Justine

Designing grid systems

Justine Interaction Design 7 July, 200513 May, 2017

Mark Boulton has started an excellent series of articles on designing grid systems: Five simple steps to designing grid systems

The grid is a regulatory system which pre-empts the basic formal decisions in the design process. it’s preconditions help in the structuring, division and ordering or content. I’m not saying a well designed grid will solve all of your compositional problems, far from it, but it goes some way in creating a coherent structure in design which in turn creates the aesthetic values all of us are after in our designs.

(via design Principles)

AJAX: Use only as indicated

Justine Interaction Design 7 July, 200513 May, 2017

More good conversation over at Asterisk about AJAX: AJAX: Your Take

AJAX offers us some nice options when it comes to user interface. The yellow fade technique, to site an example, is neat, simple and useful. However, as with any technology it should be used only when it’s needed. Well, unless you’re just messing around with it of course. Start with the problem, then apply the solution and all that.

Usability of University Websites

Justine Usability 23 June, 200513 May, 2017

The Guardian reports on a usability study of UK university websites:

As universities begin to gear up for this summer’s Clearing season, when they hope to field inquiries from thousands of candidates still without a place, a piece of market research shows just how out of touch many of them are. They are, in a word, too academic, full of swaths of information that leave web-surfing students bored and irritated. That is the verdict, at least, of a company that sat down two groups of first-year sixth formers and asked them to find information on university and college websites.”

Read the article (via Louise Ferguson).

Don’t Click It

Justine Interaction Design 17 June, 200513 May, 2017

I don’t usually like Flash, but this is brilliant: Don’t Click It. Very hard to resist the urge to click at first, but a wonderful interactive experience once you get used to it… (via Bokardo)

AJAX Interaction Demos

Justine Interaction Design 13 June, 200513 May, 2017

More on the opportunities and interaction challenges of AJAX via Jeffrey Veen.
Jeffrey points to the work of Bill Scott of Sabre Airline Solutions who have put some code and demos online at OpenRico.org.
By the way, if anyone is doing this kind of work in NZ, get in touch. I’d be keen to get involved from a usability and interface design perspective (as in: I’d be happy to offer my services for *cough* free in return for a good case study).

The danger of too many features

Justine Usability 13 June, 200513 May, 2017

Another great article and illustration from the folks at Creating Passionate Users about the dangers of featuritis:

What if instead of adding new features, a company concentrated on making the service or product much easier to use? Or making it much easier to access the advanced features it already has, but that few can master? Maybe what they lose in market share in one area will be more than compensated for in another area. In a lot of markets, it’s gotten so bad out there that simply being usable is enough to make a product truly remarkable.

Accessibility – Myths and Misconceptions

Justine Accessibility 2 June, 200513 May, 2017

There are so many things I would like to address about accessibility, and I will get round to it eventually, but in the meantime here’s a good roundup of the issues, and some good reference sites: Accessibility myths and misconceptions (456 Berea Street).
One of my favourite resources to better understand the issues (instead of focusing on scoring items off a checklist) is Skills For Access: the Comprehensive Guide to Creating Accessible Multimedia for E-Learning

ROI of user-centred design

Justine Usability 2 June, 200513 May, 2017

The following article is a nice little case study demonstrating the value of using a user-centred approach to software development. The Return on Investment (ROI): 90% less calls to the support centre, and as the articles describes:

No matter how trivial, every support call has some costs associated with it. Installation should be easy, and initial use should be intuitive.”

The bottom line […] is straightforward: focusing on the design of the product had a significant impact on the cost of supporting the product.

Of course, there’s a very positive sales benefit to this, too: ProtectionPilot’s UI design has already generated favorable reviews in the U.S. and Europe, with ease of use a common theme.

Read the article: Clean, Cutting-edge UI Design Cuts McAfee’s Support Calls by 90%

Potential User Interface Issues with Ajax

Justine Interaction Design, Usability 29 May, 200513 May, 2017

More on Ajax Interface Design: AJAX Interface Design
…and a list of potential user interface issues with Ajax: Ajax Mistakes

Usability Implications of Ajax

Justine Usability 28 May, 200513 May, 2017

Like Angie said, this article makes the implications of Ajax a lot clearer to me now: Ajax, Ajax Everywhere

Ajax, and the pile of techniques and technologies that get lumped in with it, are all about breaking that page-by-page web experience into smaller chunks. If the traditional web was letter writing, Ajax is instant messaging.

Userfaction

Author: Justine