Cyber Stalking

Hello everyone,

This is our final project for EID100. This video is targeted towards early teens and young adults (14+). However, this video is beneficial for anyone using the internet. It explores what is cyber stalking, the methods used to cyber stalk, a case revolving cyber stalking and methods of prevention. Check out the video below for details.

User Experience Design: Top 5 Reasons Why It Is So Important RIGHT NOW!

Did you know...

Every $1 invested in User Experience (UX) can have a return of up to $100 for your business. - @UXmotel

But, what is User Experience Design? Watch the video below to find out!

According to Jose Caballer and Chris Do, User Experience Design (UXD) is "The process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and a product”. Following diagram brainstorms briefly what UXD is all about.

UX Design has been a hot topic in recent months. But why is it so important? Below are 5 top reasons why User Experience Design is so important today:

1. Personalizing the experience:

Vast amount of information is now available online. Designers use various metrics on user behavior, geographical and demographics to personalize the user experience through content and design. UX design creates a productive and engaging personalized user experience through monitoring process, collection and analysis of visitor behavior.

2. Increasing searchability:

Through the UX design, information is formatted, labeled and structured well for everyone to be able to access and comprehend the content. The techniques used in UX Design, ensures the sites are easy to find, connecting both people and search engines in the vast pool of information and data.

3. User friendly:

It allows for users to easily navigate web pages and understand how to use it. Adopting UX Design will ensure visitors come back for more. For example, UX Design can be specially meaningful for intricate or in-depth websites. Why? Because this will allow the target audience to learn navigating online content in a sift.

4. Great for complex systems:

As the system gets more complex the planning and architecture have to be jeven more involved . For this, UX Design will certainly make the process easier for multi-faceted websites, interaction-rich Web applications and e-commerce websites.

5. Time and cost saving:

UX designers are able to lessen the work load for Web designers and developers through taking on some of their tasks. This saves both time and cost during revision process.

For those that are interested, I strongly suggest you to check out UX Design. If you have a general curiosity for everything, love to question and like to make systems better and easier for everyone, you can be a UX designer in the future. 

Creating Infographic Using Piktochart

Hello all,

I just created an infographic based on the blog (Occam's Razor) of Avinash Kaushik, called Best Metrics For Digital Marketing: Rock Your Own And Rent Strategies.  Below is the infographic:

Creating Apps Using Appy Pie

Hi all,

I just created my first app using Appy Pie. This app showcases my artwork, includes links to my website and social media platforms. Please feel free to check out my app Artistiquee.

    

                          

                                     

         

Step Up Your Twitter Game with TweetDeck

TweetDeck is an app that acts like a dashboard. It organizes all tweets as well as interactions in one interface. Multiple accounts can be managed by logging in to the main TweetDeck account.

Some of the advanced features include:

• Managing multiple Twitter accounts
• Multiple timelines in one interface
• Scheduling future Tweets
• Building Tweet collections
• Live update
• Responding and interacting with followers in real time

Below is a list of details for advanced search on TweetDeck:

1. Collection:
Allows for real time organization of Tweets according to topics, events, interests, conversations, etc. as columns. Users are also able to Tweet the URL for sharing purposes. Below is a screenshot of the columns:

2. Advanced search:
Customize results in various ways, such as: "showing", "matching", "excluding", "written in", and "retweets". These options are available in the drop-down menu after a search is run.

3. Search history:
TweetDeck saves all the previous searches made and they can be found in the navigation bar, in a drop-down menu.

4. Sentiment:
Search sentiment about any topic by inserting a happy or sad emoticon. For example, use the keyword "San Francisco :)" for tweets with positive impression about that place.

5. Filters:
Customize search results using a filter. Search images of San Francisco using the keywords “San Francisco filter:twimg”. Other filters include:filter:images

filter:verified
filter:news
filter:replies
filter:hashtag

Overall, TweetDeck opens the golden gate of flexibility for Twitter. Through customizations of multiple columns, TweetDeck makes all the information much more digestible for the heavy Twitter users and personalize their Twitter experience.

If you are a social media manager¸ thinking of becoming one, follow numerous accounts, have multiple accounts or simply want to learn this new app, I strongly recommend every one to give TweetDeck a try.

Module 3: Final Project Proposal

Hello all,



My group have created an educational video on Online Privacy and Security. Check it out at the bottom for more information.

All You Need to Know About Cloud Computing

What is cloud computing? Instead of using the hard drive of one’s computer, it is a way to store and access data and programs over the internet. Some examples of cloud computing services include Amazon Web Services, Drop Box and Google Drive.

A demanding infrastructure needs:

Server farms

Power

Cooling

Redundancy

Just like anything on the web, cloud computing has many advantages and also comes with a few disadvantages:

Advantage	Disadvantage
Flexible	Security
Scalable	Legacy Software
Cost effective	Bankruptcy
Secure*	Intellectual property

When talking about cloud computing, the best way to explain it is through the front end and the back end terminology.  Both of these connect through a network, mostly the Internet.

