That's an "interesting" usability decision, I'm curious to hear what makes you believe it's better usability than having a password be hidden?
I personally hate it because it get the following signals from it:
* How could such an obvious product bug be missed
* Feels "amateur" -> is my password secure/encrypted?
* I don't feel safe using the site, because who knows how secure my account data really is...
But you might not be designing for me, so let's take a step back. Given the following assumption:
Hidden password: All don't care, as it's standard. No one loves, no one hates.
Visible password: Some love it, some hate it, some are just confused.
I think the extra love is really not worth the amount of hate it brings along. Why have people hate when you can avoid it :) Just my 2 cents.
Also, for the free signup at the top right of the page.... Please make the password input field a password input. It's scary to read my own password as I type it, and makes me feel a big unsafe.
Regarding the "super expensive" -- doing the math, it's not that bad ^^ But it "feels" expensive when given a per month billing price in my opinion.
One more nitpick: The website is really nice, pretty and lightweight, and the background images in the samples are pretty. However, in the pricing section those "0101010101" make it suddenly feel "old school"/not as elegant. I'd suggest using a prettier less flashy background image.
Haven't used it yet, but definitely will given how smooth the demo is. However I have two big concerns.
1. Are there options to backup/save an offline copy of the tree? Or a print-friendly version?
The reason is that family tree are meant to last over generations, and potentially longer than your web service (hopefully not, that would be a good sign for you :P). It is a bit scary to upload all my family tree, and update it without having an option to make a private copy should the website ever dis-appear. Printing a family tree would be pretty cool too IMO, might be an interesting revenue stream to look into, maybe?
2. Pricing: This is super expensive :( I have a family tree I would like to create, with more than 25 people, but really can't afford 7.50$/month. In many ways, it's more of a product than a service. I won't look at it everyday, or update it everyday. Only very incremental changes a few times a year. A fix cost, or 'yearly cost' would be more adequate in my opinion.
Just logged in, first thing that popped up is the "dotted line" around every menu link I clicked. I would suggest adding the following css to your menu a tags: { outline: none;}
I'm not a "designer", so the way I use photoshop is potentially not the best, but it works. I usually design my website on photoshop (after manual sketches) in order to be able to try different prototypes fairly quickly. I don't use the splice tool, but rather generate pictures that I need manually. (e.g. 1x20 image is enough for a background, logo in png if need for transparency etc..). Then I jump to css and build up the design.
As far as php/mysql vs. Python/Django vs. RoR... I would suggest sticking to what's most comfortable for you to learn fundamentals. But once you know your basics, it's much easier to jump from a technology/language to another.
It seems your focus is not on productivity (e.g. build a good website, quickly) but rather working hard, from the basics in order to build a strong foundation for the future. Learning from the "ground up" is no easy task, so I would suggest a divide and conquer strategy rather than trying to attack all the problem at the same time. For that reason I'll split the learning in a few different buckets, that you can choose to attack whenever you feel ready for it. I think the methodology below works best if you have a simple project in mind to work through (But remain stay realistic/minimalistic for now).
1. Front-end layout: html/css
Here, think about the website layout you would like to have. Feel free to wander the web and get inspired by other design you like, and try to recreate them. At this point, you might need to brush up your Photoshop skills (for minor things). Look at css frameworks in terms of what they have to offer, and recreate it. (You can even look at their code to understand better).
I would highly recommend using Firebug at this stage, to inspect page elements and css properties for websites you visit. As far as html is concerned, learn about good practices, and standards (quickly, don't become a fanatic). Use w3c validator at the end and try to make it down to zero errors/warnings.
2. Front-end UX: javascript
While html/css focus on presentation, and creating a layout. Client-side Javascript will give life to it. Here I would suggest doing basic things like onclick events, DOM manipulation (e.g. create tabs, when you click on a link a div appears, the other one becomes hidden), changing css properties based on events and so on. You have a big important choice to make here however: To use jquery, or not.
jQuery will make things much much easier, because the truth is client side javascript is a big mess. Every browser handles events, dom, etc... differently. If you were to use pure javascript from scratch, you would need handle all those differences yourself in order for the site to work on all browsers. If you use jQuery, it's all taken care of. So it's your call how much time you want to spend here. Honestly, I think it's safe to use jQuery directly. Also, I would suggest reading the following book at this point: "Javascript, the good parts". Don't worry, it's a small, quick, and easy book to read.
