Adobe Shadow Simplifies Mobile Web Testing

 

 

Sent to you by Steve Mc via Google Reader:

 

 

Adobe Shadow Simplifies Mobile Web Testing

via Webmonkey by Scott Gilbertson on 3/7/12

Adobe Shadow makes it easy to test your site on multiple devices at the same time. Photo: Adobe

Adobe Labs has released Adobe Shadow, a new project that offers a simple way to test your websites on multiple devices at the same time.

To try out Adobe Shadow, head on over to Adobe Labs and grab the desktop app and Chrome browser plugin, along with the Android and iOS offerings.

If you've never tried testing your site simultaneously on multiple devices, the fact that Shadow consist of four separate apps should give you some idea of how difficult it generally is. Thankfully, once you have all the pieces installed, Shadow makes the rest of the testing process as simple as hitting refresh. In fact, much of the time you don't even need to do that — Shadow will automatically mirror whatever you're doing on the desktop to the rest of your connected devices.

Though it's still a beta release, Shadow may well be the most useful thing Adobe has ever built for web developers, particularly those that have embraced responsive design. It's no secret that, while responsive design allows developers to easily target a wide range of screen sizes, it adds a considerable amount of work to the development process. But with Shadow mirroring your website across dozens of devices at the same time, testing becomes simple and easy. It's a bit like synchronized swimming for web browsers. You can even debug and make changes directly in Chrome and then see the results on each device. To get an idea of how Shadow works, check out this overview video from Adobe:

There are two small problems with Shadow. The primary problem is that Shadow will only test your site in WebKit mobile browsers. We'd hate to see Shadow become yet another reason for developers to ignore non-WebKit browsers. So, while Shadow is great, it won't give you the whole picture right now.

The good news is that Shadow is a beta release and a work in progress. I spoke with Bruce Bowman, Senior Product Manager of Shadow and, while he stopped short of committing to anything, Bowman made it clear that Adobe plans to keep expanding Shadow's capabilities as the project progresses.

The other problem with Shadow isn't actually a problem with Shadow directly, but its usefulness is nevertheless directly related to the number of iOS and Android devices you have on hand. Obviously those that will benefit most from Shadow are large web development shops with the budget to invest in dozens of mobile devices. Shadow is no less handy for individual developers with only one or two devices, though the results are of course limited.

Should Shadow prove popular, perhaps it will help spur the sort of device swap gatherings we've heard mobile expert Peter Paul Koch suggest — a group of web developers pool their resources, bring together a wide range of mobile devices and take turns testing websites. Shadow could make that process considerably easier and faster thanks to its live editing capabilities.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Webmonkey using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Users Expect Websites to Load in the Blink of an Eye

 

 

Sent to you by Steve Mc via Google Reader:

 

 

Users Expect Websites to Load in the Blink of an Eye

via Webmonkey by Scott Gilbertson on 3/2/12

Photo: tobias.munich/Flickr

Think your three-second page loads are "just fine"? Think again.

According to engineers at Google, even the blink of an eye — which takes around 400 milliseconds — is too long.

That's the word from the New York Times, which makes an unusual foray into the world of web development with its article "For Impatient Web Users, an Eye Blink Is Just Too Long to Wait."

Some web developers may remember the days of the two-second rule (and no, not the one that applies to dropping food on the floor). The established wisdom — well-tested at the time by usability experts like Jakob Nielsen and others — was that after two seconds the number of users willing to wait for your page to load dropped off significantly.

That rule still holds, it's just the amount of time that's changed. Nowadays, the Times claims, users drop off after a mere 400 milliseconds, and a difference in page load time of just 250 milliseconds is enough to convey a distinct advantage over your competitors.

It's that last number that's perhaps most interesting. Anyone who's browsing the web via a 3G connection can tell you that if you're only willing to wait 400 milliseconds for a page to load, you aren't going to see much of the web. On mobile networks bandwidth constraints are even more of an issue than they were when the two-second maximum was popularized. Users seem to understand this, but they don't see it as an excuse. Now, perhaps more than ever, slight differences in page load time can give your site a significant advantage over competitors, according to the Google and Microsoft engineers quoted in the Times piece.

In other words, users may still, in some circumstance, be willing a wait a second, but if your competitor's page is even 250 milliseconds faster, you can kiss your users goodbye.

