Wanted to get some consensus around a UI feature I'm working on right now. The general idea is that I have a list of items, and you can select an item, and operate upon it. Currently, the sub functionality is implemented as a browser popup window. We've found that our users generally dislike having a ton of pop ups. So with this new...
What usability evaluation methods do you use? GOMS? Cognitive Walkthrough? Think aloud protocol? Others? (apart from 'ask your mum' tips that are well covered elsewhere on SO) ...
There are many usability evaluation techniques that have been developed over the history of software development. But it seems to me that they are rarely used in practice. Why aren't usability evaluation tools and methods actually used much? Or are they used more than I've been led to believe? ...
I've seen many website designs with frequent inclusions of 'back to top' links and am just wondering when, if ever, they can really be justified? What use cases demand a 'back top top' link, and what are their effects on usability? ...
When it comes to putting the submit and reset buttons on your forms, what order do you use? [SUBMIT] [RESET] or [RESET] [SUBMIT] This issue has come up countless times at work... So, in your opinion, which is the most usable for online users? I personally favor the latter, but some people tend to think otherwise. ...
Modal dialogs are evil, but I keep reading "You should remove modal dialogs when possible" When isn't it possible to remove modal dialogs? I mean, what are some truly modal tasks that force us to use evil modal dialogs? The most common given example is the "Do you want to Save?" I think this is the problem of the concept of having th...
I'm a software developer who has a background in usability engineering. When I studied usability engineering in grad school, one of the professors had a mantra: "You are not the user". The idea was that we need to base UI design on actual user research rather than our own ideas as to how the UI should work. Since then I've seen some goo...
As a UI guy (coding and designing user interfaces) I often find myself in the odd situation arguing about the quality of userinterfaces with programmers and other "laymen". I find it somewhat hard to argue about things like colors, icons or layout and it doesn't seem that there is a factual right or wrong. But still - without having a c...
Consider two web pages with the following in their body respectively: <body> <script> document.writeln('<textarea></textarea>') </script> </body> and <body> <script> var t = document.createElement('textarea'); document.body.appendChild(t); </script> </body> (think of them as part of something larger, where the textareas have to be ...
Problem: Customer X is a Windows user who wants to be able to trigger pre-packaged bash commands by using mnemonic keywords or "tag hints" when she is logged in to her RedHat box via shell. Example: Customer X logs into host using ssh and wants to do some routine file operations. She wants to be able to type copy file and get back a ...
Does anyone have any suggestions for a site that potentially has some inspirational user interfaces for building my own iPhone Apps. It's straight forward to continually build out applications with the conventional UIKit widgets, but it does not set you apart from the competition. Some resources on how to build attractive interfaces is h...
Hey everyone, I just ordered Steve Krug's "Dont make me think" off of Amazon, which I'm looking forward to. I'm just curious to know what other books people have enjoyed on the topic of usability/design practices on the web. Thanks! ...
When a list becomes very large, presenting it in a UI raises a design issue. Should the user get pages of items or should the user get a list control that pages items implicitly as it is scrolled? In google search, paging of results is explicit. You get a set of results and hit a link to get the next set. On the iPhone the applicatio...
Anybody have good examples of usability disasters? Here's an example. Hector is a manager with a large team. Department admin wants to send Hector a spreadsheet with his team's salaries. She types "Hector" in the Outlook "To:" field. It autocompletes to "Hector's Team" but she doesn't notice that until after she sends it. ...
Related to web pages / application, what is the worst web usability error you have encountered? The one that hit you the most; that which arguably could trip the most users? Or, from another point of view, which error would you choose to be eliminated from the face of the Earth, if possible? ...
I always try to do the following: <label><input type="checkbox" /> Some text</label> or <label for="idOfField"><input type="checkbox" id="idOfField" /> Some text</label> My question is related to the label tag, specifically on a checkbox. Most websites (I would say >40%) don't use the <label> tag. Is there a reason for this? Is t...
On a web contact form, is the reset button really required? Is it really used by anyone? If I don't put it in a page, is there an usability fail? 10x! ...
This is inspired by the question OK-Cancel or Cancel-OK?. I remember reading somewhere about the concept of switching OK-Cancel/Cancel-OK in certain situations to prevent the user from clicking through information popups or dialog boxes without reading their content. As far as I remember, this also included moving the location of the OK...
The Problem I love using markdown to write questions, answers, posts, comments etc. That being said, I am a very technical, detail oriented, programmer type. However, I am working on a CMS of sorts to be used by non-technical folks. I am using Markdown for this, but I'm becoming increasingly worried that it will be too technical for ...
Ok, so the client is insisting that I make a control that is essential to the website I am doing (it's the nav) into something that, frankly, no one would know what it was much less would click on it. I mean, this isn't an opinion issue, he is straight out wrong. It's not revolutionary. It's not different. I just think if we took a .jp...