Andrei Michael Herasimchuk has written a blog entry on the importance of consistency and standards in interface design. To quote: Consistency is one of the golden rules of interface design. There can be no question about this. It's important on many levels. When applied effectively in a design, consistency creates ...
Blog category: Interface design
December 3, 2003 by James Robertson
the Diemen Repository of Interaction Design Patterns
The Diemen Repository of Interaction Design Patterns is starting to collect together design patterns for creating websites and other interactive interfaces. To quote: Patterns help us solve design problems - problems that occur time and time again, and are being solved time and time again by designers. Patterns describe practical ...
November 9, 2003 by James Robertson
The interdependence of the structure, information and presentation dimensions
Peter J. Bogaards has written an article on the three aspects of documents: structure, information and presentation. To quote: Every paper and digital document shares three basic dimensions: structure, information and presentation. Although these dimensions are always interwoven, some people in the digital world mostly focus on document structures ...
July 31, 2003 by James Robertson
User Interface Library
Gabe Zentall has published a user interface library, which provides controls and elements for use in prototype design. It covers Windows, OS X, and Palm. To quote: After years of creating paper prototypes and user interface schematics, Gabe began to assemble a library of commonly-used interface elements. This eliminates the ...
June 7, 2003 by James Robertson
5 ways to get the most from in-house designers
Kim Goodwin presents some tips for managing in-house designers. Her five tips are: Determine how you want to work together Start every project with a ?contract? Provide access to the right people and information Be clear about constraints and trade-offs Have the designers report to a top manager [Thanks to InfoDesign.]
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June 7, 2003 by James Robertson
A gallery of onscreen help
Usable Help presents a gallery of onscreen help, consisting of over 190 screenshots of different help systems. The aim is to allow help designers to see how others have approached similar problems and challenges. [Thanks to InfoDesign.]
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May 27, 2003 by James Robertson
Image search engines
Michael Fagan has released a page on image search engines, just type in your keywords, choose your image sources, and click go ... [Thanks to Inter Alia.]
May 24, 2003 by James Robertson
Rough prototype samples
Shelley Evenson released a while back a PDF showing sample rough prototypes, along with some explantory text. This is a useful and asthetic PDF, but be warned: it's 6.7MB in size...
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May 24, 2003 by James Robertson
The quiet death of the major re-launch
Jared Spool talks about eliminating the major re-launch of sites. Although he focuses on websites, I don't see what this shouldn't also apply to intranets. To quote: Sites re-launch all the time in spectacular fashion. But this is starting to change. Jared points out how the best design teams are ...
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May 15, 2003 by James Robertson
Views and forms: principles of task flow for web applications (part 1)
Bob Baxley writes about the fundamental principles of task flow for web applications. To quote: The hypertext environment of the Web presumes a style of unfettered browsing and exploration that is not particularly conducive to the full and valid completion of specific tasks, operations, or database transactions. Creating web applications ...
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May 15, 2003 by James Robertson
Six tips for improving your design documentation
Ryan Olshavsky has written an article outlining six tips for improving your design documentation. His tips are: Know your audience Tell a story Describe the rationale and implications of the design Stick to a grid Use the present tense, active voice Get a partner
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May 12, 2003 by James Robertson
Open prototyping
Carson Reynolds at the MIT Media Labs has started a new blog called Open Prototyping, where he exposes the design process for the interest of all. For example, has has just published some prototype interfaces (developed using DENIM) for a "homeostatic package manager" for Linux. All very cool. [Thanks to ...
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May 1, 2003 by James Robertson
More on the BBCi search interface
Martin Belam writes more about the very interesting BBCi search interface. To quote: The previous iteration of BBCi Search had the best links offset in a box above the tabbed interface, and we found that they were effectively in a blind spot, which is why they were moved into the ...
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April 30, 2003 by James Robertson
A comparison between left- and right-justified site navigation menus
James Kalbach and Tim Bosenick have published the results of recent usability testing on the location of navigation menus. To quote: The usability of two Web page layouts was directly compared: one with the main site navigation menu on the left of the page, and one with the main site ...
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April 22, 2003 by James Robertson
“But I can’t draw!”
Conrad Taylor has written a paper that's caught my eye, called "But I can't draw!", which was created as a result of facilitating workshop sessions in classrooms. To quote: The paper has two broad themes. On the one hand, I take a look at several different approaches to drawing, such ...
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April 20, 2003 by James Robertson
Impact of paging vs. scrolling
J. Ryan Baker describes the results of recent research into the impact of paging vs. scrolling on comprehension of written material. To quote: In this study, we examined the use of paging vs. scrolling in reading passages, including participants' reading comprehension in paging and scrolling conditions.
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April 18, 2003 by James Robertson
Blurbs: Writing previews of web pages
Dennis G. Jerz discusses how to write blurbs, the brief descriptions that summarise what readers will find at the other end of links. To quote: A good blurb should inform, not tease. Usability testing will help you determine the best way to lay out your blurbs, but this document will ...
