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, which are horribly abused. This article talks about another design element that gets frequently misused: tabs.
(Here, I’m talking about in-page tabs , as shown in the several example screenshots below. These are the tabs you might design yourself, as part of your website or web-based application. A different kind of tabs is used as browser chrome to allow users...
Date-input patterns are not created equal. Implement design patterns that are appropriate for your context. When designing date-entry fields support text input and consider whether or not you have an international audience. Avoid designs that are ambiguous because they can cause people to become
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
Allmodern.com used an action-required notification to communicate that a product was saved as a favorite. For a user that is saving a lot of items to their favorites, this can be a bothersome and intrusive way of providing feedback. This may be better communicated by showing a passive nonmodal
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
The Future of Blockchain: Technology Partnerships with AI, Bots, and IoT
Even when a technology offers solutions that previous tools did not, it still may not be able to address every issue. However, when combined with other technologies, the synergies tend to cover more of these problem areas. For example, OSA DC is an AI-driven blockchain that helps by collecting
4 Ways to Enter the Blockchain Industry
The technology uses cryptography to make sure that users can only edit their own blocks. Each user has a unique, private key that’s required to alter their own Blockchain file. Additionally, the technology keeps the entire chain of distribution synched. Many enterprises are still
Text Scanning Patterns: Eyetracking Evidence
The commitment pattern demonstrates traditional reading, not scanning. In this pattern, users fixate on all or most content words in the text passage. This pattern usually occurs when users are very interested or very motivated to read the content (for example, because they are studying for a test
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Brand Is Experience in the Digital Age
Before a siege, Blackbeard dressed himself in a dark heavy coat and captain’s hat to accentuate his domineering stature. He strapped pistols to his chest and tucked lit, smoking fuses under his hat and in his beard to create an image reminiscent of the devil himself having just emerged from some
Brand Is Experience in the Digital Age
Why is it important to understand the components of brand, and to differentiate brand from its common misinterpretation as simply a logo, a figurehead, or a website, among other things? Only when all three brand components — visuals, tone, and behaviors — are present and true to the core brand
One Billion Internet Users
As China and India add another billion Internet users, the need for usability in these two markets will explode. As I mentioned three years ago, the two nations can't even meet the demands for offshore usability. Recently, I've heard even worse stories from several big American and European
Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking
Our users are complex humans. It is natural (and extremely beneficial) to see juxtaposition between quadrants. You will also encounter inconsistencies — for example, seemingly positive actions but negative quotes or emotions coming from the same user. This is when empathy maps become treasure
Decision Making in the Ecommerce Shopping Cart: 4 Tips For Supporting Users
The shopping cart is not the only part of the ecommerce site that needs to support decision-making, but it is a frequently overlooked one. Websites should allow users to store future purchases in their carts too. Some people shop one day and pay a few days later, after they decide. It's not
StudioPress Theme Spotlight: Academy Pro Theme
In an effort to help the WordPress community grow and prosper as well as expand and add value to the WP Engine Digital Experience platform, WP Engine recently acquired StudioPress. For our customers, this means, in addition to the Genesis framework, they’ll have access to 35 premium themes. All
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WP Engine Sales and Customer Service Teams Recognized at The Stevie Awards
The Stevie Awards are a set of hundreds of business awards given annually by the American Business Awards organization. They were created in 2002 to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of companies and business people worldwide. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards are given to
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
Service Design 101
The term “service design” was coined by Lynn Shostack in 1982. Shostack proposed that organizations develop an understanding of how behind-the-scenes processes interact with each other because “leaving services to individual talent and managing the pieces rather than the whole make a company
Case Study: Iterative Design and Prototype Testing of the NN/g Homepage
Early layouts used a grid of squares to present articles, videos, and training events. Users said they liked this grid — but when we added an alternative layout using a list format for articles, people unanimously gravitated towards the list version. (Pay attention to what people do, which is
Personas vs. Jobs-to-Be-Done
Well-executed personas are based largely on rich behavioral characteristics, attitudinal data, and insights about mental models, and they require qualitative research with real users to uncover the why behind users’ behaviors. These rich personas typically will include information related to
Internet of Warnings: How Smart Technology Can Threaten Your Business’s Security
Most of the security concerns with IoT technology have to do with the engineering of the devices themselves. For this reason, knowledge and discretion are the most important safeguards to take when considering the switch to an interconnected network of smart devices. Though it may be fun to imagine
In Mark Zuckerberg We Trust? The State and Future of Facebook, User Data, Cambridge Analytica, Fake News, Elections, Russia and You
Moving forward, Facebook isn’t as worried about data breaches as it is about user manipulation and psyops. According to Mark, users are more likely susceptible to “social engineering” threats over hacking and break-ins. Social engineering is the use of centralized planning and coordinated
How tweaks to IoT’s supply chain can close security gaps
Second, if you’re manufacturing IoT devices, consider the security of each piece of hardware you build into your device. One company that does a great job of this is Taser, a developer, manufacturer and distributor of conducted electrical weapons, body cameras and digital evidence management
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
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Trademark Protection for Startups
Once infringement of your trademark is discovered you must act quickly to stop the same. There are numerous ways to enforce your trademark depending upon how it is being infringed upon. For instance, if a competitor has registered and is using a domain name that is similar to your trademark, a
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
Tabs, Used Right | Overuse of Overlays: How to Avoid Misusing Lightboxes
Overuse of Overlays: How to Avoid Misusing Lightboxes
Since this technique first appeared, designers have adopted lightboxes with a vengeance. Only last week at our Usability Week conference, a designer approached me to ask, ‘is it ok to use anchor links within a lightbox?’ The overlay in question had so much content that it required a scrollbar
Changes in Web Usability Since 1994
There are still a few users who rarely scroll. Even those users who are willing to scroll may be tempted to choose one of the initially visible options when it seems to match their goals. Such users will never see an even better, but invisible, choice that would have required scrolling. Therefore
User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly
As the above screenshot shows, users can select their car's wheel style from two options (shown below the car). This simple operation was difficult and error prone, however, because the option for the wheel that's currently mounted on the car was grayed out — a GUI convention that's supposed to
