widely accepted and understood ways of presenting information and interaction opportunities in a UI.
126
votes
17answers
9k views
Save icon, is the floppy disk icon dead?
This Twitter post sparked me to ask the question:
totally! RT @damienguard: Dear UI
designers everywhere. Stop using
floppy disk icons for save. Too many
people have no idea what it is now.
...
92
votes
11answers
4k views
Should a toggle button show its current state or the state to which it will change?
I have a quick question about buttons that toggle between two states. (Think Play/Pause, or Shuffle/Regular Play.) As the title says, should the toggle show it's current state or the state to which it ...
11
votes
4answers
456 views
When developing the user experience for mobile applications, is it better to be consistent with the platform, or your brand?
Some of the best received mobile applications seem to be those that work harmoniously with the native platform (for example, an app that sticks to the metro guidelines, for Windows Phone); however I ...
74
votes
13answers
3k views
Why don't we auto-save for users instead of having them save manually?
With the advent of Apple moving to auto-saving in its newest release Lion, should everyone start adopting the convention of auto-saving?
At first it is definitely awkward and the user can feel like ...
14
votes
8answers
2k views
How to tell the user his login credentials are incorrect?
When a user has entered incorrect details into a login form, is it better to tell them:
The username or password you have entered is invalid.
or
The user name you have entered is invalid (for ...
11
votes
9answers
1k views
Scrollbar on the left
Is there a deep study that suggests to place a scrollbar on the right? Personally I move it to the left whenever it's possible (firefox allow this, as well as xterm and emacs).
I know that placing a ...
44
votes
6answers
4k views
Why don't ATMs give you cash before your card?
I live in Australia, so this might not apply worldwide, but here, when withdrawing money, the ATM will give me back my bank card, then several seconds later the cash comes out.
This typically leads ...
18
votes
6answers
1k views
Why is there a convention on the web for dropdown menus on hover instead of on click?
This is something I've always wondered. On all major operating systems, application menus (File/Edit/View etc) only appear on click. However, nearly every web site that uses a drop-down menu ...
17
votes
8answers
4k views
Using mailto: links for email addresses…what is the practice these days?
When giving out your email address on a site, do people still use the mailto:email@example.com syntax for the link?
Does this work with people using web mail clients? I use gmail and whenever I click ...
14
votes
3answers
478 views
Is breaking established web conventions in order to be consistent across multiple devices an unexpected (and therefore harmful) user experience?
As a good working example: The standard convention is for mega menus to appear on hover (see sites such as play.com and next.co.uk).
This fits with Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience which ...
10
votes
7answers
491 views
What to consider a click?
Such a simple concept, yet so many ways to interpret it.
I'm making a program (a game, to be specific) using an event based library (Allegro). The library doesn't have a specific event for a mouse ...
34
votes
5answers
2k views
Do “promo codes” or “coupon codes” do more harm than good?
My clients seem to love coupon and promo codes, but I've recently become very skeptical of them. When I'm shopping there's times I'll see a promo code field and I'll wonder off to other sites to find ...
21
votes
9answers
1k views
Isn’t the FAQ label obsolete by now?
Don’t get me wrong in the beginning of reading this. I really mean the label and not the content of FAQ. The content is very useful if its’ made the right way (as here on ux.se), but there are plenty ...
11
votes
5answers
1k views
How to represent optional fields?
I've read somewhere, that if you have more required fields than optional, best practice is to mark the optional form fields.
However I think that asterisk notation for required fields is a widely ...
12
votes
3answers
808 views
Drawer Navigation vs. Drop Down Menus
Are there any studies on drawer type navigation such as: http://www.ibm.com/us/en/ where the navigation pushes down content, compared to traditional drop down menus where navigation covers up content? ...
3
votes
2answers
668 views
Is there any research or data on horizontal vs. vertical navigational menus?
I've seen many sites using both horizontal (top) navigation, vertical (left) navigation, and both across web sites for a long time. My understanding is that they're both conventions, but I would ...
13
votes
7answers
505 views
How do you go about convincing the stubborn “powers that be” to let you change a clumsy layout that users are used to?
How do you go about convincing the stubborn "powers that be" to let you change a clumsy layout that users are used to?
Say there was a layout in a previous version of software from years back and ...
13
votes
7answers
412 views
Is the concept of versions out of date?
I recently noticed some copy stating that something was compatable with "Firefoz 3.6, IE 8 and Google Chrome". I realized I don't know what version my copy of chrome is, yet it's always up to date. ...
6
votes
4answers
467 views
Best position for collapse indicator on collapsible content
What is the convention/standard/best-practice for the placement of a collapse/expand button/indicator on collapsible content?
I've seen many examples of the placement on the left (left of title in ...
