Thought Leadership

“OK-Cancel” or “Cancel-OK?” How about both!

Posted: February 11,2013

For the majority of my career I have worked on enterprise class software applications and websites that were built on, built for, and built with the Microsoft Windows operating system. Dialog boxes (and other user interactions), in this environment typically have an “OK-Cancel” at the bottom.

One Size DOES NOT fit all

Posted: January 31,2013

I was at a presentation the other day where a developer was presenting some training related to a new web application that they have created. Many of the screens he showed reminded me of one of the many sayings that I’ve used a lot in my UX career, “One size does not fit all.”

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell? Some thoughts on Feature Carousels

Posted: January 25,2013

There has been a lot of conversation recently on the “twittersphere” about feature carousels and how much we either love them or hate them.

“Feature Carousels,” are those those semi scrolling images that sequence through several images and/or marketing content that your website is promoting. These are a way to highlight some goods or services that your company is presenting. Personally I am pretty neutral, when done right, they can be a useful part of a companies web presence.

Making error messages less error prone

Posted: August 5,2012

One of the easiest ways to improve the usability (and perceived usability) of a web application is to improve the text that appears on the screen specifically around labels, embedded assistance and error messages.

In many web applications, there is a false assumption that all of the users are already experts. In many situations, the placement of a simple bit of embedded assistance will help the novice and intermediate users know exactly what to do.

Gimme some feedback

Posted: August 4,2012

One of the most annoying things about many applications is that they do not give the information that users need when they need it. Did my action “take?” Did I “do it right?”

In the 21st century “real-time” world users expect information presented to them that is timely, updated and accurate. In our multitasking, impatient, twitterverse, instant gratification culture not immediately providing the most up-to-date information could give a false indication that everything is fine, or even a false indication that something is wrong.

Internationalization (I18n) and usability

Posted: August 1,2012

For some US companies or agencies internationalization of their User Interface may just seem like a lot of unnecessary extra work.

They may believe that because they have no current plans to expand beyond the United States they have no reason to internationalize their web-based application.

Social Media and the theories of Distributed Cognition

Posted: August 1,2012

We see a direct connection between what is going on in social media and many of the communication models that have been described within the Distributed Cognition framework (see, for example on the research by team at UCSD, James Hollan, Edwin Hutchins, and David Kirsch:

http://files.meetup.com/410989/DistributedCognition.pdf

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