The way in which the elements of an interface are laid out.
121
votes
23answers
13k views
OK/Cancel on left/right?
Should OK button be on left of Cancel button or vice versa?
Are there any studies suggesting either of the solutions?
72
votes
21answers
13k views
How To Display Too Much Data
We're building a web-based platform where the main dashboard shows a table of data for users to view and analyze. As we're growing this tool, we seem to be adding more and more columns and are running ...
41
votes
13answers
32k views
Common screen resolution?
I'm developing a web application which is quite information heavy. This means that every pixel available in the screen for display helps a lot, to avoid the UI looking too cluttered and to display ...
17
votes
10answers
1k views
Is there a usability reason for centering a website's content area on a page?
A lot of websites these days have content area's which are centr aligned, http://ux.stackexchange.com is an example. However some sites are left aligned e.g. http://forums.adobe.com/index.jspa, ...
40
votes
2answers
1k views
Why do numpads on keyboards and phones have reversed layouts?
I came across this on the web. It's supposed to be funny, but we all know better :)
So, why are the numpad layouts different, and what are the reasons behind each?
19
votes
9answers
3k views
What are the negative and positive aspects of dark color scheme?
I am using Light-on-dark color scheme (dark background with light text) in my application.
My question is, what are the negative and positive aspects of this color scheme and why this color scheme ...
14
votes
8answers
3k views
Should we provide “back” button for mobile website?
In mobile website for all smartphones (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows phone 7), should I provide a "Back" button inside the webpage even when the browser has functionality to go to back?
...
6
votes
2answers
513 views
How to design usable web site terms & conditions?
What are some guidelines and examples for designing usable legal terms for web sites? I know that most users don't read it, but are there innovative ways to improve readability and presentation of ...
7
votes
3answers
388 views
What are some advantages of left-aligning columns within the browser window?
Youtube and Google Plus have changed their layouts such that in a very wide browser window, the content columns are left-aliged, leaving a large white space on the right side. This is a change from ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
Best way to display more table columns than I have room for? [duplicate]
The web development office I work for is working on a fixed-width web site. On one page, we have a table inside of the fixed 960px space available. So far, this table has worked out great for us, but ...
30
votes
9answers
2k views
Can ugly be good UX?
It's heresy I know, but look at DrudgeReport.com. It's raw, hand written HTML, it's plain, boring typography, it's something any UX or Graphic designer would scoff at if you handed it across their ...
29
votes
11answers
2k views
For websites, is it better to have a variable width layout or a fixed width layout?
Due to different screen resolutions, the user experience browsing a website might be different. Is it better to layout the website with a fixed width? (and if so should there be different static ...
25
votes
3answers
543 views
What to do when a page's content doesn't fill up enough of a fixed area?
An application has a fixed size, i.e 800x600 px. However, a problem I often run in to is that the page's content isn't enough. It's simply too little content on a big area.
Consider the mockup below, ...
8
votes
5answers
489 views
Where should form instructions or hints be placed?
I was browsing Forrst and came about a screenshot of a form designed with Twitter Bootstrap that had the label on the left, the input field on the right, and the instruction that it's required under ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Optimal placement of share on Twitter/Facebook/social media widget on web page to encourage use
Like most every site out there, I develop a site where we encourage people to share the content through Twitter and Facebook.
Also, like most other sites, the placement of the widgets is in a fixed ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
How to organize a form with many fields?
Where I work, we have a system that has a screen with several fields. There are approximately 50 fields and all are important and should appear.
//edited in gimp :D
Any suggestions on how to ...
2
votes
5answers
467 views
Form layout. Vertical Labels vs Horizontal Labels. Images inside
After reading
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1502
and
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2006/07/label-placement-in-forms.php
Placing labels above input fields is preferable, but if you choose to ...
26
votes
8answers
948 views
Is it a good idea to have a large footer containing many links?
In recent years, it's become quite a common design pattern to have a large footer on every page, containing a 'mini sitemap'.
For example:
This has supposed SEO benefits, but would also seem to ...
15
votes
4answers
379 views
When displaying statistics to a user, is it better to bold the data or the label?
The following picture shows some statistics. Here they bold the data, not the label.
Which is better? Does it depend on the information being shown?
What if you have a header on a report with some ...
30
votes
9answers
946 views
Which direction indicates newer/older?
So I'm reading some blogs and I get to the bottom of the page when I see a graphic similar to this:
<< Newer Posts Older Posts >>
This makes sense to me. But then, quite often, ...
10
votes
4answers
499 views
Should the search box be on the left or the right side
In a web app with a search box in the header - where should the search go, on the left or the right side of the header? What considerations should be taken into account when making this decision?
In ...
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 ...
2
votes
2answers
725 views
Best way to display more table columns and rows than I have room for?
I have a similar problem to what is mentioned in Best way to display more table columns than I have room for?. But to make things a little more difficult, the table has approximately 1000 rows and 64 ...
15
votes
5answers
437 views
Which is more likely to be read and processed: (related) text placed above or below an image/video?
I'm thinking about layout on pages where the main asset is visual — for instance, a photo of an item from the collection on a museum website, or embedded video as on YouTube and many news sites. ...
