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...
Customization works well under the assumption that users know best what their goals and needs are. Thus, it is based on natural intelligence (the users’) over artificial intelligence (the system’s). On the other hand, personalization is based on artificial intelligence (about a user or a group
When pages feature both vertical and horizontal scrolling, users have to move their viewport in two dimensions, which makes it hard to cover the entire space. For people with poor spatial visualization skills, it's especially challenging to plan movements along two axes across an invisible plane
Whether you're designing web pages, web-based applications (e.g., SaaS), or native mobile apps, one of the basic building blocks is the humble text-input field: a box where the user can enter some text. Uses of this widget are plenty and not the topic of this article. We should point out that there
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
Freewheeling Freelancers will Dominate the Future Jobs Market
Fortunately, as more people turn to this form of work, so too has the attention of regulatory bodies around the world. Writing for Forbes, Abdullahi Muhammed expects to see increased pressure in the coming years on local, state and national authorities to recognize the fledgling form of freelancing
2 Billion Downloads Later, Apple’s App Store is Still Going Strong
The App Store is obviously one of Apple’s most important assets in the mobile market. While Microsoft’s Zune HD, for example, is getting a lot of favorable reviews, the absence of an application ecosystem makes it a far less compelling product than Apple’s more expensive iPod
Design Thinking 101
We live in an era of experiences, be they services or products, and we’ve come to have high expectations for these experiences. They are becoming more complex in nature as information and technology continues to evolve. With each evolution comes a new set of unmet needs. While design thinking is
radio buttons: always select one?
Trustworthiness in Web Design: 4 Credibility Factors
The 4 factors of trustworthiness are important to every website, and have remained stable for decades. Even though the specifics of how to meet these trust guidelines have evolved over time, the underlying principles still stay valid. This is why it is always important to see the why behind design
The User Experience of Public Bathrooms
Applications and consumer products have many functions, often making it difficult for designers to home in on a short set of top tasks. But some products have only one specific function: for example, with a scale you weigh yourself; with a doorbell you ring it. With a toilet you flush it. If a user
How to Display Taxes, Fees, and Shipping Charges on Ecommerce Sites
A user from Denmark shopping on Disney.com was revolted by the pricey shipping charges: “That’s outrageous. Thirty dollars to ship a product worth 40 dollars! I’m in a state of shock. It has taken me so long to find this item. Why haven’t they told me before?” The user went back to the
"Get Started" Stops Users
New visitors often reach a website in need of introductory information. Perhaps they’ve heard about the company in passing or via an ad, and they’re there to learn the full story and get a clear understanding of its offerings, what makes it different, and why they should become customers. This
4 Noteworthy Intranet Design Trends in 2019
Your organization’s industry is unlikely to play a huge role in whether your organization has a great intranet. (Of course, a trend like “core-task support” will play out differently in different industries, since each has different core tasks. But the idea of core tasks remains identical
Naughty or Nice: Check Your Ecommerce Site Twice! .
Every year it can feel like the holidays sneak up on us. We assemble, we strategize, and we take the necessary precautions yet we frequently feel like we are scrambling. For ecommerce businesses, this time of year is crucial not only for generating revenue but for generating recurrent relationships
radio buttons: always select one?
Hackathon 2019 Goes Boldly Where No Engineers Have Gone Before
Last week, our first hackathon of the year kicked off with more than a dozen teams and respective projects. After the 48-hour build period was up, those groups presented their cutting edge ideas to a packed audience of WP Engine employees. The presentations lasted an entire day, and only after all
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
Similarly, a Hulu user was not sure whether the medical dramas that he saw on the homepage were popular shows enjoyed by a lot of people or personalized content based on past behavior in his account (he mentioned that his mother sometimes watched those shows on his account when she came to visit
Personas vs. Jobs-to-Be-Done
While the same job-to-be-done may have different requirements for different user groups, the reverse is also true: one user group (or persona) may “hire” the product for different jobs in different contexts. For example, I use the same flight-booking website for both work travel and vacation
Augmented Reality: What Does It Mean for UX?
As a type of noncommand UI, AR interfaces provide excellent opportunities for improving user experience. To see why, consider an airplane mechanic who crawls around inside the guts of an aircraft for an inspection and needs to check for how long a certain part has been in service. With a
Why AI and Viztech hold the key to a safer internet
Pioneers in the new field of Viztech have developed a highly effective adult and violence video filter. It uses AI to identify terrorist and other harmful digital content automatically – and not within two hours of being published, but before it actually goes live. It can spot inappropriate
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
Is Business Headed for a Cognitive-First Future?
As the world generates more and more data — at a clip of 2.5 quintillion bytes each day — it simultaneously struggles to manage it. With humans unable to manually process such large amounts of data and analyze its implications, the business world has to turn to machines to take on some of the
How Tech Startups Succeed With a Fully Remote Model
Fully remote models are possible thanks to fantastic advancements in technology, but what happens when those technological tools aren’t working? If your project management app goes down or your email servers aren’t working, it could derail the entire day. Plus, if an individual is in need of
radio buttons: always select one?
Coming to Terms – Why Terms of Use are Critical for Your Company
In order to comply with the requirements of the DMCA defense to infringement, your Terms of Use need to include (a) clause that states you will take down/remove any material that turns out to be copyrighted if the violation is brought to your attention, (b) provide a method by which the third-party
Why the Gig Economy is Coming for Architects, Engineers
There are plenty of macro and micro trends which impact upon whether companies are building at any given time. This means that flexible companies with an on-demand workforce are better placed to match the workflow of any given moment. In busy periods, the company may be shorthanded and require
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
Aspects of Design Quality
We often have prospective clients call us up to request help with one element of their site or intranet. For example, they often want to improve their IA or navigation . This is indeed a worthy cause, and would help most sites. But is it the weakness causing the most lost business value ? Maybe. Or
Instilling Confidence in Online Shoppers: I Bought a Sofa Online and Good UX Sealed the Deal
Many websites showed color and fabric options, but not to a sufficient level of detail to make customers feel confident buying. Thumbnail images were often small and blurry, making it difficult to get a true idea of what the fabric will look like and feel like. Zoom functionality was hit and miss
