Reusable solutions for commonly occurring problems in user interface and user experience design.
1
vote
2answers
114 views
Action buttons for mobile — ok to go full width?
Is it acceptable to use full width mobile action buttons, say in the footer, like in the 1st example? It's nice and simple but I'm afraid users might mistake it for a regular footer. The 2nd example ...
4
votes
2answers
80 views
What is the name for a pattern featuring helper text in a semi-transparent overlay?
I am seeing an emerging design pattern in web apps that is used for helping new users get oriented to a page or application.
It consists of showing a diagram with succinct helper-text over a ...
4
votes
5answers
547 views
Encourage users to tap the “review” button
How to layout an Info screen, so as many as possible are tempted to tap the "review" button?
I wish users would tap the "review" button and write a long positive review on the app store where they ...
3
votes
2answers
58 views
UI Options for Displaying Connected Apps / Managing App Connections
I am searching hard to find a nice way to show connections/interactions between various individual apps within an app store.
This is important for two reasons:
Certain apps exist mainly to ...
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 ...
13
votes
3answers
735 views
Labels above the field or to the side of the field? What about prompt text and validation messages?
Which layout works best for your users?:
Field labels on the side of fields
Field labels above the data entry fields
What about prompt text, format tips, examples and validation or error messages?
...
6
votes
5answers
166 views
Is there a pattern for cycling or toggling through time periods?
I'm looking for a pattern for toggling between different periods of time. Currently I've prototyped an example which is a single button that, when tapped, will cycle through 3 time periods: by month, ...
1
vote
2answers
73 views
What to do about “occasional” recommendation in a decision support application
I am designing a clinical application which displays a list of potential actions for clinicians to take ranked by their appropriateness to the clinical scenario (i.e., it looks like Google). ...
2
votes
1answer
62 views
Rarely used translation function placement
I have just been looking at the analytics of one of the websites I work on, and one of the features is required - but rarely used. There is a Microsoft Translate button, with their "Powered by ...
7
votes
1answer
105 views
Displaying links to other profile pages, while maintaining good white space
I am designing a profiles page for a website where by the names and position of company employees should be displayed on all profile pages for easy navigation.
I do not want to put a <ul> to ...
4
votes
3answers
132 views
In place editing in search result and searching again
I am looking for existing solutions to a user interface problem. My users have the ability to search in a list of items. The items can be either single or composite items.
In the search result the ...
7
votes
4answers
251 views
Where can I read more about how the brain utilizes patterns?
I've been reading some cognitive psychology books and they all talk about the fact that our brains recognize and store things using patterns. Unfortunately, all these books talk only briefly about ...
6
votes
1answer
178 views
Clicking twice to edit filename - what are the reasons for this pattern?
Like we all know, one can edit a file or folder name in Windows Explorer by either right clicking and choosing "Rename" from the context menu OR by highlighting the file by left-clicking, and clicking ...
2
votes
5answers
285 views
Tooltips to shorten your content
At my job there is no UX expert, which can be frustrating since most of the daily discussions I have with colleagues is about user experience / interaction.
Right now there is a discussion regarding ...
6
votes
2answers
506 views
Any good design patterns for managing columns in data-intensive/spreadsheet views?
I'm trying to move away from the "build a list" pattern we currently employ to manage what columns are shown. The disconnect and lack of "directness" between the table itself and this dialog is ...
3
votes
3answers
132 views
What is a good UI metaphor for switching roles user plays in the application?
I am building a conference/tradeshow application where a user can assume multiple roles within the application and within a particular conference. For example a user can be an attendee, and have ...
4
votes
2answers
94 views
Evidence of Button-action and Link-action in the same scope?
When I started to know GUI in the early 1990s there were always the same type of control to perform an action of the same type, even though the action was different as in [OK] [Cancel] and [Yes] [No]. ...
2
votes
3answers
77 views
Group settings depending on state
I'm working on a settings screen for a web application which consists of a list of features that can be either enabled or disabled. To be able to easily distinguish features that have been enabled ...
3
votes
2answers
780 views
When designing (UX/IA) a property search system what are some important things to remember?
I'm designing the UX for a property search system. The platform is FSIS. I am basically looking for best practices in doing a Faceted Search while being able to incorporate many refiners based off the ...
0
votes
2answers
100 views
Best way to identify different element states?
I maintain a reporting app and currently we're trying to come up with a new way to organize our settings page.
We display our settings in a table, this is used for displaying the setting/values only.
...
8
votes
4answers
524 views
CMS Interface Logic. - Is this the best approach?
I am developing a cms system. Currently I am working on the Interface for adding new menu items to a menu. (Due to the cms Logic the menus are fixed, the user can not add or remove menus, only delete ...
1
vote
2answers
106 views
What is a good globalization pattern for user-entered content?
I'm trying to come up with a pattern that will support globalization for user-entered data. For each language, the Admin User can enter a Name, Description, and possibly other fields for their own ...
3
votes
2answers
465 views
Examples of magnification/zoom to see details [closed]
I'm looking for examples of interfaces where the user is shown part of the UI enlarged or magnified so they can perform a detailed task.
One example would be the magnified text on an iPhone when ...
4
votes
1answer
922 views
UI Patterns for tables with many columns
I have a table with many columns,this table displays without scroll only on 21 inch and larger monitors.
If there is a ui pattern for tables with many columns?
0
votes
3answers
152 views
Trying to decide which page should be my home page [closed]
I'm not a UI person and would love to get your recommendation -
which page should be my homepage?
myvoternation.com
or
http://myvoternation.com/mvn/questions
7
votes
4answers
778 views
Design / UX examples of multiple sub-sites with the same general look and feel
I'm working on an upcoming large project for a company that has many entities. They've recently decided that they want a master website to rule all of their entities. Each entity would have a section ...
