Product Management UX/UI & Interacion Blog — Frank derFrankie Neulichedl

How to make a chart with 3d effects in Illustrator fast

Doing charts is a almost a daily business for any graphic designer. Most of them don't need to be super-fancy, but some spice can always help. Creating a 3D Effect is quickly done with the standard tools we all use - rectangles, lines and gradients. But if you have to do many charts (for an annual report) then this options can really slow you down. Unless.

Free alternative to shutting down Email Oracle

Email Oracle, a nice service and extension for Google Mail (Gmail) to track your emails. It's a great way to see if your recipient opens your email. Unfortunately the service is shutting down. So I've found an alternative. More after the break.

Download Nikon D3000 18-55 and 55-200 Kit-Lens Profiles for free

The Nikon D3000 is a entry level DSLR and the kit-lenses you get with it are not the best lenses in the world - but with the new lens correction introduced in Photoshop CS5, Camera Raw 6.1 and in the forthcomming Lightroom 3 will help you get better pictures even if you are just entering in the semi-pro digital photography.

Since Adobe and no other user has yet supplied Lens Profiles for this "cheap" lenses I've made them on a rainy sunday. So just download them and put them in the according folders to enjoy them.

The zip files includes the profiles for the NIKON D3000 with Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm f3.5-5.6, and the NIKON D3000 with the Nikkor 55.0-200.0 mm f4.0-5.6 lenses.

Download

[button color=green url=http://frankie.bz/files/2013/10/nikon_d3000_kit-lens_18-55_55-200_profiles_derfrankie_v1.zip]Download Nikon D3000 Kit Lens Download[/button]

Download

Install

To install them place them in one of the following folders.

a. For Windows XP: C:Documents and Settings(User Name)Application DataAdobeCameraRawLensProfiles1.0 C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataAdobeCameraRawLensProfiles1.0

b. For Windows Vista or Windows 7: C:Users(User Name)AppDataRoamingAdobeCameraRawLensProfiles1.0 C:ProgramDataAdobeCameraRawLensProfiles1.0

c. For Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/LensProfiles/1.0

Forced advertising viewing in the iPad magazine Apps?

This is not a rumor, but an idea. With the launch of the iPad and the other e-book readers launched on the market there is a new opportunity for content creators and advertisers to force the reader to view advertising.

Advertising in printed magazine

We all learned that advertising in print magazine has to be eye catching because we have 2 seconds of eye contact on average. If you cannot catch the eye of the reader you have lost the opportunity to deliver the message. The reader has also learned (just like on websites) to recognize advertising and ignore them.

The e-book magazine

There are several ways to deliver a magazine on the new e-book readers and iPads. You can have a PDF, a e-pub version and the most common way will be an App. Since the App comes from the publisher they can force you to view advertising in various ways:

  • Embed the advertising in the layout Just like print magazines - not so effective
  • Show advertising every time you start read in the App Like most video advertising for video content on the internet
  • Interrupt your reading experience with commercial breaks Like on TV, every 20 Minutes you are interrupted and you have to watch an ad for a certain amount of time

This advertising possibilities are an revenue channel for the publishers and even when they will not start right away with them you will see them further down the road. I can immagine that it will go the same evolution as cable companies went through.

So what do you think, will the advertising have a bad impact on your reading experience?

Search your GMail from your Firefox search box

I looked for a way to search my Inbox directly from the Firefox search box without another addon. I've found a way through the Opensearch capability of firefox. Since it's handy I wanted to share it with you even when it's not strictly design related ;-).