Archive for March 2009

While we’re seeing more drop down menus on web sites, designers don’t always do what’s best for the users. How many times has a drop down menu unexpectedly popped up and you try to make a selection only to have it disappear? It doesn’t matter if a person has arthritis or other hand mobility issues, even folks with steady hands don’t always make it before the menu disappears. This disappearing menu problem also shows up in Windows.

So I’ve advised people not to use drop down menus. After all, users make a decision only to see another menu and have to make another decision. However, I don’t feel that way anymore as drop down menus become a standard and do work when done right.

A new trend has appeared with regard to drop down menus. Rather than disappearing, they stay until you close the window or click outside of the window. It also helps when a little down arrow appears next to the menu hinting more options will pop up.

Jakob Nielsen believes the X to close the window isn’t needed and that these drop downs should go away on their own when the user selects another item. This again is tricky because of the steady hand issue. But I would think if a user selects another top menu item, it’s by choice. It’s the selecting of a submenu item that proves hard. Like Nielsen says, timing can help here.

Also, some menus expand the sub menu directly below the top menu item instead of off to the side. This works much better since the users just have to go straight down instead of carefully navigate to the side. The image above shows an example of this from the Dallasnews.com web site. This menu leaves little room for error since the submenu starts at the left of its top menu and goes a little wider. Many submenus tend to start at Sports (shifted).

While the Blue JMR menu goes off the side, it has a timing mechanism so the user has time to select or pick another top menu item. This method works.

Even with this changing navigation menu practice, it’s still helpful to accept the user’s clicking of the top menu item. Of course, this depends on the site’s navigation design and content.

In sum: Drop down menus work well — as long as the design handles them right.

Navigation testing has one advantage. You can ask friends, family and colleagues to check out the menu’s functionality for you even if they’re not the dream user. These folks, however, aren’t the ones to ask about findability. For that, you need to go to your target audience.

What menu styles do you not like? Why?

I’ve been wondering what the next Dash series would be as PlayFirst enjoys a hit almost every time it releases a Dash. The good news: We have our answer: Diaper Dash. The bad news: This time management game doesn’t measure up to the other and more successful Dashes.

You’re not a baby sitter, nanny or caretaker. Instead, your Wilson, a scientist and inventor. He lost his job (read: fired) with an evil corporation. Wilson meets with Flo who gives him the idea to invent child-safe machines.

He opens a daycare in his sister’s basement and starts working on inventions to make his job easier beginning with Cleanatron, which cleans baby messes.

Like most Dashes, you’ll move around after spending 10 levels in a location. Every building contains a waiting area in the form of a playpen, high chair for feeding, cribs for sleeping, changing station for well… you know, and play area. Instead of customers of all kinds, you have babies with different needs and temperaments. One baby has a voracious appetite and another needs many diaper changes.

Like Diner Dash, you earn bonus points for matching the baby’s gender with the station. The baby’s current need pops up in a pink or blue colored bubble to indicate gender. If a baby needs to eat, you earn extra points by putting the boys in the blue chair and the girls in the pink chair. You can also earn more for swaps. Swap a girl baby in a crib with another girl baby needing a nap.

Not only do you move to new locations, but also get upgrades and new inventions such as a toy dispenser that spouts teddy bears to cheer up a sad baby and a storybook reader who reads stories to babies in the playpen waiting area. For each level, you want to reach the minimum cash goal and try to go for the expert cash goal. Fail to meet the goal and you replay the level.

As expected, the game has two modes: Career and Endless Day. Career tells the story and takes you from building to building in 50 levels. Endless Day comes with three levels (easy, medium and hard) and you play until five babies become unhappy. As you play Endless, you’ll receive upgrades. It gets crazy and makes a gal panicky — that’s why I don’t like Endless mode.

Diaper Dash starts slow and proceeds at a decent pace, but this one — story and game — doesn’t grip me as much as the other games. It feels repetitive and contains no surprises aside from the inventions. Still, the graphics remain top-notch of Dash games and Wilson is a likable guy.

If you want to take care of virtual babies, Daycare Nightmare is a better option since it adds a twist. If you want to check out a good Dash, go for Diner Dash, Cooking Dash or Wedding Dash.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

In I won’t Twitter my life away, Leonard Pitts echoes the feelings of many who don’t see Twitter beyond “What are you doing?”

He writes, “In the first place, you have better things to do. In the second, I am not that interesting. No one is.”

I agree.

