the process by which a user learns what a program can do through affordances in the UX.
1
vote
2answers
59 views
UX for encouraging naming of an auto-saved item
I’m working on a web application where users can generate results after answers questions in a workflow. Over time, they will use this workflow to generate additional, different results. Our goals ...
4
votes
3answers
171 views
How to display carousel page count
I'm in the process of designing an introduction/tutorial for our iOS/Android application. It will consist of 4-5 pages and be ordered in a carousel control. It will look somewhat similar to that of ...
2
votes
2answers
226 views
Alternatives to Menu + Toolbar or Ribbon
The main application I'm working on has a very traditional (and boring) old school menu and toolbar, the toolbar indeed just a row of 16 small icons.
It has worked for us well over the years, but ...
3
votes
2answers
102 views
What is the best way to disclose hotkeys to my users?
I am developing an intranet web application and have added in a couple of hotkeys such as "expand all". I have made sure to not use any of the same hotkeys as the browsers are already using. I found ...
3
votes
1answer
87 views
Monitoring websites on the Web
I have witnessed that less people are using RSS technology for monitoring a multitude of websites. Rather, more people seem to be using social media products such as Twitter, which equally share links ...
1
vote
2answers
82 views
Suitable control to specify a filter parameter with a main category and its subcategories
I'm designing a list view to show workflows. The worklflows can be divided into two main categories, workflows that are ongoing and workflows that will not have any more processes.
These categories ...
13
votes
1answer
456 views
How can you indicate a hidden button on the back of a device?
The first time I used an iMac it was a terrible user experience - I couldn't turn it on. I was scouring the keyboard and running my hands around the edge of it looking for the on button, or some magic ...
6
votes
2answers
711 views
Press-and-hold or Long-Press Gestures: Unintuitive?
Often, I find people struggle with the usage of press-and-hold gestures on mobile/web platforms. The mere thought of having a user press on a defined object and hold for an arbitrary amount of time ...
4
votes
1answer
194 views
how to indicate to click on title for more information
im designing an app and am having trouble indicating to the user to click on the business name('candys' in this case) for more information. clicking shows details like contact details, website etc. ...
14
votes
3answers
421 views
Is there a difference between affordance and discovery?
Looking at the UX principles that mozilla use as keywords to tag bugs in bugzilla it looks like ux-affordance and ux-discovery are very similar:
ux-affordance — controls should visually express ...
3
votes
2answers
85 views
Low-Hanging Fruit for User Discovery In A Social App w/o Showing Number of Actual Users
I'm working on a social app that helps users tap into their friends and our community to get fast feedback before making apparel and accessory purchases online. Right now, I'm revamping the site and ...
10
votes
7answers
679 views
How should I indicate an added row of buttons above the iPad's keyboard is scrollable?
In my iOS app, I have an extra toolbar that appears above the keyboard, using the same style of buttons as the keyboard. This toolbar is horizontally scrollable.
Currently, in all devices and ...
2
votes
1answer
99 views
What are all the ways I should let my users invoke the toolbar in a Metro app?
I'm playing around with the Windows 8 Developer preview, with the intention of making a Metro version of an existing product. It seems that in the Metro apps included with the preview, the toolbar is ...
4
votes
2answers
176 views
What indicates Zoom uniquely?
While reading a slideshow on How People Really Use the iPhone. It seemed a lot of users are confused when looking for a "zoom" icon; finding the magnifying glass to mean "search" and the plus sign to ...
7
votes
3answers
363 views
How to improve discoverability of transient scrollbar?
Starting from Mac OS X Lion, scrollbars have been transient. That is, they disappear when your mouse stops moving. Some sites, like Facebook, even emulate this transient scrollbar for Windows users:
...
1
vote
2answers
366 views
Is there a repository of UX Discovery Questions?
I was wondering if there is a site or repository of standard UX questions used in the Discovery phase of Website/Portal/Collaboration site.
2
votes
2answers
344 views
Alternative to “Hover For More Information” Controls
I don't like modal popups, because they force you to close them before you resume normal input -- and because they tend to dominate the screen.
When I made Valence, I had a dilemma: where do I put ...
24
votes
4answers
1k views
Design Patterns for Discoverability
What are some tried and true design patterns for discoverability in UI/UX, where information or a feature isn't necessarily overt at first glance, but is discoverable by using the interface through ...
10
votes
3answers
1k views
Are tri-state checkboxes too complicated?
Normal checkboxes are easy, they have a checked state, and an unchecked state. But how do you go about indicating a third state for a tri-state checkbox? Is it too difficult for the user to discover ...
93
votes
10answers
6k views
Do unique icon contours help people scan?
Many years ago, I ran across a good icon design tutorial. It said that having unique contours to icons help users scan for the item they're looking for. If this is true, why don't iPhone and Android ...
6
votes
2answers
252 views
In-house advertisement
How do you do an effective in-house advertisement? An in-house ad promotes a feature on your site. For example, you just launched a new forum. From some existing high traffic page, you put an ad ...
2
votes
3answers
259 views
In a desktop application, what are best practise methods to provide a menu of functions
I have a .NET Winforms application that hosts controls to provide different areas of functionality.
My normal method in providing a menu to switch between these controls has been a TreeView or a List ...
2
votes
1answer
214 views
Best way to communicate the action of a non-button control
Question summary:
I'm wondering what are some recommended approaches for communicating to the user what will happen once he clicks on an object, in the case that it's not possible to spell out the ...
6
votes
3answers
139 views
Specifying an unlimited value
How do I create a natural UI to let the user choose an unlimited value? Take for example, Bittorrent's bandwidth configuration:
Arguably, putting 0 for unlimited is not natural. Some people might ...
18
votes
8answers
728 views
How to indicate right click functionality?
I am developing a Windows application where there is a lot of configuration and settings applied to multiple objects. There is a right click menu that is used to apply a predetermined group of ...
3
votes
6answers
723 views
Which way should I display time zone names to make them easily pickable?
We have to present a list of time zones to the user from which they select the one that applies to them.
We have a choice about how we display this information - either:
Time zone name (Offset)
...
2
votes
7answers
474 views
Fallback for MultiTouch pan and zoom
A planned app that will run on tablets that support multitouch needs a graceful fallback for tablets and desktops which don't. I have a view onto a possibly very large 2D electron microscopy image ...
5
votes
6answers
256 views
How to make software features more visible to users?
I have already asked this question on stackoverflow and was sent over here. I've read Discovering new features but I thought that I should ask anyway.
We have released a beta version of our software, ...
15
votes
4answers
405 views
Discovering new features
I work with a web-based platform with lots of data and various tools to view the data, perform analysis. Users are often impressed by one or two features and stick with them. The platform adds new ...
5
votes
6answers
230 views
Is it appropriate to rely on accidental discovery for non-vital or less commonly used UI features?
Every function of an interface demands consideration concerning how users will be instructed on how to find and use it.
Certain features, like Android's push-shift-twice-for-caps-lock on the physical ...
7
votes
7answers
633 views
Is there a “nice” way to show navigation icons so they don't clutter the UI?
I've got a small desktop application that scans music folders and randomly chooses an album to play. The first version is WinForms and has "previous" and "next" buttons next to the album art that are ...
