EppsNet Archive: User Interface

4 Links

 

5 Design Techniques to Incite User Emotion (UX Movement) 5 Modern WordPress Alternatives to Keep an Eye On (Six Revisions) Kafka’s Joke Book (McSweeney’s) Yoonique Baby Names: 2014 Edition (STFU, Parents) Read more →

9 Links

 

Data Structure Visualizations Good Tech Lead, Bad Tech Lead Google Java Style Guide to 12 Disruptive Technologies How to Write a Cover Letter The Landing Page Optimization Guide You Wish You Always Had Selendroid: Selenium for Android UX Axioms by Eric Dahl Yelp’s got style (and the guide to back it up) Read more →

Some Links

 

Success takes luck: how to increase serendipity in your life The Top UX Trends of 2013 How to Stop Overthinking Everything: 9 Simple Habits 12 Tools for More Mindful Living Recruiting Advice No One Tells You Be Thankful for a “Do-Nothing” Boss Read more →

Rough Layouts Sell the Idea Better Than Polished Ones

 

This was written by an ad man but I can see it applying to other endeavors, like designing a software interface: If you show a client a highly polished computer layout, he will probably reject it. There is either too much to worry about or not enough to worry about. They are equally bad. It is a fait accompli. There is nothing for him to do. It’s not his work, it’s your work. He doesn’t feel involved. If he doesn’t like the face of the girl in your rendering, or the style of the trousers on the man on the right, or the choice of the car he’s driving, he’s going to reject it. He won’t see the big idea. He will look at the girl’s face and think, ‘I don’t like her, this doesn’t feel right.’ It is very difficult for him to imagine anything else if what you… Read more →

Mobile Site vs. Full Site

 

From Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: The basic ideas are to: cut features cut content enlarge interface elements Read more →

First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Users

 

To design an easy-to-use interface, pay attention to what users do, not what they say. Self-reported claims are unreliable, as are user speculations about future behavior. The way to get user data boils down to the basic rules of usability: Watch what people actually do. Do not believe what people say they do. Definitely don’t believe what people predict they may do in the future. — Jakob Nielsen Read more →

3 Laws of Usability

 

Don’t make me think! It doesn’t matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice. Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left. — Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think Read more →

Why In-Page Navigation Links Matter More Than Menus

 

Before you spend hours debating with your colleagues and clients on how your menus should look, there’s something you should know. Users spend more time with in-page navigation links than they do with menus. In fact, some users don’t even look at menus. What users look at is page content. And that’s where they often go to navigate. — UX Movement One firm has experienced this many times with users in their eyetracking research. Read more →

Ask “What Would the User Do?” (You Are Not the User)

 

We all tend to assume that other people think like us. But they don’t. Psychologists call this the false consensus bias . . . Users don’t think like programmers. They don’t recognize the patterns and cues programmers use to work with, through, and around an interface . . . — Ask “What Would the User Do?” (You Are Not the User) Read more →

Infomaki: An Open Source, Lightweight Usability Testing Tool

 

Infomaki is an open source “lightweight” usability testing tool developed by the New York Public Library to evaluate new designs for the NYPL.org web site and uncover insights about our patrons. Designed from the ground up to be as respectful of the respondents’ time as possible, it presents respondents with a single question at a time from a pool of active questions. In just over seven months of use, it has fielded over 100,000 responses from over 10,000 respondents. — The Code4Lib Journal – Infomaki: An Open Source, Lightweight Usability Testing Tool Read more →

Twitter: 2009-11-13

 

Notes on Strategy from the Harvard Business School: http://bit.ly/1jTVWO # The fastest way to improve your interface is to improve your copy-writing. With examples: http://bit.ly/daUqF # Read more →

Twitter: 2009-07-16

 

RT @KathySierra: We discuss UI 4 books, but isn't it UX that matters? Non-fiction could look 2 game design, theater, learning, persuasion # RT @agile_coach: The sustainable delivery of business (customer) value is more important than the platform used. #scrum #agile # Read more →