30 Leadership Qualities We Can Learn From Cricket

As the World-Cup 2015 is just approaching us, let’s try to understand the management mantras this sport has in it. You need to read between the lines.

1. Good job, guys:

Think, how many times you have appreciated teammates? Do it and see the graph of efficiency of employees touches the new heights!

2. GANDHIsm – great, DHONIsm- added advantage:

‘Positive thinking’ means a lot, but at times, to think something ‘different’, something unique to bowl out difficulties is also important, like Dhoni! Isn’t it?

3.”NO” to complaints and excuses:

Complaints bring confrontation and excuses prevent you from making efforts. Isn’t it better to stay away from both of them? Should we go for more efforts or give excuses, when we lose a match?

4.Be YOUng:

Smart, enthusiastic, passionate, and aggressive – all these vibes in you reflect your youthfulness. Remember Jaysuriya?

5.Be a showstopper:

Don’t be a boundary boy collecting balls when they are out of the game. Lead from the front when things are crucial, after all you’re the captain of your team!

6.STAY AWAY – blaming and ‘sledging’:

Failure and success are the two different sides of the same coin. You gonna get either of them, then why play ‘game’ with anyone when you have a trying time?

7. No I, me and myself:

Connect, communicate and collaborate with your teammates is important for the success of any project. Give credits to your colleagues and see the miracle! They give their active support to taking the company to the next level.

8.Make weaknesses your strength:

Is it wearisome to convert weaknesses into strength? Not really. In fact, weaknesses can show you the areas you need to improve. Work on them and convert them into strength! Once you overcome them, you can also protect your teammates.

9.Follow your déjà-vu:

At times, work on intuition is beneficial. It may possible that your fellow members oppose the decision, but if it is true to your belief, then no need to change it.

10.Timing is important:

Right timing is necessary at the every stage of the match. Duckworth Louis rules are about proper timing. If the over-rate slows, then the team gets punished. Likewise, real-time business decisions help companies achieve milestones.

11.Trust is okay; blind trust is not:

Either cricket or management, you need a skeptical attitude, so blind trust has no way to follow the winning way.You probably have seen a captain chatting with a bowler. What’s that? Mantra says: even if you have trust your employees, ask questions to know them better and make them more responsible.

12.Eagle eye:

A captain has an eagle eye on the field and opposition, and so the manager should have on market and competitors.

13.Open for learning and acceptance:

Develop your mind to accept your mistakes and open new things. Success comes to those who are like that. A team has defeated because of the wrong decisions then a captain comes first with the acceptance of his mistakes.

14.Master your mind:

Effective application of the different strategies is the key to winning the match. For that, you need to become a master of your mind.

15.Don’t get angry:

It’s never wise to get angry on the field! Anger eats energy and eliminates the positive effects of efforts. So my tip is to drink more water

16.Cerebrate and celebrate:

Success is an outcome of the process of cerebrating. Confused? Cerebration or thinking is an essential prior to taking any step toward success. Cerebration today and celebration tomorrow!

17.Are you ready for the future?

Imagine a situation. A captain and his team have won the match, and they have another match on the next day. What will they do? Teammates can relax, but the captain cannot. He starts thinking about future strategies and planning to taste the ‘winning peg’ again!

18.Be Consistent:

Even if we take this point lately, we cannot underestimate its value. How can one become a successful captain without consistency? You need to be consistent in your performance in order to provide the maximum benefits to your organization.

19.Leverage the experience:

Yes, this domain remains untouched by many managers. Switch to cricket, you face difficulties in every over, either in the run rate or over-rate. You need to watch every aspect very closely and act accordingly. There, experience lends a helping hand.

20.Take decisions and stick to it:

Take four bowlers or five, choose batting or fielding first, openers of ODIs are coming 2-down or 3-down position in test matches- such deciding questions require specialist skills of a captain. Once, you take a decision with all your experience and expertise, stick to it until the end.

21.Desire can lead you:

What if a team has to chase the mountain of runs? Or, What if a team requires wickets in order to prevent the opponent to get the target? In both the situation, captain’s strong desire to win works well.

22.Help the team to grow and develop: A good captain has an eye for newer talent. As a friend and guide, he helps them to grow and develop.

