When to Use #Splash #Screens and Interstitial #Ads

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"The splash screen isn't displayed for long enough." It's something I've heard from clients and companies creating apps but never from the people actually using an app. To be fair, I have heard people comment that an app shows a splash screen for so short a period of time it looks like the screen is flickering, but that's a separate issue with a separate resolution.

Let's start with some history. Where do splash screens come from?

Many years ago, when computers were much slower than they are now and programs took a long time (relatively) to start up, someone had the idea to have the app display an image as the first stage in its start-up operations to give the impression and reassurance to the person who wants to use the app that it is loading. Over time the use of a static image was enhanced with animation and sometimes progress messages. All this was to reassure the person that the app/computer was doing something and to hide from the user that an app was taking so long to start.

Lets be clear, there was never a person who said I want an app to take longer to start or have an artificial delay between saying I want to use an app and actually being able to use it.

For many years, on the desktop, more and more apps started using splash screens and they started being displayed for longer as apps got larger and more complex, thereby taking longer to load.

For lack of a better option the splash screen would typically contain an app or company logo. Collectively, we became used to these "adverts" being displayed to us as we started apps. In fact some companies even began including their own adverts on their splash screens.

Over time and as application monetization models evolved, some apps began including full screen, or almost full screen, interstital ads when an app started. These would either be displayed for a fixed period of time or until they were physically dismissed.

That's all well and good, but what about Windows Phone?

The Windows Phone 7 application templates included a special file in the SplashScreenImage.jpg.

When an application was launched on the phone the OS would first look for the existence of this file. If found it would be displayed until the first "proper" page in the app was ready to be displayed. This was really useful as WP7 devices were relatively low powered and the application load process wasn't as optimized for speed as it is in WP8.

For the most part, the people developing apps would modify the image and the person launching an app would get a near instant visual response to launching an app. 

Some developers didn't modify the default splash screen image and their apps looked worse because of it.

With Windows Phone 8 a lot of work was done to improve the time it takes for an app to start. The improvements were such that they removed the placeholder image from the project templates. Partly as a way to highlight the improvement in start-up time and partly as a way to encourage the people creating apps to think about optimising the application start up experience with regards to what they're doing that impacts start up time too.

All this leaves us in a situation where a Windows Phone (8) app shouldn't need a splash screen. Apps should be developed to start quickly and get into a state where they are usable as quickly as possible.

However, many PMs, clients, marketing folk, etc. still have an expectation from history and the desktop regarding splash screens. They can think they're a necessity or something that should be included in every app. Then, when they are included we end up with feedback like the opening quote above.

Based on external and historical expectations, the requirement is added that the splash screen be displayed for a minimum length of time.

Depending on the ultimate owner of the app they may argue for the inclusion of an extended splash screen display duration (so it behaves like an interstitial ad) and you as a developer cannot persuade for an alternative. In that case so be it. For some people or companies the need to have a logo displayed to the person using your app is something they can't be persuaded against.

However as a developer interested in producing the best apps you are better able to do your job if you can explain why this may be a bad idea.

Let's return again to consider the person using the app. When they launch the app they're doing so because they want to use the app, not look at a logo. They've already probably just seen the logo anyway as it's on the tile, app icon or tile used to launch the app. I'd also assume that the person knowingly installed and launched the app and are aware of what it is and what it does.

If the person/company responsible is insecure about how the branding is reflected in the app then there are better and more appropriate things that can be done than just force the user to stare at a logo when they want to be doing something else.

Remember.

Just because things have been done one way in the past isn't always a good reason for doing them now. Especially when the reasons for doing them the old way no longer apply.

Think before you add a splash screen to your app.

Think REALLY carefully before adding an interstitial splash screen or other artificial delay to application start up.

Published at DZone with permission of Matt Lacey, author and DZone MVB. (source)

(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.)

