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...
If you must make your own scrollbars, stay as close to user expectations as possible. Unless your scrollbars look like scrollbars, users might not notice them. Unless your scrollbars behave like scrollbars, users might not be able to bring the desired content into view. In either case, your
In the case of the mistaken missile alert, some news outlets have provided examples of the interface involved. The same system screen is used to deliver several different types of emergency alerts to the public including amber alerts, road closures, and high-surf warnings. There are 9 unique
Power of suggestion (Good): Selecting is directive. Some things to watch out for though are being presumptuous, pushy, offensive, or alienating. Consider the content and the default selection, how users will react to it, and the effect the selection will have on the user and the organization in
5 Tips for Protecting Your FinTech Data Assets
For optimal protection of your fintech assets, Internet security specialist Sanjay Beri recommends diversifying digital financial holdings among several exchanges to limit investor exposure in the event of a cyberattack. Also, suggests the security expert, investors should keep their cryptocurrency
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
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’
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
It used to be that you would buy two or three nice outfits to have in your wardrobe and would rotate them for special events. But in today’s era, with social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, all your friends will see what you wear, whether they go to the same event or not. And even
defeated by a dialog box
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
When they call a regular cab, riders have no control — hence, all the anxieties listed above. With Uber, they suddenly get all the control they need: once they order an “uber”, they see how far away the car is and how much they have to wait, they know in advance how much the ride will cost
Intranet Design After a Merger or Acquisition
Equating employees with "human capital” may be acceptable on financial statements but is not on intranets. The organization should project that it considers its employees to be human beings, not just financial assets or robots. After a merger, the intranet’s design and content should take steps
6 Rules for Persuasive Storytelling
Artifacts create a lasting impression after the story has been told. Storyboards, personas, journey maps, and research reports give the audience members something tangible to refer to when the story is brought up at a later time and help them recall specific details. For example, pairing your story
Ecommerce Usability Improvements
However, user expectations for search quality are far beyond what today's websites actually deliver. As with most aspects of web usability, user expectations are set by their aggregated user experience from around the web. (As Jakob's Law states: users spend the majority of their time on other
Cancel vs Close: Design to Distinguish the Difference
The filter screen of Yelp’s mobile app offered buttons labeled Cancel and Reset at the top of the screen and a single large Apply button at the bottom. Similarly, the filter view in the Etsy mobile app provided separate buttons labeled Clear and Done. (Note: Etsy used Done rather than Apply
WP Engine Culture Recognized at Greater Austin Business Awards
The annual Greater Austin Business Awards competition, presented by The Austin Chamber of Commerce, is designed to honor excellence in all aspects of business. In order to promote awareness and perpetuate good practices, the Awards recognize companies and organization in the Austin region for
defeated by a dialog box
WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner Named DivInc Executive of the Year
Heather’s leadership at WP Engine has been instrumental in helping the company build an enduring, predictable business, particularly after a key investment from Silver Lake last January, as well as the recent acquisition of StudioPress. Heather also heads a diverse leadership team and has
WP Engine Participates in the Day of Understanding
WP Engine was proud to take part in this event sponsored by the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion. Each company was encouraged to customize the events during the day according to the needs, nature, and geography of its workplace. At WP Engine, multiple company-wide workshops were held in
Decision Frames: How Cognitive Biases Affect UX Practitioners
In the real world, there's no single 'right' answer to this question. It’s a judgment call, and the best answer could be influenced by a variety of factors, such as the type of website, the overall importance of the search function, and any implementation costs. Since none of this information was
Toggle-Switch Guidelines
If immediate results are not achievable or seem ill-suited, an alternative (i.e. radio buttons or a single checkbox — see chart above) should be used instead. If you’re considering including toggles in long forms where other types of form fields are present, and users will need to click a
Small Pictures on Big Screens: Scaling Up from Mobile to Desktop
Designers and developers can overlook the issues described here if they only design, develop, and subsequently view their designs on a single monitor, or only on devices with their target breakpoints. See what your design looks like at those in-between sizes or on widescreen displays. While you may
CSS conversion of my Radio weblog
The hardest thing about the re-design was integrating the tableless CSS design into Radio Userland. I had to do some jiggery-pokery with the Radio Userland templates and macros, and the CSS implementation is not yet complete. I’ve had to temporarily remove my blogroll and topicroll, along
Data Science Careers: From Fragmentation to Necessity
Over the past decade — the concept of being a data scientist has become a “normal” occupation title. It is no longer an unusual way to phrase the job description in data analytics. Now this to the industry standard term for a swath of data careers. Data Science. Like any career
In Mark Zuckerberg We Trust? The State and Future of Facebook, User Data, Cambridge Analytica, Fake News, Elections, Russia and You
Facebook has also potentially exposed millions of user profiles to data scraping due to existing API standards on other fronts over the years. The extent of this scraping and how data was used by third parties is unknown. Facebook has turned off access. Even still, it is unacceptable that it
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
defeated by a dialog box
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
7 Benefits Startups get From HR in the Early Stages
Employees are the only asset which will help you to get a sustainable competitive advantage. All other resources are shared among the competitors. Even though you feel you will be good at hiring and firing and maintaining your employees, it is always suggested to hire Human resources professionals
Defeated By a Dialog Box | Ensure High Contrast for Text Over Images
Ensure High Contrast for Text Over Images
When choosing to place text over an image, consider both the text color and the main color of the image. Images with mostly light-colored backgrounds—or images edited to appear faded—are not well suited to white text because the colors are too similar. In these situations, the background will
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
Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored
The Internet manager in charge of this losing design might defend the work by pointing out that it complies with #4 of my top-10 guidelines for homepage design: Offer a clear starting point for the main tasks users will undertake when visiting the site. Clearly, something was done right, with a