NOTE: The following two steps above can be done on your computer locally, without the need of a server etc. But we are at a fork now, as you'll want to get your stuff online. If you want to learn about server now, read on. If you want to focus on back-end first, skip this step and come back to it afterwards.
3. Server stuff
The easiest way would be to get a hosting, and drop your files using ftp. But you asked for a harder way which teaches you the fundamentals. I would therefore suggest getting a VPS (Virtual Private Server), which is a machine somewhere online which belongs to you. On this 24/7 connected machine, you can install anything you want based on your needs. These are not free, but if you look at http://chunkhost.com/ you can get one free month. Having a domain is useful as well, which is not free. But you can always reach your server using its IP if you prefer. You are familiar with php already, so go ahead and install apache/mysql on that server, along with an ftp for you to connect to it. How to learn about it? Slicehost has amazing documentation http://articles.slicehost.com/sitemap. I realize there are 'hotter' things out there than apache/mysql, but stick to the basics for now. After all, this will not teach you how to install "apache and mysql" on a machine, but really teach you how to get/setup/install anything on a VPS (nodejs, nginx, any other db). A word of warning here, this will involve very little programming, and might seem pretty tedious -- but it's good learning.
4. Backend: MVC
You already know php, and I suppose how to use mysql with it. So it's time to use the MVC pattern. There are many frameworks out there, but if you really want the core understanding of how it works, create your own MVC framework. There are a few tutorials that will walk you through it, and give you great understanding of model, view, controller, routing, etc... At some point, you might realize you're duplicating a lot of mysql code and queries are all over the place. You might want to create a simple abstraction layer that makes it easier to create your queries in php (rather than in SQL). Once you get those running and working, it should be an Eureka moment. You'll understand a world of opportunities opened up for creating more complex websites, in a simpler way. You'll also realise that there are so many cool things you could add to make the system "better". That's where Frameworks come in: Teams of strong people have spent time to precisely create that. If you want to stick with php, look into "CodeIgniter" which is a lightweight php mvc framework. It is so lightweight, that it might feel in many ways similar to what you created. Also read about ORM (Object Relational Mapping), by using "Doctrine" along with code igniter.
5. Next steps...
If you make it this far, congratulations :) The road won't be easy, and you'll have to dig all over the web to find answers. But it's through this search that you'll progress, so don't let it stop you (think of it as a sign you're doing things right). Now once you make it this far, there will be a lot more interesting topics to look into. But remember this lao tse quote: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" -- take your time, be patient, and learn one step at the time. Good luck, and I hope this post will be useful to you.
In my experience Flash is not much more secure. Looking at your app for example, it seems the hash you are using is not a function of raceId or timestamp so there is potential for replay (e.g. reuse precomputed hashes). Also, is it possible that the salt starts with "209adk"? :)
As far as a better solution, maybe using of dynamic script loading, maybe unique salt/session along with strong server side synchronization. Desktop games are faced with similar challenges, even if the path is much harder given the amount of reverse engineering required.
I'm interested to hear about your hopes for Google music, and the kind of features you are/would be expecting. I'm asking because currently working on a similar service :)
Hey Mike, thanks for the offer. I'd like your feedback on the design of the landing page of my site: http://www.myzeek.com/
- What do you think of the design? (I'm not a designer) Does it looks cool/boring?
- What do you think of the structure of the content?
- Do you understand the product, and would you be tempted to sign in for the beta?
Any feedback is very useful and highly appreciated :) Thanks.
Hi Mike, thank you for taking time to answer. I made a website (http://www.letschattr.com) which lets Facebook users anonymously chat with other random users wanting to connect. My question is how do I go about launching such a website, where I need a minimum amount of people simultaneously on it to work?
I personally hate it because it get the following signals from it:
* How could such an obvious product bug be missed * Feels "amateur" -> is my password secure/encrypted? * I don't feel safe using the site, because who knows how secure my account data really is...
But you might not be designing for me, so let's take a step back. Given the following assumption:
Hidden password: All don't care, as it's standard. No one loves, no one hates. Visible password: Some love it, some hate it, some are just confused.
I think the extra love is really not worth the amount of hate it brings along. Why have people hate when you can avoid it :) Just my 2 cents.