used both for questions about designer's intuition (not always a reliable guide), and for questions about how readily users will understand how to use a UI.
13
votes
4answers
554 views
Intuitive vs. Efficient: Which is more important?
When faced with a design decision in which one option is more intuitive, and the other is more efficient, what guideline should be used to prioritize one desideratum over the other?
-3
votes
0answers
56 views
What icon best shows 'select' [closed]
I'm currently designing an interface for an agricultural vehicle that has an armrest which holds a small 4-way directional thumb stick with three buttons; home, select and back.
They're used to view ...
13
votes
6answers
465 views
Why are nested elements scrolled to the opposite direction?
My question is about scrolling conventions, and spatial scroll conventions in general (even here it's only horizontal, but same applies for vertical scrolling).
Looking at the below mockup, why is it ...
8
votes
6answers
373 views
Best way to communicate an abstract app concept such as a 'workspace' to users
The issue I'm struggling with is fairly specific, but it touches on a general UX topic, which is how to help users grasp some abstract app concept, such as some information organization or structuring ...
38
votes
20answers
3k views
Do I really need a login button?
We've been having a discussion in the office surrounding a login page we're developing for a new web application. The web application is in intranet-based application, and is mainly used by users who ...
7
votes
3answers
479 views
How to better name modal buttons “Cancel Request” (submit), “Cancel” (cancel)? [duplicate]
One modal-box asks the user wether they want to really cancel the request. Now there are two buttons (submit) and (cancel), but how to best name them? All other modals use text like "proceed" (submit) ...
4
votes
6answers
666 views
What is the most effective color to be used on notifications?
I need to choose a color to be used with notifications. I was placing an exclamation mark over a red circle, but I was told it looks more like an error if you haven't seen it in the UI before. So now ...
2
votes
4answers
566 views
Icon for ascending-descending sort [closed]
I'm trying to come up with two icons to represent ascending-descending sort order which would allow the user to sort the members ('bars') of a chart/visualization.
The control will be a toggle ...
4
votes
4answers
542 views
Should I use a radial menu design for a touchscreen game?
We are working on a game for android. We had a normal menu where each menu entry is below the other. As we find this boring, we looked to different approaches and came across the lock screen on ...
4
votes
2answers
141 views
Improving a 'page layout' editor's user interface
Below you can see a screenshot of a web-based page layout editor.
It is basically a drag and drop WYSIWYG editor for interactive apps, and allows the user to use a page backdrop and add a "layer" of ...
5
votes
2answers
115 views
What's an intuitive interface for making connections between UI elements?
I just released a web app that basically lets you create notes and connect them: http://www.noodl.in.
However, a bunch of users have had issues creating connections. I'm not exactly sure what ...
6
votes
2answers
705 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 ...
8
votes
4answers
1k views
Are circular menu / button interfaces intuitive?
I have been seeing a few of these 'Circular menu' UI concepts around.
Recently a similar UI was proposed as a central element for a large project I know of. For example, one of the options would be ...
31
votes
13answers
8k views
Is it true that “the only 'intuitive' interface is the nipple”?
Everyone knows the famous quote (by Bruce Ediger or Steve Jobs, I'm not sure):
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that it's all learned.
It's an amusing gem, but is it really ...
4
votes
1answer
134 views
Is there a UI precedent for changing permissions?
I want to keep the pages really clean, so I don't want a button for every feature ("Share this", "Upload", "Edit", etc... pretty soon the page will be covered in buttons). However, I can't think of a ...
6
votes
4answers
284 views
Should a confirmation of the style “Your message has been deleted” be green, yellow, red?
For success messages, I usually use green, for warnings yellow and for errors red. Now in the trash folder users can delete messages permanently and restore messages.
I got confused which color would ...
4
votes
6answers
254 views
“Adding and Subtracting a Value” Horizontal or Vertical Controls better affordance?
"Adding and Subtracting a Value" is Horizontally aligning the controls less effective than Aligning Vertically?
I am working on a project, where we are trying to squeeze a user interface equivalent ...
14
votes
5answers
1k views
Do we really need a “Remember me” option on a Login page?
I'm wondering why do we need to ask user to make a decision, for how long he want to be authenticated? This is done by having "keep me signed in" option login page:
Why can't we simply "predict" ...
2
votes
1answer
202 views
How to walk the user through a complicated UI on a small iPhone screen?
I've been building and building and ended up with an app that I now need to educate the user on first use. It is a very "sophisticated" and quick icon generator for programmers. My app has up to 16 ...
12
votes
10answers
768 views
Are some of Windows 7's UI less intuitive than previous versions?
One feature I can't understand is the minimize to desktop button. I can't imagine why it is more intuitive to put it as this little tiny transparent strip on the bottom right hand side instead of ...
2
votes
1answer
278 views
Most intuitive settings icon [closed]
I'm designing a user interface for a WPF app. I was wondering which icon is the most intuitive to represent a Settings section. In my experience a single/multiple cog wheels seems to be the most ...
4
votes
1answer
690 views
Know any good UI/UX jokes? [closed]
Are there any UI jokes out there? Seems like other industries have their own jokes, I was trying to think of UI design, couldn't come up with much - but that's not to say they don't exist?
3
votes
3answers
126 views
Form auto completion and button placement
I have a form which represents a book, the user enters the title, authors, publication year, etc... We have a feature which will auto-complete the entire book if the user enters enough info for us to ...
2
votes
2answers
186 views
Easiest way to tag content
What's the most user-friendly way to provide tagging functionality to a website?
I like SE's tagging system:
You can use type it in but there's also autocomplete
It shows each tag separately
It's ...
13
votes
4answers
251 views
What is it about our mental models that app-centric seems more intuitive than content-centric?
I always thought that content-centric was the easiest for people to deal with, i.e. "I want to change this document", and not "Let's run this app so I can then change that document".
It seems that ...
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 ...
24
votes
2answers
1k views
What objective qualities make a user interface intuitive?
How is intuitive defined in terms of UI? Are there any studies about what objective and measurable qualities make a user interface intuitive? What design principles, patterns, or approaches are most ...
21
votes
7answers
735 views
Most intuitive favorite icon [closed]
Similar to Stefan's most intuitive delete icon question.
I'm designing a web app that allows users favorite pages. A lot of big sites use either a heart or star symbol -Which one is most intuitive?
...
3
votes
2answers
462 views
What ways can I present sorting options for individual drop downs in a web app?
Say I have a drop down with a full employee name and an ID, comma delimited...
Some users may want to sort the values in this dropdown differently, in this example we'll say they may want to sort ...
3
votes
2answers
95 views
Expected behavior of an outline
The other day I was discussing outliner behavior and thought I'd bring it over to this venue.
Consider the following outline:
Now, let's say I want to decrease the depth of I.A ("First Point") to ...
4
votes
2answers
236 views
I want to let the user toggle a column heading to sort a grid by a date field. How can I make ASC/DSC intuitive?
I want to let the user toggle a column heading to sort a grid by a date field.
How can I make the ascending/descending dichotomy intuitive?
EDIT: I was looking for date-column specific solutions.
