Here’s a quick and painless way of getting rid of that annoying spam on your phone:  

1. If you don’t have a Gmail account yet, get one. I would suggest getting a good username that you’re comfortable with using as a default mobile address (if you choose not to use your Gmail account as your default address this trick will only be good for replying, not sending email). Luckily my Gmail address is what I prefer to use. 

2. Once you have your new Gmail account set up, log in and click the “Settings” link in the top right corner, next to your email account’s name.

3. Click on the “Accounts and Import” tab at the top.

4. There you will see the second option says “Send mail as:” Click the button labeled “Send mail from another address.”

5. When you hit this button a dialog box will pop up. Enter the name you wish to have as your reply name, as well as the email address you wish to send from then click “Next Step.”

6. Next click the radio button labeled “Send through _______.com SMTP servers and enter your information.

7. Next, a confirmation email will be sent to that email address with a code, enter that code in the “Verify” area.

8. Once verified, go to that account's settings and find the forwarding options and enter your new Gmail address.

9. Do this as many times as necessary to cover all of your accounts. 

10. Once this is all done all of your emails will forward to Gmail, utilizing their great spam filtering, removing it from your iPhone's non-existent spam filter.

11. Sync the phone with the one mobile account (you can label it iPhone Mail or whatever else will help you out) and no longer receive unwanted spam.

 ---

Do you have any tricks to help with email issues on the iPhone?

Let us know if this works for you, or if you have any troubles with it. 

 Thanks for the read! 

Flexibility

Flexibility is the number one reason we use ExpressionEngine. Whereas other CMSes (such as Wordpress and Drupal) assume a basic structure like a blog or community, ExpressionEngine assumes very little and lets us take complicated wireframes and impossible designs and turn them into an easy-to-use site.

For example, take a look at our portfolio and specifically the Nomad Mobile Guides project. This is a very complicated page: you’ve got a large banner image, some project images, a description of the project and some related articles. Creating these things—especially the related articles—is typically an exercise in frustration, but with ExpressionEngine this is typical.

Getting those related articles to show up is a multi-step process, but it makes sense after you take a look at the steps.

1. First, you create the blog posts. The idea would be that you already made these in your day-to-day work anyways.
2. Either create or edit an existing project.
3. Find the area that says Related Articles.
4. Find the article that you want to show up (feel free to use the drop-downs and search box) on the project page and just drag it from the left to the right.

That’s it, that’s all it takes to get those related articles to show up on a project’s page. The best part? When you update the blog post down the road, it’ll update on the project page without you doing anything!

Security

Folks who have been using other CMSes (especially Wordpress) know that security is a big concern. It’s pretty easy to find a whole slew of sites that have been hacked into and covered in spam. ExpressionEngine has been a secure platform and there are several reasons for that.

Their release schedule produces a new build about every two months and a new release (1.x.x) every six months or so. It’s a slow, deliberate pace and they rigorously test these releases before we ever see them.

One of the big reasons Wordpress gets hacked as often as it does is because of something called XML-RPC, which lets you post to your blog or site from somewhere else—such as a desktop blog editor like MarsEdit. Now, ExpressionEngine offers the same functionality—the ability to remotely edit your blog posts and other content—but it’s not enabled by default, closing up what is typically a security risk.

Accountability

Accountability is a hidden gem of a feature. For the most part, this ‘feature’ gets glossed over and forgotten about, but it’s the reason we keep coming back to ExpressionEngine. Take a look at open-source CMSes, and there’s a whole slew of them: Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, MODx, SilverStripe, Habari, the list goes on and on. One of the biggest issues with open-source CMSes is accountability: when something goes wrong who's accountable?. Sure, there are exceptions to this such as Drupal’s Acquia—the commercial support wing of Drupal—and you can always report the problem you’re having; but for the most part, if there aren’t enough people with the same problem, it’s up to us to fix it.

With ExpressionEngine, once you have a license, you’re given access to their support forum where a very active—and paid—support team descends upon your problem. I’ve found most problems get resolved within a week if not the same day.

Now that’s all fine and dandy, but with all of these CMSes you aren’t only using the CMS’s core features, you’re using plugins and add-ons; and there’s been several times where something I depend on working breaks and the original developer is nowhere to be seen. At that point it's up to me to fix my problem.

