I’ve done a re-design of my Radio weblog, using CSS. Look ma, no tables! Yes, it’s now a tableless design. I’m doing my bit for the web standards cause, although I haven’t yet achieved 100% XHTML validation. For my re-design I used a CSS Zen Garden design by Michael Landis, who kindly gave me permission to use it. I figured the best way to get into CSS design is to learn from the masters, then later when I have more confidence I’ll attempt an original design. This re-design exercise has been an excellent lesson for me on CSS and XHTML. You can’t beat the motto ‘learn by doing’ in the...
The ‘Master Workshop: Layer I Solutions’ event, in Amsterdam 17-18 November, will bring together those working on every corner of layer I scalability. From the DAG-based cryptocurrency framework, to the creation of secure, scalable decentralized ledgers via sharding, the workshop will be a
Although cryptocurrencies were expected to revolutionize parts of the global financial system, it’s turning out that the blockchain is the real game-changer in the space. For evidence, look no further than JPMorgan’s Interbank Information Network (IIN), which is a blockchain-powered
Mikko Hypponen is a security expert and Chief Research Officer of F-Secure. His talks focus on cybersecurity. He discusses what the next killer virus might be, how the world can cope with it, and how to protect digital privacy in an age of government surveillance. Hypponen has spoken at events
Design Thinking 101
Imagine your goal is to improve an onboarding experience for new users. In this phase, you talk to a range of actual users. Directly observe what they do, how they think, and what they want, asking yourself things like ‘what motivates or discourages users?’ or ‘where do they experience
The Impact of Tone of Voice on Users' Brand Perception (Nielsen Norman Group UX research)
We selected these three factors as the most important aspects of users’ impressions that we expected to be influenced by the tone of voice used in the writing. Of these three, desirability is the most important: a user’s indication of willingness to recommend a brand is a strong predictor of
Browser and GUI Chrome
What do we mean when talking about the "chrome" in a user interface design? An attendee asked this question during a recent course on Visual Design for Mobile and Tablet. Whenever someone asks us a basic question, I assume that many more people want the answer as well — and thus, this article on
Layered Interaction Analysis of Direct Manipulation (Jakob Nielsen)
If the file foo.txt was a text file and the application required a graphics file, this command would constitute an error on the semantic level of the dialogue even though it was syntactically correct. Therefore, the user would get some kind of error message ranging from "ILLEGAL FILE" to "The file
css conversion of my radio weblog
Instructional Overlays and Coach Marks for Mobile Apps
Because Makr’s tips are text-based rather than visual, if users tap through them quickly they will likely not absorb any of the information presented, and will reach the workspace without an idea of how best to proceed with their task. At least the tooltips do have arrows pointing to tools in the
Best Application Designs
It might have seemed logical to first fully create the thing that the privacy would apply to, and then to choose the privacy settings. To some users, however, Step 7 signaled that all the "real" set-up was done and that the remaining steps would be frivolous decorating. If they didn't care about
The Anatomy of a List Entry
Booking.com’s list entries for different hotels are inconsistent — hotel details change placement from one item to the next. This example also shows how using too many indicators can easily get out of hand. In the 3 hotel descriptions above, there are 11 dynamic indicators featuring different
Marking Required Fields in Forms
We’ve seen that, whether you include instructions at the top of the form or not, the result is likely to be the same — people will ignore or forget them. So, what happens when user fill out the form? How do they know whether a field is required? Well, the more-diligent users will look around
Cognitive Maps, Mind Maps, and Concept Maps: Definitions
Cognitive mapping can help UX researchers understand users’ mental models of a system or of a process. This understanding can be crucial when researching complex systems or even when embarking in the design of a new product. Mental-model elicitation is usually carried out through individual
StudioPress Theme Spotlight: New Breakthrough Pro
As we continue to showcase a sample of the amazing StudioPress themes now available to WP Engine customers, we’re extra excited to bring you this new StudioPress Theme: Breakthrough Pro, which is the first new theme to be launched since our acquisition of StudioPress in June. Breakthrough Pro
css conversion of my radio weblog
WP Engine's London Office Recognised as a Great Place to Work
In 2015, WP Engine opened our first global office in London as a physical representation of our desire to expand our team of WordPress specialists and better serve our customers globally. Since then, we’ve worked hard to create a workplace that is collaborative, productive, and fun. Today, we
Bringing Array Themes into the WP Engine Family
At WP Engine, we’ve realized this is just as important as the speed and SEO that helps you show up in search rankings, or the analytics and targeting features that help you cater to narrower sets of demographics. Great-looking websites are the basis of effective digital experiences, and with our
Hamburger Menus and Hidden Navigation Hurt UX Metrics
While our qualitative user testing has repeatedly shown that navigation hidden under a drop-down menu is less discoverable on the desktop, we wanted to measure the size of this effect in a quantitative study and assess the relative impact of hidden navigation on the desktop versus mobile. To do so
Date-Input Form Fields: UX Design Guidelines
Prevent users from selecting illogical dates. Obviously, what’s reasonable will depend from case to case: for example, dates older than 130 years will be unlikely for birthdates, but quite acceptable for document dates. Users should be prevented from entering a return date that takes place before
Personas vs. Jobs-to-Be-Done
If your organization uses personas already, but they don’t include the rich goals and behavioral details that are key to having effective personas, start by augmenting the persona artifacts with JTBD-like information: instead of simply listing the persona’s goals, consider formatting this
How to Improve Digital Security for Your Business
Another step is to use private, dedicated connectivity to a public cloud provider. Alissa Lovens, leader of Zayo Group’s global marketing strategy for its finance and professional services sector, suggests this step because it “reduces many of the performance and security concerns associated
The Place of Secure Browser Extensions in 2019’s Enhanced Cyber Threats
For example, security researchers in 2018 uncovered four malicious extensions in the Google Chrome Web Store. It was not a case of isolation as there were reports that in late July and early August of 2017, unknown attackers compromised the accounts of at least two Chrome extension developers. The
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Finally, Hathaway sees this as a unique opportunity for the United States to work with countries around the world, and with organizations on an extremely local level. “We cannot succeed if our government works in isolation,” she added. It requires “leading from the top” from
How to Open a Company Bank Account for Your Startup & Avoid the Pitfalls
A common issue that many startups run into is not realizing that different types of entities have different signing requirements, and this can lead to a number of issues when opening the bank account. For example if your startup is setup as a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) and it is member
css conversion of my radio weblog
Technical Writers are Vital for Technology Startups
Technical writers working on contract or freelancing can be discovered on freelance sites that include FreelanceMyWay, Upwork, Guru, and Work Hoppers. A variety of profiles of technical writers are available to review previous experience. Most companies who hire writers have writing samples and
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
CSS conversion of my Radio weblog | The Roots of Minimalism in Web Design
The Roots of Minimalism in Web Design
The portfolio of designer Brian Danaher is a typical example of what many designers would call a minimalist site. When viewed full screen on a 15-inch MacBook Pro, the homepage is almost entirely white space. The site uses a grayscale color palette with a single bold accent color to draw attention
Back-to-Top Button Design Guidelines
The popularity of responsive web design has led to a proliferation of single-column, long-page designs both on mobile and desktop. A consequence of these designs has been the Back to Top button, which is a shortcut that allows users to quickly navigate to the top of the page. When users get at the
Carousel Usability: Designing an Effective UI for Websites with Content Overload
If you are using a carousel in the hope that people will see a variety of content, know that some people will only see the first frame or none at all. So ensure that important content is also placed mindfully in the IA and on another page of your site. Consider using a static carousel or hero image
