Two weeks ago we published a showcase of beautiful pinhole photography, and this weekend again we've got something unusual and creative to lift up your spirits and challenge your creativity. Illusions can be eye-catching and attractive and when you apply them to computer displays, the results can be quite interesting and deceptive.

Take transparent screen trick photos, for example. The idea is simple: you take a photo of your surroundings and set this photo as your desktop wallpaper. Once the display is positioned precisely, the transparent screen trick is achieved. Simple, but what can you do with this simple idea?

Below we present a short selection of some original transparent screen trick photos. The environments presented in these photos appear to have a completely transparent screen which creates an optical illusion. And here you go — now you have something fun to do over the weekend!

When I found the ad for the internship position at Smashing Magazine about six month ago, I replied within half an hour. I wrote my response quickly because, for once, I didn't have to exaggerate my enthusiasm. I was genuinely interested in the position and confident that I fit the job. I waited a few days for an answer, during which time I could reflect on what I had just done.

My academic semester hadn't even started, so I would have had to make arrangements if I was chosen. Plus, did I really want to move to Germany? The decision came a few emails and a week later: I was accepted and was expected to be in Freiburg in two weeks. Six months have gone by since then, and I have not regretted anything for one minute. I am now about to leave this city, the friends I have made and this company. To be sure, a lot has happened since February 15th.

When I found the ad for the internship position at Smashing Magazine about six month ago, I replied within half an hour. I wrote my response quickly because, for once, I didn't have to exaggerate my enthusiasm. I was genuinely interested in the position and confident that I fit the job. I waited a few days for an answer, during which time I could reflect on what I had just done.

My academic semester hadn't even started, so I would have had to make arrangements if I was chosen. Plus, did I really want to move to Germany? The decision came a few emails and a week later: I was accepted and was expected to be in Freiburg in two weeks. Six months have gone by since then, and I have not regretted anything for one minute. I am now about to leave this city, the friends I have made and this company. To be sure, a lot has happened since February 15th.

Price influences behavior. In order to craft an excellent user experience, the price — and how your users interact with that price — must be central to the development of the product, especially applications. No user will welcome an application if the cost is prohibitive. This makes price every bit as important as design, information architecture and wireframing, and it goes deeper than just getting people to click “Buy.” By focusing on users in setting and maintaining a price, you will increase revenue, lower overhead and, most importantly, significantly improve the user’s (read customer’s) experience.

For just about a year now, between designing and developing client’s websites, I have been running a little app that I created with co-workers. In that time, we have launched, added features, raised the price, added more features and just now begun the early stages of marketing the product. So far, we have done all of this without borrowing a cent, and we have managed to at least cover our costs, if not generate some modest profit. I have no doubt that this success comes from our choices of model and price point.

This article is not about “How to price your app.” There are plenty of good resources for learning how to find the right number. Pricing for use is a framework for continually adjusting your price, when needed, to suit your profit goals and the experience of your users.

Price influences behavior. In order to craft an excellent user experience, the price — and how your users interact with that price — must be central to the development of the product, especially applications. No user will welcome an application if the cost is prohibitive. This makes price every bit as important as design, information architecture and wireframing, and it goes deeper than just getting people to click “Buy.” By focusing on users in setting and maintaining a price, you will increase revenue, lower overhead and, most importantly, significantly improve the user’s (read customer’s) experience.

For just about a year now, between designing and developing client’s websites, I have been running a little app that I created with co-workers. In that time, we have launched, added features, raised the price, added more features and just now begun the early stages of marketing the product. So far, we have done all of this without borrowing a cent, and we have managed to at least cover our costs, if not generate some modest profit. I have no doubt that this success comes from our choices of model and price point.

This article is not about “How to price your app.” There are plenty of good resources for learning how to find the right number. Pricing for use is a framework for continually adjusting your price, when needed, to suit your profit goals and the experience of your users.

The explosion of JavaScript libraries and frameworks such as jQuery onto the front-end development scene has opened up the power of JavaScript to a far wider audience than ever before. It was born of the need — expressed by a crescendo of screaming by front-end developers who were fast running out of hair to pull out — to improve JavaScript's somewhat primitive API, to make up for the lack of unified implementation across browsers and to make it more compact in its syntax.

