Working with clients is one of the most difficult parts of being a web designer.

It’s a challenge which we face each and every day, regardless of whether we work in-house, as freelancers, or as agency owners.

Some clients are great, while others leave us tearing our hair our and wondering why we felt the need to subject ourselves to this line of work.

While some problems with clients can be put down to poor communication by both parties, many times we can identify clients which are going to be difficult before we even start working with them.

Today we’ll take a look at seven ways to make sure you don’t end up as a regular contributor to ClientsFromHell.net.

1. They Want To Argue on Price

This is probably the most common of all red flags. A client who wants to argue on price is a client who doesn’t respect, understand, or value the work of a web designer. If you hear statements such as “I have a nephew who can do the Photoshop for $50″ – run a mile.

Other common issues surrounding price and payment include not wanting to pay a deposit before the commencement of work and trying to get you to agree to payment clauses. For example: “Our new website must receive X amount of traffic by X date in order for the final 25% to become payable.”

This is not acceptable. You are a professional providing professional services, so make sure you are polite but firm with the price which you have quoted. The only way to increase the perceived value of web design as a service is if we hold steady on this issue.

Some clients think that they should be able to pay whatever they feel like for services, because they aren’t products with fixed prices. This is memorably depicted in The Client Vendor Relationship by Scofield Editorial.

2. They Need it Done Yesterday

Probably the next most common red flag encountered: clients who need their project completed yesterday, or at the very least by the end of the week.

Not understanding or caring about the amount of time needed in the web design process is another sure sign of a poor client. Not understanding, in principle, is OK. The not caring part is the real issue. Almost all clients with an immediately pressing deadline aren’t open to suggestion, their mind is made up.

Web design at any level beyond the most basic of sites takes a significant amount of time. The reality of the situation is that in the overwhelming majority of cases it wouldn’t even be possible to meet their deadline if you worked all day and all night.

I once left a client’s office at 8 PM on a Monday and had the client shouting at me on the phone at 9 AM on Tuesday asking why the next design revision hadn’t been completed. Needless to say, for that and other reasons, the project didn’t work out.

3. They Have an Existing Website Which Sucks

My own trademarked indicator of how to spot a nightmare client. It’s easy to think that if a client has an existing website which sucks, that they must have had a bad web designer. What is true much more of the time is that they had a good web designer and they screwed up the site all by themselves.

Here’s the thing, and The Oatmeal summed this up perfectly in their comic How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell, clients often have an overwhelming knack for screwing up websites. Looking at their current website can often offer a pretty clear indicator of what sort of client they’ll be.

Along the same lines, also depicted in aforementioned comic, if the client has a poor relationship with their last web designer then it could be a pretty good indicator that they’re going to end up having a poor relationship with you. I’ve personally never met a client who complained about their last web designer and then turned out to be loads of fun to work with.

The best clients already have great websites. They researched what they wanted, they worked with a great designer, the website is great, and now they want to work with you to take it to the next level.

4. The Person Managing the Project Built the Current Website

A sure-fire way to doom a project before it ever gets of the ground. If the person who you’re working for is the person who created the website which you’re redesigning, then they’re going to take everything personally.

Not only are they going to take everything personally, but they are going to want to offer their input, advice, and opinions every single step of the way. This is never more true than if the marketing manager is the person who runs the current site. Statements such as “can we make it flash” and “can we make the logo bigger” were born from clients such as this.

The fact of the matter is that the person who is paying you needs to be at least slightly impartial about the website which you’re creating for them. If they have a personal connection or commitment then the chances are that their own personal preferences will get in the way of important decisions.

For designers in particular, this type of client is guaranteed to be a pain from the get-go. If this red flag is present, then nine times out of ten red flag number three will also be there.

5. They Can’t Communicate

One of the more sneaky red flags, this one can creep up on you and knock you down when you’re least expecting it. Poor communicators come in all shapes and sizes. A client who seems like a great communicator socially does not always translate into a client who is a great communicator professionally.

The best way to gauge this particular metric is through multiple channels of communication. Talking on the phone, talking in person, writing via email, writing via project management software. How well are they able to tell you what they want?

Some of the classic statements used by clients who can’t communicate are “I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.” and “I want it to have more [pop/jazz/edge/whoosh/sex/shine/glint]“ – these people just don’t know how to say what they mean and as a result it’s almost impossible to please them.

Communication is the most essential part of the web design process and without it a working relationship cannot go smoothly.

