We get countless questions about small details in UI design that don’t matter much to the overall user experience. One classic is the order of buttons in dialog boxes:
OK / Cancel
Cancel / OK
Both are reasonable choices, and people can argue for hours about their preferences:
Listing OK first supports the natural reading order in English and other languages that read left-to-right. Many other button sets have a natural progression (say, Yes / No or Previous / Next). You should always list these so that the reading order matches the logical order — in this case, OK / Cancel. Further, assuming users need OK much more frequently than...
Another major consideration when designing a touch interface is the accessibility of various UI elements. Think about how challenging it would be to interact with a slider control for users with motor difficulties. Would they be able to select a value even close to what they wanted? How much effort
Despite these (and other) early examples of human-centric products, design has historically been an afterthought in the business world, applied only to touch up a product’s aesthetics. This topical design application has resulted in corporations creating solutions which fail to meet their
Eventually, to my surprise and relief, the DMV recording offered me the option of providing my phone number so that DMV could call me back when an operator became available, with the assurance that I would keep my place in line. So now that I knew approximately how long I would have to wait, I was
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
Why Small Businesses Need to Be Vigilant About IoT Security Too
Many devices come out of the box with easy-to-access administrator credentials. For example, they often have username and password combinations like “admin/1234.” Even popular network devices like routers are wont to have such default settings. This is among the most common ways attackers and
6 Rules for Persuasive Storytelling
For example, you can show your audience the original design that Randy (our protagonist from above) used to purchase his gift. Then present your new-design idea using the same scenario; point out how the gift options will be more easily accessible in this new version to allow Randy to include a
ok-cancel or cancel-ok? the trouble with buttons
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
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
Why are we willing to sleep in strangers’ beds, or conversely, let strangers into our homes? We do so because Airbnb has established a trusted, secure, and easy to use customer experience. Similar to Rent the Runway, Airbnb is a player in the growing “sharing” economy. The peer-to-peer online
3 Design Considerations for Effective Mobile-App Permission Requests
There are slight differences in how these requests are presented across mobile operating systems. As you can see from the example above, in iOS the user is asked for access to the microphone, whereas in Android the user is asked for permission to record audio. Moreover, in iOS, the modal dialog
10 Heuristics for User Interface Design: Article by Jakob Nielsen
Visibility of system status The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time. (Read full article on visibility of system status.) Match between system and the real world The system should speak the users' language, with words
Status Trackers and Progress Updates: 16 Design Guidelines
When users buy a product or apply for a service online, they don’t have control over the completion of that process — the delivery of the product or the service. (In this article, “delivery” refers to both physical shipment and virtual or online service delivery.) Lack of control can cause
The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think
This is what level-2 people can do: “At this level, tasks typically require the use of both generic and more specific technology applications. For instance, the respondent may have to make use of a novel online form. Some navigation across pages and applications is required to solve the problem
ok-cancel or cancel-ok? the trouble with buttons
The Most Hated Online Advertising Techniques
In 2004, we wrote about the most hated advertising techniques based on research conducted by Christian Rohrer and John Boyd. Online advertising has changed significantly since then, giving us plenty of new formats to test and new questions to ask. With that, we decided to run a study to determine
The Magnifying-Glass Icon in Search Design: Pros and Cons
When used without an open-entry text field, the icon takes up less space. Visually, it’s less prominent and, therefore, less noticeable. We don’t recommend the icon-only pattern for desktop websites. Icon-only search makes sense on mobile devices, because there’s less screen space and fewer
How to Recover Abandoned Shopping Carts for WooCommerce Stores
Many of those abandoned carts are probably lost for good because you don’t have any contact information from the shopper to try to win them back to checkout. But for a percentage of the carts, your shopper will have gotten far enough along in the process that you’ll have an email address (or
At SXSW, WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner Underscores Importance of Altruism in a Growing City
Keeping that energy alive, they all agreed, was a challenge the city will have to contend with, especially as more people arrive and the economy continues to grow. There was also wide agreement that the best way to preserve Austin’s special qualities was to continue fostering the welcoming spirit
A Look at WordCamp Los Angeles 2018 .
There are so many things to love about WordCamp. The one thing that makes these events uniquely awesome is it’s inclusion of different people of all backgrounds, skills, and interests. This made for a comfortable, safe environment to truly learn and explore the open-source world of WP. Huge
A Few Critical Steps to Take if Your Website has been Hacked
By understanding its severity, you will be able to devise an appropriate strategy for fixing it up. Get the information in search console, where you may have received messages from Google in “message center” on spam and malware. Also, check the “security issues” segment of your webmaster
3 CRM Features You Need to Become GDPR Compliant
GDPR also requires that individuals have the right to request access to their data. Your CRM software needs to have features that make it possible to quickly export contact data when they ask for it. Check your CRM to see if it has data export features so you can download information from your
Five Best Open-Source Antivirus’ for Carefree Cyber-Threat Protection
You can detect a lot of different types of malicious software by using open source antivirus products. Experienced developers in both fields will tell you this is the most secure way to connect to the internet today. These programs simply make their code available for free so you can modify and
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
ok-cancel or cancel-ok? the trouble with buttons
Here is Why Your Business Should Take Digital Adoption Seriously
ROI from technologies is difficult to measure when a firm uses several different solutions, but many software platforms bring everything “under one roof” by outright replacing single-purpose technology or helping to plug it into the new interface. This brand of digital adoption allows
7 Critical Time Management Skills to Boost Your Productivity
You’ve seen the studies and heard the results: multitasking actually decreases productivity. The reason has to do with the human brain’s ability to concentrate. Researchers say that it takes an average of 23 minutes for our minds to refocus once they’ve been distracted. If you’re
OK-Cancel or Cancel-OK? The Trouble With Buttons | Iterative Design and Testing of Icon Usability
Iterative Design and Testing of Icon Usability
The second row shows our next round of attempts where a person was used to represent the developers. As you can see, we couldn't restrain ourselves from having a propellerhead despite the fact that we had rejected this aspect from the first iteration of the home page. The first developer icon was
The exit popup can’t tell the difference. Imagine that a user is engaging in page parking to help her research a topic. She starts with a Google query, and then opens up several results into new tabs rapidly. The user begins moving through each tab, closing some that are irrelevant, but saving
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
