Progressive enhancement enables different browsers deliver different user experiences. Thanks to progressive enhancement, anyone can access the content in any browser, but people with more advanced browsers get more advanced features. That way, we’re able to deliver an optimal browsing experience across the board.

Say you go to a site that has a lot of data in a table form and you have the option to filter that data. Every time you click a filter, the page reloads to show you the filtered data. For browsers that have Javascript enabled, the new filtered data will show up without the browser refreshing the page. This gives the user a smoother and better experience on the site.

Here’s a more advanced example. If you log onto the Atebits website using Internet Explorer, you will see a nice site that is designed well. If you log onto the site using the new Firefox web browser, you will notice a new detail: The words on the homepage have drop shadows on them. Traditionally this would be done with images, but with the addition of CSS3 this can now be done in code. If you log onto the site again using the latest Safari browser, you’ll notice another new feature — when you hover over one of the three icons, you’ll notice they get a little larger and rotate left. While it’s possible to make this happen with Javascript, in this case it’s being done purely with the CSS3 that is unique to Safari.

You can use progressive enhancement in other ways than just CSS. The trick is to only use progressive enhancement on features that are not site-dependent. If you added something really nice but someone can only see it if they have that feature, you just restricted other users from being able to see that content. 

If you want to learn more, go through other parts of the Atebits site using various browsers and look for other progressive enhancement features. They're all over the place.

By now, we’re all pretty familiar with the "share" widgets around the web that enable viewers to easily create a bookmark, email and/or an ad of sorts back to your site. Chicklets, as they are sometimes called, can be the most effective plugin in your viral marketing bag of tricks. By making your article, video and even rich media files easier to share, you are greatly increasing your traffic potential and, indirectly, your SEO.

AddThis and ShareThis are two of the more popular providers of this handy JavaScript widget. I most often see these used in a pared-down fashion, so I thought it might be valuable to shed light on some of the other things you can do with them.

1. Customize. With a few simple tweaks, you can "season" your chicklets to taste. 

• Create your own branded button and pop-up.
  
• Choose to display sharing service icons and format the display however you like (with AddThis, there’s even a cool Lightbox option).
• Download custom service icons.
• Translate the widget UI into other languages for regional sites.
• Opt for menu offset and have the share pop-up open in a new browser window.

2. Install. With a little extra effort, you can embed the widget into Flash.

3. Define. Image, title and description that appear on your share ad. Otherwise, title and description will be automatically generated from metadata (assuming you have metadata). In cases where they haven’t been defined and there is no metadata, source code can appear instead (within your ad). So it’s better to define them up front. And unless you want Facebook, for example, to grab a random image for thumbnail use, specify that as well.

4. Analyze. It all comes down to analytics. Track and filter sharing trends by geography, date range, which sites your content is most frequently being posted to, etc.

5. Remember. A couple more tips to make it as easy as possible to share:

• Store all items you’ve shared in a single location, for your own (private) reference.
• Add a button to your browser toolbar, so that you can share pages that haven’t included a share widget.
  

 

Note: As with all trusted plugins, AddThis and ShareThis claim not to install adware or spyware and do not share personally identifiable information. 

In the world of social media, fantasy and reality duke it out for your attention daily — and the lines between them get blurrier by the second. Hence the branded avatar. Whether you're sick of using the same 3 profile pictures or you just want to kill a few minutes between meetings, avatar builders give you a chance to escape from all that other...escapism.

As you might expect, companies love branded avatars. The way they see it, you get to express yourself socially while their corporate logo keeps your feet firmly planted on the ground (or your head in the clouds, depending on your persective).

But people don't just go nuts over any old avatar. It has to hit that elusive sweet spot more and more companies are competing for these days. Which brings us to the battle: 

MadMen Yourself. Went from dark horse to reigning champ in seconds flat, thanks to a perfect storm of marketing hype, genuine anticipation, authentic panache and reality fatigue. Plenty going for it from a UX standpont, too: no barriers to entry, easy-to-use controls, lots of customization options, decent sharing capabilities and a generally lounge-y vibe. The pure joy of creating clone after jazzy little clone almost makes up for the overt branding or the occasional glitch (try going back to clean shaven once you've grown facial hair...OK, so maybe they did that on purpose). Plus Dyna Moe's mid-century DIY style gives it an organic allure that's hard to resist.

Yearbook Yourself 2009. If 2008 was Thriller for this franchise, 2009 was just Bad (blame MadMen Yourself). Which is a shame, because Colle+McVoy really brought it this year. You can upload images or use your webcam, rotating, moving, scaling, flipping and adjusting skin tone until your face fits your avatar (you have 5 decades' worth to choose from — each one calling out different online stores — but you'll have to re-tweak your photo as you jump from year to year). On top of that, you can create solo or group portraits, then share them via Facebook Connect and other services as neatly branded files. Confused? The funk-fueled video tutorial explains everything. 