23.Authoritative power:

It should be there in you, not only for possession, but also for demonstration. Such power improves collaboration process and makes your team stronger.

24.Know everything:

You should know everything about your business. Work in the company or on the field requires the proper knowledge.

25.Learn to step down:

Not always, but if it is inevitable, don’t hesitate to go back two steps in order to move four steps ahead.

26.Get ready for a bumpy ride:

Any business and a cricket match- both are ever-changing and ever-challenging. You cannot always get a smooth ride. Get ready to solve the problems as and when they arise.

27.Team is primary, you’re secondary:

Instead of focusing on individual records and career, the real captain focusing on the performance of team members.

28.Fit body, fit mind:

When body and mind synch properly, every action sounds sharp and steady. Without either, the other cannot work properly. Stay friendly, focused and fit forever.

29.Be a gambler:

Hey, how would you receive the term? Gambling is nothing but the risk taking approach. Remember ‘No risk, no win’.

30.Laughter makes it lighter:

Work culture, sincere efforts, hard work, are everything an’ all for ensuring success. Include laughter and cheers in it, stay on the lighter side, and feel the difference!

5 Ways to Support High-Density Retina Displays

http://www.sitepoint.com/support-retina-displays/

 

Published May 6, 2013

An interesting point was raised by Brendan Davis in my recent post “Responsive Web Design and Scrollbars: Is Chrome’s Implementation Better?”: are RWD breakpoints affected by high pixel-density screens?

The short answer is: no — but we need to delve a little deeper and look at the problems they can cause.

What is Retina?

“Retina” is Apple’s brand name for double-density screens but other manufacturers are creating similar displays. The technology is used in recent iPhones, iPads, MacBook Pros and other high-end devices.

For example, the MacBook Pro 15″ has a resolution of 2,880×1,800 or 220 pixels per inch. At this scale, most people are unable to notice individual pixels at typical viewing distances — applications and websites would be too small to use.

Therefore, the device reverts to a standard resolution of 1,440×900 but the additional pixels can be used to make fonts and graphics appear smoother.

What’s the Problem?

Standard-resolution bitmap images can look blocky on a Retina display. A 400 x 300 photograph is scaled to 800 x 600 pixels but there’s no additional detail. This can be noticeable when compared to smooth fonts and other high-resolution images.

Real-World Usage

If you look around the web, you’d be forgiven for thinking everyone has a Retina display. Currently, it’s only available in high-end devices, but these are coveted by developers so it leads to a disproportionate volume of online discussion. In the real world, the percentage of people using similar displays is in low single figures.

Let’s put it into context: if you’re not developing for the 1% of IE6/7 users, you probably shouldn’t be too concerned about people using Rentina — especially since they can still view your website.

That said, Retina-like screens will eventually migrate to all devices. There’s little reason to fret now, but there’s no harm in some forward planning. Let’s look at the options in order of recommendation…

1. Use SVGs and CSS3 Effects

The clue is in the name but Scalable Vector Graphics are … scalable! It doesn’t matter how big an SVG becomes — it will always be smooth because it’s defined using vectors (lines and shapes) rather than individual pixels.

SVG is not practical for photographs but is ideal for logos, diagrams and charts. The primary drawback is a lack of support in IE8 and below but you could always provide a PNG fallback or use a shim such asRaphaël or svgweb. See also: How to Add Scalable Vector Graphics to Your Web Page.

You may also be able to replace some images entirely. For example, titles, gradients, corners or shadows defined as graphics can be reproduced using CSS3 alone. They will render at a better quality, result in fewer HTTP requests and use less bandwidth.

2. Use Webfonts Icons

The more I use webfonts icons, the more I love them. Like SVGs, fonts are vectors so they’re scalable so you can use font sets which contain icons. They’re ideal for small, frequently used shapes such as email envelopes, telephones, widget controls and social media logos. They also work in every browser including IE6+.

There are plenty of commercial and free icon font sets available:

• Typicons
• Font Awesome
• Iconic
• Foundation

Or you can use a hosted font service such as We Love Icon Fonts.

I recommend creating your own small set of custom icons using online tools such as Fontello orIcoMoon.

