One of the oldest principles of human-computer interaction is that things that are close together on the screen are seen as related . (Similarly, users view as related those things that are the same color or shape , that move or change together, or that reside within an enclosure , such as a box.)
I wrote about how to apply the proximity gestalt principle to GUI design in my 1993 book Usability Engineering, but it was well documented long before that.
Even though it’s an ancient insight and is covered in countless books and courses, we frequently see users overlook features because layouts violate the proximity rule. When buttons, drop-downs,...
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
But Xero might be a more interesting example, simply because it targets the traditionally dry domain of accounting. One of its main features lets users automatically reconcile bookkeeping entries with bank account transactions. As a match is made, the 2 matching entries are removed from the list of
Over the past million years, humans have evolved language as our major communication mode. Language lets us refer to things not immediately present, reason about potential actions, and use conditionals and other concepts not available with a see-and-point interface. Another important property of
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
3 Reasons Decentralization is the Future of Currency
Governments have all sorts of tools at their disposal affect currency rates. If they merely print more money—as they did during the recovery from the last crash—the value of the currency will fall. If they change interest rates, they affect the supply of money available, also changing its
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’
Service Blueprinting in Practice: Who, When, What
Teams that frequently participate in service blueprinting initiatives include design, product/project management, research, and development. Fewer than 50% of participants identified participation from senior leadership, customer support, marketing, or sales, all of which we should participate to
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Brand Is Experience in the Digital Age
Before a siege, Blackbeard dressed himself in a dark heavy coat and captain’s hat to accentuate his domineering stature. He strapped pistols to his chest and tucked lit, smoking fuses under his hat and in his beard to create an image reminiscent of the devil himself having just emerged from some
Branding an Intranet
This kind of cagey intranet name doesn’t come easily. If you want to try one, test it out with employees before implementing it. And think about whether the name can last for years to come. Getting people to call the intranet by a different name is difficult. They will still refer to the intranet
Cognitive Maps, Mind Maps, and Concept Maps: Definitions
When it comes to representing physical space, there are many types of possible maps: topographic maps, geologic maps, pedestrian maps, street maps, and so on. They are all flat representations of the surface of the earth, but highlight different properties of this surface. Cartographers apply
3 Design Considerations for Effective Mobile-App Permission Requests
App permission requests allow users to remain in control of their data. Users perform a cost–benefit analysis when deciding whether to accept a permission request. It’s important that designers think about how to communicate the benefits and when to make the request, so that users aren’t
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
Slider Design: Rules of Thumb
When designing a usable UI we must consider the context in which the interface will be used. For mobile design in particular, users often hold their device in one hand while doing other activities—watching television, walking, or even driving. In such circumstances it can be daunting to tap and
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Microinteractions in User Experience
In Snapchat, microinteractions are used to communicate that two Bitmoji users are in the same chat window. When your chat partner is typing, his Bitmoji appears with a thought bubble. If he’s reading the message, his Bitmoji peaks over the text-input field. In this case, the feedback provided
Minimize Design Risk by Focusing on Outcomes not Features
Encourage team members to be creative and think of different ways to approach a goal. Generate multiple solutions and get user feedback early. Activities such as storyboarding and wireframing have two major benefits: (1) they give team members a way to communicate ideas visually; (2) teams can
WP Engine All Hands Spring 2019: US
Last week, WP Engine employees from all over the U.S. came together at our Austin headquarters for the first biannual All-Hands event of 2019. All Hands is a two-day event in which employees from other offices and teams around the country get the chance to collaborate and strategize with one
WordPress for Good: Relieving Fatigue .
In this segment, we highlight Untire, an application that helps cancer patients and survivors reduce cancer-related fatigue (CRF) symptoms and regain life. CRF is a common side-effect of cancer and related treatments; patients describe it as a paralyzing level of fatigue that leaves patients
International Study by WP Engine Reveals Enterprise Investment Lags Today's Mobile-First Consumer
When it comes to providing world-class digital experiences, less than a third of respondents (29 percent) thought their customers would rate their digital experience as superior. On mobile, a poor design or bad user experience is even more pronounced. With three billion smartphone users in the
How to Choose and Implement the Right Cloud-Hosted Desktop
Even with DaaS, many businesses choose to maintain some applications or data storage in-house. This is an important discussion to have with your provider. For example, would it make more sense for your company to run the email system through the cloud but payroll through on-premise servers? Does
Groundbreaking Tips for Managing Big Data
Big data is the type of data that is characterized by informational and technical features. A huge and ever-growing data volume, a variety of data formats and a log of records nature belong to the informational aspects. Traditional solutions are no longer suitable for capturing, storing and
How to Put Big Data’s Superpowers to Work for Marketing
As Code North America, which specializes in unraveling data’s mysteries by detecting consumer engagement and behavioral patterns, notes, “Today’s digital touchpoints — mobile, social, web — all generate massive quantities of big data.” To achieve personalization and understand your
9 Steps to Assess Whether a Startup is Suitable for Investment
Also, keep in mind the presence of earning potential, sustainable competitive advantage and potential market share. Finally, the “what” is focusing on the questions regarding the list of top customers, strategic relationships. Suppliers need to be considered, as well as on the thorough analysis
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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
Trademark Protection for Startups
In this digital commerce age where many brands are distributed in online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, one of the most powerful weapons that you have against counter-fitters and unauthorized distributors is their infringing use of your registered trademarks. With a trademark registration, it
Closeness of Actions and Objects in GUI Design | The Fold Manifesto: Why the Page Fold Still Matters
The Fold Manifesto: Why the Page Fold Still Matters
An aggregate heatmap shows 57,453 eyetracking fixations across a wide range of pages, excluding search and search-results pages. Red indicates where users looked the most; yellow where they looked less. White areas got virtually no looks. The top black stripe indicates the page fold in the study
Help People Create Passwords That They Can Actually Remember
People naturally choose personal information when creating passwords, sometimes so personal—pets’ names, a wedding anniversary and street address—that they become easy to infer and mar the system’s security. But we can encourage people to instead use details that are not easy to guess
Photos as Web Content
This is a good example of why it's not always good to copy the biggest sites' designs. Because Amazon hawks a monstrously wide product range, they use a standardized gallery layout that sort of works for many different category pages, without being optimized for any individual category. In