SVEDKA Bot Builder. This slam dunk from Barbarian Group (with the assist from Oddcast) oozes style. The Bot Builder leverages 3D modeling technology to create cool avatars that are icy and detached yet freaky-looking and kinda kinky. In other words, Scandinavian (although art director Ryan McManus tells me he snuck Tom Brady's jersey number in as a customization option — USA! USA!). Facebook Connect is integrated right off the bat, allowing you to do things like upload and use profile pictures. Once completed, your animated avatar will fly, sashay or karate-chop as you see fit, and will continue to do so in your news feed or on your friends' walls. Blame it on the alcohol.  

Dell Lounge Trans-Poser. Our contender doesn't need bells and whistles; what it does, it does well. Sporting a retro look and feel, the Trans-Poser makes cutting and pasting yourself into the action at X Games 15 as easy as twisting a few knobs. But it's the little UI touches (like multiple drag-and-drop anchor points for editing) that keep you coming back to see how far you can push reality's boundaries. Every trans-posed image gets saved to Dell Lounge community gallery, where you can see, rate, comment, download and share whatever grabs you. And because we built the Trans-Poser into the Dell Lounge, it can be reskinned and repurposed to engage users on an ongoing basis. Check and mate.

...according to my dad, anyway. Freshman year, I wouldn’t have agreed with that statement at all (back then, UT was the number one party school in the nation, and I’d like to think I played a pivotal role in helping us earn that prestigious title). Despite the distractions of Austin, we are taught a "work hard, play hard" mentality. So although an internship didn’t top the list back then, it does now that I’m a senior.

One thing I know for sure is that interning is like going to Vegas — you have to do it sometime, and you want something to brag about when you get home. Interning at Springbox, I get quite a few bragging rights.

Just a few of the perks:

• It meets my top requirement: I get to wear sandals.
  
• Cookies. I’ve worked 90 days, and in that time I’ve received 35 emails with subjects along the lines of “Cookies at my desk — get them before they’re gone!” That’s a new set of cookies to select from more than a third of the time I’m here. Trips to Grandma’s house don’t even see that kind of ratio
  
• Somebody catches you looking up pictures of that one girl from that one class on Facebook? Just say it’s “market research for a social media campaign” and you’re in the clear.
  

But all fun and games, it is not. Some of the "harder parts" include the following: 

• When I talk about it outside of the office, people are always getting “Springbox” confused with “Springboks,” the mascot of the national rugby team of South Africa (an easy mistake to make).
  
• One word: binding. Some days, my nickname here is “Kinko's” — but hey, somebody’s gotta do it. 
• It’s tough keeping up with all of the “adult” pop-culture references. I asked “who’s Farah Fawcett?” and almost got slapped.
  

So the low points are few and far between. Overall, my internship here has been better than I ever anticipated it would be. Being at a smaller agency gives you the chance to jump in on all types of projects — one minute I may be working on an analytics report for Premiere Global, and the next I’m helping out with social media strategy for Absolute Software. I’ve been able to learn an incredible amount about building relationships with clients, site development and how to manage budgets and project timelines. I’ve gotten to work with SEO/SEM, social media, analytics, email and video — and I don’t even think that covers half of it.

My dad was right after all. An internship is definitely one of the more important parts of the college experience. If you’re lucky, it gives you a chance to take everything you’ve learned in the classroom and apply it to real-world situations. And it’s especially great if you get to work at an agency full of extremely bright and talented people, which is exactly what I’ve gotten to do here at Springbox.

So even though I had to let UT slip to second in the partying category this year, I’d say the sacrifice has been well worth it.

User-generated content (UGC) is on everybody’s mind lately. From YouTube videos shot from a desktop webcam to hazy iPhone pics, it’s everywhere — and with tagging, it’s attached to everyone. The functionality behind Facebook and Twitter is making it easier to show and share UGC (and also turning MySpace into a vacant house party). Seriously, our eyes and ears are being forced to tune into a whole new channel of media. Why should marketers take it into consideration?

It’s You. In the world of social networking and UGC, everybody’s famous. The most addictive thing is finding yourself or a friend included in a public photo or video and observing the response. Think of the thrill when you get a notification that someone “tagged a photo of you.”

It’s Fast. Pictures take seconds to look at, while videos are in the ballpark of a minute to watch. Users know that when they find it, it’s worth their gratification because it’s less time consuming. It beats sitting through a 30-minute TV program just to reach the end and decide it was a bad episode (and that it’s also time for bed).

It’s Flexible. With the use of apps and editing modules (check out the Trans-Poser we designed for the Dell Lounge), creating new pics and videos from the originals is more accessible lately. There are tons of other open-source tools like Audacity and LiVES that give you the power to edit audio and video, without having to purchase top-of-the-line software to do so.

It’s the Start of Something. From there, UGC is all yours to recycle, mashup, blog and boast about. People love to start the drum roll for new info and entertainment, and that’s where the success stories happen. Sometimes it’s a blog, sometimes a YouTube channel, while others evolve into personal brands like Perez Hilton and Hipster Runoff.

Granted, UGC may be the new “arts and crafts” of the web, but with analytics hitting the millions, it’s important to understand where people are focusing their attention today and how to reach people with a product or campaign.