Carousels are one of the first things that customers ask for on a home page. I resist but often lose the battle. Maybe, just maybe, if I had this kind of cogent, data-driven rebuttal in my arsenal of professional guidance, I might be more successful in prevailing. In the end, the customer would be the winner, not me. This article, lifted from Joni Halibi’s blog, explains the issue.
Read MoreI had a recent project where I needed to work with a larger than normal group to reach some quick consensus on where we should be focusing our time trying to improve their website. In the recesses of my brain, I knew that the KJ Technique was a good way to handle this. What I found in my googling was that no one does a really good job of explaining it succinctly.
Read MoreIn design, the Law of Proximity states that objects that are near, or proximate to each other, tend to be related. Users inherently expect things that are related in theme or function to be grouped together in space. When this expectation is violated, confusion and/or frustration results. This is a classic example of bad user experience.
In this case, I spent a mere ten seconds updating my Twitter profile blurb...then spent way too much time trying to find the control that would allow me to commit the change. Couldn't find it, couldn't find it, couldn't find it...oh, wait. It's on the opposite side of the page, nowhere near the part of the page I was working on.
Don't do this to your users. It makes them feel stupid. When you do that, the service you're offering suffers.
This is another of those posts where I grab someone else's great ideas and squirrel it away here for future reference. Dominic Harkness posted these little gems on what he calls his "3 Ws." Any effective webpage design should immediately answer these questions for anyone who happens to view it. These are simple ideas, but they're often overlooked. It's good to remind ourselves of these basics from time to time.
Read MoreI can't stress this enough. I'm often asked by customers to do this, mostly because they remember seeing them so frequently in the early days of the web. it's a pernicious memory that refuses to fade.
Read MoreThe modern designer is faced with an ethical dilemma: follow an employer’s demands for a money-making app that turns the user’s smartphone against them...or mindfully develop apps that put the smartphone back into the service of its owner. Turn it back into a tool instead of an invader.
Read MoreHow is it that some designers and developers who rely so heavily on the good design of their iPhones, Androids, and other consumer technologies still deliver solutions that aren't easily understood without a manual, special training, or a call to the help desk?
Read MoreI have a visceral reaction to the use of "click here" in interface design. I feel like a rubber band should be snapped on the wrist of the content author every time it happens. I've never seen a great reference that sums up why it's a bad idea and what the better alternatives are.
Read MoreWe spend a good part of our days filling out screen-based forms. Some forms are easy to fill out because a thoughtful designer has taken best practices into account. Some forms are painful because they create confusion over what's expected. They're ambiguous or they require too much typing. Here's a snippet of wisdom that I wanted to save for later use: ditch the placeholder text.
Read MoreI created the web animations in this demo reel as an example of what can be done with Adobe Edge Animate. I used the Creative Cloud 2015 version and picked one of my favorite subjects.