See more Canon 5D Mark II high iso samples at DigitalDSLR.com

Needless to say I’m very happy with the website.  GSPIA certainly has a nice looking website which will present their message on the internet.

I highly recommend you picking up a zoo map when you walk into the gate.  While the zoo is much larger than that of Pittsburgh’s, I found that navigating the Cleveland Zoo was a much more difficult experience.  When at Pittsburgh, you basically follow a direct path from start to end.  Cleveland is not like this.  They make it possible to get to the different zoo exhibits from multiple directions.  This makes it a challenge to make sure you see everything.  It’s quite easy to bypass a large portion of exhibits due to the navigational structure.  This is the reason I recommended picking up a map at the gate.  This helps you check off where you’ve been and what you still have to see.

For photographers, the Cleveland Zoo offers some great shots of their outdoor animals.  Most will benefit from the fact that the animals are rather close to you so there isn’t a need to lug around large telephoto lenses.  I personally only took my Canon 1D Mark III camera, Canon 85mm 1.8, and Canon 100-400L.  I did this not know what I might expect there.  However after visiting the zoo, I would have brought my 70-200 2.8 IS with 1.4x Teleconverter for a more compact (not lighter) experience.  So if you are visiting the Cleveland Zoo, I would recommend that if you only need a max of 300mm to get those far off shots.  I would recommend bringing a flash with you as some of the animals were in some really shading environments which would have benefitted from some fill flash, though the 1D Mark III is quite a capable camera at higher ISO levels.  I have no problems pushing out to 3200 if exposure is done properly.

So if you’ve been to the Pittsburgh Zoo and really enjoyed it, I highly recommend making that extra trip to the Cleveland Zoo.  They have many more animals, closer exhibits, many more unique animals that Pittsburgh doesn’t offer, and larger area.  Plan to spend most of the day there as there is a lot to see.  Don’t forget to bring the camera!

The Veritix website is built on the .NET platform using the 3.5 Framework and C# as the back end.

Form Placement

So the question we face is when we need to add links to a sign up/registration form, what do we title it?  The article did research into this and found that 40% of the links were titled with “Sign Up” followed by “Register” and “Join” with 18% each.  This shows that 76% of link titles are using terms that are easily understood by the user as to what you want them to do.  The article notes that less use of “flashy” buttons are used to a lesser degree.  Design should still be involved in the process, but needs to be made aware of the user base is used to seeing.

The second part of the Form placement section deals with the registration/sign-up link placement.  So now that you have your verbiage down for the link, where do we put it to maximize user click through?  The article notes that 59% of the sites placed their link in the header.  Of those placed in the header, 76% were located in the upper right hand corner.  While not mentioned in the article, I think it should be noted that at least in the United States, reading is always done in a top to bottom and left to right method.  Therefore, it would stand to reason that having your important actionable items near the top would do better rather than in the footer.  However keep in mind the targeted audience.  Surprisingly only 21% of had a prominent spot on their home pages to a “sign-up” page.  Possibly this is due to 1.) Having important content on your home page for search engine spiders and 2.) Using a header placement for the “sign-up” link will/should go throughout the site.  Also noting that only 4% of sites offered a “sign-up” form in a side navigation.

Form Design

So what should be considered when designing a form?  One of the first things you should look at is how simple is the layout of the form?   Other things to consider, but are not limited to:  Is the form easy to understand?  Are required fields easily identifiable?  Is the form a single or multi-part form?  So is the form easy to complete?  According to the article 61% of the websites actually simplified their design so that there were no distractions that prevented the user from completing the form.

What is the gain for the user to complete the registration?  For most sites like Facebook, MySpace, or Digg, it is quite clear what the user is signing up for.  However for those sites that aren’t familiar to the general public, you should provide clear information on what the user is signing up for and what potential benefits/rewards are being offered for signing up.  While a reward doesn’t have to be in the form of money or prizes, if there is a real incentive to sign up, the user most likely will.

Single vs. multi-page form is pretty cut and dry.  93% of the forms surveyed were single page forms.  The more you force people to fill out in order to register, the higher chance of not getting sign-ups you desire.  So the old K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid) rule applies here.

Another important design feature is what do the leading field titles look like.  This includes colors, font-weight, and alignment.  62% of sites go with Bold field titles vs. a 20% of those that use color.  Field title alignment on the other hand is not as cut and dry.  41% opt for right hand alignment, 29% left hand alignment, and 30% go with a stacking method of field title above the input field.

One of the biggest obstacle to form completion is how many fields must a user enter before they can submit the form?  Over half, 54%, have between 3-5 fields required followed by 6-8 questions at 34%.  Not every sign-up form is the same, you must weigh the possibility of losing registrations by asking for more information.

Should fields flow vertical or horizontal?  According to the research, 86% of sites opt for a vertical flow method.  This has to do with not distracting users by “jumping” around the page to fill out fields.

You can read the original article at Smashing Magazine.

The first thing that struck me as I drove inside the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was the sheer size.  The map I printed off the website certainly didn’t convey size very well.  I didn’t realize that they offered golf cart rentals there for $100/day.  Knowing this now, I would recommend getting one to get around the course if you really want to see everything and not pay the next day with aches and pains.

The Ford Mustang Challenge was the first event on hand as they raced for the Miller Cup.  The Miller Cup featured all new model Mustangs modified from factory conditions producing around 325hp+.  There were quite a few collisions during the race which made me cringe since these are extremely beautiful cars.  The time trials ended early with a bad wreck.  To see more Ford Mustangs, visit the Ford Mustang Challenge on my Flickr page.

Next up was the Triple Crown Tuner Challenge which featured beautiful stock looking cars with super turned engines and suspension.  The tuner series featured many Mazda RX-8s, BMWs, Acuras, Subaru, Chevy Cobalts, Mini Coopers and Honda Civic Sis. I was shocked that Mitsubishi didn’t have a showing at all during the tuner series nor any other event.  I was pretty impresses with the handeling of these cars.  Despite their stock appearance, they are anything but what you can buy straight off the showroom floor.

The featured race was the Grand-Am series race featuring the Daytona Prototypes and GT cars.  The first thing you notice is how loud the Daytona Prototypes are.  While taking pictures, I was probably no more than 70′ away from the track.  This made for getting good photos, but at the same time a little hearing loss was incurred.  A word of advice to those not familiar with racing, bring a cheap set of ear plugs.  The main Daytona Prototypes racers included Pontiac, Ford, Lexus, and Porsche.  The main GT racers included Mazda, Porsche and Pontiac.

For those that have never been to a race like this, I highly recommend going.  This was my first race and was a little concerned that I wasted about 3hrs driving one way.  I can say for sure that this wasn’t the case.  Seeing these cars race first hand does more than watching it on TV.  Luckily the weather held off and I was able to get some great photos of the events.