Attention is one of the most valuable resources of the digital age. For most of human history, access to information was limited. Centuries ago many people could not read and education was a luxury. Today we have access to information on a massive scale. Facts, literature, and art are available (often for free) to anyone with an internet connection.
We are presented with a wealth of information, but we have the same amount of mental processing power as we have always had. The number of minutes has also stayed exactly the same in every day. Today attention, not information, is the limiting factor.
There will be instances where you’ll want to break this rule and will want to move a more specific filter category higher up the list. This is true for products or content where one or two characteristics will be particularly influential in the user’s choice. For example, users shopping for
Both these sites used the asterisk to mark required fields: UPS (left) displayed the asterisk at the end of the label and USPS (right) showed it at the beginning, in red. Showing it at the beginning in a different color makes it slightly easier to identify the required fields, which may prove
Journey maps should result in truthful narratives, not fairy tales. Start with gathering any existing research, but additional journey-based research is also needed to fill in the gaps that the existing research won’t cover. This is a qualitative-research process. While quantitative data can help
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
Navigating Big Data’s Fake News Problem
While fake news is a problem for those who seek information online, it is a bigger problem when viewed from a big data perspective. This is because in this age, big data is the core of decision making for governments and businesses alike and when elements of bad data can no longer be sieved from
Blockchain Scalability: Even If Most Transactions Are in Layer II We Still Need a Layer I
The ‘Master Workshop: Layer I Solutions’ event, in Amsterdam 17-18 November, will bring together those working on every corner of layer I scalability. From the DAG-based cryptocurrency framework, to the creation of secure, scalable decentralized ledgers via sharding, the workshop will be a
Split Buttons: Definition
Some split buttons have both an icon and text in the label component. While icons are optional, a text label is always necessary. Text improves learnability, discoverability, and findability, and increases the target size of the button, thus providing a Fitts’s Law benefit. The default choice in
the attention economy
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
It used to be that you would buy two or three nice outfits to have in your wardrobe and would rotate them for special events. But in today’s era, with social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, all your friends will see what you wear, whether they go to the same event or not. And even
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
At first, you might think that such an innovation in the field of reverse logistics should not be discussed in a UX article, but many pieces of the user experience are improved by optimizing this backend operation. A traditional UI-only solution to the problem of high demand would be to clearly
Customization vs. Personalization in the User Experience
Personalization and customization should enhance an already good experience, rather than try to fix a poor one. They should be used thoughtfully, with a clear purpose. Consider that both customization and personalization require work and maintenance over time. Personalization requires regular
Scrolling and Scrollbars
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
Tabs, Used Right
Tab-design problems are a common finding when using analytics for a UX health check. Assuming that you’re tracking within-page actions, you may find that users rarely use the tabs on certain pages. Check if you’re violating any of the guidelines in this article. If yes, you probably have the
Introducing Revolution Pro, the First Block-Based Genesis Theme
Atomic Blocks is one of the most popular and most downloaded libraries of beautiful, responsive, and customizable blocks for WordPress 5.0. In addition to giving users the ability to quickly add great-looking elements to their web pages without touching a line of code, Atomic Blocks also offers
the attention economy
Customer Updates to WordPress 5.0
The process of disabling the 5.0 editor should not be a hassle. In the coming days, we will be rolling out an admin notice that will display on the Dashboard page* of your site(s). This notice will have information about adopting the new editor and will provide buttons to install/activate the
A First Look at WordCamp US .
In less than two weeks, members from the WordPress community around the world will head to Nashville, Tennessee for WordCamp US. This is the second consecutive year that the event has been held in Music City and WordPress community has evolved significantly since 2017. The most anticipated topic of
Personas vs. Jobs-to-Be-Done
Well-crafted personas include details about user goals that are similar to those in jobs-to-be-done descriptions, but are enriched with attitudinal, contextual, behavioral, and personal data that can provide a well-rounded set of considerations to guide UX designers and product teams in decision
7 Tips for Successful Customization
Users often won’t bother to customize the site, even if the system is clear and simple to use. Because of this, don’t depend on customization to make a good experience. Generic site experiences, with no customization, should be strong enough to support users. You do not want a user staring at
Design Charrettes & Team Sketching: ½ Inspiration, ½ Buy-In
You can successfully conduct and use information gleaned in design charrettes at any time during a project cycle. Of course, set realistic goals for the session based on what can be done now. For example, don’t set a grand goal when your website is almost complete. Conversely, set sights high
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
The Place of Secure Browser Extensions in 2019’s Enhanced Cyber Threats
For example, security researchers in 2018 uncovered four malicious extensions in the Google Chrome Web Store. It was not a case of isolation as there were reports that in late July and early August of 2017, unknown attackers compromised the accounts of at least two Chrome extension developers. The
Why There’s a Bright Future in a Cyber Security Careers
If you’re searching for your next career a great place to look is for a job in cyber security. Why? Because the demand for cyber security experts is going up, up, up. Keeping digital assets secure is a vital skillset. As our world grows ever more dependent on the Internet and digital
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 attention economy
JS-Kit Score: Turn Your Site into a Localized Digg
Of course, because this is the only page on ReadWriteWeb that is running a Score widget, it won’t have any data on which content is the highest rated site wide. But the ease of installation is what really catches the eye. JS-Kit is building a suite of tools for web publishers that are modular
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
We recently ran a usability study in the U.K. where one user was attempting the following task: "Does Siemens have any special deals on washing machines?" Without much trouble, the user arrived at this homepage for Siemens Appliances in the U.K.: User task: "Does Siemens have any special deals on
Homepage Real Estate Allocation
The only positive development during these 12 years is that much less space is consumed by system chrome — that is, the Windows taskbar, the browser menus, the URL field, and so on. Of course, when I say “less space,” this is true only in a relative sense: because computer screens are much
Why Country Sites Are So Bad
This third problem isn't found only with lumbering multinationals. NIH (not invented here) is a universal human feeling, even though it often degrades usability and causes inconsistent design. In our work on non-profit organizations' websites, we often see that local (city or state) groups have
