UI
Adaptive Design: What It Isn’t And What It Can Be
Adaptive design has sometimes been (mis)understood by designers to mean adding some features to a website or application that will allow users to customize the interface to suit their needs. However, in order for the concept of inclusive adaptive design to really work, we need to understand more about what it isn’t. What adaptive design…
A Few Hints On Amazon's Next-Gen E-Ink Kindle
While the world is anticipating Apple’s next step, Amazon is (quietly) improving its Kindle. One of the major complaints is that users need ambient light to read the devices. Now, while I don’t doubt that users who love Kindle will do anything for their Kindle, there is something to be said about having to make…
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…
Using Search Boxes
One of the most important components of any website is a search box. Yet many people don’t always use them correctly. Some users don’t even understand the difference between a search on the site and web search. To help them, it’s best to create only one search box for the site. Adding additional search boxes…
Designing for Wide Audiences
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when designing a UI for consumers. One of the most important is the unfortunate fact that about 40% of the general population has low literacy. Keeping that in mind, most pages need to be designed at a 6th-grade level. Some other tips to consider: 1….
What's important for Homepage?
Users spend very little time on the Homepage. If the user is experienced, it can be as little as 25 seconds. What do you need to show them in this short period of time? Obviously, users don’t read long paragraphs of text. Most of those precious seconds are spent figuring out where to go next….
Will PC be replaced by mobile devices?
Well, first we need to agree what the PC is. Let’s say for the sake of argument that it’s desktop and laptop computers. Then all other devices – ipad, phones, etc., are mobile devices. Steve Jobs said something like this about a year ago: Long time ago there were mostly trucks. But when population moved…
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…
How Much Time Do We Waste on Badly Designed Apps?
Computer load-time, pop-ups, new apps installation, new user interrelations, lack of intuitiveness, search for drivers, frozen system, reboots, etc. – are just a few of the things that most of us face on daily basis. Dealing with all of these issues takes users up to 30 minutes a day, according to Telegraph UK, which equals…
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…