle will be different. So in my case I set the Angle to 123, and as you can see the gradient goes through the center of the whole text. So that will be our lighting.

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Step 10

Some spots and the top of the letters look too bright, so we need to create just a touch of shadow in places indicated below. So hold Alt, left-click on the "3D TEXT_colored" layer to load its selection, then create a new layer above the "3D TEXT_colored" layer, and name it "Shadows." Set your Foreground Color to #1a3236 or darker, then grab the Brush Tool (B), set Flow around 30%, Hardness to 0% and paint. Then Deselect (Command + D) once you’re done.

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Step 11

Now let’s start giving this text a quality look. Go to the Layers Palette, hold Alt and left-click on "3D TEXT last" layer thumbnail to load its selection. Then create a new layer above all layers, name it "Shining lines." Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), right-click on your image and select "Stroke." Set Width to 1 pixel, Color to white, and Location to Center. Grab a nice big brush with Hardness 0% and Flow around 30%. Then erase everything except places indicated with arrows. These arrows point to lights, and those pointed edges need some shine. So make sure you leave them untouched.

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Step 12

When you’re done erasing, create a duplicate of the "Shining lines" layer, lower its Opacity just a touch, and merge (Command + E) those two layers. You may switch for a moment to a black background to see if you did a good job with erasing, if not, make some further corrections. You should get something that looks similar to the image below.

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Step 13

Now go to the bottom of the Layers Palette, select and turn on "3D TEXT first" layer, rename it to "Bottom shadow 1." Make a duplicate of it (Command + J), name this copy "Bottom shadow 2." Now apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to the "Bottom shadow 2" layer, with Radius of 3 pixels.

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Step 14

Switch to the Move Tool (V), and by hitting keyboard arrows move this blurred shadow 5 pixels to the left. You need to create an illusion that the curvy text lines drop more shadows inside. So we do not need some outside parts of this shadow. Grab the Brush Tool (B) and softly brush parts of the shadow shown below. Don’t be to picky, there is no need to make an accurate erase. It’s OK if you leave some gray shadow edges, like in the second image below.

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Step 15

Now go back and apply Filter > Blue > Gaussian Blur to the "Bottom shadow 1" layer. Set the Radius just a little smaller, like 2 pixel. Next, switch to the Move Tool (V), and by hitting the keyboard arrows, position this shadow 2 pixels down, and 2 pixels to the right. Let it cover the whole space under the letters, and remember to keep the shadow edges very thin.

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Step 16

Great, we made our text really stand out. Next go to the Layers Palette, hold Command, left-click on the "Shining lines," "3D TEXT_last," "Shadows," and "3D TEXT_colored" layers. Now that you have selected them, drag these layers onto the Create a New Layer icon. Next, merge those copies (Command + E) and name this layer "Reflection." Place it above all layers and turn it off (it’s important to turn it off, so do not skip this step).

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Step 17

Now, turn off the "background" layer, or even delete it, we no longer need it. Go to Image > Merge Visible, name this merged layer "TEXT." Position it above the "Reflection" layer. As you can see we have two similar layers with a small difference, the "TEXT" layer has a drop shadow, and "Reflection" has no shadow. We will be working now with the "TEXT" layer so let the "Reflection" layer remain invisible.

OK, let’s give these letters a higher quality look. Select the "TEXT" layer, duplicate it (Command + J), and this should automatically be named "TEXT copy," leave it this way. Then

change the "TEXT copy" layer Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 63%. Next go to Edit > Adjustments > Gradient Map, and select the Black to White preset.

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Step 18

Next, make another duplicate (Command + J) of the "TEXT" layer, and position it above all layers. Name it "Sharp edges" and by the way change it’s Blending Mode to Hard Light. Then go to Filter > Other > High Pass, set the Radius to 1 or 2 pixels. Lower this layer’s Opacity around 60-70%.

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Step 19

Create a new layer below all layers, name it "Surface," press D on the keyboard to set colors to default. Grab the Gradient Tool (G) and create a large gradient, through the whole image, from top to bottom. You can start it outside the canvas. Then go to Edit > Transform > Distort, and give this surface a touch of perspective. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Because when you’re done, select the Crop Tool (C), and crop the image nicely to get rid of the surface edges.

