TAKA DESIGNS

Recently I had to update my email on websites that I regularly use. As I began the process, I quickly discovered how insecure some them were. On websites such as Bank of America, Citi and Foursquare, it was frighteningly simple to change my email address with very little security or confirmation.  While others such as Ebay, Facebook and Twitter had some of the best security combining confirmation links sent to the new email address, unique security codes and a confirmation box to re-enter your password even though you are logged in.

Chances are many of you probably use at least a few of these websites.  So I thought it would be interesting to detail the best and worst examples of them.

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StumbleUpon was one of those sites that I had always heard about, but never really spent much time looking into, until more recently. A few days ago, I decided to visit their website and was quickly frustrated because I was having a hard time finding out how their service worked.

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Recently I’ve been noticing more high profile sites implementing a technique known as infinite scroll or a “load more” type button for pagination.  Instead of using the more traditional approach like “<< Prev   1  2  3   Next >>”, this technique continuously loads more content as the user scrolls down a web page or selects an action button such as “more.” Let’s take a look at a few sites that implement this technique.

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Vampire Weekend is an American indie band from New York (sorry to disappoint you Twilight fans). One thing that I’ve noticed with this band is the consistent look and branding that they use with the font Futura. It’s instantly recognizable, bold and striking.

The majority of their album covers use it:

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As applications continue to migrate toward the web, mobile devices are an even more integral part of our everyday lives. According to The Mobile Internet Report released by Morgan Stanley in December 2009, the mobile internet will be twice the size of the desktop internet. More users will connect to the web through mobile devices than desktop computers within 5 years. With the emergence of the iPhone and Google’s Android platform now able to create quality user experiences on the web, these findings shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

At UCLA, we recently launched a mobile version of the UCLA Happenings website, our campus events calendar at http://m.happenings.ucla.edu. If you haven’t thought about it already, then it’s only a matter of time before you’ll need to consider what you’re mobile strategy will be. Here are a few things to consider.

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