ExpressionEngine developers are a bit different. Granted, there are cases where the above scenario has played out with an ExpressionEngine add-on, but it happens a lot less often. Why’s that? There’s a good number of ExpressionEngine add-on developers that charge for their work and developers that charge are invested and accountable. If the add-on stops working all of a sudden, they’re there to support you and get it working again. (On a personal note, I’ve had one developer offer to log in to an in-development ExpressionEngine site, find the problem, fix it and let me know what was wrong. And that’s not an exception, this happens a lot more often then you’d think.) I get the feeling that they’re not just offering this level of support for the money, I think they truly care about what they’re doing and want happy and satisfied customers.

Answered Questions

I hope I’ve answered the question “Why ExpressionEngine?” for you. Between it’s flexibility, security and accountability, we’ve found our tool-of-choice. No longer do we have to push back on a feature because the CMS won’t let us do it. But I know that there still may be some lingering questions out there, so if you still have any unanswered questions about why we use ExpressionEngine, please let me know and I’ll try to answer them.

• AFFINITY for the brand and INTEREST in the subject are the two most important factors in email participation.
• Users spend an average of 51 seconds reading a newsletter.
• 69% look forward to receiving at least one of their newsletters.
• Users read content as a form of personal address—anything you write should be directed specifically at them.
• Users hesitate to subscribe to newsletters because they already receive too much information, and are concerned about information overload.
• LISTEN TO YOUR GUT:  If you're really stumped for something interesting or compelling to write about, chances are your readers are tuckered out too.

Some User Pet Peeves

• Too-frequent mailings
• Irrelevant content 
• Unsolicited newsletters
• Ads that lead to sites with pop-ups

GUIDELINES

Things to think about with every email you send

• Does my subject line entice readers to open it?
• Am I making the most of my preview pane?
• Is it easy on the eyes?
• Does the message come through even if the images don't? Add descriptions to images (alt tags) so that users can still know about the images even if they are blocked.
• Does this email have a personal touch or does it feel like a "blast"?

Make content conversational, readable and compelling

• Strike a balance between more general information and insider scoop.  Your readers signed up for the newsletter - make them feel like they're "inside the organization".
• Include employee recommendations, favorite spots, etc.
• Offer something in the newsletter the reader can't get anywhere else - content that isn’t on your site or in your brochures, etc.
• Think about expanding content authors...  guest posts on newsletters are interesting because they provide different perspectives.

Make content easily scannable for your readers

• Feature prominent headlines
• Keywords should be in the first few words of a headline
• Go for impact rather than complexity...  they'll keep reading, we promise.
• Appealing campaigns make their appeals EARLY
• Too many campaigns bury the lead
• Group similar items together, like News & Announcements, Events
• Pull out common, desired information across content groups for sub headers.  For example for Events, use the Event Title as header, with dates & location as subheaders.
• Keep content short and use the website for discursive material
• Give your readers a teaser and make them click the link to read full details

Ensure content is timely/recent

• Think about when you send your emails out and when is the most likely time that these readers will actually read your newsletter. If possible, look at your stats to see how send times affect open and click through rates.
• Tuesday through Thursdays fare a little better than Monday or Friday due to full inboxes. 3:00 - 4:00 is a good time window to hit readers who may be reading at work- people are usually more receptive to a "distraction" during this timeframe so make sure to have you email delivered before then.

Subject Lines

• Use descriptive but short subject lines that entice readers to open the e-mail and distinguish this e-mail from spam
• Use A / B Testing to determine effective subject lines
• Good content often comes from bad- write the most boring subject line first and improve from there
• Consider a consistent newsletter title for easy recognizability
• The subject line is another form of identification for your email. Leverage the fact that the reader signed up for your email, not that you'll create a compelling enough subject line to trick them into opening in.  
• Inform but entice
• Avoid using words that could get your campaign filtered, such as FREE, HELP, PERCENT OFF, and REMINDER.  It's also best to avoid exclamation points - typically subjects framed as questions work better.
• Stick to 50 characters or less - 80 characters are ok if it's an active sentence
• Think of it as a newspaper headline

Layout

• First few inches of your e-mail is key (above the fold)
• At least 60% of your subscribers will see your email in a preview pane, therefore avoid large link groupings or images at the top of the page.
• Include your logo (but not too big)
• Include the content you want to emphasize most
• Things such as mission statements, taglines, regulatory info, etc. need to occupy cheaper real estate
• Beware of the side column, Readers may ignore a list of things in a side column—this is often used as ad space, and, if using a free webmail service, readers will already see a column of ads/sponsored links on the right.
• For your events, consider having a single link to a PDF that readers can print and keep
• Provide prominent links to Unsubscribe, Send to a friend, Contact Information (if they have questions), an Online Version, and JTHG’s website
• Provide sample eNewsletters on your website. This encourages users to subscribe because they can see what they'll get (and what they've missed).

