User Experience
Use of Static Elements in Dynamic Interaction
Visual design that creates a dialog with the user is more than just responding to search queries and leaving breadcrumbs. It’s about using static elements to interact with the user based on their needs/behavior. In order for designers to really “hit the spot,” they need to employ the following principles: 1. Start with the basics…
3 Myths Web Designers Tell Themselves About Sophisticated Users
In his article The Myth of the Sophisticated User, Robert Hoekman Jr made it clear that “It doesn’t matter how savvy your users are, better design benefits everyone.” Designers use their expertise to create the user experience but what are the myths and assumptions about savvy users they use when designing a site or application?…
Understanding Your Users
One of the most important things you need to do when starting to design is to understand who your users are. Resist if you are told to design “for anybody”, this way your design will be good for nobody. Choose a target population even if you think that other people will use your site as…
5 Reasons Why Users Can't Complete Their Tasks
Average users can’t always complete what they started and leave websites in frustration, never returning again. Why is it happening and what are the main offenders in the UI of those websites? Here are the top 5 usability problems that caused incomplete or wrongly done tasks: 1. Information Architecture – the user doesn’t know where…
Nexus One and Touchscreen Accuracy
Today Engadget posted an article that claims many Nexus One customers complain about touchscreen calibration, which is an important element of the graphic user interface (GUI) as well as the user experience in general. As well, labs.moto.com published an interesting report last week comparing the accuracy of touchscreen of various mobile devices. It would seem…
Car Dashboard UI Layout Gets Updated
The new Ford Sync App Ecosystem is a promising move toward the long-awaited upgrade of cars’ user interface. While driving conditions have changed dramatically during the last 50 years, the dashboard UI has not. Our driving habits and laws have changed but we are still presented with the same basic set and layout of a…
Android Market and Apple’s App Store
As Android Market has grown to about the 20,000 apps mark, it is interesting to compare two different approaches to user experience. While Apple sets up very strict approval rules in an effort to assure only well-done and polished apps get through to an end-user, Google doesn’t set any approval process at all. Aesthetics have…