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...
As we saw, placeholders can be problematic for all users: disappearing placeholders increase the memory load; persistent dimmable placeholders cause confusion when they look clickable but aren’t, and placeholders that do not disappear require more keyboard or mouse interaction to be deleted
Over many years of seeing customization tools implemented in a variety of systems in a variety of ways, we often find that users do not use them. The fact that customization relies on users’ actions means that the potential benefits of customization will reach fewer users than personalization
The lesson from this case study is not how to design a better "Save As" dialog. Depending on the circumstances, you could use any of the four designs I listed, or perhaps even design a fifth that works better for your particular type of data. It's easy enough to find out what's best for your users
AI and Blockchain Tech Are The Future of Successful Trading
On the other hand, Blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies, is also having its fair share in the industry with analysts predicting that it will do to the financial system what the internet did to the media. Cryptocurrencies as an investment asset have seen explosive popularity since
Is the Blockchain Role in Advertising Too Overrated?
Blockchain holds great potential for digital advertising since it solves fundamental issues of trust, eliminates ad fraud, and makes advertiser-publisher relationships more transparent. We are standing on a threshold of mass introduction of blockchain-based ad solutions into real businesses. When
Blockchain in Retail: Changing the Shopping Experience
While blockchain may have initially started out as the technology behind cryptocurrency, numerous innovators have quickly found other applications for it. Besides other non-financial applications like cloud storage, contracts, and smart cities, blockchain is viewed as an ideal solution
The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think
For sure, anybody who works on a design project will have a more accurate and detailed mental model of the user interface than an outsider. If you target a broad consumer audience, you will also have a higher IQ than your average user, higher literacy levels, and, most likely, you’ll be younger
radio buttons: always select one?
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
5 Steps to Creating a UX-Design Portfolio
As designers we often generate many candidate solutions for a single problem and ultimately choose only one. In this process, many great ideas are left on the cutting-room floor. As you’re writing your case studies, include candidate solutions and explain the thought process behind the designs
Children’s Exposure to Digital Technology Causes Parental Anxiety
The new mother in Toronto was also conflicted about her choice to limit her toddler’s device use and streaming because she felt that he was learning how to use technology: “He watches and learns to do the swiping motion. Last week, he grabbed the phone out of an elderly man’s hands at the
"Get Started" Stops Users
A critical mistake on many websites is designing only for those who already know about the company and the services it provides. With the assumption that everybody is familiar with their offerings, these websites attempt to get people to sign up without explaining what they do. Perhaps they place
Usability 101: Introduction to Usability
To identify a design's most important usability problems, testing 5 users is typically enough. Rather than run a big, expensive study, it's a better use of resources to run many small tests and revise the design between each one so you can fix the usability flaws as you identify them. Iterative
International Study by WP Engine Reveals Enterprise Investment Lags Today's Mobile-First Consumer
When it comes to providing world-class digital experiences, less than a third of respondents (29 percent) thought their customers would rate their digital experience as superior. On mobile, a poor design or bad user experience is even more pronounced. With three billion smartphone users in the
radio buttons: always select one?
StudioPress Theme Spotlight: Altitude Pro .
What is a child theme? A child theme works in combination with the parent theme. With regards to Genesis, child themes serve as a sort of skin that can change the way a theme looks, while relying on the functionality of its parent theme (in this case, Genesis). Child themes offer users the added
WP Engine All Hands Spring 2019: US
Last week, WP Engine employees from all over the U.S. came together at our Austin headquarters for the first biannual All-Hands event of 2019. All Hands is a two-day event in which employees from other offices and teams around the country get the chance to collaborate and strategize with one
Preventing User Errors: Avoiding Conscious Mistakes
Even though users will always make some mistakes when using software, it’s possible to reduce overall errors by designing with the user’s experience in mind. Prevent mistakes by helping the user to build a good mental model of your interface. Use design patterns that communicate how they work
Salesforce’s Lightning Design System shows a UI element, Button Group Base, along with an example of how to implement it, guidelines for how it should function, and when an alternative variant (such as Button Group Disabled) should be used. The example is a live element that is interactive and
Basic Patterns for Mobile Navigation
With the homepage as navigation hub, prime real estate will be wasted for chrome and all navigation will have to go through the homepage. While these two may seem as major disadvantages (and they are for most types of sites or apps), they can be less of a problem for those sites and apps used not
Internet of Warnings: How Smart Technology Can Threaten Your Business’s Security
IoT technology ranges from entire smart cities that streamline traffic to fridges that detect when you’re low on milk and order it for you, among many other products and services. Devices such as Fitbit and Nest are growing in popularity due to their low price, practicality, and variety of
Understanding Today’s IT Hierarchy
This position also averages between one and nine years of experience. The IT Engineer usually requires a bachelor’s degree in IT or computer science. The average salary is between $68,000 and $85,000. There are variations in this department and depending on the type of IT engineer, number of
CSS conversion of my Radio weblog
I’ve done a re-design of my Radio weblog, using CSS. Look ma, no tables! Yes, it’s now a tableless design. I’m doing my bit for the web standards cause, although I haven’t yet achieved 100% XHTML validation. For my re-design I used a CSS Zen Garden design by Michael Landis
The Role of IT or an IT Consultant Provider for Business Growth
The continued attacks of malware and unethical hacks online presents extended challenges for all business. Any companies future is in the hands of their honest, hard working IT professionals. IT professionals are depended upon for help and security. A company depends on reports of any suspicious
radio buttons: always select one?
How to Upgrade Your Cyber Defenses to Protect Growth
Companies across the spectrum are embracing digital initiatives as crucial parts of their growth strategies. But the same technologies that allow companies to seamlessly connect with consumers — AI, machine learning, big data — also represent new targets for hackers to attack and new tools for
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
Radio Buttons: Always Select One? | The Illusion of Completeness: What It Is and How to Avoid It
The Illusion of Completeness: What It Is and How to Avoid It
Crucial information does not belong in a carousel or in any other horizontally scrolling container. Users often miss even obvious navigational cues, plus, the information scent provided by these cues is too weak and people are unsure what to expect from the additional content. When you do use a
What exactly is the reason for each of these requirements? For example, “It must be different than your past 6 passwords”: Is this instruction necessary here, when users are first creating a password? We typically only see this in Intranet password-change instructions. And what about the
Overuse of Overlays: How to Avoid Misusing Lightboxes
If the content is too long to fit into a small lightbox, will you add a scrollbar? If so, consider disabling the browser scrollbar to prevent users from mistakenly scrolling the background page instead of the lightbox. (Though disabling the browser scrollbar can have unintended consequences
