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...
Sadly, many websites and other computer systems take the opposite approach and don’t show any feedback until they’re completely done processing the user’s input and can display the final answer. This creates a great deal of anxiety as the user is uncertain as to whether the computer even
Wireframes are a great way of showing layout, but they don't describe interaction well, and they are especially poor at documenting the layout of digital products that have a lot of dynamic content, such as mobile apps or webapps. Wireframes are most useful when documenting websites (or other
When it comes to modal dialog boxes, our winners have very distinct ideologies. At one extreme is Seating Management. As a real-time application monitoring a physical environment, Seating Management didn't set out to interrupt hostess work in any way. If a hostess wants to seat 5 guests at a table
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
Bringing a More Secure and Efficient Land Registry with Blockchain
Changes to blockchain occur, nearly real-time. Real-time drastically shortens the weekly and sometimes monthly time delays associated with the land registry system. Blockchain also can limit fraud by giving every legit member access to the blockchain. Everything available can be seen immediately
Blockchain Success Stories Show Valuable Opportunities
Over the past two years, we’ve witnessed the cryptocurrency market explode onto the scene, minting billionaires overnight, followed by an implosion that has wiped out up to 80 percent of the market’s value. All along, the true believers have continued to insist that this is just the
Usability 101: Introduction to Usability
If you run at least one user study per week, it's worth building a dedicated usability laboratory. For most companies, however, it's fine to conduct tests in a conference room or an office — as long as you can close the door to keep out distractions. What matters is that you get hold of real
defeated by a dialog box
Why Personas Fail
Get a core group of advocates to help lead the charge. Do a lunchtime roadshow, or a series of lunch-and-learns. Visit teams and introduce the personas, where they came from, and how to use them. Teach them how to recruit representative users for testing, how to write scenarios for design
UX Research Cheat Sheet
The diagram lists potential UX research methods and activities that can be done as projects move through stages of design. Think of this as a menu of recommended options. Your process will vary and may include only a few things on this list during each cycle. The most-frequently used methods are
Why People Shop on the Web
American e-commerce strategists should not use this survey as an excuse to rest on their laurels, however. Europe will improve and become more of a competitor in the future. Also, Denmark is somewhat atypical in several ways: it is a very small country with a particularly well-educated population
Wishlist or shopping cart? Saving products for later in ecommerce
Wishlists are often made available in the page header (next to the cart button) and on product pages (often near the Add to Cart button). These spots make the feature easy to discover and access; however, our study participants tended to add items to their cart first. Our users’ mental model for
M-Commerce: Terrible UX
Adobe Analytics' data from "Cyber Monday" in 2017 is based on an analysis of one trillion visits to over 4,500 ecommerce sites. Desktop computers now only account for slightly more than half of visits to ecommerce sites, but the sites got dramatically less revenue from visitors on mobile devices
StudioPress Theme Spotlight: Daily Dish Pro
As we continue to showcase a sample of the amazing StudioPress themes now available to WP Engine customers, we’re shifting our focus to food with this new StudioPress Theme: Daily Dish Pro, which is designed to make your content just as appetizing as the best meal at your favorite four-star
defeated by a dialog box
WP Engine Celebrates Pride 2018 .
Austin’s Annual PRIDE celebration is one of the largest opportunities for local non-profit organizations, social groups, and causes to gain exposure in the LGBTQ community. This year marked 28 years of Pride events in Austin. This year’s parade emphasis was awareness, equality and
Bringing Array Themes into the WP Engine Family
We’re excited about all of these developments—the new styles we’ll be incorporating into future Genesis themes, the added ease and functionality we’ll be able to provide for Gutenberg, and the addition of Mike and John to our team. But most of all, we’re looking forward to the
Why Zen Mode Isn’t the Answer to Everything
Similarly, zen mode in UI takes away user’s attention from the very task in which users are engaged and asks them to focus on finding the tools (that is, UI elements or chrome) needed to accomplish it. Let’s consider the Novlr example above. While the interface itself is clean and emphasizes
Why Personas Fail
In order for stakeholders to use personas, they have to believe in them, feel invested, and have ownership over them. The most successful personas are created with involvement from their end users. Otherwise, people will have no understanding of the data behind them and the rigor that went into
Parallel & Iterative Design + Competitive Testing = High Usability
Just as with parallel design, a competitive test shouldn't simply be a benchmark to anoint a "winner." Sure, it can get the competitive juices stewing in most companies to learn that a hated competitor scores, say, 45% higher on key usability metrics. Such numbers can spur executive action. But as
Big Tech Faces Data Collection Scrutiny, but Big Insurance Might be Next
For most of the past decade, people all around the world sat and watched as significant tech companies started to expand their reach into every part of our daily lives. In many cases, the results were positive, like bringing our favorite entertainment to every device we own. We loved being able to
How are the Top MNCs Using Big Data Analytics to their Advantage?
The extraordinary occasions and profoundly unsafe business condition calls for better chance administration forms. Fundamentally, a hazard of the executive’s plan is underlying speculation for any business paying little respect to this area. Having the option to observe, in advance, a potential
Marketers, You’re Wasting Your Data
But that’s actually good news on the personnel front because you’ll need your human marketers to allocate their energy to things like determining long-term strategy and designing customer experience. As Norm Johnston, global CEO and chief digital officer of Mindshare, observes, “The rapid
What To Expect At This Year’s Mobile World Congress
I’m expecting plenty of conversations about mobile security in the wake of Apple’s letter this week, with IoT center stage. As a result, the IoT pavilion will be a hotbed of connected technology with plenty of emphasis on IoT security. Home devices will be getting more attention
defeated by a dialog box
How to Use Cornerstone Content to Kick-start Automatic-SEO?
However there is a considerably difference in pillar content and cornerstone content. Cornerstone content is a blog that has information updated in it on a regular basis. While a pillar content is a blog that has content which is written only once. Here is where everyone gets confused between the
How Minnesota Became the Land of 10,000 Startups
Even old-school startups are joining the scene. On November 7 tech darling Salesforce brings its popular Growth Camp series to the Twin Cities. The free tech conference for small businesses and startups features local speakers, 1:1 tech tutorials, a keynote from acclaimed marketing evangelist
Defeated By a Dialog Box | Simplicity Wins over Abundance of Choice
Simplicity Wins over Abundance of Choice
Filling up a cup with soda is an activity that usually takes less than 10 seconds. With these fancy machines, some people need more than a minute to complete this simple task. New customers struggle to figure out an unfamiliar touch interface consisting of multiple menu levels. And some end up
Finally Progress in Internet Client Design
I also find it strange that there is little visual integration between the video area and the interaction area. The anchors could easily point over to the other area to draw the user's attention to things to click on or surveys to answer (in a personal email, one of the anchors told me that they
Anchors OK? Re-Assessing In-Page Links
Using a label is preferable, both for clarity and accessibility, to relying solely on placement or a visual treatment. Screen-reading software, which reads webpage text aloud to users, often adds the word “in-page link” when reading an anchor link, to keep users oriented. But people using a