Beautiful Examples of Login Forms for Websites and #Apps

I have here for you a collection of 20 awesome and great looking log in forms shots from Dribbble. I do hope you check them out and learn from them for your next log in design execution. I think log in forms are so simple to create yet many of the ones I have used are poorly executed and nothing to get excited about. However, this collection of Dribbble shots is exactly the opposite. I hope you enjoy all 20 of these, so without further ado, let's get to it!

Login Forms for Websites and Apps

In the spirit of the release of iOS7, this log in screen takes the subtle animation of iOS7 backgrounds to a new level. Here the background is a completely animated graphic – possible a gif even. Although the background is actually not too subtle, I think it is something else as you don't see this often; you don't see these types of app designs or splash screen often at all.

Once more in the spirit of iOS7, this log in screen and accompanying interface, embrace blurry but colourful background and keep things pretty damn simple. I must say both of these interfaces are actually quite minimal, with the thin lines and lack of actual input field backgrounds. But, the lusciously coloured background adds a bit of personality to make this interface friendly and awesome.

A lovely design if there ever was one; the blue background is very bold compared to the crisp white logo, text and input fields. The green button actually looks like a button – although rest of the UI is flat – and the hue works very well with the blue.

What a strong colour palette! And, of course, what a different way to think about logging in; the reason this is not a common sign up flow because it has its usability flaws. But, in terms of design we can all dream about this out of the box log in.

Compared to the previous shots in this line up, this one is fairly calm and simple. The colour choices are wonderful. The page is very to the point; it does not have any unnecessary or, worse, distracting shenanigans as no log in page ever should.

Here we have another bold design for a simple log in. The dark log in UI in addition to the dark and blurred background and the bright, slick and thin text has a very good essence of mystery and glamour going on. What else could you possibly want but a sexy log in page?

Now we are presented with a dark log in and an unconventional red text and red button. I'm not sure that the red on red works but let's go with it – it is different and daring, so let's applaud that. I think the fear of red in buttons is irrational as it is the context in which a red button is used that determines how user will react to it not the colour itself. I'm sure no one is going to freak out while pressing this log in button.

This shot is definitely one of my favorites from this collection as it is so simple and clean but not boring. The colour combination in this design is amazing as these three different shades work so well together. And, it looks so good! What a way to create a simple but good looking log in interface.

Here is a bit more complex and more extensive interface. As with many platforms today, you are allowed to log in with your preexisting account credentials form Google, Twitter or Facebook and forego creating another new account on another new website. But, if you want to you still can create your own account anyways.

I find this interface to be creative – it has some personality to it thanks to the handwritten notes and arrows, the colour scheme is quite nice and different form the typical blue and silvers we see everywhere. At the same time the background images is not a focal point like we see on every landing page now-a-days either, it is a light log in/register page and that is it.

I really enjoy the clutter free design that we have here. There is no navigation to distract you; there is no side content to annoy you either. The user flow is simple, and so are the user goals: you can choose between Platform and Opentag and just log in. If this is your first time here, you are welcome to check out the create an account link towards the bottom. I think this is a well organized and well executed log in interface.

This one too is one of my favorites as I enjoy the simplicity of this flat design. There are, once again, little distractions; the focus is on logging in. You have a clear logo present which is nice and if you don't have an account you have a way of creating one though here as well. On top of that, the colour choices are cohesive and work well together.

I really like this design as things are big, the log in button is big, the text on the button is big, the icons are big; you get the picture. Additionally, the log in button is a bright orange colour so you can't miss it; it does not blend in with its surroundings as no call to action ever should.

I'm not sure if I agree with the colour choices between the input's background and text colours but besides that I think this is a well design monochromatic form. I do like how that two input fields are attached together because they obviously belong with each other. I also like that the sign in button stands out.

The fact that the website remembers who you were before you were logged out is awesome; it is actually pretty cool. By the looks of it, this is meant to be a secure log in and it does feel as such thanks to the two logos – McAfee and VeriSign – below it. I also like the comical avatar used for this, it just makes this whole experience so pleasant even though it is supposed to be very serious.