Personalization

• Break newsletter down into smaller, targeted segments
• If including reader information is possible, consider personalizing with info other than last name
• Send out a welcome email and allow people to make selections on what topics interest them, where they live, etc.
• If possible, follow up with targeted email based on their click through activity.
• Go through subscriber lists and periodically send out emails to readers that haven't opened your emails in six months.  Sometimes in offering to remove them from your list, you re-spark an interest in your newsletter.  Ask them for feedback!

Statistics

• Keep them!
• Break newsletter up into trackable components and keep track of what works and what doesn't.
• Review statistics and revise subject lines, number of articles and width of header accordingly.
• Review time of delivery compared to open and click-through rates
• Review open rates by subject type - events type, calls to action, etc.
• Follow up click throughs with targeted emails if possible

If you'd like help with a specific email strategy, please contact Jessica Behal, ext 201.

Today, our work for the International Reporting Project (IRP) was the subject of an article by Z. Kelly Queijo (@zkellyq) at Handshake 2.0 as part of their weekly Rackspace Tech Showcase series. Thanks to Kelly for the kind words, as well as to everyone at Handshake 2.0 and Rackspace Email and Apps for the forum.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

At NewCity, every project begins with the end-user in mind. For the IRP, the end-user included editors, journalists, as well as readers. According to Melissa Beaver, User Experience (UX) project lead, “In our research for this project, we found that the author was as important as the content. People read a news blog because they like the blogger. The subject is the primary draw but it's a personal connection that keeps them reading.”

Here's a link to the entire article.

Dave Watson jumping riders in the Tour De France

Everyone has seen those awesome multi-freeze frame photos of athletes doing their high-speed moves like this one of Dave Watson. Dave pulled off a stunt during the Tour de France, in the Alp d'Huez stage. He waited for the peloton to round the corner in the mountains and proceeded to literally jump over them. The good news is that he wasn’t arrested and thrown into jail. The bad news is that he didn’t land it.

I’ve always thought that the process to make a photo like this was long and arduous, requiring a film camera exposing multiple times on the same frame. But if that were the case, wouldn’t the photo turn out overexposed? The guys at Adobe answer the question. In Adobe Bridge CS4 there is an option called “Photomerge” that makes the process of creating an amazing action photo easy as buying tainted meat from McDonalds.

Open Bridge and locate a few photos that are fragments of a cohesive whole. I’ll use something practical from a productivity standpoint. In the office we’ll often brainstorm and fill a dry-erase board with boatloads of information that ends up as a coherent sitemap or a straightforward concept for the operation of a function we’re implementing on a site, ect.

The downside to this is that the whiteboard needs erasing, so we take photos of the board, but as larger sections so that the writing isn’t illegible on screen. Before we pieced together the photos in Photoshop, but only with limited success. After all, there are sections where the white balance is different, not to mention the other automatic corrections such as exposure, ISO and aperture. With Bridge’s Photomerge option, all of this is fixed on the fly.

Best of all, once you select the photos you want, it only takes three clicks of the mouse to use it. Here’s how it works.

Open Bridge and locate the files you want to merge. Here’s mine:

Select your images then go to Tools > Photostop > Photomerge

This dialog will open up in Photoshop:

I always select the Auto Layout option.

Click OK and watch the magic. Here is a final version of what Photoshop produced with a little Level correction.

We looked for seems and found nothing. Here is a screen shot of the layers and masks that Photoshop produced:

After seeing the automated attention to detail in the masks, I felt like a weight that has never had to be carried by me is no longer a looming ominous threat. Could you imagine having to do the job that that little trick just did?

Here are a few more images that caught my attention while searching around:

Growing up racing BMX has obviously influenced my genre of taste.