Front end:

It is the interface layer, accessed by the user. It runs on the client, providing point of interaction between the user and system.

Back end:

It is the process layer that is unseen by the user.  It runs on the server and includes all the processes that goes on behind the screen or the "cloud" section of the system (remote retrieval and storage of data).

Refer to the image below for a visual depiction of front end and back end:

Protocols and middleware:

A central server administers the system. It monitors traffic and client demands and makes sure the system is functioning properly.  A set of rules that it follows are called protocols. It also uses software called middleware that helps networked computers to communicate with one another.Think of middleware as the connecting puzzle piece (refer to image below).

Redundancy:

To prevent unavailability of data during occasional breakdown, cloud computing system duplicates the information of clients and stores it elsewhere for backup . This process of duplicating is called redundancy.

Want to know more? Refer to the infographic below for more details:

Reference

An Ode to Middleware. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://openlegacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Middleware-Sekurekode.png

Cloud Computing for Beginners. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://cdn.guru99.com/images/blog_image/cloud_computing_8.jpg

What is Cloud Computing Infographic. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2015, from https://www.tcnp3.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/What-is-cloud-computing.gif 

Lighbeam: See Who is Tracking You

Everyone is aware at this point that we are being tracked online. Every day, every minute, every second. What we do not have much information on, is the breadth and depth of how much information is being tracked. Try Lightbeam. It allows the users to find out who they are connecting to in real time. It basically generates a record of every site one has visited and the third party sites that track each person using cookies.

 I recently tried Lightbeam and browsed the web for 20 minutes and I was awestruck by the result I saw.

Below is a screenshot of my result:

After I visited a website, the add-on created a real time visualization of all the third parties that are active on that page. As I browsed to a second site, the add-on highlighted the third parties that are also active there and showed which third parties have seen me at both sites.

In total I visited 9 sites and I was connected to 68 third party sites! That is pretty hectic.

What else did I discover? As I moved to the list view, I was able to view the exact names of each third party website and below is a screen shot of that: 

Some websites here were simply analytic websites like google-analytics.com and googletagmanager.com. There were also other websites listed here, like Googleleadservices.com. After doing some research, I realized this website is actually "A vicious browser hijacker that pretends to be a legit search provider like Chrome, Yahoo and Bing. It is installed onto your computer when you visit some unauthorized webpages or open spam email attachments”.

There were even some websites that were tracking exactly which ads were being displayed on my screen, which links I was clicking and even where I was hovering my mouse. 

All in all, it was indeed a very informational experiment and I am very glad that I did it. I suggest every one to try Lightbeam for yourself, find who is tracking you, how you are getting tracked online and take necessary steps to prevent it. 

RSS Feed Readers: Hassle free access to the latest content

Anyone knows what RSS stands for? RSS stands for Really Simply Syndication. It actually is really that simple. If you ever had trouble with keeping up with news and content on multiple web sites, you are faced with this daunting task that seems to be never ending. Be sure to read further to find out how RSS reader can make your life easy and deliver content to your doorstep requiring almost no effort from your end.

There are many RSS readers out there but Feedly is one of the best in the market right now. Feedly works as a news aggregator. It collects RSS Feeds. Due to this RSS feed, websites now can publish content once and are able syndicate it automatically amongst millions of subscribers. In terms of interface, it is very much similar to Google Reader. No longer does one have the need to revisit same site over and over again searching for new content. Just add RSS feed to reader and the news will arrive itself. After getting started with Feedly, some of the blogs of my interests were from Joy The Baker, VentrueBeat, Home Designing, DIY projects, Seth Godin, and The Big Picture.

5 key advantages to using an RSS feed include the following:

• Freedom of privacy:Website visitors do not have to share personal information in order to gain access to the content
• Users are in control: The users choose what information gets shared with them
• Up to date information: Users have access to the latest news, trends, technology that are of most interest to them
• Time saving: It is a faster method of scanning content as users are able to go through multiple streams at once
• It’s a 24/7 deal: Get fresh content around the clock, 7 days a week

What are you waiting for? I encourage everyone who has not yet discovered the wonders RSS feed reader can do to your life, to go check it out at once! It really makes life easy.


Reference

Fitzpatrick, J. (n.d.). HTG Explains: What Is RSS and How Can I Benefit From Using It? Retrieved September 16, 2015, from http://www.howtogeek.com/115317/htg-explains-what-is-rss-and-how-can-i-benefit-from-using-it/

Kane, S. (n.d.). RSS Feed Readers - RSS Feed Reader Benefits. Retrieved September 16, 2015, from http://legalcareers.about.com/od/practicetips/a/RSSreaders.htm