You are probably wondering how anyone could muster enough words for an entire article about the humble, ubiquitous radio button—and specifically, whether the designers should choose one of the options to be selected by default or not. Before you hit the Back button, think of the old adage «the devil is in the details,» and that so many radio buttons today are downright devious. So read on to avoid creating a diabolical design.
First and foremost, a quick reminder of what radio buttons do: They display a set of mutually exclusive options from which a person may select exactly one . People sometimes confuse radio buttons and checkboxes, but...
If you want to increase the overall size of your audience, then it’s imperative to define extremely infrequent users as a distinct group, because these are your potential future customers. Ideally you should have some specific information about which new markets you hope to expand into; but even
Personalization is based on system’s assumptions about the users’ needs based on past behavior. Users rarely have any control over these assumptions. As we move into a world with more and more “smart” devices, we need to make sure that users can override these personalized settings if they
That mainstream corporate websites make blatant usability mistakes is understandable because most members of their teams aren't grounded in graduate degrees in human-computer interaction. (That's why I have recently added foundational courses, such as The Human Mind, to my usability conference
Blockchain in Retail: Changing the Shopping Experience
Blockchain ensures supply chain and logistics data remains authentic and secure. This includes overseeing every record and form in the supply chain. That means no tampering. Plus, there is a time-stamped record of every step in the supply chain. Everything is independently verified. The result is
Decentralized P2P Lending Services vs Networks
There can be an arbitrary number of currency networks within the Trustlines Network ecosystem, using a related Currency Network Token Factory smart contract. Thus, there is no single “Trustlines token,” but instead an arbitrary number of coexisting currencies that share only the
Zest labs brings IoT and blockchain to the fresh food supply chain
Food waste costs the nation an estimated $218 billion per year according to the NRDC. Produce picked on the same day is not all equal and will not necessarily have the same shelf life, depending on metrics such as humidity and field and storage temperatures. This brings best by dates into
4 Noteworthy Intranet Design Trends in 2019
The intranet team invested in targeted communication about the design and how it would help employees by presenting its research and approach at departmental Town Hall events (which included all employees within a department or division) and by playing a promotional video to generate excitement
the radio buttons: always select one? to
Image-Focused Design: Is Bigger Better?
The homepage for Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, is another example of extreme focus on imagery, with its ever-changing backdrops. But a site devoted entirely to search has quite different design constraints that most websites. The top priority on this page is to show people the search box, and
Brand Is Experience in the Digital Age
In digital systems, customers interact with the representation of the brand in the form of websites and other interactive services, making behavior a crucial attribute of brand. The granularity of behavior as a brand attribute can and does vary and can be expressed holistically at the level of
Customer-Service Information on Websites: The Hub-and-Spoke Model
Although users were generally successful at finding customer-service information on websites, the path to this content was not always straightforward. Many study participants had to work hard to find the information they sought, and this process often included a lot of trial and error as users
Comparison Tables for Products, Services, and Features
To narrow down the number of alternatives to a manageable one, they usually use one hard criterion that outweighs any other considerations. For example, a user looking to buy a new car might filter out all the cars that are more expensive than that $20,000, even though some of them may be
Helpful Filter Categories and Values for Better UX
As much as possible, avoid filter categories with vague labels like Item Type. Words like Category, Format, Content Type, or Genre are better, because they feel a bit more specific and tailored to the current item. For example, products can be divided into Product Categories, while movie rentals
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
such radio buttons: always select one? and
How to Try Gutenberg Safely in a Sandbox Environment .
If you encounter issues with your own custom plugins or custom theme, and are worried that Gutenberg might be released before these can be updated for compatibility, not to worry! Installing the Classic Editor plugin is a safe and easy way to ensure you can continue using the standard WordPress
WP Engine Recognized For Excellence at The Stevie Awards
We are proud to announce that our Chief Marketing Officer Mary Ellen Dugan was recognized for her leadership in marketing and across the organization. Since starting at WP Engine in 2016, Mary Ellen has spearheaded many successful marketing initiatives. Some noteworthy achievements include
Beware Horizontal Scrolling and Mimicking Swipe on Desktop
Don’t force users to “swipe” through your content: some will, many won’t. Allow for alternative ways of navigation: give users the option to navigate with menus, too. Menus tell users what’s on your site and help them find the information that they need. Users rely on them to go deeper
Tabs, Used Right
Simplest GUI widgets are the building blocks for most functionality on the web, but it's rare to find sites that use all the dialog controls correctly. Even something as simple as radio buttons and checkboxes are incorrectly used half the time. And let's not even get started on drop-down menus
The Sketch Test: Test and Improve Your UX Deliverables and Other Documents
While it is tempting to focus primarily on what the participant says (especially direct suggestions for changes), the observation process can provide equally or even more important insights. Watch for areas of the document that the participant refers to when explaining ideas in order to figure
How IoT Running on Blockchain Can Make Climate Change a Reality
Over summer 2018, we have demonstrated a waterborne drone that can perform non-point water resource monitoring providing data that is impossible to collect using only stationary sensors. It can return to the base for calibration, which is not always that comfortable with stationary sensors in
SEO DIY: Optimize Your Startup’s Website Yourself
Anyone who pays attention to the world of search engine optimization knows that maximizing your company’s search results on Google and other search engines is not something you can do with a quick pin here and a hasty status update there. It’s a full-time job. But if you’re
Why IoT Data Protection Has Become More Important than Ever
Passed in May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU law designed to give users more control over their personal data – and to protect against data breach and misuse. Unlike in Europe, in the US, there is no single, national law that regulates the collection and use of
Here is Why Your Business Should Take Digital Adoption Seriously
The underlying purpose of digital adoption is to drive efficiency for business. In the internet era, the best tech to embrace often comes in the form of comprehensive business software. Content management systems (CMS), customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, and other software suites
negative radio buttons: always select one? this
How New Tech Startups Can Differentiate Themselves
Finding a way to differentiate yourself may also hold the key to establishing your brand identity. If you’re struggling to define the startup in some way beyond the technology it produces, this could be your chance to do some soul searching and land on a characteristic or strategy you want at the
Trademark Protection for Startups
You should be leery of any “free” trademark searches. Recall the old adage that you always get what you pay for. The “free” trademark searches are largely marketing ploys that do not provide the quality of search a trademark holder needs to determine whether their trademark is available
Radio Buttons: Always Select One? | Maximize Content-to-Chrome Ratio, Not the Amount of Content on Screen
Maximize Content-to-Chrome Ratio, Not the Amount of Content on Screen
Eliminating the search box and replacing it with a magnifying-glass icon has become almost standard on mobile. It doesn’t work as well on the desktop: the space is simply too large and users don’t have the patience to hunt for a small search icon. If you consider using it on the desktop, keep
Marginalia of Web Design
It is quite common to use thumbnail versions to represent images that are too large to be downloaded without a specific user request. Thumbnails are smaller, meaning that more can fit on a page and that download times are minimized. Unfortunately, the two most common ways of reducing images
Priming and User Interfaces
Priming has been extensively studied in cognitive and social psychology, and such priming examples are pervasive in almost all aspects of everyday life; priming shapes our behaviors and reactions to the environment and is an often an effective shortcut that allows us to take quick decisions. It is