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Step 20

As I was looking to this image I thought the text is a little to bright for me, so next thing I did, was select the "TEXT" layer and apply Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. I lowered the Contrast all the way down.

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Step 21

Next, go to the very bottom of the Layers Palette, and create new layer above the "Surface" layer, then name it "Glass". Grab the Paint Bucket Tool (G), fill this layer with color #3f3f3f. Then apply Filter > Noise > Add Noise, set the Amount to 28%, Distribution to Gaussian, and leave the Monochromatic option checked.

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Step 22

Now, select Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, set the Angle to -90, and Distance to 144 pixels. Change this layer’s Blending Mode to Overlay, and set the Opacity to 50%. Grab the Brush Tool (B), then with a very nice soft brush of Hardness 0% and Flow around 20%, start erasing some spots of this blurred noise. Next erase places around the text to get a little of the glassy depth of the surface.

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Step 23

In the end, I decided to colorize this whole image. If you want to get the same final color effect, go to Layers Palette and add an Adjustment Layer on the top of all layers. Pick Hue/Saturation. Make sure you have the Colorize option checked. Then set Hue to 201, and Saturation to 17.

Next, select the "Reflection" layer, turn it on. Lower its Opacity to 20-30%, switch to the Move Tool (V), and by hitting the keyboard arrows, position it a few pixels down to make a nice reflection. Then you can apply a Layer Mask and softly erase some of the reflection bottom.

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Conclusion

That’s pretty much it, here is our quality 3D text, simply made in Photoshop. If you want to add some flat text to this image, make sure it’s going towards the perspective. Also, try to discover your own use for this 3D typography by experimenting with colors and lights. You can get many cool, various results.

Thanks for reading the tutorial, I really enjoyed making it. Hope you’ve learned something new. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

Subscribe to the Psdtuts+ RSS Feed for the best Photoshop tuts and articles on the web.

Wallpaper, Garbergs, Nine och Intellecta står på talarlistan inför nästa CAP&Design Live. Lär dig mer om hur man designar snygga årsrapporter, nyskapande förpackningar och unika tidningsomslag.

Länk: http://mittverk.com/se (mittverk.se) Namn på kampanj: Memories in B&W (Fototävling som vi kör på FB) Kund: Vet ej vad jag ska svara Byråer: Inga alls. Inhouse. Arbetsgrupp: 2 personer Beskrivning: Framkallningar på Plexiglas, Aluminium, Canvas, Glas, Knappar och Klinkers. Även väggur och USB sticks.

WordPress Vi ska byta den så småningom. Mittverk var från början en rolig ide. Därför valde vi att testa iden med hjälp av WP för att inte lägga ut stora pengar. Iden fungerar och vi får fler och fler kunder. WordPress är inte byggt för en bra e-handel sida. Den fungerar men Nej tack! Under våren ska vi sjösätta vår nya sida baserad på en annan lösning.

Anknytning Mittverk har skapats just för Svenska marknaden. Ordet mittverk borde tala om det. I estland där företaget finns ordet Mittverk har inget betydelse, i Danmark stavar ”mittverk” på annat sätt. Trots det har vi sjösatt den danske versionen av Mittverk. Varför Estland, ju, för att jag arbetar i Estland och har ett par företag. Jag vet regler och hur saker fungerar. Sedan som jag har redan sagt, det var en kul ide. Vi har börjat fundera över att öppna ett bolag i Sverige, men vi vet inte om vi är klara för det.

MindNode is an elegant, easy-to-use mind mapping tool for Mac and iOS. Whether you’re brainstorming for your next project, organizing your life, or planning your vacation, MindNode lets you collect, structure, and expand your ideas. And thanks to built-in Dropbox and WiFi sharing, even your biggest ideas can go anywhere your iPhone does.

MindNode is easy mind mapping for your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Try out Mindnode Pro and MindNode touch today!

In this video, Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes gives us a sneak at Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop CS6. The most dramatic change that you will notice from this video might be the darker color of the new interface (although this can be adjusted). What do you think? What features would you like to see in Photoshop CS6 when it is released some time during the first half of 2012?

