Nikolas Laufer-Edel's Blog: Archive

Jan 30th

Learn "Startup Metrics 4 Pirates" (AARRR)

Dave McClure shares his experience working with startups. Watch the video and follow along with the embedded slide show below.

Dec 31st

Nov 25th

1 note

May 28th

May 24th

May 23rd

Being Productive

Get into the grove and stay there Avoid interruptions by scheduling blocks of time where you turn off notifications (phone, email, etc…) for at least an hour at a time. Be healthy (eat well, sleep, and sweat) to keep your mind sharp. Surround yourself with people that make you smile. Build a support network of people to help you get through problems when you get stuck. Make the best...

May 3rd

2 notes

Apr 11th

1 tag

Mar 15th

1 note

1 tag

Mar 13th

1 tag

“Presentations should help us to discuss and decide on the issues that shape our...”

– Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points

Mar 12th

1 note

1 tag

Feb 23rd

1 tag

Jan 17th

1 tag

“Nowadays, Back is more like an Undo command”

– Jonathan Dobres, referring to the buttons on web browsers.

Dec 30th

1 tag

Dec 3rd

1 tag

The classroom of the future.

Watch David Kelly, IDEO co-founder & professor of Design at Stanford, talk about his biggest interest in education reform. In short: learning should be fun learning should be project based learning should be personalized

Nov 9th

1 tag

JJG's Elements of User Experience Stationary

I’m a fan of Jesse James Garrett’s Elements of User Experience. So I put together a quick Pages.app template with sections for each plane: The Strategy Plane: Site Objectives and User Needs The Scope Plane: Functional Specifications and Content Requirements The Structure Plane: Interaction Design and Information Architecture The Skeleton Plane: Interface Design, Navigation...

Oct 7th

2 tags

Encourage users to recommend you.

The thought of a “random message” was impersonal; until this gem came up. What’s great about Hootsuite’s implementation is that it waits for you. It waits for you to be comfortable with the app. Then it asks you for the recommendation. Summary: How are you helping happy customers recommend you?

Sep 13th

1 tag

Twitter is just a tool and a URL.

“I want to see 1,000 followers.” A client once told me in passing. I smiled and wondered why. I think what he meant was that he wanted to see us influential in the online community. But Twitter is just a tool and a URL, community comes from elsewhere. Twitter is just 1) a set of tools to post and search for messages and 2) a URL – Twitter.com – where people decide to congregate. ...

Sep 12th

1 tag

Aug 15th

1 tag

Browse Safari more efficiently with Hinter...

Hinter is great little Safari extension that puts a number next to links for quick keyboard navigation. What’s really nice is that it doesn’t label every link on the page, just what’s visible to you on the screen.

Jun 30th

1 tag

Product description template.

To explain products and ideas with greater clarity, I often reference this framework. Framework What is it? What does it do? How does it do it? Who would use it? Why would they use it? Application It’s a series of questions or a framework, that allows you to craft descriptions of products or ideas, that once answered, people wishing to communicate...

Jun 29th

1 tag

How to pick olive oil.

What might otherwise be an overwhelming choice in the grocery store, when looking for olive oil to use uncooked in salads or to finish a dish consider: First run-off / Cold pressed. This means the oil has been extracted from the olives without chemicals or steam. Not ”Pomace”. This is made from the leftovers of the first run-off variety above. Dark bottle or tin. Good olive oil must...

Jun 25th

1 tag

Wuffo as lead capture tool

Wuffo can be used as a quick and easy lead capture tool. With a bit of work you can pre-populate fields via a query string and make hidden form fields. Here’s how. Create a lead source field in your form. To hide the lead source field type “hide” in the ”Add CSS Layout Keywords” box. Look up the API ID for the lead source field: in the form manager click...

Jun 3rd

1 tag

“A potential new customer saw a coupon code at our site and asked us for an...”

– On Writing: Accentuate the positive

May 10th

1 tag

Web design: single column beauty. →

Apr 4th

1 tag

Internet music done right, thank you @hypem →

Mar 23rd

1 tag

Mar 23rd

2 tags

Watch

If you can’t compete directly with the iPad, compete by attacking the minds of customers. I’m not sure how many people will actually wait for the MS Courier given that it’s just a concept, a concept that I would surprised (although ecstatic) to see MS actually deliver. In the meantime this is just inspiration for Apple and iPad developers; it looks like a dream.