2
votes
3answers
227 views
Where can I find a comprehensive list of UI Components?
I think this is the site where I can ask this.
Sometimes I have to build specials "slider" or "scrollbar" but when I try to look for information is difficult because I don't know the proper names.
...
3
votes
2answers
243 views
Are there any UI pattern sites with a bookmarklet / selective screen capture (think Skitch) tool?
For over a year now I've been trying to get into all of these UI pattern sites, but the fundamental flaw I've found across the board is the level of effort it takes to create/post styles you come ...
4
votes
2answers
208 views
Is there a particular reason contextual content areas and menus aren't more prevalent in web applications?
I'm developing a user-driven sandbox application, wherein the user (more or less) builds their interface. In my preliminary web design drafts, I've found myself favoring a contextual content area at ...
4
votes
5answers
557 views
Where do people get web design patterns/inspiration from?
I like to think I come up with original concepts as and when I can but I do find it really gives me a kick start when I can see examples of what other people have been doing to inspire my own design ...
5
votes
1answer
604 views
What nomenclature do you use for UI Elements
Having worked with multiple OSs, platforms and UI Kits I always run into the problem of how to consistently naming things be that larger structures with names like Widgets, Views, Forms, Controls or ...
0
votes
1answer
61 views
Putting a one-page view of my website on other websites I do
When I do websites, most times I add a page dedicated only to my main website to serve as publicity and awareness..this is normally done after seeking the consent of the website owner.
The issues I'm ...
2
votes
2answers
191 views
What's the best design pattern for splitting things in parts?
I want to design the following interaction: user buys 1 ton of sugar and 100 apples, and wants it to be shipped to him in 3 different packs:
Pack 1: 200 kg of sugar and 50 apples
Pack 2: 100 kg of ...
10
votes
1answer
763 views
How do I make a table row on a web page look draggable?
I have a table on a web page where I need to let the user reorder the rows. I was thinking of letting the user drag the rows to reorder them. But how would I let the user know that he could do that? ...
4
votes
5answers
435 views
What are some examples or design patterns of an aggregating website with different types of content? [closed]
I'm designing a website that is meant to aggregate on it's homepage different types of contents such as:
Blog posts from around the web
User generated movies, presentations, documents, pictures etc.
...
9
votes
6answers
349 views
Do comments really need a “title”?
I'm sure most (or all) of you have seen sites that offer a comment form and a "title" field. However, is the title field really necessary? If so, what is the motivation behind it?
In my opinion, it ...
2
votes
2answers
104 views
Best way to present an already filled form
We have a longish form to fill. After first step, we know that some a particular user is already registered. The rest of the form is already filled in, but we still need her to validate the data. ...
5
votes
2answers
5k views
A Better alternative to display Hierarchical Data than using TreeView
I am a ASP.net Developer and am looking out for other alternatives to Treeview control. Reason behind is shipping too much of viewstate information for each request. Functionality of treeview would be ...
29
votes
1answer
2k views
What is the significance of the three dots “…” on menus and buttons and how to use them right?
Adding three dots after the title of items in a dropdown menu seems to be a common practice (as you can see on the picture of a drop down menu in Google Chrome). They generaly mean that there is ...
2
votes
4answers
185 views
What happens when users register?
Usually when users register on a site does the email confirmation contain their username and password? When the user clicks the activation link does it make the user sign in or deep link them into a ...
2
votes
5answers
808 views
What's the best web design pattern for a list of people?
I have a list of people. Totally around 200.
I need to display the people's name, pictures and some other information in one page. Users could sort those people by name, country and other attributes.
...
2
votes
2answers
315 views
Designing a Report list page
I was asked to design a user friendly Report list page, where 100s of reports will be listed.Format of those reports are "word","Matrix","Tabular","Distribution Metrics" etc. What would be the most ...
2
votes
1answer
201 views
Navigation design pattern for showing current state
I'm looking for a high-level navigation design pattern that will also show the current navigational state. (Ex: Dashboard, invoices, settings, etc...) I am currently planning on using an accordion ...
1
vote
2answers
128 views
CMS Pattern Book
I am working on redesigning a CMS and I am looking for some more possible patterns. Does anyone know some good books or websites where they discuss CMS UI Patterns?
6
votes
2answers
558 views
Industry standard for documenting IxD / UI Design Patterns?
What's the industry-standard way to document a design pattern?
I have seen websites like ui-patterns.com and patternry.com that host and share design patterns, but when creating an reusing a design ...
22
votes
6answers
1k views
Best UI pattern for letting a user assign items to groups
Problem: the user has a list of about 5-20 uncategorised items and needs to categorize them into 2-4 groups. The tricky part is that the same item can be placed into more than one group (this is an ...
6
votes
1answer
394 views
Should we use ‘narrow and deep’ or ‘broad and shallow’ navigation pattern on mobile devices?
If we have a large content environment on a mobile device, we need some way to access that content with ease. One could implement a narrow and deep navigation pattern which gives the possibility for ...
3
votes
1answer
179 views
Drag and Drop: Better to avoid drag-n-drop to offscreen elements?
I have a particular web interface in which drag-and-drop may be useful, however, the problem that I see is that the list of items to be dragged could potentially be very long (below the fold).
Is it ...
4
votes
2answers
70 views
How to place text and a gallery side by side without giving more relevance to one or the other?
I have some galleries and some text (2 o 3 word pages) attached to each gallery. Until now I've had a gallery and the text in two different pages, with a link bar to switch between one and the other. ...
8
votes
3answers
188 views
To lower user's cognitive memory load or not?
Naturally, it sounds like it is only best for our users if our design could reduce user's cognitive workload when performing a task.
However, there are also theories that explain the need for a ...