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Photoshop is an excellent tool for manipulating photographs but it can also be used as a means to create stunning digital art. This tutorial is part of a 25-part video tutorial series demonstrating everything you will need to know to start producing digital art in Photoshop. Digital Art for Beginners, by Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor, Martin Perhiniak will begin by teaching you how to draw in Photoshop. At the conclusion of this series you will know all you need to produce your own concept art and matte paintings in Photoshop.

Today’s tutorial Part 21: Create a Medieval Battle Axe in Photoshop will demonstrate how to construct a medieval battle axe in Photoshop. This tutorial will cover several techniques but don’t worry, it won’t be too difficult to follow. Let’s get started!

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We often hear companies, including Web agencies, boast about how they provide exceptional client service. But how do they define exceptional?

Consider this scenario. You are hired to design and develop a new website for a retail client. The client loves the design, and the pages you develop use the latest in HTML5, CSS3 and responsive design, resulting in a website that works wonderfully across browsers and devices. The e-commerce features of the new website help the client significantly increase their online sales, and the entire project is delivered on time and on budget. Now, is this “exceptional” client service? I don’t think it is.

When the client hired you, they expected that you would design and develop a great website. They also expected it would be done according to the timeline and budget set during the planning stages of the project. As successful as this project may have been for both you and the client, in the end, you did exactly what you were hired to do. You did your job.

Just Doing Your Job Vs. Delivering Exceptional Service

Nothing is wrong with “just doing your job.” In many cases, that alone is a tall order. So, while doing what you were hired to do is nothing to be ashamed of, it is also not exceptional — nor will it set you apart. There will always be other agencies or designers that will be able to do the work as well as you can — and there will certainly be someone willing to do it cheaper! The service you provide is how you can truly differentiate yourself.

Exceptional client service is about going beyond what is realistically expected of you. It is about surprising, and often delighting, customers, turning them into enthusiastic referral sources and lifelong clients who stick with you not only because you do great work at a fair price, but because the value you bring to them goes far beyond just your products.

In this article, I’ll detail a few of the ways that I have tried to take my own client service to the next level and deliver a better experience, starting with the most important aspect: the relationships that you establish with the clients who hire you.

There is a difference between doing what you were hired to do and delivering a superheroic level of service. (Image: JD Hancock)

Creating Real Relationships

Here’s a quick exercise. Write down your five most important clients (how you define “important” is up to you). Then, write down as many things you know about those clients that have nothing to do with their business or the work you have done for them. What are their hobbies or passions? How many kids do they have? How old are those kids, and what are their names? Where do they like to vacation? Things like that.

So, how long is your list? If you’re like most people I speak with, probably not very long at all. We learn everything we can about a client’s business, but we often fail to discover anything substantial about our clients as people. If we do not engage with our clients in a real, personal way, then we are just another vendor — and vendors are easily replaceable with better cheaper options. However, clients are much less likely to consider replacing people with whom they have real relationships.

So, how do you start learning more about your clients? Simple: ask them questions about themselves and their lives, not just about their business.

Asking Real Questions

When I give this advice to others, it is often met with some apprehension. Asking someone about their business goals is easy. Asking them about their life outside of the office is harder. We often avoid getting personal for fear of offending the person or saying the wrong thing; but by being overly cautious, we miss the chance to create a real relationship.

Whenever I get nervous about getting too personal with a client, I remind myself of a story. A few years ago, I had the privilege to work on the website for the Tori Lynn Andreozzi Foundation. This non-profit foundation was named after a young girl who, walking home from school one afternoon, was struck by a drunk driver. Tori survived but was forever changed. Today, she is in a minimally conscious state, unable to walk, speak or eat.

In one of my first meetings with this client, I sat down with the head of the foundation, Tori’s mother, Cathy. I began the conversation simply by asking her, “How is Tori doing today?”

Cathy smiled and answered that Tori was doing well. We had our meeting and discussed the website and the project. As we were wrapping up, Cathy thanked me for asking her about Tori. She explained that so many people avoid asking about her daughter, fearing the news would be bad or that Cathy would be upset by the question. The truth is that, even though Tori has bad days, Cathy always enjoys talking about her daughter and was very happy to be asked about her. By asking Cathy how her daughter was doing, I showed her that I cared about more than just the project.