Mar 6th

2 tags

“Consulting is about asking the right questions.”

Jan 20th

1 note

1 tag

Online Brand Building for Web Apps - Tip #1

The New Founders Program by Harvest (time tracking webapp) is example of a good way to build a brand online. Startups apply for a free year of service in exchange for an interview about their company. The interview is then featured on the Harvest blog. Harvest in turn gets: buzz from it’s target market - “hey check it out, my company got interviewed by Harvest” a warm fuzzy feeling...

Nov 8th

1 tag

The GAP Says: "Don't get Mad about Price Drops,...

A number of select GAP stores in Vancouver are participating in Sprize. A clever idea on how to cash in on the “savings” craze while spurring more purchases.

Oct 29th

1 tag

Efficient Mac #1 Move & Resize Windows on OS X...

Just tried Zooom which makes moving and resizing windows a snap. Works with 10.6

Oct 15th

1 tag

Improving Password UI

Interesting piece by Luckas Mathis on Password Masking and Chroma-Hash which uses colour to help users ensure they’ve entered a password correctly.

Oct 8th

1 tag

What's Wrong with Spaces on OSX

“[Y]ou can choose to have an application, and all its windows, appear in all workspaces, but you can’t do the same with just a particular document window within an application.” - Dan Frakes Has anyone figured this out yet?

Sep 27th

Pecha Kucha Vancouver should Crowdsource Auditions

Cause+Affect “felt compelled to make a public statement about the last Pecha Kucha Night” after “a significant amount of feedback”. I’m glad to hear the venue issue will be resolved moving forward but if you “can not spend time auditioning” why not let the audience do it? I bet local startup Strutta could help.

Sep 24th

1 tag

“[S]uccessful people are really just happy people, and I realize the extent to...”

– Merlin Mann

Aug 22nd

2 tags

Next RIA Platform will be Standards Based →

Jul 22nd

1 tag

Make Important Text Selectable - Usability Tip #1

People have come to your website for information they deem important (enough to visit your site). Make that text selectable so they can get on with their day (instead of trying to transcribe a phone number saved as an image, making an error when writing it down, and never calling as a result). Web Strategists may also find the Calgary based startup, Tynt, interesting. Traditional analytics will...

Jul 3rd

2 tags

“When someone understands what you want them to do but doesn’t buy into why...”

– The Story Factor

Jul 2nd

1 tag

Should I Upgrade my iPhone?

iPhone: Which iPhone 3.0 software features does my iPhone support?

Jun 22nd

1 tag

Jun 8th

50 notes

1 tag

Talk to a Live Person at the CRA

1-800-959-8281 Press *

May 22nd

1 tag

Connecting Online for People who Meet Offline

There are a number of companies niching in this space: CrowdVine Pathable EventVue There are of course also your more generic Ning, Google Groups etc..

May 21st

1 tag

“We’re all entrepreneurs of our own ideas”

– Keith Ferrazzi via ChangeThis

May 11th

1 tag

“Knowing what’s wrong with something […] does a fat lot of good if...”

– Hypercritical - Ars Technica

May 6th

1 tag

“[H]ave a healthy disregard for the impossible”

– Larry Page (via @plipska)

May 3rd

Videos Taking Over the Screen for Surprising...

Check out these videos on: YouTube and this Vimeo. The effect of integrating with the full window is intriguing; however, I can see it becoming annoying if used too often. The Vimeo bit, turning down the lights and highlighting the name of the video, on the other hand is beautiful and I think Vimeo should do it for each video.

Apr 27th

Flowcharts & Wireframes on OSX

OmniGraffle is still my favourite tool for flowcharts and wireframes on OSX. Templates and stencils can help speed you up while making your documents look great. For wireframing see this comprehensive set of stencils http://konigi.com/tools/omnigraffle-wireframe-stencils. My personal favourite, because of its simplicity, is http://graffletopia.com/stencils/445

Apr 23rd

2 tags

“So, if you’re going to manage to convince the world to change the way it does...”

– stevenf.com on the evolution of user interfaces

Apr 16th