Bryan Landers

Mar 15, 2012

Unofficial Rothko Details iPhone 4 Wallpaper

“I paint very large pictures. I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however – I think it applies to other painters I know – is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it.”

- Mark Rothko

Here is a series of 10 unofficial details that zoom in on Mark Rothko’s beloved paintings. These have been formatted to be used as iPhone 4 wallpaper (640x960 @ 326dpi), which brings this classic artwork to a new canvas and creates a new experience that is in accord with the artist’s desire to create an intimacy between the viewer and the painting.

Worth noting is that Apple’s Steve Jobs was inspired by Rothko’s work in the last year of his life while searching for art that might inspire people to display on the walls of the future Apple campus. Since we can’t all enjoy the original paintings in such a setting, these wallpaper photos can give you inspiration every time you take out your iPhone. Share, remix, pin…whatever strikes your fancy.

Repin these on Pinterest!

Dec 28, 2011

How To Like Facebook Apps - The Page Wins Over The App Profile Page

I have 2 Facebook apps I maintain (Card Karma and 3goodthings.me). When I setup these apps, I customized the App Profile Pages since Facebook was directing internal searches there (both from the main search box in the main nav bar as well as the Applications Page.) I started noticing that many Facebook apps had Pages categorized as a “Brands & Products > App” which they were using for the like box on their destination website and elsewhere online. Sometimes this was because the Facebook app was used only for Facebook Connect authentication within a larger external project. For Connect-only apps, Facebook can redirect from the App Profile Page (https://apps.facebook.com/app_name_here) to a Page if you enter that as the Canvas URL. Sometimes though, even canvas apps were using a Page in addition to their App Profile Page. I found this confusing because the App Profile Page had the “Go to App” button, which was a very clear and desirable call-to-action for users checking out the app.

I kept looking around online (the Facebook Stackoverflow, like box documentation, the old developer forums, Google…) to find a definitive answer to which page to use for collecting likes for my apps, but I never found one…until now.

Facebook has announced on their developer blog that they are killing App Profile Pages by February 1, 2012. Existing apps have until then to migrate their likes and vanity URL (sorry, no content from your wall or photos will be transferred - booo!) to another Page. If you need to migrate your App Profile Page, make sure you’ve set the category of your Page to “Brands & Products > App” or else it won’t show up in the drop-down menu of Pages. For new apps, the UX is much clearer now. You’ll see a “Create Facebook Page” button in the Contact Info section of your app settings. The Page selected there will then display the “Go to App” button to the right of the Page’s title (next to the “Like” button if the user viewing the Page hasn’t liked it yet.)

So there you have it. Bye bye to App Profile Pages. Use a Facebook Page for your app and let’s hope the likes you collect there never have to be awkwardly transferred again!

Jul 6, 2011

Why It’s Hard To Copy Recipients From One MailChimp List To Another

Counter-Intuitive How To

Currently, to copy list recipients from one MailChimp list to another you have to do the following tedious steps.

Click on ‘Lists’ in the main nav.

Click on the list you want to copy from.

Click the ‘view all subscribers’ button.

Select the recipients you want to copy, click on the ‘bulk actions’ link and pick the list you want from ‘copy to’.

The Problem

Why can I never remember this flow? Because, when I want to copy recipients into a list, I’m in that list! On top of that, if I somehow remember that I need to take the action from the list I want to copy from (which would be exporting, I suppose), I can’t find the option for the life of me. I’ve had to Google this 3 times now for myself and clients. MailChimp generally has wonderful UX design, so this is a recurring UX anomaly.

A Solution

What would be much more intuitive would be a clear call-to-action to import or copy from another list into the one I’m currently viewing. Even better, since I find myself going to the ‘Import’ section of the list, how about adding an option there to “import from another list”?

If you haven’t tried MailChimp and you need to manage emailing lists, definitely check them out. Refer to this post if you forget how to copy recipients from one list to another ;)