The website for the Tori Lynn Andreozzi Foundation

Today, Cathy is one of my favorite people to speak with, and we begin every conversation by asking how each other’s children are doing. We have much more than a great client-vendor relationship, all because I asked a real question, honestly cared about the answer, and created a real, human connection in the process. Had I been too afraid to ask that question, I might never have been able to build the relationship that I have now.

Don’t be afraid to ask your clients real questions. If they don’t want to answer you, they won’t. But for those who do (and you will find that most, if not all, of your clients will be happy to have a real conversation that has nothing to do with business), you will be well on your way to building real relationships.

Participate In More Than Just Projects

Another way to build a relationship with a client that goes beyond the project is to participate in their events. If the client runs a non-profit organization, they might have fundraisers or similar events that offer you an opportunity to support their cause and nurture the relationship. Go to these events and participate. As a bonus, you will also be helping a worthwhile cause.

Not all of your clients will have fundraising events, but they might invite you to holiday parties and other gatherings. Take advantage of these opportunities to interact with your clients outside of a normal business setting. It will go a long way to reinforcing those real relationships that you are trying to create and show that you are more than just another vendor.

Similarly, consider inviting clients to some of your events to show that you view them as more than just a source of business. When they arrive, greet them warmly and enjoy their company, leaving business talk for another day.

Help Them With Services That You Do Not Provide

Clients may hire you to design and develop a Web presence for them, but in the course of the project you will often discover that they need other services that you do not provide. By listening to their needs, you might learn that they have issues with their payroll company or their accountants or some other aspect of their business.

Look to your own business and the vendors you use. There may be a service or company that you have had success with that you could recommend. Also look to your other clients to see whether they offer services that fit. If appropriate, set up a lunch meeting between you, the client with the need and the client that might be able to fill that need. Not only will you be taking two clients out for lunch, you will hopefully be helping them both by making a valuable connection between the two companies.

When a client can say, “I hired this company to design our website and they ended up helping us revamp our entire payroll system!” you position yourself as much more than just their “Web team” — you show that you are a valued business resource and a trusted advisor.

Pick Up The Phone

Good communication is key to any relationship. Still, judging from the number of clients I speak with who are unhappy with their current Web team — not because they do a poor job, but because they are unresponsive — quality communication is not always a given.

Regularly updating your clients by email is important, but also pick up the phone every now and then, so that you become more than just that distant person behind those electronic updates. By hearing your voice, clients will feel more connected to you and the project. It also shows them that you value them enough to take the time to make a personal call, and it gives you a chance to talk about something other than business.

Regular phone calls allow you to have real conversations with clients, communicating at a personal level that email and other electronic updates do not allow for. (Image: opensourceway)

Face The Bad Times Head On

Have you ever had to share bad news with a client, but rather than pick up the phone to discuss the issue, you waited and sent an email at 5:15 pm on a Friday? By doing this, you may have bought yourself a few more days before having to face the client’s worried questions, but you also damage the relationship by hiding behind an email. It also means that the client will read the bad news first thing on Monday morning; definitely not a good start to their week, and definitely not the way to treat a valued relationship.

Here’s a secret: clients do not expect you to be perfect. They do, however, expect you to be honest. When something goes wrong, let them know quickly so that they are not blindsided by the issue later on. And never deliver bad news by email. Picking up the phone to discuss the news lets you reassure the client and answer any questions they may have. An after-hours email certainly won’t do that for them.

If the matter is handled correctly, the client will not remember that something went wrong. They will remember that you were honest and kept them apprised of the state of the project, even when it did not go according to plan.

Be Thankful And Show Appreciation

When was the last time you thanked a client for working with you? How did you do it? Did you send a basket of cookies or chocolate with a generic “thank you” message, or did you do something more personal?

Too often, we fail to even thank our clients for their business. We are so keen to finish a project and move on to the next one that we forget to properly show our appreciation.

While a basket of sweets and a generic message is better than nothing, consider sending a personal, handwritten thank-you note.