12
votes
5answers
1k views
Too many tabs - use buttons instead?
We have an admin page in our application that has toomanytab-itus (see the second set of tabs are stacking):
I've been tasked with solving this issue. Reorganising/grouping the content to reduce ...
2
votes
1answer
182 views
Where to put your patents/ patent pending info in software? And should you really do it?
My softare company has a few patents/ patent pendings. Does it make sense to showcase this in our products?
If so, where should we put it? In our splash screen? In the Help Menu?
-1
votes
4answers
2k views
horizontal vs vertical tabs
I was wondering, in which case are horizontal tabs better, and in which case are vertical tabs better?
There is one answer I can already give, but I'd like to see if there are more.
Because you ...
33
votes
9answers
7k views
Should checkbox labels be to the right or the left?
I've got some checkboxes with text values of varying lengths (from say 5 characters up to about 60) - which is the preferred layout? Value to the left and checkbox to the right, or vice versa?
15
votes
6answers
743 views
The use of tabs
I am working on redoing a clients application, which needs to be done for other reason, but one of the changes is to remove tabs.
The application is, in essence, fronting data records, very basic. ...
14
votes
1answer
343 views
As screens become wider, should navigations and toolbars go away from the top, to the sides?
The counter-example to my question are the ribbons that MS introduced with Office 2007; they take up a lot of screen estate at the top of the user-interface. Since the screens become wider and wider ...
11
votes
5answers
3k views
Should social sharing buttons be at the top or bottom of an article?
I can certainly see arguments for both sides of this one:
Buttons at the top: Easy to find, reliably positioned regardless of the article length. Extreme ease of sharing as you don't have to reach ...
16
votes
3answers
396 views
Usability of vertical text
I am playing with ideas for a menu that I want to add to some site designs and was wondering: How usable is vertical text in any portion of a site (specifically menus)?
For example
You can have ...
16
votes
11answers
558 views
Separation of play and pause buttons for playing media
I seem to remember reading somewhere that having the play pause actions triggered from a single button that toggles is a bad idea
It seems to me that this idiom works well (e.g. pressing space to ...
13
votes
6answers
518 views
Greyed-Out vs Invisible
What is a good criterion or rule-of-thumb for determining when a control should be greyed-out and when should it be completely invisible?
13
votes
7answers
504 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 ...
6
votes
2answers
169 views
Layout for adding one or more contacts to a record
The context:
The user is creating a client record. Against each record their could be one or more contacts (people) provided. Often this will be adding 1 or 2 but could sometimes be up to 5-10.
The ...
7
votes
3answers
612 views
Graphically displaying a conversation between more than two people
I'm working on a project that involves displaying a text-only conversation between anywhere from two to ten or more people. The reader will be either zero or one of the participants.
The main UI will ...
7
votes
4answers
264 views
What research, patterns or techniques will help me choose the correct colors (or saturations) to the various UI elements of a page?
I am building a tool that will be used by call center agents. It is to help them support products on behalf of the customers who call up. It acts as a portal to many different types of product ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
How to best display a long list of check boxes
In my application users are required to select from a drop down, a list of projects they wish to include in their custom search. The easy part is that users can select one project to filter on or ...
3
votes
3answers
5k views
Optimal “fixed-width” website design?
RE: Design of 'fixed-width' websites, optimized for universal readability across all screen-size resolutions (i.e., best viewed, with no horizontal scrolling, over broadest range of both ...
2
votes
2answers
170 views
White space vs. Information [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can I defend and/or encourage white space as an effective design element?
At the company where I work, every day, there are discussions about "how to fill the ...
13
votes
4answers
395 views
Should radio options be displayed vertically or horizontally?
For Example:
Results must match () All () Any () None Of the search criteria
vs
Results must match () All of the search criteria
() Any
() None
The ...
8
votes
3answers
222 views
Default input labels and text sizes
Looking to get community feedback on a few small related form questions:
For standard forms:
How long should a standard text box input be? These text boxes would be for first and last name?
Should ...
5
votes
1answer
451 views
Flow of Dynamic Grid
There's a recent trend in web design to use dynamic masonry grids, like Pinterest, for just about everything these days. If you haven't seen such a layout before, it presents content of variable ...
5
votes
2answers
477 views
What is the best way to allow users to navigate through a large amount of information on a website that is categorised in numerous ways?
As a web developer, I'm often given designs that look good from the web designer, but don't necessarily function as well as they should. This is especially true for navigation elements, increasingly ...
4
votes
2answers
161 views
Allow list box to expand to browser height?
I'm designing a web app that includes a list builder. I've proposed that the height of the list box containing the available items should grow depending upon the available browser height. However, I ...
2
votes
4answers
197 views
Which of the following options best draws attention to the “buy tickets” action without detracting from the surrounding visual hierarchy?
I'm working on touching up (as much as I'm allowed) some of the design elements for a website. One client requirement is to draw more attention to the "buy tickets" link as this action is one that ...
-3
votes
1answer
185 views
Is it bad to have two levels of drill-down data shown at once? [closed]
As a general rule of design is it looked down upon to have more than one div on top of the page contents?
I have a table displaying a list of records. When one is clicked, another table is added ...