6. They Want Constant Meetings

The needy client is sure of only one thing, they don’t know what they’re doing and they don’t trust you to do it. To make up for their insecurities, they want to see you regularly so that you can hold their hand at every turn. With this client you’ll end up spending more time in meetings with them than you will on design or code.

The needy client will eventually drain you of all your time an energy. In extreme cases they’ll even ask you to work at their offices. They don’t trust you, they want to keep an eye on you and they want you to be right there whenever they have a question.

This red flag will often show itself in combination with the “Can’t Communicate” red flag. Their own inability to communicate leads them to believe that you don’t understand what they want, (this part is actually justified, most of the time you have no idea what they want because they themselves have no idea what they want), so they want to see you often to ask about more ‘pop’ and ‘flare’.

7. They Want an Ongoing Relationship

Finally, the ultimate red flag. A client who talks constantly about how they want an “ongoing relationship” is a client to avoid like the plague.

In a healthy professional relationship both parties know that if the project goes well, and if the opportunity presents itself, then they will work together again. A client who is insecure (number 6) and had a bad relationship with their last designer (number 3) wants to hang on to the next guy like he’s their holy savior.

In extreme cases these clients will talk about how they want to make you “part of the team” or “part of the family”. These are also the clients that are most likely to try to tempt you with offers of revenue or stock in the company in place of some part of your fee. They want to lock you in and own you.

This is the client who is going to call you at eleven at night because they had some great (read: awful) new idea that they just had to run past your urgently, just in case you were relaxing and going to bed instead of working on their site. Remember, you’re part of the family now, they own you.

Conclusion

Many of these issues can come down to uneducated clients, and as many other articles in the past have stressed: educating clients is extremely important. It’s your job to help them make the right decision, not laugh at them for not knowing what it is. Sometimes however, they can’t be helped.

We all have bills and mortgages to pay. Sometimes people say that they don’t have the luxury of choosing their clients in so much detail. Just keep in mind that a bad client will cost you money, not make you money. These are the types of people who will waste your time for two months and then with-hold payment.

This is just a blog post, these aren’t commandments written in stone. There are exceptions to every rule and it’s up to you to use your own judgement and common sense to identify the red flags as they come up. Hopefully, this post will have simply given you a few tips on things to look out for.

This post was authored exclusively for WDD by John O’Nolan, a seasoned web designer, writer and entrepreneur based in Surrey in the United Kingdom. John loves to talk to people, so why not @JohnONolan on twitter too?

Do you have any other essential red flags to watch out for in clients? Have you found any strong indicators to judge good and bad clients by?

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: O1Rs1S

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Photoshop is probably one of the most indispensable pieces of software in a designer’s toolbox.

It can be used for everything from retouching photos to creating entire web layouts or original artwork.

And specific design tutorials are a great way to familiarize yourself with what Photoshop can do and how to do it.

Below are 50 of the best Photoshop tutorials from 2010. They cover everything from manipulating photos to creating icons to digital painting and text effects.

There are tutorials for all skill levels, whether you’re new to Photoshop or a seasoned pro.
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Photo Effects and Manipulations

Working with photos is what Photoshop was originally created to do (hence the name). It’s capable of so much more than just simple retouching, though. Here are over a dozen great tutorials for working with photos, including effects and manipulation techniques.

Create a Nature Inspired Photo Manipulation in Photoshop

Here’s a quick (around 1 hour) intermediate tutorial for creating a nature-inspired photo manipulation. The resulting image is beautiful and ethereal, and the techniques used could easily be combined to create other images with similar surreal imagery.

Create a Magical Four Piece Stardust Composition

This beginner Photoshop tutorial shows how to create a photo composition with four faces and a nebula-style background. Total completion time is around an hour, and the techniques used could easily be adapted to creating other compositions.

Create a Realistic Panoramic Matte Painting in Photoshop

Here’s a photomanipulation tutorial that will show you how to create a matte painting (like those used in movies for set backgrounds that would be too expensive or difficult to create). It’s aimed at intermediate Photoshop users, and takes between five and eight hours to complete.

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Create a Devastating Twister with Photo Manipulation Techniques

This photo manipulation tutorial shows how to combine a variety of images to create a tornado destroying everything in its path. It’s an intermediate-level tutorial, which should take about four hours to complete.

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Use Photo Manipulation and 3D Layers to Design a Surreal Cover Art Illustration

In this intermediate tutorial, you’ll learn to use things like the Vanishing Point filter and 3D layers to create an amazing photo manipulation. It also explains how to keep text layers editable, which can be a huge time-saver if you need to make changes to the design.