But Twitter offers much more. Yes, people tell you what they’re doing right this minute. I don’t care if you’re shopping at the grocery store or washing your car.

Twitter provides a water cooler to the lonely freelancer. Yes, you can meet people and make friends in Twitter. Intelligent ones with interests ranging from politics and books to intranet and medical industries. Many Twitterers meet in person.

Twitter leads to great shopping deals, book recommendations, and improving your writing skills by learning how to say a lot in 140 characters.

I didn’t always feel this way. When I first heard about Twitter and checked it out, I had the same thoughts as Mr. Pitts. My life wasn’t that interesting except for the time I went skydiving.

Many Twitter fans say they didn’t buy into Twitter right away. To benefit from Twitter, you must interact meaningfully with others. This conversation lead to a wonderful post on great books with 200 pages or less.

merylkevans: What’s the best short book (<200 pages) you've ever read? Can be fiction or not.

Other recent conversations cover the arbitrary editing and deleting of articles in Wikipedia, cochlear implants, a new web-based application that integrates with your cell phone and even Pitts’ article (so he should be thankful he gets a little link love out of this from the very source he insulted) and several people Tweeted back:

BethHarte @merylkevans You’re right Leonard Pitts doesn’t get Twitter. The fact is a lot of great networking is done on Twitter. http://bit.ly/szCnu

redcrew @merylkevans To learn more about Twitter, perhaps we can point Leonard Pitts to #twestival, #sandiegofire, and #hfhor

RonPloof @merylkevans I do agree with one thing that he said in the article. He’s not that interesting

Do you see a single “What are you doing?” mention? Find the right people and you’ll get much more than “life narrators.” Instead, you discover intelligent discussions without little bias getting in the way such as how we look and dress and how we speak.

I have a deaf accent because I was born profoundly deaf. In fact, here’s another conversation with a fellow Texan I’ve gotten to know in the past month:

roberthruzek: Wonderful! May I tell you about it sometime? I can hook you into a webinar that’ll explain everything.

merylkevans: Can’t do webinars. Deaf.

roberthruzek: Gee, never knew that about you.

So Twitter prevents people from judging me the minute I open my mouth. It’s a sad and true fact that people automatically think I’m not bright because of how I sound or I ask them to repeat something. It’s the same prejudice that hits people with a southern drawl.

You don’t have to try Twitter. Just understand that Twitter offers something valuable to people who use it on a professional and personal basis.

Twitter is what you make of it.

• Photographic dictionary: Very sleeky and useful. I know the word “blurry” too well.
• Social Butterfly Does bad grammar make you [sic]? [Yes!]
• Your Writing Is Killing Your Writing: I’m a perfectionist, hear me whimper. But I’ve learned to let go. Even if the topic doesn’t interest you, check out the picture.
• How to Handle Monumental Screwups When They DO Happen.
• How to Increase Revenue Fast! See #6 for an amazing and creative tip. Another goodie from same blog (TPE guy is awesome!): 163 Ways How To Become An Entrepreneur.
• RevenueTwoPointZero: Offers four strategies for funding journalism.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Photographs of residents in their flats in Hong Kong’s oldest public housing estate: 100 rooms, each 100 square feet in size. And to think some of us complain about 2,000+ sq. feet homes?
• FunPhotoBox: Easier and funner than Photoshopping your photos.
• Font Game: Can you figure out the fonts?
• Illusions Database: A new illusion every day.

I don’t think I’ve come across anything like the fanciful Wandering Willows since I’ve ventured into the casual gaming arena. You could call it a cross between role-playing games, Virtual Villagers, adventure games, simulations and Pokemon. Let’s just say it brings an innovative new world to the casual games industry.

Floating in a hot air balloon, a bird pokes a hole in the balloon whisking you to a land where people are happy. Well, a few grumps do live there to keep things lively and humorous. You’re not the first person to arrive on this island. Everyone who has come before you has stayed. But like Dorothy of Wizard of Oz, you want to go home and that means you need to get to know the island’s residents because they can help fix your balloon.

Before you start exploring Grassland Island, you need to create an avatar complete with style and colors for hair, eyes, and skin. Now you’re ready to start your adventures with a pet who climbs and digs for you. PETA folks can take comfort knowing these are beautifully and intricately drawn animated pets and you take good care of them by making sure their energy levels stay up by feeding the animal its favorite foods (it lets you know what it likes and dislikes).

You only have one pet with you at all times, but can change your pets at your heart’s desire. As you meet other creatures on the island, you’ll occasionally come across an egg that you can incubate.