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April 14, 2003 by James Robertson
Future visions for search UIs
A list of workshop submissions for CHI 2003 on building search interfaces has been posted. There's some really interesting topics here, including: Search Log Analysis as a Usability Engineering Tool Using Categories to Improve Search Utilizing a users context to improve search results Search Without Keywords Search Query Spellchecking (The full papers have been provided ...
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April 11, 2003 by James Robertson
Best practice URL design
pixelcharmer has brought together an excellent list of resources on best practice URL design. Excellent stuff...
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February 26, 2003 by James Robertson
Writing usable software specifications
Brian R. Krause writes about creatives ways of producing usable software specifications, with an emphasis on communicating to stakeholders and developers alike, instead of just producing telephone-book-sized specs. To quote: An effective spec must be inviting and easy to understand so the whole development team can participate in the design. ...
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February 6, 2003 by James Robertson
How to run a design critique
Scott Berkun writes a detailed tutorial on how to run a design tutorial. To quote: In the early and middle phases of a project, teams need a way to understand and explore the current direction of the design. The challenge is to create the openness needed for good ideas to ...
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January 29, 2003 by James Robertson
Visio or HTML for wireframes?
Jeff Gothelf has written an article which compares Visio or HTML for wireframes. To quote: As design organizations (design shops, user experience groups within companies, etc.) mature, they inevitably run across the debate of Visio versus HTML wireframes. The decision for one over the other is never a clear-cut one ...
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January 13, 2003 by James Robertson
Faceted metadata search and browse
SearchTools has released a practical article on using faceted metadata to enhance search. It contains some interesting screenshots, and a gentle introduction to the concepts. To quote: A good solution to these problems involves exposing the facets in dynamic taxonomies, so that the search user can see exactly the options ...
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January 9, 2003 by James Robertson
Using HTML wireframes and prototypes
Julie Stanford has written an excellent article on using HTML for wireframes and prototypes. In it, she clearly sells the benefits of this approach, and addresses some of the common concerns. To quote: Mention the use of HTML for wireframing or prototyping, and some information architects and interaction designers frantically ...
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December 2, 2002 by James Robertson
Death to “click here”!
Nathan Ashby-Kuhlman has written a passionate blog about the pointlessness of click here links. Taking a usability stand, he highlights that eliminating needless words is always worthwhile. To quote: Television stations do not tell viewers how to operate their remote controls. Newspapers do not instruct readers in removing papers from ...
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November 26, 2002 by James Robertson
Lorem Ipsum generator
I have just stumbled across a website offering a Lorem Ipsum generator. What is this? Well, it's the dummy text that you will often see in interface design mockups, and this website will generate as much of it as you need. To explain: Lorem Ipsum, or Lipsum for short, is ...
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November 20, 2002 by James Robertson
Design really does matter
Sean Carton writes about the value of good design when it comes to websites, particularly focusing on both appearance and information architecture. He explores attitudes and approaches, and presents a very interesting piece of recent research: Over 2,600 people participated in a study that asked them to rank and comment ...
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September 10, 2002 by James Robertson
Search interface patterns
Liz Danzico explores the different ways that a search interface can be designed. She identifies four different patterns: standard surfacing qualifying passive This article is useful, in that it helps to define a "language" for describing search interfaces, allowing interface designers to communicate more clearly. (The design of the site itself is also very cool, ...
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September 8, 2002 by James Robertson
Broken websites
Jeffrey Zeldman writes a passionate and well-informed article on why 99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete. This highlights the curse of hacked HTML, and proposes some ways forward (using web standards). To quote: Peel the skin of any major site, from Amazon to Microsoft.com, from Sony to ZDNet. Examine their tortuous ...
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September 7, 2002 by James Robertson
Keep it simple
Peter-Paul Koch writes about keeping web design simple. He looks at the trap of "creative designs", and gives a personal case study to illustrate his point. He then looks at the broader issues: First of all sites should be exciting only when their purpose is to be exciting. An entertainment ...
August 29, 2002 by James Robertson
Design problems in health
Michael B. Moore talks about Top 10 Design Problems in health systems. This covers the usual suspects, but is useful in that it looks at things from a specific health focus. The main items covered: Information density vs. simplicity Wrong patient Task Interruption Indistinct information spaces Not my hierarchy Doing what we know vs. doing ...
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July 12, 2002 by James Robertson
Searching from the home page
The Sydney Morning Herald has published a story discussing the value of having a search form on the home page of a large website. The SMH has a nasty habit of expiring articles, so in case the link stops working, here's one of the best bits: Dr Hawking related the story ...
June 28, 2002 by James Robertson
A Solid Intranet in Eight Steps
Theo Mandel has written an excellent article titled A Solid Intranet in Eight Steps. This paper outlines a few very practical ways of ensuring the intranet works for its users: Forget about your Internet site. Eliminate frames from your design Create intranet guidelines and stand by them Put usability before consistency Start small and grow ...
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