Posts filed under 'ui'
Looks alright doesn’t it?
Problem is, there are *absolutely* no clickable links on that error message.
Go ahead … try it.
How to fix it?
You need a link back to the home page at least, suggesting other things the user might want to check out is not a bad idea either.
And for style points, a simple text box to get information about what caused the error to happen, will alert you to the problem so you don’t lose prospective customers.
April 13th, 2009
Segoe UI.
How do I know this and why am I posting it? Read on …
A long time ago, I installed about 833 fonts on my system. But over the years, I came to realize that a lot of the fonts were crap, looked exactly alike or were never going to be used.
So I grabbed the excellent font management software, The Font thing, and cleaned up shop. Whittling down my font count down to 300+.
Tired (it took an hour and a half), I went to use my email program (Windows Live Mail) . That was when I realized the fonts were bolded … everywhere. I knew instantly that I had deleted the font that it was using for its UI.
Windows Live Mail was trying to compensate by using the only version of the font it could find, which was the Bolded version. If I had deleted all of the font (bold, italic etc), it would probably have defaulted to an entirely different font … and given me a painful headache.
I thought for a couple of days about how I would find the font, without going through all my installed font faces to find one that had a bold version, but no normal version.
Eventually realizing that the font that Live Mail uses, isn’t a standard system font … I figured that if I sorted the Fonts in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder by “Date Modified” … the font I was looking for would be at the top of the list.
I did the sort … and sitting right there was a Segoe UI Bold … with no normal version. (Usually there is an italic, bold and bold italic version of a font).
I moseyed on down to my trash can, found the corresponding Segoe UI fonts … restored them and all was well with the universe 
But I made this post, just in case someone … somewhere ever has the same problem …
Segoe UI … that’s your answer!
March 6th, 2008
Boy do I feel special! Regulars will remember that I blogged about the bad ui choice that was made with Facebook’s omnipresent search box a few weeks back.
Well, I went into Facebook today and was prattling off about one thing or the other when my eyes fell on this.
this is what it looked like as of January 9th 2008.
As you can see, it would seem that they took my recommendation to add an actual clickable button to the search box, so that mobile phone users could actually use it.
Of course I kid (kinda) about about being responsible for the change. After all why would company valued at $200bn listen to a lowly Austin Web developer with a blog and an opinion. I don’t know for sure, but I’ll claim it … if only for the fact that no one else is:) Steven Colbert did it with Mike Huckabee’s success in Iowa, and I’m doing it here.
Good job Facebook!!!
[Now, if they would only allow embeddable videos in Facebook notes ....]
February 6th, 2008
I spent a good two or three days searching for a good piece of project management software, a few months back. I finally settled with unfuddle. One week after signing up, I was reminded of why I had picked them.
I had been working with on a project and suddenly remembered that I wanted to gripe to them about their user limits, so I went searching for a contact us link … my eyes immediately fell on the link that said “send feedback” … [click on image to see bigger copy]
as soon as I clicked on it, a contact form flew out that allowed me get on with my rant
why is this nifty?
- It was quick and easy: I just typed in what I wanted and went back to what I was doing … not a single page load
- It was easy: notice how they didn’t ask for my name or email? … they have that information already
- It gives you an out: If you click “cancel” the form goes away immediately and you can get back to what you were doing
any complaints?
- Just one the placement of the”send feedback” link might cause it to be overlooked. An understated graphic might help draw more attention to it
what happened afterward?
- I sent the email before I went to bed at 11pm, and before I had woken up, I had a response. Not a brush off by the way … a good detailed email that addressed all the issues raised. While I didn’t agree with their positions on certain things, I felt like they had listened to me, and now I’m writing this blog. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS MARKETING!
So if you want a great web application for project management … give unfuddle a look.
January 31st, 2008
I used to be a big fan of CNN, and I still read their news via RSS. I was on there today when I came across this item …
See the big button that invites you to click on it? What do you think it does?
Go ahead … try it.
Yep, it doesn’t instantly start playing. It takes you to another screen, where you have to sit through a commercial to watch your video.
What do you think users are going to do in an era of a million and one embedded video options like … um .. youtube. If they were only kinda-sorta interested in the video … they’ll close out of it immediately and go to something more interesting.
How should CNN fix this?
- Offer embeddable video players: I understand CNN wants to keep their content on their servers. However, flash players are easy to build and I am sure there are tons of sites that offer free ones. However if you’re hell bent on building one from scratch, I know an awesome Austin web developer that can build one to match your budget :]
- Remove the play button from the picture: If the embedded video is not an option go with something that tells the user that they’ll lose their place and be diverted to another page. I understand that the play button invites you to click on the image, but since sites like youtube and dailymotion have changed the significance of a play button over an image, users might be displeased when the video doesn’t immediately start playing. Something like a simple “Watch this video” link under the article might be a better option. In this era of Ajax and fewer pageloads per click a new user to cnn.com might not be so pleased to sit through a heavy page load, that doesn’t even open in a new tab!
Remember, you want to adhere to the “Don’t make me think” principle whenever possible, and because interface behavior (especially on the web) can change quickly, you have to stay ahead of the curve. Two or three years ago, this would probably have been excellent interface design, because it invited the user to click on the image … not any more.
January 31st, 2008
Everyone who knows me, knows that I think that Facebook is the greatest thing since toasted bread. That is why it is ironic that it is the next subject in my focus on bad UI design.
Facebook has a search box in the upper right corner, where you can try to find long lost friends, interesting groups … etc. However, the textbox has no submit button.
“Why is that a problem?!” I hear you say with alarm … “It looks fine to me.”
The problems is, if you’re on a mobile device, you can’t just hit enter to submit the page. Go ahead … try it.
Its a problem because this critical feature is essentially unusable on mobile devices.I haven’t tried it on an iphone, but I believe you’d get similar results.
The solution? a simple submit button/graphic like on digg.com
January 9th, 2008
This is a neat little feature in the new Windows Live Mail.
For those who don’t know, Windows live mail is the Microsoft’s email replacement for Outlook Express 6.
I love this feature so much because now, my email client won’t corrupt my contacts with a ton of useless entries (if you use craigslist a lot you’ll know what I mean).
Its exellent logic, because if I exchange emails with a person a couple of times, then its a pretty good bet that I want that person in my contact list but am too lazy to do it manually. Now Live Mail does it automagically, so you don’t have to … thats called an “intelligent default”. Makes for excellent application design because it “doesn’t make me think”
What would be even better would be the ability to set the threshold number manually.
December 19th, 2007