Every creature has three numbers — thus resembling RPGs — climbing, digging and energy. As it climbs and digs, its energy levels drop. The amount of drop depends on its strength and the strength of the object or animal it interacts with. The game comes with 40 creatures including robots. Animals also have the ability to charm other animals to get them to give up an egg, recipes or items.

Characters also have likes, dislikes and unique interests and personality quirks. Art Gunderson loves to wear fuzzy costumes and ballgowns. Two roommates live in a tent refuse to eat anything that isn’t organic — or rather one does while the other complains.

You also meet twins, a professor, a captain and more. Just when you think you’ve met all of the characters, you discover more. That’s what makes the game special — it surprises you throughout the game.

Your new found friends have a friendship meter. They start as strangers and as you complete tasks for them or treat them to something they like, the number climbs as you work to become everyone’s best friend. You might not be all of their best friends by the time you build your balloon, but don’t rush to do it either. Wandering Willows and its journey need savoring and enjoying.

You pick up recipes, items, clothing and collar patterns and much more along the way. In total, the game contains 162 tasks, 200 recipes and 150 patterns for making different types of clothing including swords, helmets and capes.

I never care for wardrobes and dressing up characters … until now. This comes with more than just shirts and pants. With sunglasses and funny hats, the characters (and you) wear your creations until you change them. The collars give the animals added powers or abilities. But power of the collars don’t look obvious.

The wondrous land has three stores: cooking, sewing and gardening. You can buy some supplies while others you need to make yourself. You can also sell items in these stores so you can get more Willowbees aka cash, moolah, currency and bucks. You can carry 100 mushrooms, but you may not be able to carry 20 different objects depending on the size of your backpack. I love that about this game — it lets you carry all you want of individual items, but limits the different types of items.

Wandering Willows lasts a long time. Even after you fix your balloon, you can keep on playing and you most likely want to. Some of the simulation types of games encourage you to continue interacting with the game, but you feel like the fun is gone. Not so with Wandering Willows. I only have three uncompleted tasks by the time I repair the balloon. I’d like to see a few more than that, but at least I have plenty of trophies to earn to compel me to trek on.

During the entire game play, I worried about the game crashing. Its colorful and calming scenes constantly jerked as if I didn’t have enough screen power. It only crashed once, but continued to flake even though I closed all other applications.

Another feature I’d like to see is a list or chart of all the animals that travel with me and things I make. With many animals and recipes, you lose track and I’d like to meet each creature once and make each item. Although the character eventually finds a way to move from place to place a little faster, it gets tiring waiting for her to get where she needs to go. Speed up!

It won’t surprise me if this one wins awards and accolades. I wish we could see novel games like this more often. Not only does Wandering Willows contain charming and adorable scenes and characters, but also humor and the freedom to do things in no particular order. It’ll make my top 10 games for 2009 and it’s only March.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

Beware The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur has a potty mouth, but that’s what makes it endearing and an engaging read. Author and TP entrepreneur (TPE) Mike Michalowicz uses it as his brand. Anyone who doesn’t like potty mouth is probably not his ideal audience anyway. While potty humor — especially in the movies — tends to gross out, Michalowicz uses the humor well without disgusting the reader.

Michalowicz advice comes from his experience. In fact, he has lived in a retirement village because it was all his family could afford while he was trying to start his business.

The book gives you the playbook for your business whether starting out or already going. With less than 200 pages and plenty of examples, it’s a fast and engaging read thanks to the simple conversational writing style. He doesn’t do framework, concept or academic talk (read: boring) — at least not much. Instead, he tells you what you need and urges you to go do it plus throws examples to show how to put the idea in action.

He gives you idea how to get something for very little or nothing. That’s what it means to be a TPE: making the most of the little bits of toilet paper left on the roll with no full roll within reach.

Throw away the business plan. It’s useless. I agree with him because I’ve seen businesses grow and succeed without a business plan. However, he encourages cobbling together a one-paged prosperity plan that makes you cry and hits home along with a quarterly plan and daily metrics.

The book makes an effective first step for anyone thinking about or diving into entrepreneurship. It contains most everything you need to know including what you stand for, focus, marketing and financial management.

No. B.S. Just what you need to get off the pot and make the most out of what you already have.

I’ve added The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur to my list of short and powerful reads.