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Reader Photoshop Tutorial: Sisters by Marcos Torres

This tutorial from Abduzeedo shows you how to create a macabre vintage photo manipulation of some particularly creepy sisters. Instructions are clear and easy to follow, making the tutorial suitable for beginners.

Reader Tutorial: Planet X Matte Painting in Photoshop

Here’s another matte painting tutorial, this time showing a desolate sci-fi scene with a city in the distance. The tutorial is easy to follow and the end result is quite stunning.

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Creating an Ecological Fairy Tale Wallpaper

Here’s a relatively simple photo manipulation tutorial for creating a fairy tale-style wallpaper with floating islands. Instructions are straightforward, though sparse in places, making it best-suited for intermediate users.

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Create a Grungy Scene with Colorful Lights in Photoshop

Here’s a grungy photo manipulation tutorial that makes use of compositing, blending, and filtering techniques. The lighting effects in this tutorial could easily be applied to other photo manipulations.

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Make a Divinely Dark Zen Composition in Photoshop

This tutorial shows how to create a photo composition with a selective coloring effect. It teaches us the Color Range command, and uses image adjustments, warping and blurring to give the finished image a sense of depth and motion.

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Create an Ink-Splattering Knight Composition

This tutorial shows you how to create a grungy knight photo-manipulation by combining images and textures.

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Creating Funny Big Head Characters in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create giant heads from portrait photos (kind of like the Red Queen’s head in the new Alice in Wonderland).

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Giving Your Photograph an Antique Look

This tutorial from 10Steps.SG shows how to create an antique effect on any photo, including texture overlays and recoloring techniques.

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Create a Surreal Vintage Futuristic Design with Photoshop

Here’s a tutorial for creating a grungy vintage-style poster, but with a futuristic twist. It teaches you to create light streaks from scratch, as well as how to use a variety of Photoshop tools.

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Create a Fantasy-Horror Scene in Photoshop

If this creepy little girl rising from the pages of a book doesn’t give you the chills, I’m not sure what will. This tutorial will show you how to create her by combining a number of images and textures.

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Design a Grunge Vintage Poster in Photoshop

Here’s a tutorial for creating this cool grungy vintage poster, with circle cutouts. It teaches you a variety of techniques related to using textures and adjustment layers.

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Create a Vibrant Colorful Alcohol Product Ad in Photoshop

Here’s a fantastic photo manipulation and compositing tutorial for creating a stylish and bold alcohol ad, that could be adapted to other beverages.

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Digital Painting and Drawing

Photoshop excels at digital painting and drawing, especially when used with a tablet. Here are a handful of tutorials to get you started.

How to Paint a Fantasy Portrait from Scratch with Photoshop

Digital painting can be intimidating for a lot of Photoshop users, even if you’re perfectly comfortable doing photo effects and manipulations. It just seems so much more complicated, especially for those who don’t think they have any fine art abilities. But this tutorial from Psdtuts+ shows you exactly how to create a fantasy portrait painting, from scratch. The fact that it’s aimed at beginners and can be completed in about 2 hours only makes it better!

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Draw a Pirate Character in Photoshop

This tutorial from Psdtuts+ shows how to draw a pirate caricature based on a hand-drawn sketch. The entire process takes five or six hours, and is best for intermediate Photoshop users.

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Concept Art: Create a Sci-Fi Interior Using Digital Painting Techniques

Sci-fi concept art is a popular subject for digital painting. It’s also one that can be intimidating for a lot of users, especially when the image you want to create exists only in your own head. This tutorial is a great introduction to creating sci-fi concept art, aimed at intermediate Photoshop users.

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Create a Photo Realistic USB Cable in Photoshop

Here’s a beginner tutorial for creating a realistic-looking USB cable. The tutorial should take just over an hour, and the result is fantastic. The tutorial itself is broken down into very easy to follow steps, with plenty of illustrations.

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Text Effects and Icon Designs

While text and icon designs are often done in Illustrator rather than Photoshop, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of great Photoshop techniques for creating either. The dozen tutorials below prove it.

Easy Casino Style Sign in Photoshop

This tutorial from Abduzeedo shows how to create a lit-up sign like those seen on Vegas casinos. It’s a simple tutorial with very specific step-by-step instructions, suitable for beginners.

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Super Easy Typographic Portrait in Photoshop

Typographic portraits are a cool design style, but can seem incredibly complex and time-consuming to create. Not anymore! With this short tutorial from Abduzeedo, you can quickly create a typographic portrait from virtually any portrait photo.

