Found a useful tool for determining quantifiably whether or not two colors are readable when one is placed on the other. Contrast Ratio by Lea Verou. It’s really straight forward.

An article over at the Atlantic tells of a study by google, with a large sample, that shows that 90% of people don’t know how to search a page or document for a word.

“90 percent of the US Internet population does not know that. This is on a sample size of thousands,” [Dan Russell, a search anthropologist at Google] said. “I do these field studies and I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve sat in somebody’s house as they’ve read through a long document trying to find the result they’re looking for. At the end I’ll say to them, ‘Let me show one little trick here,’ and very often people will say, ‘I can’t believe I’ve been wasting my life!'”

I can’t believe people have been wasting their lives like this either! It makes me think that we need a new type of class in schools across the land immediately. Electronic literacy. Just like we learn to skim tables of content or look through an index or just skim chapter titles to find what we’re looking for, we need to teach people about this CTRL+F thing.

It’s crazy at first, but then, lets think about this: where is the “find” command kept? Yes, it’s CTRL+F (or COMMAND+F) but if you don’t know the shortcut key, where do you find it?

It’s under the “Edit” menu! Sure, this makes sense in a text editor when I want to “find and replace” something. But, in that same text editor when I’m just looking for a certain section, or when I’m looking for a phrase on a web page, am I editing? No. It’s a prime example of bad UI design, hiding one of the most useful functions around in a illogical menu. And why? At this point: because it’s always been there. In the beginning, because it’s where it was in word processors.

It’s time we move the find command out of edit, and make it easy to…well…find.

I had a video shoot for a client yesterday. On past shoots I’ve used an iPad and teleprompter+ by Bombing Brain Interactive. The app itself is pretty solid, but getting a script into it can be a bit of a chore. Also, the remote control app is a bit flaky, and crashes a lot more often than I would care for, so between takes I wind up just running around the camera to reset the teleprompter, and then running back behind the camera to start recording before the text gets into place. It can be a real hassle.

This time around I decided to take a laptop and an external monitor so that I could control the teleprompter from behind the camera with ease. The only problem was that all of the teleprompter applications I found cost more than I really wanted to spend. I had a little bit of extra time on my hands, so I built one in flash.

This wound up working a lot better than the iPad. Getting scripts in place was easier, resetting between takes was faster, and making edits on the fly was simple.

Next I’d like to build a teleprompter box to actually go in front of the lens. For now though, I just secure the monitor right over the camera lens. It’s not as perfect as putting it in front, but it’s still pretty effective. (Don’t put it below the lens. Looking below the lens makes the talent look nervous and uncertain about what they’re saying. If they’re looking right above the lens however, it gives the illusion that they’re actually looking into it.)

If you want to use Quick-Prompt, I’m releasing it for free here:

• Mac Version
• Windows Version

Enjoy, and feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section!