Whether you’re designing web pages, web-based applications (e.g., SaaS), or native mobile apps, one of the basic building blocks is the humble text-input field: a box where the user can enter some text. Uses of this widget are plenty and not the topic of this article. We should point out that there are many issues in application design relating to workflow and other big-picture questions that are important for good application user experience. (These topics are discussed in our full-day Application Design course.)
In this article, we focus on the nitty-gritty of input fields. Each of these issues may seem minor, but we repeatedly see these usability guidelines violated —...
A classic memory study (Baddeley, Thompson, and Buchanan, 1975) looked at memory for a list of words in relation to the amount of time it takes to say the words in the list out loud. It turned out that it was easier for people to remember a list such as wit, sum, harm, bay, top than university
Swipe gestures are not deployed consistently in all lists, so people don’t always think to use them and as a result, the gestures become less discoverable. Swipe actions are accelerators intended to speed up interactions for power users, but the actions available through the gesture should also
Don’t make users scan through a long list of disorganized commands. To help users focus on the most relevant options, place the ones used most often at the top. Because people scan lists from top to bottom, place seldomly used commands low down in the menu. Let users decide which option best
Stop Focusing on Cryptocurrencies Problems. Consider its Future.
The fundamental truth of crypto is not that it’s magic money born of computers; it’s a distributed system of record that can, if applied properly, have beneficial benefits for all of its user in many different sectors of business. The distributed ledger can provide safety for
4 Ways to Enter the Blockchain Industry
The Internet combined with the decentralized framework of Blockchain now allows anyone in the world to start a business. Anyone — anywhere — will be able to execute transactions securely. Before the Internet, this kind of powerful encryption was inaccessible to many small business
9 Blockchains Transforming the Way We Pay, Play, and Work
Look past digital currencies’ nosebleed pricing volatility, and you’ll discover a robust, decentralized, secure database. Brands and technologists are quickly figuring out how to put this powerful ledger to good use. Here are several real-world examples that demonstrate cryptos’
Teenager’s UX: Designing for Teens
Are teens getting better or are websites getting better? Probably a bit of both. We observed many of the same bad user habits among teens in our last study as we saw in our first study, back in 2004. Thus, the improved performance obviously stems in part from improvements in website design. That
a checklist for designing mobile input fields
The Impact of Interaction Design on Brand Perception
Note: Tolstrup and Heyer use slightly different terminology to describe the interactivity attributes. A demonstration video of the interactive attributes used in Tolstrup and Heyer’s study is currently available from the ACM Digital Library under the tab ‘Source Materials’ (linked as
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
Airbnb makes it easy to satisfy the needs of these travelers by connecting them with owners who want to make an extra dollar by renting out their property. Before Airbnb, sites such as Home Away and property-management agencies used to connect owners with interested renters, but these were focused
10 Heuristics for User Interface Design: Article by Jakob Nielsen
Visibility of system status The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time. (Read full article on visibility of system status.) Match between system and the real world The system should speak the users' language, with words
Eartracking: A New UX-Research Method
We first became aware of the benefits of eartracking during our research with cats and dogs. Many animals have ears that visibly turn in the direction of their attention. Turning the ears is clearly an evolutionary adaptation that allows predators to keenly follow the prey and it also enables
Users' Pagination Preferences and "View All"
Pagination is a necessary evil when you have too many items to easily show them all on one screen. Linear content flows — such as articles like this — should almost never be broken up into multiple screens. It’s better to show the full article on one long screen than to inflict the pain of
A Look Back at the 2018 WP Engine Summit
Last week, some of the most progressive marketers and innovative thinkers using WordPress came together at the 2018 WP Engine Summit. Attendees left exhilarated and inspired to push their brands and agencies forward faster. The theme of this year’s Summit was Breakthrough. Insight into the
a checklist for designing mobile input fields
Introducing Revolution Pro, the First Block-Based Genesis Theme
Atomic Blocks is one of the most popular and most downloaded libraries of beautiful, responsive, and customizable blocks for WordPress 5.0. In addition to giving users the ability to quickly add great-looking elements to their web pages without touching a line of code, Atomic Blocks also offers
It’s Time to Take Advantage of Amazing Web Week Savings
WP Engine is the WordPress Digital Experience Platform that gives companies of all sizes the agility, performance, intelligence and integrations they need to drive their business forward faster. WP Engine’s combination of tech and innovation and an award-winning team of WordPress experts are
Adding an Item to a Shopping Cart: Provide Clear, Persistent Feedback
This is a relatively old usability problem for ecommerce websites — we reported on it in in a previous round of ecommerce user research, and we warned publicly about this design flaw as one of the top-3 bad new ecommerce design trends in 2014. I guess we warned in vain, because the same problem
Narrative Biases: When Storytelling HURTS User Experience
When asked about a general case (what’s a more common level of educational achievement), we naturally consider the prevalence, or base rate, of educational achievement among the entire population. But in the presence of a specific detail (such as the act of reading the New York Times), we often
Expandable Menus: Pull-Down, Square, or Pie?
That being said, there is one exception: marking menus in the normal mode (like the one in the Pinterest app displayed above). Marking menus are well suited for touch interfaces, because they don’t require a precise reach of the target (which tends to be problematic with touchscreen interfaces
What to Consider When Leveraging File Sharing
File sharing delivers convenience, collaboration, and productivity. However, to get the most out of it while maintaining data security, you need a thoughtful approach for file and folder management. That means considering each person’s role, project involvement, security level, and length of time
Why There’s a Bright Future in a Cyber Security Careers
If you’re searching for your next career a great place to look is for a job in cyber security. Why? Because the demand for cyber security experts is going up, up, up. Keeping digital assets secure is a vital skillset. As our world grows ever more dependent on the Internet and digital
Is Business Headed for a Cognitive-First Future?
Just like other manufacturing arenas, automotive companies are searching for ways to increase the uptime of their assembly lines and decrease malfunctions and subsequent recalls. Although only 8 percent of automotive manufacturers currently use cognitive predictive maintenance, these companies
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
She explained that the original design of the Internet was driven more by considerations of interoperability rather than security, and as a result we are now faced with almost insurmountable issues. Some examples include online criminals who steal our information, mass bandits who have the ability
a checklist for designing mobile input fields
RW Q&A: Monisha Perkash, founder of Lumo Bodytech
Perkash came up with the idea for Lumo seeing her co-founder and CTO, Andrew Chang, suffering from debilitating back pain. Perkash is married to a spine and sports physician, so she could understand how important posture really was. Perkash advised Andrew to attend a posture class and as a result
Yes, Entrepreneurs Can Thrive in Corporate Environments
Government-funded or private research facilities at universities or research institutes can provide some of the elements needed. Large companies are also well-suited to create a cross-functional, collaborative, win-together environment. Demonstrated support has been shown by innovation incubators
A Checklist for Designing Mobile Input Fields | Website Response Times
Website Response Times
In a recent study for our work on Brand as Experience (now a full-day training course on branding and UX), we asked users what they thought about various websites they had used in the past. So, their responses were based not on immediate use (as in normal usability studies), but on whatever past
Site Map Usability, 1st study
I have often predicted that Internet Explorer version 8 will be the first decent Web browser. One feature request for version 8 is better navigation support by offering a visualization feature that would pull the site map out of the website and make it a standardized browser element. Unfortunately
Page Parking: Millennials' Multi-Tab Mania
Growth in the number of browser tabs over time during one usability-testing task. The currently active tabs are shown in blue. Red represents tabs that have been closed by the user; those tabs were thus no longer present in the browser’s tab bar. In total, the study participant employed 12
