I have often wrapped block level elements with <a> tags in order to make the whole group clickable. For example, say I have a list of events: <ul> <li> <a href="#" style="display: block;"> <div style="float: left; display: inline;">12/12/2010</div> <div style="float: left; display: inline;">Some event...
I've read somewhere (can't remember/find where) an article about web usability describing when to use drop downs and when to use autocomplete fields. Basically, the article says that the human brain cannot store more then the last five options presented to choose. For example, in a profile form, where there is your current occupation, ...
See http://www.google.com/gmm - the scrolling is super smooth even with floating toolbars. How are they accomplishing this with GWT? ...
View Users page lists all users in the system. You can multiselect users via checkboxes and press the 'Remove' button to delete them from the system. We throw a confirmation dialog, to ask if the end user wanted to delete the users. If he presses the 'Ok' button we remove the users, if he presses the 'Cancel' button we don't perform any ...
I've written an update checker routine for our apps which contacts our server via regular HTTP and naturally I had to provide configuration options for connections through proxy servers. Currently I'm only providing options for proxy name (or address) and port number plus an "auto-detect" option which simply reads those two values from I...
We are planning to design a website for evaluating kids (games, quiz). Are there any specific user interface guidelines for targeting the kids (e.g. keyboard usage in a laptop or a standalone keyboard, ability to control a mouse, ability to navigate the user interface and its controls, size of buttons, page navigation)? We are looking fo...
Good beginners material for "Usability and Usability tests". ...
Hi, I'm looking for some regex code that I can use to check for a valid username. I would like for the username to have letters (both upper case and lower case), numbers, spaces, underscores, dashes and dots, but the username must start and end with either a letter or number. Ideally, it should also not allow for any of the special cha...
Is it better-practice to AJAX every form element separately (eg. send request onChange, etc) or collect all the data, then submit with 1 click save? Essentially, auto-save or user-initiated-save? ...
I'm wondering it this is a really bad usability idea, so I'm open to feedback. I need to perform two steps on a large number of items, with step 2 starting any time after step 1 has completed. However, Step 1 for Item 2 can begin any time after Step 1/Item 1 has finished, and even while step 2/Item 1 is going on. Is a multi-segment pro...
We have an audit requirement where we need to track user activity (e.g. successful login, logout actions and failed logins). We have defined 3 event types to track this information. What would be a nice way to show these violations (e.g. failed logins) or normal events (e.g. successful login, logout events) for the system administrator....
A user recently inquired (OK, complained) as to why a 19-digit account number on our web site was broken up into 4 individual text boxes of length [5,5,5,4]. Not being the original designer, I couldn't answer the question, but I'd always it assumed that it was done in order to preserve data quality and possibly to provide a better user...
Hi; Which is the best book for hands on web 2.0 User interface development?. I would like a book that can help me learn the CSS needed to make good looking highly userble web 2.0 interfaces with rounded corners , buttons with gradient, elegant and simplistic not overcrowded , good color matching and themes e.t.c. I know what i want. i ...
I have a large survey that I have made more usable with jQuery by arranging it into sections and using an accordian menu to flip through each section. The trouble is, there is a noticable snap when $(document).ready() fires and condenses everything into an accordian menu. That is to say that before $(document).ready(), you can see the w...
Hi, I have a Flex application which uses the BrowserManager class for enabling deep linking within the application. The URLs work fine through all browsers but the back/forward buttons work only with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Even that is a bit flaky and sometimes doesn't work. The buttons don't work in Chrome/Safari or any other b...
I've been doing some usability testing on a website I'm developing, using an Android phone and an iPod touch. In both cases, when entering a numeric field (time, distance in metres, etc) I have to take a manual step to change the keyboard layout to show digits. As the app will only accept numeric values in the textbox, I'd like to save...
Can someone point me to a study that answers this question; Does ALL CAPS help or inhibit usability in navigation? I read one article by Jakob Neilson that touches on this saying "Reading speed is reduced by 10% and users are put off by the appearance of shouting." but I could not find the actual study that proved it. Thanks all! ...
In our application we have a repository that contains things (they are called methods and queries, but this is not particularly relevant for this question). Each thing has a title, description (though some may lack both) and some other data. Users save things to repository and load and use things from repository. I wonder what is the be...
Is it good practice to use dropdown lists for navigation? I am making a web application that has some hierachical menus. I have considered several options but none of them seems to be good. Here are some of them: Use a horizontal top level menu and make the child menus appear below when a top level menu is selected. Problem: my top le...
Many lost password workflows usually result in a page which is reached by a temporary link emailed to the user. This link then takes them to a page that asks for a new password. Upon entering the new password should a user be forced to logon manually, or should the password reset page authenticate the user automatically which would redu...