This is the third favorite of mind here and that is thanks to the playful colour scheme. Yes, this is a flat design; yes, this is so elementary is can be boring, but it is not. I find that flat design with the well picked colours can often come off as friendly and character filled and this log in interface is exactly that! I'd love to see more of these in the apps and website I log into often.

Ah, one more blue interface! I am a bit skeptical about the shade of green here but the few various blue shades I see in this design work very well with the white text – that is very well done, indeed. I find that the informal lowercase text to give this interface some personality as well.

I like this form, I really do because it is obviously the focal point of the page and there is nothing distracting me from it. Sure there is a logo and a registration invitation link but they are nowhere as prominent as the big ass log in UI. Against the darkened background the bright inputs just call for your attention and call for you to log in right away!

Here we have a combination between a skeuomophic badge and flat UI. What do you think? I believe this is done quite well. Do not even think about insulting the shadows in the badge as they are not hurting the design, the design of this is actually quite cute thanks to the small amount of skeuomophism, as well as the font choices and colour scheme used in this design.

Once more we have a fascinating log in screen; it is actually more busy then some examples in this post but the colour scheme used is well chosen and makes the whole thing come together pretty well actually.

Your own log in shots

If you have a log in shot from Dribbble you would like to share throw it in the comments below! I would love to check out your work!

Source :  http://designmodo.com/login-forms-websites-apps/

5 tips for getting your content on Google's In-Depth Articles search result

Whenever Google introduces a new feature to search results, smart businesses will sit up and take note of the new opportunities they might take advantage of. In August, Google announced a new inclusion to their already diverse results page: In-Depth Articles.

What is the In-Depth Articles feature?

According to Google, in-depth articles are an answer for when Googlers are looking for "a person or organizational name, or other broad topic". The goal is to show high-quality, detailed content to help searchers learn about a subject.

How the In-Depth Articles result look?

In-Depth articles appear in their own box in search results, usually for very broad, generic queries. For example, some of the keyword phrases that result in in-depth articles include: "economics", "farming", "search engine optimization", "physics" and "celebrities" – all very broad keywords where user intent is harder to pin down.

How do I get my business in there?

There seems to be heavy favoritism for major brands (articles from The New York Times account for nearly a fifth of all results tested in an excellent Moz study) but this may be because those brands have serious online authority, link profiles, and quality signals that indicate their content is worth reading and trustworthy.

Still, the In-Depth Results area is not exclusive. Pandu Nayakw, a member of Google's technical staff, claims that searchers will also see "lesser-known authors, blogs, and publications" in these results, even if this remains to be seen.

Thankfully, Google has shared guidelines for getting published in the in-depth articles section to help smaller businesses out:

1. Use Schema.org Markup

Search engines aren't like people – they can't inherently tell if a string of numbers is an address, or if Happy Gilmore is the title of a movie. To help search engines understand your content, you can add schema.org markup language to tell a search engine more information about the things you're mentioning, whether people, places, things, recipes, or reviews. That language is called Schema, and it's used by Bing, Google, and Yahoo! as well.

If you want to land in the in-depth articles section, make sure you use the following schema:

• headline
• alternativeHeadline
• image
• datePublished
• articleBody

2. Implement Google+ Authorship

If you've ever seen a search result with the author's photo next to it, you've come into contact with authorship.

Implementing authorship is easier than ever – but you'll need a Google+ profile. Authorship is a good idea even if you don't hope to show up in in-depth articles, as studies show that results with authorship see a greater amount of attention from searchers.

3. Use Proper Pagination & Canonicalization

Long, in-depth content often spans several pages of a website; but Google can't always tell which pages are related. Using the proper "rel=next" and "rel=prev" can assist search engines in understanding that all those separate pages are actually just one piece of content.

