Archive for the ‘User Experience’ Category
Think before you beep
A few days ago, I wrote about the right time to show warning and confirmation messages. Most of us have a pretty good sense of when this has gone too far, like those programs that say “Are you sure?” for every little task you try to complete. I’ve also seen this taken to the extreme […]
Filed under: Design, User Experience | Closed
Full disclosure for your links
Even with today’s super-fast computers, it still takes extra time to load PDF files, Quicktime movies, and other browser plugins — especially if the files are large. Considering how quickly users will abandon a website or application that responds slowly, it’s important to let people know what to expect before they click your links. As […]
Filed under: Usability, User Experience | Closed
With each revision of software, there seems to be an ever-increasing number of settings to deal with. I’ve seen this on PC and Mac programs, web-based apps, network routers, and more. Even after paring down the settings screens to the most important options, you may still be left with quite a few things that users […]
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
While visiting San Francisco recently, I planned to ride their excellent BART train from the airport to downtown. When I got ready to buy a ticket, I saw that all of the turnstiles were open and marked “free”. Some nearby signage explained the reason: it was a “Spare the Air” day, in which many forms […]
Filed under: User Experience | Closed
Giving customers what they need
I travel a lot on business, and I’ve noticed an interesting trend. While many airports still humiliate travelers who forgot to bring a plastic bag for their liquids and gels, others have taken a better approach: they provide plastic bags right by the security checkpoint. At Chicago’s Midway airport, they’ve even taken this a step […]
Filed under: User Experience | Closed
I’m a huge fan of Bloglines for both desktop and mobile usage, and I generally find that it works really well. But I came across one really annoying issue on the mobile interface. If you’re scrolling through a feed and click “Unsubscribe” by accident, it removes that feed instantly. No warning message, and no option […]
Filed under: Design, User Experience | 1 Comment
I find myself using the “Find a Store” feature on retail sites more often than I realized, usually to figure out the store hours. While most sites make this easy to find, others do some really puzzling things when designing this feature. After spending a few minutes comparing the store locators on 10 popular retail […]
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
You could write volumes about password and security issues on the web. Some issues are highly complex, while others are common sense like “don’t write your password on a sticky note on your monitor”. In fact, if you’re trying to create a good password policy for your application, Thomas Baekdal just wrote an excellent article […]
Filed under: Design, Security, User Experience | Closed
When I encounter a product that’s hard to use, the same thought always crosses my mind: nobody in the company actually uses it on a regular basis. To be more specific, even if some employees do use their company’s product, these people don’t have any significant influence over product design or subsequent revisions. Obviously, customer […]
Filed under: Testing, Usability, User Experience | 2 Comments
A collection of bad designs
Although the selection of photos can get a little random, the This is Broken photo pool on Flickr has some great examples of what to avoid in your own designs. Mark Hurst used to have a whole site dedicated to these pictures, but these days he posts the best ones on his Good Experience blog.
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
MicroExperience 
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