I’d love to hear if any of you have used this tool, if you’ve seen cool pictures you think have been created successfully, and if you haven’t used it, how you will plan to use it now that I’ve bestowed this piece of wisdom that was once imparted to me.

Thanks for the read!

Duplicating an object within a single layer

Say you have a bulleted list or navigation column that needs a graphic next to each topic – in this case we'll use a red arrow. Most-often when you have a Photoshop document with hundreds of layers – ease of editing and document file size becomes crucial.

1) click to view larger

1) You can duplicate the arrow layer each time and position the new arrow where needed – but you'll end up (in this example) with a total of 19 separate layers – just for this small section of your design. Not only will this clutter your layers palette, but there is no real reason for this. All it's really doing is taking up valuable vertical visual space in your layers palette. You could group all the arrow layers, but that's just hiding the issue.

2) click to view larger

2) Here's what you do… position the first arrow – use your marquee tool and draw a selection box around it. Then hold down your Command, Option & Shift keys simultaneously – then move your cursor within the selection box and click & drag the arrow down to a new position. You will notice that you have just duplicated the arrow within the same layer! If you happened to miss the selection area, clicked & moved, you will notice that you may now have another unwanted layer – delete & try again.

You can fine-tune the position of the arrow by making another selection box around it & moving it . It gets better – if you need to create many many arrows – you can now select the two and duplicate them using the same process – now you have 4, etc.

3) click to view larger

3) Repeat as needed until you have as many as you need – all on the same layer. Another advantage to this is when you have to change the arrows in some way, they are all in a single, easy to manage layer. This way you can change colors or position without having to worry about selecting multiple layers. This seems like a small time saver, but it adds up over time, and multiple projects.

Merging layers without losing the original ones

Say that you have a layout that you have been toying and tinkering with for a while. You have it to a point where you need to now show your Creative Director or Client. Here's the thing – you have multiple ideas, color options, or in this case – photo combinations. Time is money, and you don't have the time to fumble through and remember which obscure layer to turn on or off for each combination while that person is sitting directly behind you. No matter how much you aned over organizing the layers. I'll show you an easy way to combine these many ideas onto single layers so that all you need to quickly show are those few final ideas.

1) click to view larger

1) Create a few blank layers at the top of all your other layers. Name these layers "flat 1″, "flat 2″, "flat 3″, etc. – or you may even want to name them specifically by there differences or aspects. By always keeping these located at the top of your layers palette – it helps you to quickly find them. Now as you work out each different idea within this same comp, simply follow these next steps…

2) click to view larger

2) For each combo of options that you want to show (in this case, photo combinations) get the file looking just how you want. click once on a blank layer to highlight it. Hold down your Option key and then click on the Layer Options button in the top right of your layers palette. Scroll down to "Merge Visible" and click. Be sure to keep the Option key pressed until Photoshop is finished doing it's thing.

You now have all visible layers merged onto one single layer and still keep all the layers used to create it! If you see that you have actually merged all layers and are missing a bunch, go back in your history & undo – try again – KEEP THE OPTION KEY DOWN.

3) click to view larger

3) Save your file. Now turn off the flat layer you just created and turn on & off the desired layers for your next option. Repeat step 2 highlighting the next blank top layer until you are done. You can always make more blank layers at the top as you need them.

By mastering these shortcuts, you will find that your workflow will increase and help you look more like a pro.

original photo - background needs removing

Paths are an essential design tool for lorez web work, and especially important in hirez print work. I don't know how many times I've had to train design interns and new hires on this basic process.

We've probably all seen poorly pathed images that have that halo on the edges. Sure ideally you would shoot the image on a background suitable for what you need it for in order to minimize the halo effect – but it's more-often the case that you have a client photo that must be used. One with all-sorts of background mess.

Here are a few tips to help:

1. Start your path in an easy place – like a corner.
2. Decide which direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise) you will go which is most comfortable for you.
3. The fewer the points – the better. Take advantage of the tool handles to adjust curves & direction.
4. Curves – place a point in the middle the flat pixel plain. A circle or oval has 4 of these & should only need 4 points.
   