You'll also need to use "rel=canonical" to point the pages of your piece to either a "View All" page, or to each individual page of the piece. Don't point "rel=canonical" to the first page of your article.

4. Specify Your Preferred Logo

Google asks publishers to share their preferred logo as part of helping them decide to feature your content. Once again, you'll need a Google+ profile that has been linked back to your website. You'll then need to implement organization markup on the logo image on your website.

5. Content must be Crawlable: No Restricted Content

First Click Free, which will make sure Google can crawl your content and serve up your results.

But Doing That Isn't Enough!

Just marking up your content correctly won't be sufficient to get you listed. Google has said their choice in display is algorithmic, meaning factors like domain authority, trust, content quality, links, and many other ranking factors we already take into account for websites will apply.

Length may also be a factor, given that in-depth pieces tend to correlate with longer content. The speculation out of Hubspot is 2,000 – 5,000 words, but be careful not to get hung up on a word count instead of focusing on quality.

Are In-Depth Articles Really Worth Your Attention?

 Of course, the question should be asked: Is devoting time and energy to trying to rank in the In-Depth Articles worth it for businesses?

Given that these kinds of results are triggered on very broad queries where user intent may have nothing to do with a purchase, the value in showing up here is questionable.

Lots of traffic doesn't mean lots of conversions – and though the visibility may be good for your brand, the real benefit from content creation and marketing is meeting targeted customers when they're at a stage in your buying cycle where the content helps move them along.

My advice? Go ahead and mark up your pieces the right way, and invest the time in getting schema and authorship right. These things are valuable for your business no matter what the goals of your content may be.

 But instead of bending over backward to show up here, keep your focus on creating and promoting excellent, customer-focused content. Doing this will have the greatest impact on your bottom line.

Source : http://www.wamda.com/2013/12/5-tips-getting-content-google-in-depth-articles-search-result-feature

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6 inspiring quotes for entrepreneurs from Nelson Mandela

Nelson 'Madiba' Mandela's life represented more than a selfless struggle for justice in Apartheid South Africa; his unwavering compassion, devotion to humanity, courage and wisdom inspired many who remember him today.

As we, in the Arab world, experience political flux, I think we can all draw inspiration from Mandela on how we want history to remember us. Amidst a world where we are often divided by who and what we are against rather than our shared values, Mandela offers many lessons of love, compassion and empathy to politicians and social activists. As satirical news site the Onion has joked, Mandela had become the first politician to actually be missed.

Even the business world stands to learn from this magnanimous man. Here are 6 quotes that reveal ways entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs and business leaders can find their inner Mandela: 

1. "Vision without action is just a dream, action without vision just passes the time, and vision with action can change the world."

It's easy to become distracted doing things that are related to, but not core to our vision. The whirlwind of being busy can deceptively leads us to believe we are achieving something. Like many entrepreneurs, I have experienced the feeling of being super busy but going nowhere. Yet time is my scarcest resource and I am learning to scrupulously evaluate every decision I make: will this bring me closer to actualizing my vision?

2. "There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

Think big. Give yourself permission to excel in everything that you do.  Inspire others with your lofty goals and bold visions to trail-blaze in your sector or dimension of choice, even if its a simple business innovation. How could you stretch your business vision and get people to believe in something that's far bigger than yourself or simple consumption? 

3. "Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front." 

Mandela has described that a leader is like a shepherd, "He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind." A good leader demonstrates humility—letting other's shine and feel their value beyond measure. 

Bill Clinton once said that, "Every time Nelson Mandela walks into a room we all feel a little bigger, we all want to stand up, we all want to cheer, because we'd like to be him on our best day." Doing the same at your company can inspire leadership and a sense of owernship in others that not only brings the business to the next level, but creates a culture of growth.

4. "Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice."

Social entrepreneurs like Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus catapulted microfinance into the core of the aid and development sector. Acumen founder and CEO Jacquline Novogratz tackles poverty through dignity and market-based approaches. Many social entrepreneurs in the Arab world are also dislodging the traditional approach of charity for more sustainable solutions to economic justice.