3. Use High-Resolution Images When Practical

Retina has four times more pixels than standard screens. If you have a 400 x 300 image (120,000 pixels), you’d need to use an 800 x 600 alternative (480,000 pixels) to render it well on a high-density display.

However, the high-resolution file size may not necessarily be four times larger. Every image is different but if it contains solid blocks of color or details which can be omitted, it may be practical to use a 800 x 600 image and scale it in the browser.

Be pragmatic: if the standard image is 200Kb and the high-resolution version is 250Kb, there is negligible benefit using image replacement techniques. Use the better version throughout.

4. Use CSS Image Replacement

There will be times when high-resolution versions of your image are four times larger — or more. In those circumstances you may want to consider image replacement techniques, i.e. the standard image is replaced by larger alternative on Retina displays. The following media query code could be used:

#myimage {
	width: 400px;
	height: 300px;
	background: url(lo-res.jpg) 0 0 no-repeat;
}

@media
screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5),
screen and (-moz-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5),
screen and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5) {
	#myimage {
		background-image: url(hi-res.jpg);
	}
}

The drawbacks:

1. You will need to create and maintain two sets of images.
2. Some browsers will download both images.

Remember that many of these users will be using smartphones or tablets on slower mobile networks. Detecting the connection speed would be more beneficial than determining the pixel density.

5. Use JavaScript Image Replacement

Retina display detection can be implemented using the following code:

var isRetina = (
	window.devicePixelRatio > 1 ||
	(window.matchMedia && window.matchMedia("(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5),(-moz-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5),(min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5)").matches)
);

Once a Retina display is determined, you could:

1. Loop through all page images and extract the URL.
2. Append ‘@2x’ to the file name and attempt to load the resulting image URL using Ajax.
3. If found, replace the current image with the high-resolution alternative.

Fortunately, the hard work’s been done for you at retinajs.com. While it only adds 4Kb weight, high-density display devices will download images twice — although the second time will occur as a background process after the page has loaded.

My advice: be practical and keep it simple. Don’t spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to solve minor rendering problems on devices with proportionally few users. Of course, none of that matters when your boss receives his new iPad and starts to complain about image quality…

Comments on this article are closed. Have a question about retina display? Why not ask it on our forums?

Craig Buckler

Contributing Editor

Craig is a Director of OptimalWorks Ltd, a UK consultancy dedicated to building award-winning websites implementing standards, accessibility, SEO, and best-practice techniques.

 

50 Free Web UI, Mobile UI, Wireframe Kits And Source Files For Designers

Don’t Forget to participate in a contest where you can win the world’s biggest UI elements pack “Impressionist User Interface Elements Pack” for 3 winners (1 developer license and 2 personal license) to design your project more creatively.

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Designers always need some basic user interface elements to create a model of user interface either of a website or software. For that, they need wireframing and UI design kits which help them mock-up the user interface.

In this roundup, we have collected some web and mobile user interface kits which come handy in creating low-fidelity example for your projects. Hope, you will like this collection. Enjoy! Feel free to share your opinion with us.

Wireframe Kits and Web UI PSD’s

Simple UI Elements

Simple UI Elements is a clean, well organized PSD file containing common user interface elements for web and app designs.

Web kit interface layout pack

Free kit of web elements: icons buttons arrows menu bars web boxes ui scrollbar checkboxes.

Blue Modern Web GUI

Blue Modern Web UI is a clean, well organized PSD file with example buttons and form elements.

Keynote Wireframe Templates

The following vector user interface elements are designed in Apple Keynote, and are fully editable and customizable without needing additional tools.

Peter’s DeivantART ID Ver1.3

Including the MINI and Original ID Templates, Total of 15 professional designed template for easy start; This is a fully customizable template.

How to create a Password Protected Folder in Windows 7

This tutorial will guide you through the steps required to create a locked folder in Windows 7 – without installing any additional 3rd party software.

While the steps below will guide you in creating a hidden and password protected folder, this method is not 100% secure. It will deter the average computer user enough, but an advanced user will be able to access the contents of this folder.

How To Lock And Password Protect A Folder In Windows 7

By Nakodari on Nov 29 2008 45 Comments

Drop Shadow With CSS For All Web Browsers

Published on Tuesday, March 16, 2010

This article is also available in Bulgarian

One of the most common CSS effects is using shadows in various ways. Before, we needed to resort to images, but now we can offer this to all major web browser with CSS!

