Share Joy, Vent Frustrations

by Matthew Niederberger

permalink Santa Maria del Mar: 

Autostich of the inside of Santa Maria del Mar church in Barcelona. Taken with iPhone.
Santa Maria del Mar:

Autostich of the inside of Santa Maria del Mar church in Barcelona. Taken with iPhone.

permalink

Short compilation of the Design for Conversion Mobile Edition 2009 event held December 11th in Amsterdam. Speakers included Scott Weiss, Jerome Nadel, Eric Siegel and Priya Prakash.

For more information please visit designforconversion.nl

Photo’s accompanying the video can be found here:
flickr.com/photos/matthewniederberger/sets/72157622870234213/

Music licensed under Creative Commons:
Fhernando - So Excited (Twenty-Four Seven)
jamendo.com/en/track/288283

permalink

First appearance of form

First appearance of form

Identified as new user

Identified as new user

Password verified

Password verified

Registered, positive motivation!

Registered, positive motivation!

Account activated, lets get to work!

Account activated, lets get to work!

Recently I had the pleasure of registering for a new online wireframing tool called Mockingbird. Professional interest made me want to test the tool out, but like many tools out there these days, if you register for free you can make use of a significant amount of extra functionalities.

The registration process, to be honest, really made me feel good and happy. The process was to the point, intuitive and simpel. The first step was to click on the register button after which a small popup appeared. No difficult choices needed to be made, just fill in my email address and password. Since the title of the popup clearly stated “Login or Register” it was clear to me that as a new user I would not have a password yet and that I could either be in the Login or Registration process. It let me know that I was still in the right place. I started to fill in my email address where, upon completion, the login form welcomed me a new user! By checking to see if my email address appeared in their database they were able to make the distinction between a new or returning user.

Having been identified as a new user, a third field appeared in which I could verify my given password. It does not get any simpler than this. A quick click on Register and I am greeted with a pleasant ‘Welcome!’. In the welcome text that followed upon registering, Mockingbird tells me that I still need to activate my account, but empowers this action with the benefits of what I can do after I have activated my account, namely starting and aving wireframing projects. A positive affirmation of my need/want to register for Mockingbird’s services.

Form creation does not have to be difficult. Stick with the fundamentals and set priorities, what is the most important thing you want a visitor to do? For Mockingbird it is for visitors to sign up and test their service. They made a concious choice between which basic user information they needed to fulfill this need (email address and password) compared to extra information you want from the user to better identify them as an inidividual (profession, position, age, education etc.).

[Dutch] Lees meer van mijn artikelen over online formulieren.

permalink

Activation request sent

Activation request sent

Activation completed (1,5 hour later)

Activation completed (1,5 hour later)

Checking available credit (*#10# call)

Checking available credit (*#10# call)

Waiting for response

Waiting for response

Credit displayed

Credit displayed

Internet settings for O2 Pay & Go

Internet settings for O2 Pay & Go

Simcard & Top-up card

Simcard & Top-up card

I have been in London for just two days now. I am only here for a short stay but as any online addict, I was having a tough time accepting the fact that I was not online all of the time. Vodafone Netherlands charges ridiculous prices for mobile online access in another country. Even using Vodafone passport you still need to pay €2.50 per mb. Yes, that is correct, per mb (link).

London has plenty of free WiFi hotspots throughout the city and at restaurants and bars, but sometimes it would be nice to send the TwitPic photo, check my email and to update my location. I started looking for solutions…

I decided to ask my friend what the possibilities were to buying some sort of “pay as you go” sim card, with a data package. To my surprise, this was relatively easy. Since my iPhone is sim lock free (Italian import with thanks to iPhonemonster) I could buy any “pay as you go” service and place the sim into my iPhone. Unfortunately, the only company that can do this properly for the iPhone is UK’s O2, so that kind of narrows down my choices.

I visited the O2 store on Oxford Street and received my free “Pay & Go” sim card** and immediately topped it up with £15. The clerk behind the counter, who was very polite and helpful, told me that a minimum top up of £10 was needed as the internet access would cost £7.50 per month on the Pay & Go tariff plan. This is different to what the O2 website mentions. There, O2 talks about a daily access charge of approximately £0.79. But, to cut a long story short, it is a great deal. The clerk edited all the necessary settings in my iPhone (see images), sent out the text messages (“web” to 21300) to activate my internet access and I was set. Within 15 minutes I was online (confirmation text message arrived 90 minutes later). Now I have a UK mobile number, HSDPA internet access and no monthly charges.

Since I mostly Twitter and check my email when I am abroad text messaging and phone costs can easily get out of control. Luckily my friends and family all Twitter. So, in combination with Twitter apps like EchoFon ($4.99) and/or Boxcar ($2.99), both with push notifications for @-replies and Direct Messages, it works just like text messaging. If I want to talk to someone, it is as easy as sending a Direct Message asking for the person to come online with Skype and voila… cheap text messaging and phonecalls!

All in all I spent just £15 for the O2 Pay & Go service. I still have £7 in credits left and am free to share my experiences in London directly online via my iPhone. No hefty data fees from Vodafone Netherlands! I hope that this solution will help/inspire other people to break free from ridiculous data roaming charges and continue to share their world online.

** sim lock free iPhone is required!