Companies that still practice donation-centric corporate social responsibility (CSR) can learn from this by empowering—rather than creating donor-dependency (including taking an approach on the lines of Corporate Entrepreneurship Responsibilty). This can include training and/or employing the marginalized and excluded, capacity building for NGOs in terms of management, financial planning, and marketing, or investing in—and mentoring—women to run micro-enterprises. 

5. Remember to Celebrate Milestones As You Prepare for the Road Ahead

Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison in his struggle for justice, said, "I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended."

An entrepreneur's work is never done. We can always do better. Reach higher. Go farther. Sometimes it feels like we haven't accomplished anything at all. It's important to stop and celebrate those small successes and milestones and take in the "glorious vista" along the uphill climb. Remind yourself how far you have come as you look at the road ahead.

6. "It always seems impossible until it's done."

The road to success is freckled with failures. "Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again," said Mandela.

At the 2013 World Entrepreneurship Forum, Fadi Ghandour described an entrepreneur's learning process as one of "continuous trying and failing." Young entreprenuers can keep in mind that it took Egypt's Azza Fahmydecades to achieve coveted status among fine jewelry brands like Cartier and Bulgari.

Leaving a legacy takes patience, resilience and determination. Keep going. Push the boundaries of what's possible.

Source : http://www.wamda.com/2013/12/6-inspiring-quotes-entrepreneurs-nelson-mandela

Are you driven by your heart, brain, guts, or luck?

What drives you professionally: your heart, your brain, your guts, or your luck?

Tony Tjan, a serial entrepreneur-turned-VC, gave his test to more than 25,000 business-builders from around the globe to help find a handful of traits that can help explain what drives entrepreneurial success.

He came up with four archetypes of business leaders. There's no secret recipe here; no one archetype is more successful than the others, the only requirement is that you have a baseline of one of the four dominant drivers.

Heart-driven people

Entrepreneurs are 61% driven by passion, which means they have:

• Purpose passion; they're passionate about what they're doing
  
  
• Agape, a Greek concept that refers to that sacrificial love, doing something that's worth sacrificing for
  
  
• Nuance, which separates a good entrepreneur from a brilliant one

These entrepreneurs make products that are different in a way that you may not be able to see, but that you can feel. 

Smarts-driven people

This type of entrepreneur is successful because they understand how the world works. But don't be mistaken, Tjan is not talking about being first in class here, he's talking about being able to recognize patterns, from past experiences, observations, and others' opinions, before making critical decisions.

Guts-driven people

Also known as doers, these people have the guts to initiate (starting from scratch, hiring and firing etc.), endure, and evolve (moving on, after a success or a failure).

Unsurprisingly, guts-driven people are more likely to become serial entrepreneurs; actually one out three serial entrepreneurs in Tjan's study are driven mainly by their gut instinct. Thirty percent have failed and then gotten right back on the horse. 

Lucky people

Luck doesn't come to just anyone; it comes to people with a lucky attitude. Those entrepreneurs who are both humble, intellectually curious, and optimistic; they think about why or why not something might work. 

Knowing which one you are will help you understand your strengths, optimizing your entrepreneurial power, said Tjan. You can get to self-awareness by testing this kind of psychometric test, but also by writing down what you say you'll do (and checking if you actually do it), by listening to peers and mentors who will tell you the things you don't want to hear, by taking time to pause and think about what's driving you, and by setting yourself values and standards for excellence.

You can take Tjan's aptitude test online to know which entrepreneur you are. Be ready for a surprise. Turns out I'm not a heart-driven person as I thought I was but a luck-driven person. This left me intrigued enough for me to get the book Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck, to learn more about how I can succeed professionally.

Watch his speech at LeWeb Paris 2013:

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Source : http://www.wamda.com/2013/12/heart-smarts-guts-luck-entrepreneur

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