   4 & 7. Point in mid of the Flat Part of a Curve

5. Take full advantage of the Pen tool key commands; Command key lets you use the Direct Select pointer, Option key lets you use the Convert Point Tool, hover the cursor over a point & click to delete a point, or hover & click between existing points to add a point. This will speed the process by not having to click options in the tool palette.
6. Zoom in close to see the details – zoom out to see the whole picture. Repeat.
7. Split the pixels – you want more of the item and less of the background. Especially on curves.
8. Know your subject matter. You often have to make judgement calls on vague areas – like those in shadow.
9. Double & triple check the path. View close-up and make any adjustments needed.
   

   9. Object Fully Pathed

10. When complete, deselect the work path layer in the path tab by clicking off of the layer. This will help protect it – if it is still active and you delete something while working, it will probably delete the path you worked hard to create.
11. You can use the Direct Select pointer and hold down the Option key to select all points on any given path. This comes in handy for creating Masks or Clipping Paths.
    

    11. Object with Background Removed using a Mask

12. Some images just cannot be clipped purely. After you are done and the object is clipped, it's not cheating to sample the edge color of the object and paint in the edge pixels to eliminate the halo that may remain.
13. Hair or fuzzy areas are not ideal for paths. For this it is best to use the Extract tool under Filters, but will not be discussed at this time. This was a default filter tool in previous versions of Photoshop, but in CS4 it must be manually installed from the Goodies folder of your install disk. Well worth doing & getting acquainted with.
14. Practice makes perfect. If you're not confident, practice on different types of images.

By mastering the path tool, it can make a retouched or combined image look great – making you look like a pro.

For many, this is an eye-opening process powerful enough to break through a chorus of "it's always been done this way." And the results aren't just measured in more leads, faster sales cycles, and higher brand recognition. Often we hear from people on the inside that we've made their jobs easier, too.

To us, it's the only way to work. If you're going to create something, whether it's a website, an in-store design or a brand campaign, you're wasting money if don't find out what the intended audiences are looking for.

We call it experience design, and to reflect this change in position, we've shortened our name to NewCity. Apparently, we're on to something because here's a wikipedia entry on the matter. I don't know who wrote this, but it's like they were in our heads when they did.

What is experience design?

It's bigger than the web. It's bigger than advertising. It touches every aspect of our lives in positive and negative ways. Experience design is a trade off, a conversation, and a transaction even if no money changes hands.

Done right, it leaves people with a sense of satisfaction and the natural urge to tell others about the great experience they just had. Done poorly, it leaves people with only one choice – to never go back there again. Somehow, when it's done wrong (or not at all), it seems to inspire more chatter than when it's done right. Which is all the more reason for it to be done right. There aren't many second chances these days.

What's important to know about experience design?

You can't be all things to all people. In fact, it's detrimental to even try. We have a saying here: choose who to lose. In order for fans of your brand to have value, they have to have something to gush about. Something they can hold as a carrot in front of their friends, family & anyone else who will listen.

Every company has a carrot to offer. If you don't think you do, you just haven't found it yet. Maybe it's something you're not doing that your potential fans are waiting for you (or one of your competitors) to offer. First one there wins. We can help you uncover the opportunity first.

Some customers will never get what you're doing and that's okay. There are no concrete numbers on the true value of a loyal customer, but I think we can all agree that 50 loyal brand evangelists are more valuable to a business than 500 fair-weather fans.

So how does it work?

We begin new business relationships by getting to know our clients through the eyes of their customers (however you want to define that term). Next we evaluate what we discover alongside the client so they learn as we do. We use a number of methods to gather the information, from interviews to KJ Sessions..

If we asked the right questions along the way, we come out with a clear picture of not only the current experience the client offers, but also the desired experience their customers are looking for. Sometimes these are the same, but more often than not, there's room for improvement. Which is exactly what we help do next.

At that point, it's time to turn the discoveries into strategies. Still working side-by-side with the client, we develop strategic solutions to address shortcomings in their business processes, communications, online presence and purchasing experience.

As these solutions are put into action, excitement grows within the community of customers. We build on this wave by crafting branded communications that give loyal fans entertaining ways of sharing their excitement with friends and family. Additionally, we translate the experience into any other means of advertising and promotion that make strategic sense.

This process starts with what's important – the customer experience. When our clients and their customers are telling the same story about what it's like to do business together, great things can happen. These memorable experiences come together to build lasting brands. That's our belief, anyway.