I’m dealing with a mess of a user interface design today, so here’s two links which I came across from Smashing Magazine:
I will not pretend I think they are all correct but they are good ideas and good guidelines in some cases. In fact, any “design agency” who might want to get involved in UI design should read them – because sending me a PSD which could have been done better by a monkey using Photoshop and flinging shit at a keyboard is not the answer.
January 13, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I completely disagree with two of the techniques.
The one about making blocks clickable – yes if it’s a button with clearly defined edges, but not if it’s just text. I don’t want to click on the screen (e.g. to wake my mouse up) in what looks like whitespace, and then find another page loading. I’ve had that happen and it’s annoying.
And as for moving the cursor to the first input field in a page – this would confuse software used by blind people and really shouldn’t be done.
And he says he writes a *usability* blog. My usability panel testers would have real problems with that, and probably also hover bringing up an icon or tool, too.
January 13, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Sorry – forgot to say – the reason I am commenting (when you said you won’t pretend you agree with all of them) is that you say it would be good if some groups of people read them – but the trouble is that people who need telling would then probably blindly follow them all, without considering whether they are appropriate or whether their users would be adversely affected.
What you really need is an article that teaches people how to think.
January 13, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Wise words, Flash. You can’t put a price on experience when choosing what to use and what to ignore.
Mind, you’re the usability specialist 😉
January 13, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Me again: The pages that I prefer to read (and wholeheartedly agree with) are:
http://websitehelpers.com/d…
and
http://websitehelpers.com/s…
By the way, congrats on having an easy to read captcha (although boo! no audio alternative) – which software do you use for it?
I’ll get outta your blog now! Meep!
January 13, 2009 at 3:44 pm
I might be a usability specialist, but I know that I’m not as hot on design. By that I mean that I’m more a techie than an artist, so I don’t always think of brilliant and individual designs from an artistic point of view; I’m more functional. I’m not sure how to learn the artistic side of things.
(Really AM going now!)