All of which means that, unless you have some odd grudge against jQuery, those days are gone — you can actually get stuff done now. A script to find all links of a certain CSS class in a document and bind an event to them now requires one line of code, not 10. To power this, jQuery brings to the party its own API, featuring a host of functions, methods and syntactical peculiarities. Some are confused or appear similar to each other but actually differ in some way. This article clears up some of these confusions.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Seven JavaScript Things I Wish I Knew Much Earlier In My Career
• The Seven Deadly Sins Of JavaScript Implementation
• Developing Sites With AJAX: Design Challenges and Common Issues

The explosion of JavaScript libraries and frameworks such as jQuery onto the front-end development scene has opened up the power of JavaScript to a far wider audience than ever before. It was born of the need — expressed by a crescendo of screaming by front-end developers who were fast running out of hair to pull out — to improve JavaScript's somewhat primitive API, to make up for the lack of unified implementation across browsers and to make it more compact in its syntax.

All of which means that, unless you have some odd grudge against jQuery, those days are gone — you can actually get stuff done now. A script to find all links of a certain CSS class in a document and bind an event to them now requires one line of code, not 10. To power this, jQuery brings to the party its own API, featuring a host of functions, methods and syntactical peculiarities. Some are confused or appear similar to each other but actually differ in some way. This article clears up some of these confusions.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Seven JavaScript Things I Wish I Knew Much Earlier In My Career
• The Seven Deadly Sins Of JavaScript Implementation
• Developing Sites With AJAX: Design Challenges and Common Issues

"The need is constant. The gratification is instant." That’s from the American Red Cross, and it was copy that I plugged into a poster for a blood drive at a comics convention. Sitting beside an image of the sexy and well-endowed Vampirella, the words took on a different meaning. Oops!

But I was struck by how these words are a perfect assessment of our society. We want it all, instantly and as cheap as possible. We are a Walmart culture. Fast and cheap have entered our every pore and changed our society, our lives and our livelihoods. Compounding our daily worries and pressures, we now fight to keep our industry professional and profitable. Clients want our blood for free, and the “hacks” are designing us out of existence.

Most people blame the laptop and easy-to-use software. Many blame art schools for favoring quantity over quality. Can any of these be blamed merely for doing business? If someone who has no idea what they're doing wants to purchase a computer and a slew of graphics software and call themselves a designer, then they're in business.

"The need is constant. The gratification is instant." That’s from the American Red Cross, and it was copy that I plugged into a poster for a blood drive at a comics convention. Sitting beside an image of the sexy and well-endowed Vampirella, the words took on a different meaning. Oops!

But I was struck by how these words are a perfect assessment of our society. We want it all, instantly and as cheap as possible. We are a Walmart culture. Fast and cheap have entered our every pore and changed our society, our lives and our livelihoods. Compounding our daily worries and pressures, we now fight to keep our industry professional and profitable. Clients want our blood for free, and the “hacks” are designing us out of existence.

Most people blame the laptop and easy-to-use software. Many blame art schools for favoring quantity over quality. Can any of these be blamed merely for doing business? If someone who has no idea what they're doing wants to purchase a computer and a slew of graphics software and call themselves a designer, then they're in business.

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months. And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for August 2010?

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months. And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for August 2010?

Recently I released a WordPress plugin for Google Analytics that adds a tracking code and dozens of various pieces of meta data to blogs. Since the release of version 4, I've updated it 6 times, to the point where it's now at version 4.0.6. In this article I would like to share with you my experiences in maintaining this and other WordPress plug-ins and common good practices that I've distilled from that work.

The updates that I released had a couple of purposes, ranging from bug fixes to new features and fixes in documentation. While all of these are nice to talk about, the bug fixes are the ones you'll learn the most from, so let's start by going through these.

Recently I released a WordPress plugin for Google Analytics that adds a tracking code and dozens of various pieces of meta data to blogs. Since the release of version 4, I've updated it 6 times, to the point where it's now at version 4.0.6. In this article I would like to share with you my experiences in maintaining this and other WordPress plug-ins and common good practices that I've distilled from that work.

The updates that I released had a couple of purposes, ranging from bug fixes to new features and fixes in documentation. While all of these are nice to talk about, the bug fixes are the ones you'll learn the most from, so let's start by going through these.

Waves of change are currently rippling through every aspect of the Web. The iPad and other mobile devices are changing the way we access the Internet, while HTML5 and CSS3 promise to change the way we develop it. However, another storm is brewing that threatens Photoshop's throne as the application of choice for Web design. The battle suggests a fundamental shift in the design process from Photoshop to mark-up.