Web Browser Support

Believe me or not, but all of these web browsers we can offer shadows with CSS:

• Firefox 3.5+
• Safari 3+
• Google Chrome
• Opera 10.50
• Internet Explorer 5.5

30 Inspiring Examples of Perfume Websites

The world of perfume is quite big, there are lots of well known and respected brands on the market. But do they really care about their brand on the web? It’s not a secret that successful business nowadays is connected with the Internet. How should perfume website be designed to be successful and competitive?

There is no doubt that website design should reflect the brand or product features. Also it should pay attention to user friendly navigation and other essential information needed for clients.

Perfume Websites

In this showcase you will see 30 examples of perfume websites with short descriptions discussing how they stand out from the crowd and what techniques they use. I hope you’ll find some inspiring examples and these will help you with your future projects.

Bulgari
Bulgari Fragrances website uses a big photo as a main design element. The model holds Bulgari perfume and in this way they’re highlighting their product – perfume. Also you can see useful drop-down menus on the left side that help users to find a desirable product.

Calvin Klein Fragrances
Less is more. Calvin Klein Fragrances website is a great example of minimalism in web design. Pure white background, clean fonts, modern drop-down menu with product previews create an elegant and comfortable feel about the brand.

Chanel
Chanel uses black as the main color of the website. The website is totally dark with a highlighted man portrait and their perfume. Black is associated with power, elegance, formality and mystery that’s why Chanel uses this color.

Hugo Boss
The Hugo Boss website stands out from other perfume website with unusual navigation. Silver passing to grey color background highlights white quadrangles where all the main website pages are located. Beautiful flash effects create fascination.

Elizabeth Arden
Elizabeth Arden fragrance shop uses a red pattern on the website to direct all the attention to products placed on a white background. Simple but smart technique.

Lacoste
Lots of flash effects can really impress the average visitor. Bright colors, colorful previews of the products create contrast and highlight the products.

Burberry
Glamour models and product photos mixed into a collage background and modern navigation menus on the sides of the website say everything. A bit confusing but still impressive.

Ferrari
Ferrari is probably known for red supercars. This website shows that red is a big part of their brand. Highest quality products on white stand out from the red background.

Chloe
A black and white photo used as a background and brown perfume on the right side create a retro feel. Also using color for the products points user’s attention to the perfume.

Diesel
Diesel brand is often labeled as provocative and sexy. This website just proves that.

Giorgio Armani Beauty
Dark colors dominate in this website and create an elegant feel. Provocative photos grab attention and present the product features.

Antonio Banderas Fragrances
The main accent of the website is Antonio Banderas. The site relies on his personality to represent the product. Elegant, subtle and attractive.

Celine Dion Fragrances
Another celebrity based website design. Subtle colors and elegant Celine Dion create an impressive and touching feeling.

Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana use an unusual website structure which helps to create an outstanding look and product oriented web design.

Chopard Fragrances
A very big image of the perfume is used on Chopard Fragrances website. In this way the company tries to show everything about the product.

Dana Classic Fragrances
The simple colors used on Dana Classic Fragrances help to focus on their product.

Cartier
Another great example of red color usage in perfume website design. A room-like 3D effect on the background and floating perfumes look interesting and attractive.

Carolina Herrera
The contrast used on this website helps to highlight the product which is presented in a close-up view.

Clinique
The Clinique website looks like a traditional e-commerce website with lots of navigation menus and sometimes too much confusing information. Very minimalistic and simple layout.

Christina Aguilera Fragrance
One more nominal perfume website example. Beautiful pink color variations, “girlish” stuff and Christina Aguilera on the left side tell you everything about the sweet product.

Biotherm Men
Another e-commerce-like perfume website with big product presentation.

Britney Spears Beauty
The black website background helps to accentuate the colorful product and personality presentation. Simple top navigation is clear and easy to use.

Beckham Fragrances
The provocative and personality-based perfume website of David Beckham. Dark colors create an elegant and powerful look and feel.

Dior
Black minimalism example. Dior uses simple and clear top navigation and expressive product presentations in a slideshow.