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Create a Wooden Social Media Icon Quickly with Photoshop

Here’s a simple tutorial for creating a wood-textured social media icon that would be right at home in a grunge or similar design. The end result is quite gorgeous, and it’s quick to create.

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How to Create a Detailed Briefcase Icon in Photoshop

Here’s a simple tutorial for creating a detailed, textured briefcase icon, suitable for beginners.

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Create a Harry Potter Style Text Effect in Photoshop

This tutorial shows you how to create 3D style text like that used for the Harry Potter movies.

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Creating Retro Folded Typography Using Photoshop

This tutorial shows you how to create multi-colored, textured lettering with a convincing folded-paper effect.

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Create a Funky Retro Wavy Text Effect in Photoshop

Here’s a fantastic tutorial for creating retro-style textured lettering with wavy coloring evocative of the 70s.

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How to Create a 3D book Icon in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create an awesome little book icon, entirely from scratch.

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Modern 3D Text Effect

This tutorial explains how to create a smooth, modern 3D text effect.

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How to Create a Simple and Elegant Text Effect

The text effect shown in this tutorial is definitely simple and elegant, as well as versatile and easy to create.

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How to Create a Mysterious Poster Design with 3D Text

This tutorial shows you how to create an awesome 3D text effect for posters or other artwork, that could be easily adapted to almost any word or short phrase.

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Create an Awesome Funky Text Effect

This tutorial will show you how to create some amazing lettering with lighting and other effects.

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Web Design Tutorials

Website design mockups are often created in Photoshop, especially when a lot of textures or patterns will be used. Here are a dozen tutorials to get you started.

Make a Simple and Slick Accordion Menu in Photoshop

This tutorial from Design Instruct will show you how to create a stylish and polished website menu that can be used as part of a larger design or as a mini site on its own.

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How to Design an Elegant Website in Photoshop

This tutorial shows complete, step-by-step instructions for how to create a soft, stylish website design mockup in Photoshop. The end result is sophisticated and elegant, and would be perfect for a design portfolio or an ecommerce site.

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Create a Professional Corporate/Business Template in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create a very professional website design in Photoshop, perfect for a corporate website. The end result is polished enough for even the most conservative industries, but the color scheme gives it a bit more of a modern edge.

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How to Design a Health/Nutrition or Fitness Website in Photoshop

This tutorial shows you how to create a casual, funky health-focused website design. The overall design could also be adapted to fit other industries.

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How to Create a WordPress Theme in Photoshop

This tutorial shows how to create a three-column WP theme that includes a headline space for featured articles and an ad-ready sidebar.

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Design a Textured Outdoors Website in Photoshop

This tutorial shows you how to create a dark, textured layout. The techniques used could easily be used for other design styles. Also linked is a second tutorial for coding the design.

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Create a Gnarly Snowboarding Themed Web Design

This tutorial, from Chris Spooner, shows how to create a cool blue website design with some nice texture effects and a snowboarding theme.

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Make a Stylishly Elegant Portfolio Design in Photoshop

This tutorial from Design Instruct shows how to create a sophisticated portfolio design with a number of textures and patterns.

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Create a Web Application Website Design in Photoshop

This tutorial shows how to create a polished and professional website design for an application. The end result is suitable for a wide variety of app types, and could easily be adapted for even more.

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Creating a Stylish Blog Design Layout in Photoshop

Here’s another tutorial from Chris Spooner, this time for an elegant blog layout.

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How to Create a Distinguishable Textured Web Layout in Photoshop

This tutorial teaches a variety of Photoshop techniques, including how to create letterpress-style text and complex shadows, in the creation of this stylish website design.

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How to Create a Clean and Professional Resume

This tutorial shows you how to design a simple, modern online resume.

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Other Tutorials

Not every great Photoshop tutorial fits neatly into one of the categories above. But the handful featured below still deserve a place on this list.

Hexagon Bokeh Effect in Photoshop

This tutorial shows how to create a bokeh-like texture composed of various sized hexagons. The end result is beautiful and could be adapted to other shapes quite easily.

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Create a Fantastic Abstract Fan Poster

This tutorial uses a lot of different Photoshop effects and filters, especially blur filters for the background. The end result is quite stunning, but the step-by-step instructions are simple enough for a beginner to follow.