Handwritten letters have become all but extinct these days. With the rise of electronic communication such as email, social networks and text messaging, so few people take the time and effort to actually write a letter. The gesture of a personal letter will delight and surprise your client, not only because you have thanked them, but because the way you did so was personal, memorable and the perfect cap to a successful project.

A thankful, personal handwritten card is a great way to cap off a successful project. (Image: irrezolut)

How About You? Do You Deliver Exceptional Client Service?

I hope this article starts a conversation. How do you deliver exceptional client service? What tips can you share so that others can delight their own clients and offer them value beyond just products?

In this industry, we are always eager to share the latest tips and tricks on CSS, HTML, JavaScript, PHP or some other Web technology. Let’s also start to share tips on how to deliver exceptional client service, because success in this industry is about much more than developing great websites — it’s about developing great relationships.

(al)

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© Jeremy Girard for Smashing Magazine, 2012.

Lansering av nya Min Toyota, nästa generations digitala kundplattform

Toyota Sweden lanserar nya Min Toyota, mintoyota.se, en öppen, webbaserad kundportal, skapad för att förenkla livet för Sveriges alla Toyotaägare. Den nya portalen samlar all information som kunden behöver under hela bilägandet. Portalen erbjuder unik funktionalitet genom att synka med fordonsregistret och sammanför sedan information från bland andra Toyotas centrala fabrikssystem, CRM-system, verkstadsregister och manualdatabaser.

Toyota Sweden hade sedan tidigare en kundportal och ett bonusprogram. Men hur kan ett lojalitetsprogram för sällanköpsvaror egentligen se ut? Toyota ville skapa en långsiktig relation till sina kunder och stärka närvaron under bilägandets hela livscykel, inte bara vid försäljningstillfället. För detta krävdes ett nytt tänkande, med nya gränssnitt som tillgängliggör mer värdefull information för alla Toyotaägare.

Konceptet för nya Min Toyota bygger på tre saker; integration av information, tillgänglighet och osynlig teknik. ”Vi såg att i den oerhörda mängd information och kunskap och som Toyota har om bilarna, marknaden och bilägandet kunde de erbjuda en stor nytta för kunden. Därför behövdes en teknisk arkitektur smart och osynlig nog att sammanföra informationen och göra den användarvänlig”, säger Johan Öbrink, strategisk konceptutvecklare på 24HR, den digitala teknikbyrå som står bakom strategi, design och teknisk utveckling av Min Toyota.

Kundplattformen Min Toyota och dess information är helt öppen och kräver ingen inloggning.  Men om kunden registrerar sig visas riktad information som servicehistorik, relevanta nyheter, manualer och tips. Detta kan vara t ex vara skötselråd, hur man ska förbereda bilen inför vintern, vad man ska tänka på när man byter däck eller vem kunden kan kontakta angående en bilförsäkring.

För att dessa lager av information skulle kunna sammanföras och göras tillgängliga krävdes en ny och avancerad teknisk arkitektur. Att sammankoppla Toyotas olika informationskällor med externa källor, som tex Fordonsregistret och verkstadshistoriken, har varit det gemensamma målet under projektet. Detta för att kunna presentera så relevant information som möjligt för varje kund, så att sidan upplevs användbar och överskådlig.

För mer information kontakta Andreas Sand, vd, 24HR: 0736-63 81 25

This Madrid-based designer has a stunning portfolio that uses a contemporary, intricate take on modernism. He’s also apparently a collage artist, as suggested in this poster he designed for what looks like a show of his collage works.

He seems like someone I would like to meet. Visit his site here.

To follow me on Twitter click here.

Nothing hard here: simply paste the following code where you need to execute a custom query to the database. Don't forget to update the query on line 5!

<?php
// Get any existing copy of our transient data
if ( false === ( $special_query_results = get_transient( 'special_query_results' ) ) ) {
    // It wasn't there, so regenerate the data and save the transient
     $special_query_results = new WP_Query( 'cat=5&order=random&tag=tech&post_meta_key=thumbnail' );
     set_transient( 'special_query_results', $special_query_results );
}

// Use the data like you would have normally...
?>

This code is using WordPress Transients API. Click here to view more useful examples of this API!

Credits: WordPress Codex.