If your user is going down some long garden path, make it easy for them to return to a safe place. Organize your buckets in the "flattest" possible way, avoid deep complex hierarchies. Sir Ebenezer Howard was the "Edison" of urban planning in mid-19th-century England. His 1898 proposal is titled "Tomorrow: a Peaceful ...
Sure... your software has a 158 different features all nicely laid out on 158 tabs, and you're proud of that, right? Too bad no one can (or wants to) use it. Navigation is about creating a few distinct clusters of functionality. You should keep these under 6 clusters (usually.) A good ...
The purpose of a good navigation system for software and web sites, is to get the user to where they want to be quickly. For e-commerce, the ultimate goal (AKA conversion) is to get them to the shopping cart and the payment page. So where are the hotspots on your ...
As designers, we know that making things easy is hard work. But not everyone benefits from ease of use. Consider the case of James Dorman, former Staples marketing VP. He used his Easy Button to easily embezzle over $600,000. from his company. He didn't spend the money on printer cartridges... ...
CSRs in the IT world have some great acronyms. My favourite is PICNIC. Problem In Chair, Not In Computer. Another is the error code ID 10 T. Ha ha... very funny. Eventually all these so-called stupid users will realize they're being laughed at. As with all technology, ...
Warning dialogs - we love them. But then, what's the use of warning about invisible cows??? I mean - They're INVISIBLE!! Not much we can do about it, don't ya think? On the other hand, Vista gives us lots of choices when warning about an over-write... Ok... you've convinced me Microsoft, "Do ...
Prior to becoming a discount PC vendor, HP (formerly known as Hewlett Packard, the two names of the founders, in case you're under 30) was an innovator of scientific equipment. They were the geek-vendor of choice, before the word geek was ever coined. This 1969 ad sells the geek-tech on the strength ...
For the most part, software relies heavily on language-based user interfaces. Prompts are helpful. "To transfer the contents of your Savings account to Mitch Brisebois, press OK once. To Cancel, press OK twice, quickly." The problem with language, is that it's open to many interpretation. Consider the ...
Those crazy folks at NetLifeResearch have launched this year's version of the infamous Bad Usability Calendar. NetLife is a usability firm in Norway. The calendar features 12 humourous design tips, poking fun at the over-use of web 2.0 glitz, social net apps, and iTunes interfaces. I've printed out copies for all ...
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