A militia of designers have assembled to launch this coup. Their propaganda is convincing, and their proposed successor is worthy, capable and sexy. Their cause is important, but their manifesto is flawed. The argument against Photoshop focuses on the effect of the final product. Photoshop can be used to create impeccable designs, but after hours of hard work, you end up with a static mock-up that is incapable of emulating the experience one gets when the design is converted to mark-up and viewed in the browser

For too many projects, there comes a time when every action taken, every decision and sacrifice made, is spurred on by pressure to finish. Tempers seem to shrink along with the available days, talk about “high standards” gives way to “good enough,” and people realize that deadlines are aptly named. During the last-minute crunch, someone may well wonder, how did it come to this? Could it have been prevented?

Every Web project has deadlines. But not every designer or developer deals with them the same way. Because a deadline marks the end of a project, everyone involved in the project must understand the deadline’s role. Most projects follow a schedule or have an estimated date by which they must be completed. The concept is simple then: when the work takes longer than expected, deadlines get missed.

For too many projects, there comes a time when every action taken, every decision and sacrifice made, is spurred on by pressure to finish. Tempers seem to shrink along with the available days, talk about “high standards” gives way to “good enough,” and people realize that deadlines are aptly named. During the last-minute crunch, someone may well wonder, how did it come to this? Could it have been prevented?

Every Web project has deadlines. But not every designer or developer deals with them the same way. Because a deadline marks the end of a project, everyone involved in the project must understand the deadline’s role. Most projects follow a schedule or have an estimated date by which they must be completed. The concept is simple then: when the work takes longer than expected, deadlines get missed.

When people hear about ‘usability testing,’ many things come to mind—eye-tracking cameras, big HCI labs, a long testing process, a lot of expenses, and maybe a little confusion as well. Even at this stage in the proverbial game, usability testing isn’t so well understood, and misconceptions abound.

While it’s true that when doing usability testing there are several stumbling blocks that can impede your progress (lack of funding, lack of time, lack of motivation, and especially lack of testers), there are also many ways to get around these issues. There may even be reasons why they’re no longer valid in today’s Internet world.

Today I will address these issues and give you some advice based on my own experience in conducting usability tests. With any luck, it will help you design and develop a more usable world.

In the past, usability testing meant getting people into labs, arranging testing sessions, utilizing eye-tracking cameras, and so on; clearly, high costs to go along with that. Times have changed, and the Internet has heralded a new generation of usability testing solutions. Some online services out there do charge a packet, there are other services out there that charge significantly less and are very affordable for any kind of project. The service I’m involved with (IntuitionHQ.com) only charges $US9 a test, which is affordable by most anyone’s standard. There are many low cost options out there, so price really doesn’t need to keep you away from testing your site, designs, and UI. In fact, investing in usability can generate a handsome return as you develop superior, more usable designs and the happier clients and users that come with that.

Costs vary based on requirements. There is something for everyone.

“If the user can’t find it, it doesn’t exist.” —HFI Button

With modern methods, you can get results in minutes, not months.

With regards to lack of time, this may have been a problem in the past. If you wanted to get people in for lab testing sessions, the time requirements were immense. The Internet has changed all that too, as there are all kinds of remote usability testing services out there, with a huge range of different features depending on your requirements. Depending on the feature sets you require, and time frame for your project, you can find a number of options to fulfill your needs. Again, looking at IntuitionHQ, setting up a test takes just a few minutes depending on the tasks you include, and you can easily get results back in no time.

There are many different kinds of remote testing solutions depending on your own unique requirements for testing. See what fits for you and run with it—you won’t regret it, and you’ll end up saving time by having less micro-management from clients.

“Pay attention to what users do, not what they say.” —Jakob Nielsen

There are usually several reasons for lack of motivation—people don’t think their clients or users care about usability, they think their designs already work flawlessly, they don’t understand the testing process, or they can’t see the benefits that come from testing. Well, it’s safe to say: if you’re reading this, you probably don’t hold this opinion, but bear in mind all of the positives that testing can produce:

• Your designs can be validated;
• Any potential usability issues can be picked up;
• Your clients can be involved in the process without being over-involved;
• Your clients can better see the value of your service;
• You can avoid design-by-committee;
• Testing can be sold as an added value service to clients and can help sell your service and designs.

These are just a few of the points to consider. Of course, there are many more reasons why you should be pro-usability testing. See my previous article for more on this.

“Design is so critical it should be on the agenda of every meeting in every single department.” —Tom Peters

Testers are obviously crucial to conducting any usability test (I challenge you to conduct a test without them). There are two things to consider when finding testers.