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Make a Stylish Futuristic Textured Wallpaper in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create a textured wallpaper reminiscent of a nebula, complete with bold, futuristic graphics. The methods for combining textures and effects could easily be adapted to any number of designs.

href="http://designinstruct.com/graphic-design/make-a-stylish-futuristic-textured-wallpaper-in-photoshop/"> src="http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/photoshop_tutorials_2010/futuristicwallpaper.jpg" alt="" />

Create Beautiful Abstract Mosaics

This tutorial from Digital Arts shows how to create an abstract mosaic with a relatively simple technique.

href="http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/index.cfm?featureID=3243921"> class="image-border" src="http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/photoshop_tutorials_2010/abstractmosaics.jpg" alt="" />

Brilliant Matte Dispersion Effects in Photoshop

This tutorial shows you how to create your own custom Photoshop brushes that can then be used to create a matte dispersion effect.

href="http://design.creativefan.com/brilliant-matte-dispersion-effects-in-photoshop/"> src="http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/photoshop_tutorials_2010/mattedispersioneffect.jpg" alt="" />

Written exclusively for WDD by href="http://cameronchapman.com/">Cameron Chapman.

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href="http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/12/50-of-the-best-photoshop-tutorials-of-2010/">Source

το ακούω εδώ και καιρό και ήμουν excited να το δω Live και όντως είναι τρομακτικά βολικό για να το χρησιμοποιείς. To  Google instant βγήκε επιτέλους στον αέρα  και είναι αποθεωτικό. Το θέμα προκύπτει όμως για τους διαφημιζόμενους και εν δυνάμει σε όλους τους επαγγελματίες του internet όπου υπάρχει ένα μικρό θέμα: πως θα μετριούνται τα Pageviews τώρα καθώς και τα searches  ?

Ο χρήστης πληκτρολογεί κάτι και εμφανίζονται αποτελέσματα και διαφημίσεις με το κάθε γράμμα που πατάει. Σε κάθε γράμμα εμφανίζονται αποτελέσματα και διαφημίσεις. Οι διαφημίσεις χρεώνονται ανα ckick ΑΛΛΑ το rate για το keyword το οποίο πληρώνει ο διαφημιστης εξαρτάται και απο τις μετρήσεις απο το πόσες φορές εμφανίστηκε… Φαντάζομαι οτι θα έχουν μπει και άλλοι παράγοντες στο να καθορίσουν το bid για κάθε keyword αλλά και τα impressions που έχει μια διαφήμιση, άρα περισσόρος πονοκέφαλος για όλους όσους ασχολούνται με το επάγγελμα.

Αυτό που εγώ πάντως βλέπω, είναι με μία φράση :

ευκολία για τους χρήστες, περισσότερα έξοδα για τους διαφημιζόμενους, με λίγοτερα αποτελέσματα στη διαφήμιση

Δηλαδή ναι μεν οτι είχες πριν θα έχεις και τώρα σαν διαφημιζόμενος με τη διαφορά οτι θα χρεώνεσαι ενα impression έστω και αν η διαφημισή σου εμφανίστηκε για 1 δεύτερο καθώς ο χρήστης πληκτρολογούσε ενα search term

my two cents

Ναι είναι γεγονός οτι ήμουν δύσπυστος στο να χρησιμοποιήσω οθόνη αφής στο κινητό μου στην αρχή, λόγω του οτι ήξερα (πριν δυο χρόνια λέμε τώρα) οτι όλα τα κινητά έχουν μικρές επεξεργαστικές δυνατότητες. Tελικά πήρα το HTC touch Pro πριν 2 χρόνια και ακόμα να το αφήσω. Δε μπορώ να το συγκρίνω με το iPhone καθώς είναι κατα πολύ κατώτερο, αλλά έμεινα σε ένα βαθμό ικανοποιήμενος απο την οθόνη αφής. Αν το σκεφτείτε οι οθόνες αφής θα είναι το μέλλον σχεδόν σε όλα όσα κάνουμε, καθώς δεν υπάρχει καλύτερος τρόπος για να ανταλάξεις πληροφορίες με ένα υπολογιστή . Υπάρχουν πολλά concepts για το UI που θα χρησιμοποιούμε αλλά ποιο απο όλα θα είναι πρώτο στην αγορά δεν ξέρουμε ακόμα. Ενδιαφέρον είναι το Ivan Tihienko’s Ringo interface που θέλει να αντικαταστήσει τα κινητά μας και pda μας.

Ενα ακόμη ενδιαφέρον concept είναι το παρακάτω απο TAT Mobile UI

Βέβαια ποιος ξέρει και πότε θα γίνουν τα παρακάτω, αλλα το σίγουρο είναι οτι δεν θα αργήσουν και για να είμαι ποιο σίγουρος θα πω οτι στο δικό μας lifetime σίγουρα θα τα πετύχουμε.

Multi-touch