Fcuk
The main picture says everything. Provocative and sexy, this is how fcuk grabs the attention of their clients.

Estée Lauder
The Estée Lauder store looks like other common e-commerce websites. The only thing related to perfume is a big photo of a model and the product.

Jennifer Lopez Beauty
Glossy website name and navigation reveals that the product is related to a prominent personality and luxury.

Kate Moss Parfums
Kate Moss Parfums website is product oriented and uses different colors to present different products. Kate Moss is next to the product and gives a personal touch to the perfume.

Mariah Carey
Subtle purple and erotic photo of Mariah Carey radiate femininity.

MontBlanc
Blue color variations create the feel of knowledge, power and integrity. Blue is often associated with the sea and heaven and this website looks very graceful and refreshing.

Pure CSS GUI icons

By Nicolas Gallagher

Demo for Pure CSS GUI icons (experimental).

Tested in: Firefox 3.5+, Chrome 5, and Opera 10.6.

 

http://nicolasgallagher.com/pure-css-gui-icons/demo/

 

21 top tools for responsive web design

To get started with building a responsive site, having a strong toolkit can make a world of difference. Here Denise Jacobs rounds up 21 great tools to aid the process of making your sites responsive

As introduced/coined by Ethan Marcotte in both his article “Responsive Web Design” as well as his recently released book, one needs three elements to make a site responsive:

1. A flexible/fluid grid
2. Responsive images
3. Media queries

13 Helpful Mobile Web Design Tools & Resources

31ST MAY 2011 by JOEL FALCONER

It’s more important than ever to pay attention to the browsing experience of your sites on mobile platforms. People are doing more of their downtime browsing on devices like the iPad than ever before, and a morning commute read session on the iPhone isn’t uncommon.

The Ultimate Collection Of Photoshop Custom Shapes

Photoshop users are able to benefit from the vast amount of high-quality resources that are freely available to the community. Brushes get a lot of attention, but custom shapes are also extremely useful in the right situations. Finding a custom shape that has already been created can save you some time and headaches in your design, and fortunately there is a very wide variety of custom shapes available.

This post highlights 80 different sets of custom shapes (over 2,500 individual shapes) in several different categories. If you plan to download and use any of these shapes be sure to check to terms and conditions set by the creator of the shapes.

Deliverables from mobile & tablet user testing

We’re passionate about mobile user experience and keep up-to-date on the latest trends in mobile interfaces and products. We fully understand iPhone and iPad user requirements, allowing us to provide you with actionable cutting-edge recommendations.

Deliverables from our mobile & tablet user testing include:

• Robust, detailed and prioritised recommendations for mobile interface improvements, often providing a range of different options and creating mock-ups to demonstrate the solution
• An action plan for implementing changes around your precise needs to deliver the best mobile experience possible
• Design recommendations that help you optimise your website or application to be translated for mobile devices and make it easier to use your services on touchscreen devices like the iPhone and iPad
• Improved usability across platforms and operating systems, including web browsers, iOS, Android, Windows etc.
• Increased user experience knowledge because knowledge sharing is at the core of everything we do. Through a close, collaborative approach we make sure that you learn as much as you can from our expertise throughout the mobile user testing process

Mobile Web Site Guidelines

A growing number of users have portable devices like cell phones or portable digital assistants (PDAs) that they use to access information on the Web. The University has developed a Web site for mobile users at www.utexas.mobi. The guidelines below are intended to assist Web developers in preparing mobile-friendly content and applications. The W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Draft also has valuable information on developing for mobile devices.

How to reduce web page download time in 4 (fairly) simple steps

Web pages have generally become much more bulky in recent years. The trends for JavaScript-based functionality enhancements and the popularisation of digital photography have led to larger amounts of data being transferred (downloaded) per page and I can’t see a reversal of this happening any time soon.

If you’re using a mobile device such as an IPhone, IPad, Android handset or indeed any other device on anything other than a very consistently fast web connection, you’ll no doubt have experienced the frustration of slow page loads. So what can web developers do to improve the situation? We’re extremely unlikely to be able to convince web designers to use less graphical content in their layouts and customers certainly won’t like being advised not to upload imagery along with their textual content…so we need to make improvements from the source.