I can operate almost any user interface. After all, I have 33 years’ experience using computers and 25 years’ professional experience analyzing bad designs: I know most of the ways interaction designers can confuse or annoy users. I’ve seen it all before. Or so I thought.
Despite my prowess at defeating complicated user interfaces, I was recently stumped by a simple dialog box. I simply couldn’t figure out how to proceed, so I had to close the application and use another program to achieve my goal.
The offending software shall remain nameless; it’s a nice piece of shareware that I enjoy enough to have paid the fee. Also, a single...
Though there are many ways to trigger and present contextual menus, at their core, these UI elements aim to provide users with the most important commands and relevant tools they need to complete tasks easily within their given context. For more on designing effective contextual menus, take our
There is one more difference between you and the average user that’s even more damaging to your ability to predict what will be a good user interface: skills in using computers, the Internet, and technology in general. Anybody who’s on a web-design team or other user experience project is a
For a user interface standard to increase usability in the resulting products, two conditions have to be met: The standard must specify a usable interface, and the standard must be usable by developers so that they actually build the interface according to the specifications. As reported by Potter
Is Blockchain Winning or Losing? — 4 Stages of Blockchain Evolution
Cryptographers and IT experts were the primary audiences that could actually evaluate the real price of bitcoin. However, for average people who were used to the currency that already had value, bitcoin was non-existent at that time. Bitcoin Blockchain was ignored – only a close circle of true
Blockchain Supercharged with AI: The Next Revolution
AI systems could profoundly change the way we manage blockchain networks and make them more efficient. For example, while transferring Bitcoin to another peer on the same network, it often takes days to confirm the transaction. Ironically, this is inadvertently caused by blockchains decentralized
What B2B Companies Need to Implement Blockchain Solutions
Blockchain technology is bringing companies to a turning point in their business operations. With the rise of data sharing and connected devices, companies need to evolve into connected enterprises that share data both within the organization and externally. Blockchain can solve many of the
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
At first, you might think that such an innovation in the field of reverse logistics should not be discussed in a UX article, but many pieces of the user experience are improved by optimizing this backend operation. A traditional UI-only solution to the problem of high demand would be to clearly
defeated by a dialog box
Modes in User Interfaces: When They Help and When They Hurt Users
Modes are useful for managing a large number of features that would all benefit from using the same input control. If either the total number of input controls is limited, such as on physical devices with a limited number of buttons, or if several actions are best signaled by the same input (e.g
UX Mapping Methods Compared: A Cheat Sheet
Low-fidelity maps are unpolished and often created with sticky notes in a flexible, unrefined manner. These maps are best in an early part of the process. Low fidelity means little commitment or creation effort and empowers people to collaborate, revise, and update as needed. Use sticky notes
User Intent Affects Filter Design
Continuing our restaurant UX analogy, think about how you might order appetizers at a restaurant. Say you want to order three appetizers for the table, but as soon as you name the first one, the waiter snatches the menu out of your hands and walks back to the kitchen to get the chefs started on
The User Experience of Customer-Service Chat: 20 Guidelines
Many chat systems offered to email users a transcript or allowed them to save a pdf. Users commented favorably when they were offered with these options, for several reasons: (1) the transcript could serve as a reference later; (2) they felt reassured that they could quote the agent in case of a
Better Link Labels: 4Ss for Encouraging Clicks
Learn more is the new Click here. Some of its popularity is likely due to a misunderstanding about how people read online. Mailchimp might justify using a vague link (Learn more) because it follows a very specific and well-written tagline (Make your life easier with automation). However
StudioPress Theme Spotlight: Altitude Pro .
What is a child theme? A child theme works in combination with the parent theme. With regards to Genesis, child themes serve as a sort of skin that can change the way a theme looks, while relying on the functionality of its parent theme (in this case, Genesis). Child themes offer users the added
defeated by a dialog box
WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner Named as 2019 Great Place to Work For All Leadership Award Honoree
The award itself was inspired by recent research conducted by Great Place to Work, which surveyed about 500,000 U.S. employees at nearly 800 public and privately-owned companies—mostly based in the U.S. Employees were asked how often they were included in larger, strategic decisions, whether they
WP Engine Sales and Customer Service Teams Recognized at The Stevie Awards
The Stevie Awards are a set of hundreds of business awards given annually by the American Business Awards organization. They were created in 2002 to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of companies and business people worldwide. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards are given to
How Channels, Devices, and Touchpoints Impact the Customer Journey
One common misconception is that computing devices such as smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets are interaction channels themselves. However, devices are not channels. Devices simply provide the means to access channels (usually digital channels, but there may be exceptions, for example smart
Long-Term Exposure to Flat Design: How the Trend Slowly Makes Users Less Efficient
You may ask: isn’t it a good thing if users are forced to pay more attention to language and placement of design elements on the screen? In our course on the foundations of HCI we teach that deep processing is better for memory than shallow processing (in other words, processing the meaning and
Iterative Design of User Interfaces
Unfortunately, interface reconceptualizations in individual development projects are mainly known through anecdotal evidence and have not been documented or had their usability impact measured. One exception is the development of an electronic white pages system by a large telephone company. The
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 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
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 Minnesota Became the Land of 10,000 Startups
Don Ball, Co-Founder and Chief Social Officer at Fueled Collective, has experienced Minnesota’s growth firsthand and has a finger on the pulse of what might be the clearest sign of Minnesota’s entrepreneurial prowess: “Since 2010, we’ve been practically the only coworking game in town
defeated by a dialog box
Top 10 Latin American IoT Startups to Watch
According to the World Cancer Research Fund, breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in women worldwide, contributing 25.4% of the total number of new cases diagnosed in 2018. Mexican company Higia helps women detect early symptoms of cancer with non-invasive biosensors that use thermal
The Modern Shape and Trends of Employee Culture
Veronique James, CEO of the James Agency, an advertising, public relations, and digital marketing firm based in Scottsdale, Ariz., writes that there are things every executive can do on a granular level to ensure an upbeat environment. For example, her agency begins each week with a 15-minute
Defeated By a Dialog Box | Responsive Web Design (RWD) and User Experience
Responsive Web Design (RWD) and User Experience
Responsive design is a tool, not a cure-all. While using responsive design has many perks when designing across devices, using the technique does not ensure a usable experience (just as using a gourmet recipe does not ensure the creation of a magnificent meal.) Teams must focus on the details of
Comparison Tables for Products, Services, and Features
Some websites just remove their comparison functionality altogether for small devices. If at all possible, you should try to support some level of comparison on mobile, but it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to show more than 2 items at a time in a comparison table. Remember that on smaller
Homepage Real Estate Allocation
Using these major categories to map a site's use of space above the fold is a revealing exercise. You can do this yourself: Grab a screenshot of your homepage and superimpose semi-transparent colored boxes on top of each design element, using color-coding for each important screen space category