Crowd source with the power of the Internet.

First is the oft quoted number from Jakob Nielsen about picking up 85% of usability issues with just 5 testers. There is a really great explanation of this at MeasuringUsability.com. The basic premise is that according to statistical analysis, a small number of users will pick up the vast majority of usability issues, and the cost for testing with more than 5 users isn’t worth it (at least generally speaking) to find the last 15% of usability issues. Well, this is obviously dependent on the kind of tests you are performing (and the costs for getting people to help you test), but it’s nice to keep some sort of number in mind so you know when you start receiving useful information.

Second is the testing method and timeframe for the project. If you were bringing people into a lab, 5 people may be enough. With heatmap tracking (à la IntuitionHQ), larger numbers will produce more concrete evidence of issues and help you to track them sooner. Some sites can also provide you with testers, but when looking at their methods I get back to both the cost issue and self-selecting samples again. It seems to me if you can control and distribute the test yourself, you will end up with a broader range of feedback from a wider audience. So, how to distribute your tests?

Social media—the perfect medium for distributing tests.

Ok, with all that out of the way, and assuming you have your tests set up, the next step is getting it out to the people. How you choose to approach this may depend on the site you are designing and what the objectives are. These are some steps that have worked for us:

1. Clients: Clients almost always want to see what they are paying for and to feel like they have at least some say in the design process. They are enthusiastic about the project (or at least they should be), and if you can involve them (especially without taking up too much of your time), you should do it. Send them tests and get their feedback—they are probably in the right demographic of the market for the site since they are the ones who are trying to sell it.

2. Stakeholders: These can be investors of the sites, current users, or anyone else with an interest in the site. Again, they are the perfect demographic for finding issues with the site; after all, if they have difficulties, you know something probably needs changing. You can get them involved in a number of different ways—sending the link out via email or on the RSS feed, having a link on the body of the site (if redesigning), asking the client to distribute it to friends, family, or other people interested in the site (this of course depends on the kind of site, the client etc.)—you are only limited by your imagination.

3. Social Media: In this day and age, they are so many people on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn et al that you’d have to be living in a Faraday cage to miss them. Make the most of this resource; get out there and share your tests with your friends and followers—people love to see what others are working on and to be able to contribute to the process. It generates talk around the brand too, demonstrating that they put extra thought into design and usability.

4. Forums: Yes, forums do still exist, and in fact, a large number of people still frequent them. You can find a million and one different design and development forums, but you can also find ones more specific to the genre of the site you are testing (fashion forums for a fashion site, camera forums for camera sites, etc). Whatever the case may be, this is another great way to generate feedback.

5. Surveys: We often see people who are redeveloping their sites run surveys to gather feedback. While you are pulling in this information, why not throw in a usability test as well? It’s just as easy to complete as a survey, and can tie in very nicely with other feedback you are pulling in.

Hopefully these suggestions will give you some ideas on why you should integrate usability testing into your design process, and how you can get it out there when you’re ready to go.

If you have any questions about usability testing, or this article, be sure to let me know in the comments section. I’m really happy to help if I can.

Mastering Photoshop for Web Design is the third book in our eBook series, and it's definitely the best eBook we've published so far. It was written from scratch by our regular writer Thomas Giannattasio, exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. We are very proud of the result, in particular because of the high quality of tips, ideas and techniques that Thomas — who is a deep expert in Adobe Photoshop — presents in his book.

Mastering Photoshop is written for advanced and intermediate designers who want to brush up on their workflow and improve their Photoshop skills. The eBook contains 178 pages, explaining fundamental techniques that Web designers need to know to produce high-quality work in Photoshop. You won't find any generic step-by-step tutorials or learn random effects. You will gain a profound understanding of what you can do with Photoshop and how to use it effectively in your work.

Mastering Photoshop for Web Design is the third book in our eBook series, and it's definitely the best eBook we've published so far. It was written from scratch by our regular writer Thomas Giannattasio, exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. We are very proud of the result, in particular because of the high quality of tips, ideas and techniques that Thomas — who is a deep expert in Adobe Photoshop — presents in his book.

Mastering Photoshop is written for advanced and intermediate designers who want to brush up on their workflow and improve their Photoshop skills. The eBook contains 178 pages, explaining fundamental techniques that Web designers need to know to produce high-quality work in Photoshop. You won't find any generic step-by-step tutorials or learn random effects. You will gain a profound understanding of what you can do with Photoshop and how to use it effectively in your work.