Don't believe us? Head over to the Times article and see if Google's engineers don't convince you. When you're done we've got a few tips on how to speed up your website and make sure that no one has the edge on you. Here are a few helpful articles from the Webmonkey archives:

• A Guide to Understanding Page-Speed Tests — Before you can optimize you need to know what you're looking at.
• Build Faster Mobile Websites With 'Adaptive Images' — Every byte counts in the mobile world, make sure your images aren't slowing down your site.
• Google's New Page Speed Service Promises to Speed Up Your Website — Google's Page Speed tool works just about everywhere and will give you some helpful tips for speeding up your website.
• Speed Up Your WordPress Site With Google's New Page Speed API — WordPress has its own built-in Page Speed tool.
• How to Speed Up Your Site With YSlow and Page Speed — YSlow is slightly different than Google's Page speed, this article offers some tips on how to use each.
• Speed Up Your Website Using CDN JS — External code can be a serious drag on your page loads, make sure you're loading your JavaScript from a CDN.
• Clock Browser Speeds with Webmonkey's Stopwatch — You can never have too many page speed timing tools, this is our older, but still functional, stopwatch for timing websites.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Webmonkey using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Time to give your Facebook Page a spring clean

Though the new Facebook Page & Timeline layout goes live at the end of March, you can make use of their new layout now to present your brand better.

The large image at the top of the page is the 'cover photo', and can be at least 400 pixels wide but ideally 870x360. It is a great way to showcase your brand, be it a destination or a product, and to make an immediate impact on a visitor to your page.

See http://www.facebook.com/help/timeline/cover for more Q&As about the new cover photo feature. Bear in mind Facebook have a few restrictions on the cover photo image: see http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=276329115767498 .

When Disaster Strikes

The worse case scenario was realised for a client recently. Their web-mail account was hacked, and despite all our attempts the account could not be recovered.

We value our e-mail accounts, but should treat them like they're a treasure. Especially, as in this case, when the account is used as the main means of doing business with clients.

Losing all your contacts details is a loss in itself, but what if you've lost e-mails that not only contain your credit card details, but also those of past clients? Think also of the loss of future business, as people use the old, hacked e-mail address. Think of the hacker rubbing his hands in glee as people try to pay him with a credit card...

It is truly a nightmare situation, but there are steps you can take to prevent this happening to you.

1. Backup your webmail contacts once in a while
Depending on your webmail service, you should export your contacts:

Yahoo - click Contacts tab, select all, click Export all. To a CSV
Hotmail - click Options, and click the Export Contacts list. Auto saves to a contacts csv.
Gmail - in Contacts, click More, then Export.. then choose CSV.


2. Make sure you've a strong password
8 characters or more, numbers, letters, Capitals, punctuation. Then change it on a regular basis.

3. Use the security question option
And change it once in a while.

4. If there are credit card details in an e-mail:
print it, file it safely, and then delete it. Then empty your Trash folder.

5. Above all: never never never click on a link that then asks for your account details. And never click on an .EXE attachment. And never send (or ask for) credit card details by e-mail. In fact, trust nothing anyone asks for in an e-mail.

UPDATE


More hacked clients has led me to offer further suggestions.

6. Export ALL your e-mail once in a while
Sounds like a massive job, but it's actually quite easy to export Yahoo into Gmail. See this article.

Tracking adwords conversions on a WordPress site

Knowing how many people have clicked your Adwords ad and then gone through your site and contacted you via a form is critical - it shows how much value you're getting from your ad.

Here's one way:

1) Paste your Adwords conversion code into a html document (for example, contactconversion.html), and save it in your live site's theme's folder.

2) Edit the footer.php and add this code at the end (before closing tag :



if (is_page('thanks'))
{ include ("contactconversion.html"); }
elseif (is_page('otherthankspages'))
{ include ("conversion_other.html"); }
?>

I've left an elseif in in case I want to implement tracking on one of our other forms)

See this post for additional information.

3) Now I need to create a thanks page in Wordpress. Just make it private so it doesn't show in any menu. The is_page value should of course match the page.

4) I use Contact Form 7, and so I use the Additional Settings field of my form to specify what happens after the form is submitted:

on_sent_ok: "location = 'http://www.mydomain.com/thanks';"

As mentioned above, the end of the URL will match the is_page value.

See this page for further details.

And voilà, a form submission will redirect to the new thanks page and put in the code in contactconversion.html and my Adwords conversions will be tracked!

Google + Business Pages Are Here

Forget Facebook: 4 Reasons Your Company Needs a Google+ Page

According to Inc. Magazine, a Google + Page will have the following benefits for your business:

1. Boost your SEO
2. Give your message a longer shelf-life
3. Google + will be the social network for businesses
4. Easier to manage than Facebook

And our favourite part about social media marketing -- it's FREE!

Read the article at Inc. Magazine

Google Hotel Finder

Google has launched a Hotel Finder Service which one expert says is "so simple, it's brilliant."

Travelers will love the simplicity and speed with which you can select, compare and book hotels without ever having to leave the page, except for the final booking. No ads or affiliate links that get in your way - just relevant hotels. Google Hotel Finder is so simple, it’s brilliant.

Read the entire article on HotelMarketing.com

While the service applies only to hotels in the United States at this initial launch, it is anticipated that other countries will eventually be included.