Below are some screenshots of VirtualBox loading and running both Android and ChromeOS in Windows 7. The most exciting part is that I had Windows 7, ChromeOS, and Android all running at the same time. Success!

Edit: Apparently I was fooled. This is a fake build of ChromeOS that was released as a hoax last year. The Android x86 project is real, however, and VirtualBox can run Ubuntu in Windows 7 flawlessly.

Check out the result:

The specs were to make a concept of how the new main page would look, and try to show how the site might be structured. I wanted to emphasize usability for the staff and students who are the bulk of the users that depend on PSU’s web presence. I felt that was accomplished by putting a main Student Resources area up front, including updates on Courses for both faculty and students, and making the faculty menu open by default. The inclusion of a main content area (in this case, APOD) gives all the visitors something to look forward to when visiting the PSU Physics Department site.

Down the line there is Opera Mobile (one of the first mobile web browsers) which has been running on the Windows Mobile platform for ages and Opera Mini–a recent browser Opera has been developing for a wider not-so-smart phone market. Also on Windows Mobile is the hush-hush of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Mobile (where the screenshots are at the bottom). Last, but not least, Mozilla just released Firefox Mobile for the newly launched Nokia 900 smartphone. Between Microsoft, Apple, Google, Opera, and Mozilla the mobile browser market is almost saturated.

Well, it would be if each mobile browser were available for every phone. It is safe to say that Webkit is a browser, but not all Webkit browsers are the same. Similarly, Opera and Firefox mobile are used only on certain phones. It is safe to say that each browser caters to a certain smartphone (or not-so-smart phone) niche. The perennial web development website A List Apart cites a 2008 Nielsen Media Research report, by saying “mobile devices have increased traffic by an average of 13% across several popular websites.”

So is it wise to develop for mobile websites? Of course, especially since the internet traffic driven by phones has increased dramatically since 2008. While the mobile browser market may be divergent, the browsers are all capable of catering to a rapidly growing user base in a world increasingly driven by online content. The internet statistic website TechCrunchies predicts that by 2013 ”84% of this traffic shall be from web browsing.” Who knows, that might not even be with a phone. The future of mobile web browsing may have Google Eyes.

2008 – Headlines, Ars masthead, and no icons

2009 – Headlines, Ars masthead, and new icons

The difference between the two may seem minimal, but from the standpoint of usability and graphic design the gap is wide. Designing useful icons and positioning text for small, content-centric mobile devices is becoming essential in the web content industry. Other tech websites like Reddit and Gizmodo both have custom mobile sites (click to see their mobile versions). There are even ad dollars to support these specialized websites with custom ads, Ars Technica has IBM as a mobile sponsor, and Quattro Wireless is dedicated to providing Gizmodo mobile advertising.

As the use of smartphones with web capability increases, look out for a greater focus on mobile websites in the future.

This really stands out to me as why thoughtful web design is important. When Twitter debuted it took time for Twitter (the company) and its users to figure out what exactly it was and how to use it. The official Twitter blog says that “Why would I want to do that?” is a common reaction from people new to Twitter.

Twitter began as a rudimentary social tool based on the concept of status messages but together with those who use it every day, the service has taught us what it wants to be. [...] Twitter has moved from simple social networking into a new kind of communication and a valuable source of timely information.

The realization that Twitter (the service) is good for something specific has impacted the design of the site. Instead of just offering itself up as a social networking tool, Twitter is now saying that it is the melting pot for what’s hot and happening now. Most of all, the new design was specifically made to attract new users and get them to participate.

Helping people access Twitter in more relevant and useful ways upon first introduction lowers the barrier to accessing the value Twitter has to offer and presents the service more consistently with how it has evolved.

The corporate jargon doesn’t clear the  mud, but I think Twitter (the company) is saying is that Twitter (the service) not only wants new people to sign up, but also to participate. This has been a problem in the past for Twitter (Twitter Quitters is what the Neilsen wire called these new users) and part of the problem was the Twitter front page itself. Here’s the rundown from a design standpoint on why this redesign was necessary to attract new users.

1. Attention Deficit Twitsorder. The old old front page was cluttered with text, buttons, and links that divided user attention (why would a user want to Watch a Video! when they came to sign up?). The new front page has axed the block of text, and only has three buttons (‘Sign In’, ‘Search’, and ‘Sign Up Now’) that efficiently direct new users as well as current ones.
2. Areas of Expertise This is the biggest change to the Twitter front page. The emphasis on the old front page was explaining to users what Twitter could be used for and it took them a paragraph to do it. Over half of the real estate was informing users of their options, and the rest was for signing in current users. The new front page places Search smack-dab in the middle and adds an even larger list of hot topics. This change encourages new users to see what people are talking (or Tweeting) about.
3. Brand X It’s becoming more clear that the center of a browser window is center stage for branding and identity materials. The old placement of the Twitter logo made the brand isolated and disconnected from the surrounding text. The new Twitter logo placement not only draws the eye better, but connects the brand with their new tag line:

Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.

It’s clear that Twitter isn’t just a social network, and it doesn’t want to be one anyway. Now it has become a search engine for society itself.