SE News

Some software designers treat their users like they are all Homer Simpson. But if that is how you see your customers, you have a big problem. Do not treat them like Homer Simpson, treat them like intelligent people. Design for who your customers are, not who you want them to be.

In this talk, the author of ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ addresses ten rules for the design of succesful software products. (And, on the side, he explains why some people think the ‘up’ button should mean ‘next slide’ and others are equally convinced that it should be the ‘down’ button and why both opinions are correct.)

Don Norman

http://blip.tv/file/3346703

Landing page optimization for your mocks and wireframes.

Fivesecondtest helps you fine tune your landing pages and calls to action by analyzing the most prominent elements of your design. It presents your mock up to a group of randomly chosen visitors who give feedback on what they see, recognise or remember.

http://fivesecondtest.com/

When it comes to user interface documentation, wireframes have long been the tool of choice. However, using traditional diagramming tools like Visio, OmniGraffle, and InDesign, most wireframes today look the same as their ancestors did from a decade ago – assembled with rigid, computer-drawn boxes, lines and text. While these artifacts have served us well, they can also be slow to produce, burdened with unnecessary detail and give a false impression of “completion.”

To compensate for the drawbacks of traditional wireframes, many practitioners put aside the computer in favor of simple pencil sketches or whiteboard drawings. This speeds up the ideation process, but doesn’t always produce presentable or maintainable documentation.

There is a growing popularity toward something in the middle: Computer-based sketchy wireframes. These allow computer wireframes to look more like quick, hand-drawn sketches while retaining the reusability and polish that we expect from digital artifacts.

Aaron Travis

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/sketchy-wireframes

The typical desktop computing environment hasn’t changed much since the mass adoption of the GUI. No matter what operating system your computer might feature, no matter what occupation you pursue, the files-and-folders paradigm is ubiquitous, accepted, and tolerated as so much digital dogma. But for a handful of researchers, this model isn’t quite right.

Greg Goth

http://www.computer.org/portal/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=135691a5-6254-496d-9d04-1896795b4eda&groupId=53319

Clean. Easy to use. User-friendly. Intuitive. This mantra is proclaimed by many but often gets lost in translation. The culprit: complexity. How one deals with complexity can make or break an application. A complex interface can disorient the user in a mild case and completely alienate them in an extreme case. But if you take measures first to reduce actual complexity and then to minimize perceived complexity, the user will be rewarded with a gratifying experience.

We recently faced this very challenge while designing two Web-based applications, including an enterprise-level content management system. What follows are several techniques that have helped us streamline complex applications into lightweight user experiences.

Tyler Tate

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/07/minimizing-complexity-in-user-interfaces/

How do you know when the user interface is right? You test it to see if it works. Just as you need to debug code, you need to debug the UI. And, as with code, you’ll get the best results if you integrate usability testing into the development process early and oft en. Usability testing can be used early in a project to validate the navigational approach or to help you choose between alternatives. It should certainly be part of each agile iteration (this is called “formative testing”).

Charles B. Kreitzberg
Ambrose Little

http://msdn.microsoft.com/magazine/dd920305.aspx

Two decades ago, Web usage was limited to a single individual (Sir Tim Berners-Lee) using the only browser in existence (WorldWideWeb) running on a single platform (a NeXT Computer). Nowadays, billions of people access the Web daily, with the ability to choose from over a dozen browsers running on desktop computers, laptops, and a variety of mobile devices, such as cell phones. The number of possible combinations is growing rapidly, and makes it increasingly difficult for Web designers and developers to craft their sites so as to be universally accessible. This is particularly true when accounting for Web users with physical and cognitive disabilities — especially if they do not have access to assistive technologies. The challenges and solutions for anyone creating an accessible website are addressed in Universal Design for Web Applications, authored by Wendy Chisholm and Matt May.

Michael J. Ross and Laura Andres

http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/27/1648226

It has long been common practice to use recurring solutions to solve common problems. Such solutions are called design patterns; standard reference points for the experienced user interface designer. This website seeks to better the situation for the UI designer, who struggles with the same problems as many other UI designers have struggled with before him.

This site will help you in two ways: You can read insightful design pattern articles or browse through our screenshot collection.

Finally, you can help your fellow peers by uploading your own screenshots of great user interfaces.

Anders Toxboe

http://ui-patterns.com/

Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We’re rebelling against technology that’s too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte “read me” manuals. The iPod’s clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that’s simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design—guidelines for needing less and actually getting more.

John Meada
http://lawsofsimplicity.com/
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10933

They’re rarely helpful. Actually, they usually add insult to injury. But what would computing be without ‘em? Herewith, a tribute to a baker’s dozen of the best (or is that worst?).

Harry McCracken

http://technologizer.com/2008/09/18/errormessage/

The Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, DHTML and AJAX. The YUI Library also includes several core CSS resources. All components in the YUI Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses.

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/