• Title: The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
• Author: Mike Michalowicz
• Publisher: Obsidian Launch, LLC
• ISBN: 0981808204 / 13: 978-0981808204
• Date: 2008
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 199 (my copy shows 175 making it a short and powerful read)
• Cover Price: USD: $24.95

From now until midnight on 31st March 2009, Astraware’s award-winning Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Casino, Astraware Boardgames and Astraware Solitaire are all available for the discounted price of $4.95 each! That’s a savings of $5 off the new regular price of $9.95.

To get these special prices, visit www.astraware.com, add the games to your cart and click buy – the discounts are already applied!

Whilst you’re in the mood for saving, our colleagues at Handmark are having a site-wide Buy One, Get One Free sale until 29th March. To take advantage, visit www.handmark.com, and use the discount code DEMAND.

Photo credit: ilco

I love hanging around the online writing community. Where else can you meet a diverse crew in terms of expertise, location and writing styles? No matter how similar or different we are, I relish mingling with them all whether it’s here, their blogs, Twitter or other social networks.

We help each other become better writers. Believe it or not, you won’t find a dash of competition anywhere (unless it’s an actual competition like NaNoWriMo).

Writing can be a lonely job, but not when you have a community like ours.

Joanna Young more than does her part in keeping the writing community going strong. Her March group writing project’s topic is writing lessons from the community.

Gosh, I’ve learned much over the blogging years from the community. Whatever I pick up from the community becomes a regular part of my writer’s being. So the best I can do is share what I’ve learned recently.

• Tune in to positive feedback from Joanna: Make the most of the feedback you receive. G-d knows I am way too hard on myself. Thus, I value feedback from others. I urge people to provide feedback. How else can I improve my writing?
• How two people can read the same thing in a different way from Karen: Though this has happened to me, the post reminds me to talk things through when something doesn’t turn out as I expected.
• How to deal with rejection from Jamie: He shares a big time rejection story and does what a writer should… keep going and plan to do better next time by asking for professional critique.
• Why consultants make fabulous clients from Brad: Consultants sometimes get a bad rap. Shake off every negative thing you’ve heard and absorb what Brad shares.
• Take a damn vacation from James: I’m bad about vacations for a lot of reasons. For one thing, being a home office worker means I need to take care of things that break around here whether it’s sick kids, appointments and other work interruptions. Oh, my dear husband is an involved dad, but I have more flexibility than he does.
• How you can make money writing about shit from Cath: Seriously. This post shows how to take one specific topic and turn it into a money maker. Sometimes I forget I know stuff that others want to know. It’s a matter of figuring out what that crap could be.
• It’s OK to do word vomit from LorettaJo: You can’t catch bulimia doing this. Instead, you get ahead with your writing.
• Discover powerful short books from twitternation and the community: I’ve got a lot of reading to do thanks to the great feedback from everyone!

If you’re not mentioned, please don’t feel upset. That’s why I’m not crazy about these sorts of posts. It’d take days to make sure I include everyone. I’m sure I’ll get ya another time. OK?

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. March 23rd: 45% off on Pandora’s Pests

Tue. March 24th: 50% off on Train Your Brain

Wed. March 25th: 45% off on The Magic Seal

Thu. March 26th: 50% off on Galactic Dream – Rage of War

Fri. March 27th: 45% off on Rooby Run

Sat. March 28th: 50% off on Crazy Basketball

Sun. March 29th: 45% off on 3D Snake Arena

First, roughly 10 of you are eagerly checking this blog because you want to know if you won a copy of Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids from yesterday’s guest post.

Random.org, do your thang! Presto!

#11!! Congratulations, Jenni!

• 100 Twitter tools sorted logically.
• 7 Tips to Make Sure You Get Paid: Thank goodness, I’ve only had two clients that required extra effort to get their payment for my services.
• 10 Types of Bad Clients and How to Avoid Them
• 47 Twitter Power Users’ Secrets To Getting Many Followers
• What the Flip Is Social Media? (this is a G-rated site, peeps): Link comes from a high school friend on Facebook… wow. Never thought I’d see the day.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 100+ Funny Photos Taken At Unusual Angle: Beware, some not appropriate for work or around kids.
• 10 Intense Public Guerrilla Marketing Posters.
• Netdisaster: Destroy a web site. I’ve seen these before, but figure someone needs to burn a web site to feel better.
• Lookitsme 404 Page: Funny! Watch it until white paper shows up. I love a good 404. Used to have one, but haven’t been able to fix it.
• Geek Crafts: Star Wars Cookbooks stars Wookie Cookies. Heh. [Link: Jenn Fowler]
• My Life with Cables: How Simon and I feel about ‘em.