User Experience

Validation can be the enemy

Submitted by Bevan on Thu, 27/01/2011 - 21:49

I recently stumbled upon a great entry from 2007 on Phil Haack's blog: Don't be a Validation Nazi, where he writes about the perils of being overly strict on validation.

This is an area close to my heart, as I've seen so many systems end up user hostile due to overly strict validation. This can be particularly frustrating when it's forced on the system by a misguided analyst.

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Who's Needs First?

Submitted by Bevan on Tue, 14/12/2010 - 21:30

It's very common for us developers to put our needs ahead of the needs of our users. Often this manifests in the way we build our user experiences, choosing an approach that is easy to implement instead of another that might be easier to use.

This happens in other areas as well, for other reasons. Check out this screenshot of a blog I found through a Twitter link today:

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A User Interface Stack Exchange

Submitted by Bevan on Fri, 22/10/2010 - 11:33

Hopefully, you already know about StackOverflow (if you don't, you owe it to yourself to go and check it out right now!).

But did you know that there's a new User Interface Stack Exchange?

Currently (October 2010) still in beta, this site is fast becoming a great place to go for advice on user interface and user interaction design.

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Typography

Submitted by Bevan on Mon, 20/09/2010 - 20:00

It's something glossed over by many developers, but Typography is a core part of the users experience, whether they are using a web application, a traditional rich client or a hybrid (like Silverlight).

The website Typography for Lawers is an unusally accessible guide to the subject. While targeted at the needs of lawyers, Matthew Butterick (the author) has written a very clear guide that's applicable to a much wider audience.

Vending Machine UX Fail

Submitted by Bevan on Sun, 30/05/2010 - 11:39

Here's a vending machine that receives far too many of the coins out of my pocket.

This vending machine has a problem.

When someone wants to purchase some Hershey's chocolate, they end up with liquorice instead.

I've seen this happen at least four times - not counting the one time it happened to me!

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