#ux (239 links)
- Writing Microcopy - Bokardo bokardo.com
The fastest way to improve your interface is to improve your copy-writing.
Via smitchio.
- Dear Dustin Curtis | Dustin Curtis dustincurtis.com
If the UX architect at AA.com is actually pretty good, then why does the site suck so much?
The power of faceted search lies in the ability of users to create their own custom navigation by combining various perspectives rather than forcing them through a specific path.
I’ve yet to meet a developer who would choose to build a screen from a wireframe over a Photoshop document, regardless of how many helpful and important details the wireframes may contain. Realizing this is human nature, we now annotating our PSDs rather than wireframes. Why hold the information in a document that’s no one wants to read?
Via rowanrosser.
Our recommendations aren't based on statistics, but on aspects of content you enjoy. We create a complex profile of your unique taste, to connect you with movies and shows we think you'll like, where you like to watch them
I'm currently researching three post-graduate HCI/Usability/Interaction degrees at three institutions in and around London UK, at: City University, UCL and Kingston.
UCLIC (pronounced You-Click) stands for the University College London Interaction Centre. I attended their MSc in Human-Computer Interaction and Ergonomics, a joint program between Computer Science and Psychology, this past year. As promised, to aid others in selecting their program in the future, I am giving a full review of the program.
- A New (Full-Page) Look for Online Ads adweek.com
"Back in February at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual meeting, Payne delivered a speech urging the industry to adopt bigger, bolder creative and to be less sensitive to user experience." Well gee, that's just what the doctor ordered.
Via gilest.
- Creating prototypes with OmniGraffle | urlgreyhot urlgreyhot.com
I've used Visio and Axure Pro in the past to do quick and dirty demos of interaction. With Visio, it's been easy to link sheets together. But I've been spending my time primarily in OmniGraffle Pro lately, so I wanted to demonstrate to the other Mac-using IA's and IxD's out there how you can do the same thing.
Via smitchio.
- Usable Accessibility: Making Web Sites Work Well for People with Disabilities :: UXmatters uxmatters.com
The concept of usability often seems to exclude people with disabilities, as though just access is all they are entitled to. What about creating a good user experience for people with disabilities—going beyond making a Web site merely accessible to make it truly usable for them?
When all the sections end evenly on the page, users subconsciously decide there isn’t anything else to look for and don’t try to scroll. Of course, if they don’t scroll, they miss important content, such as the list of products.
- 50 swinish ways to annoy web users | Blog | Econsultancy econsultancy.com
Makes a handy checklist of stuff not to do.
- The new natural search spam | Consumers may love faceted navigation, but Google hates it multichannelmerchant.com · Archived on
While useful for consumers, faceted navigation as normally implemented actually confuses the search engines by generating massive numbers of URL permutations that contain mostly duplicated content. This is bot spam.
Good analysis of the recent WebAIM screen reader survey. Use <Hn> tags, think hard about accesskeys, use skip links, know your audience.
- Recreating the button | stopdesign stopdesign.com
The buttons we’re using are imageless, and they’re created entirely using HTML and CSS, plus some JavaScript to manage the behavior. They’re also easily skinnable with a few lines of CSS
- Geeking with Greg: Marissa Mayer at Web 2.0 glinden.blogspot.com
Half a second delay caused a 20% drop in traffic. Half a second delay killed user satisfaction.
For throwing at certain designers. Surprising how poor some cta's are.
- userfly userfly.com
Run instant usability studies for your website using your real users. You can get it up & running in seconds with one line of javascript, and immediately watch movies of your users’ browsing sessions to analyze their behavior.
"Axure RP is the leading tool for rapidly creating wireframes, prototypes and specifications for applications and web sites." Expensive.
- UX London, Clearleft uxlondon.com
Looks great, but £895 sounds rather steep, even for 3 days (conference plus workshops) . Doesn't look like it's possible to pay less and just attend conference day. Definitely aimed at corporate types, not that there's anything wrong with that.
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." Must read.
A website showcasing the best (and sometimes worst) in e-commerce design, with a clear focus on the individual elements that make up online stores. We break down retailers and focus on individual user interface elements in order to provide a gallery of inspiration for designers, developers, information architects, and anyone working with online retail.
Via paul.irish.
- adaptive path » blog » Peter Merholz » One way for surviving the downturn - delineate your business value (#7 and #10 in a series of 16) adaptivepath.com · Archived on
By understanding a business’ problems or opportunities, we can figure out what behaviors we’re hoping to engage, and then connect that behavior to a financial outcome.
Via alastc.
- MSc Human-Centred Systems overview soi.city.ac.uk
Will equip you with techniques and theories with which to design, implement and evaluate interactive computing systems for the widest range of users.
- Design for Emotion and Flow - Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design boxesandarrows.com
When attention becomes a scarce resource, it’s important to invest it wisely. Information architects and designers play a critical role in ensuring the products they design provide users’ with a return on their investment of attention.
- Adactio: Articles—The System Of The World adactio.com
Brilliant. Wish I'd seen this.
- People-centric Mobile Computing | About Mobility Weblog weblog.cenriqueortiz.com
An Introduction to the mobile context and mobile social software, which explores the topics of the mobile context and its role on what I referred to as People-centric mobile computing.
- UserVoice » Customer Feedback 2.0 uservoice.com
Customer feedback app, as used on blip.fm.
Registration keeps out good posters and attracts trolls? Who'd have thought that?
Companies should create rich and immersive website experiences, drawing from some of the techniques for game design to build brand affinity and differentiate their sites.
One of the most significant findings of our research on web-site usability is that users are perfectly willing to scroll. However, they’ll only do it if the page gives them strong clues that scrolling will help them find what they’re looking for.
- Features are a one-way street - (37signals) 37signals.com
Once your user base has grown beyond a certain point, you cannot take features away from them. They will freak out. Whether the feature is good or bad, once you launch it you’ve married it.
- Learning from "bad" UI - (37signals) 37signals.com
The fact that a screen is “cluttered” doesn’t automatically mean it is poorly designed or ill-conceived.
- Usability Testing is more than Testing thoughtballoon.co.uk
Products such as Morae allow 'usability labs' to be constructed from two laptops and a webcam. This has made Usability Testing as practical and almost exclusively necessary part of the building of any interface or application.
The Usage Lifecycle describes how far a person has progressed in using your web application, helping to identify the hurdles someone needs to overcome to become regular, passionate users.
- Apple's design process - BusinessWeek businessweek.com
Interesting presentation at SXSW from Michael Lopp, senior engineering manager at Apple, who tried to assess how Apple can ‘get’ design when so many other companies try and fail.
Ends with some excellent form design tips.
- adaptive path » blog » Peter Merholz » Starbucks is not about the coffee adaptivepath.com · Archived on
What they need to do is make the store experience inviting, not so much about pushing product, but about being that Third Place (not home or work) where people can get a respite.
Users now do basic operations with confidence and perform with skill on sites they use often. But when users try new sites, well-known usability problems still cause failures.
- OmniGraffle Wireframe Palette | urlgreyhot urlgreyhot.com
Research-behaviour traits that are commonly associated with younger users – impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs – are now becoming the norm for all age-groups.
- Advancing Advanced Search - Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design boxesandarrows.com
Advanced search functionality has not significantly developed in years. Poor matches and overwhelming search results remain a problem for users. Perhaps the standard search pattern deserves a new look.
Eight additional mistakes we've seen as we watch users try to create accounts and sign into the site.