Hot answers tagged windows-os
193
Yes, people need multiple windows.
For example, a web developer will be looking at 2 windows all the time - a text editor and a browser.
Another more general example, people like to chat with friends using something like AIM or Skype or even facebook, all while watching videos on youtube. That would require 2 browser windows opened simultaneously.
This ...
103
There is an old article I got from the ACM library on Human-Computer-Interaction that provides some useful feedback.
(The ACM library is not very intuitive, but Microsoft have a PDF version of it)
An initial study attempted to demonstrate that users are significantly more productive and more satisfied when carrying out complex, multiple window tasks ...
64
I've always viewed it as a matter of "state" tracking. When I use a computer, I am doing a task, not using a program. This task may be something as simple as check email, and only requires one window open. Or it could be complex, such as design a section of a code project.
In the more complicated case, the task is independent of any individual program. I ...
53
Take a step away from classic Windows processes. That was a huge part of Windows 8 and should help you understand this.
Think about how you turn your phone on or off. There's a physical button that does this. Android/iOS? Power is a physical button. If you think about it, the power on function has to be a physical button somewhere or somehow, since the ...
46
On clicking the save button in almost any application for the first time, you are asked where to save the file. If your application does not do this, it would be understandable that people are unsure as to whether it has worked or not.
My advice would be to grey out the icon and replace the icon with a spinner while the save operation is taking place. Even ...
33
I work in a video game studio. Everyone, from programmers to artists, uses two to three screens with multiple applications and/or windows:
programmers have a window with the source code, a window with the debugging information (registers, stack trace, debugging messages) and a window with the game running.
level designers have a window with the assets ...
31
Yes, people do really want to look at multiple windows/monitors/screens at once. For various reasons.
Working on a screen while monitoring something else,
security personnel monitoring multiple devices/networks/places,
stock trading,
flying an airplane (I guess a pilot needs the information available always, not through clicking and restoring ...
28
Undo
No, I don't think you should. Instead, you think re-think the whole idea. First of all: do you really, really need a popup dialog with a question like this? Wouldn't an easy to use, reliable Undo option be infinitely better? In that case, you can circumvent the whole Yes/No confirmation, and avoid context switches and generally getting into the users ...
25
As you've stated, it's important that the user is provided with feedback about the success / failure of the save operation.
One way that some business applications achieve this is by disabling the save button when the most recent version of a file has been safely saved to disk.
User clicks save.
File is saved.
Button is dimmed / non-clickable -> this ...
16
The guidelines for Windows 8 desktop applications are the same as for Windows 7.
That means that you'll find them here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa511440.aspx
Windows 8 has two separate UIs: Windows Store apps (formerly known as "Metro-style apps") and Desktop.
Windows Store apps is the new, future oriented touch UI. ...
14
As with so many questions regarding UX the answer starts with 'It depends'. This is because UX is inevitably based in context and action.
Some arguments for using a disabled state:
Even if not in use, the user has a chance to learn that the action is possible. You may even have a tooltip explaining the criteria for use.
The user can learn where controls ...
13
One possible solution is to progressively show more details as users select items and sub-items. The benefit is that the initial ui is still clean, while getting rid of extra panels and buttons.
You can still keep your initial page with the "configure" button, even though i would try to eliminate it, if possible.
Initial View
User Selects an Item
...
12
Yes, this is excellent practice. It can even improve the responsiveness of your application, because doing the actual search on every key press can cause delays in itself.
I have build a component (that we're using all over the place for this and similar purposes) that basically sets two times: a minimum time to wait for more input, and a maximum time from ...
10
What mouse acceleration essentially does is applies a sort of logarithmic scale to the distance moved per milisecond based on the speed you are moving at.
The general concept is that when you are moving the mouse faster, you are trying to move it to a point further away, so acceleration scaled the distance the pointer will move to be even more than you ...
10
I guess because there isn't really a reason to have it easily available. Laptops and tablets are usually sleeping or hibernating when not in use. To power off a desktop computer, you can just press the physical power button on the computer itself. This will signal Windows to close all active applications and shut down.
Actually, the power off function is ...
9
Two other features that are less intuitive in my opinion are:
the fact that you can no longer select several taskbar items with ctrl+click. On XP, that was the way I used to close multiple windows. And not only does this not work now, but it does the exact opposite of what it used to do, creating another instance of the ctrl+clicked app. I've been using ...
9
It's pretty infuriating to ever have to move a dialog box that appears over the related content that was of interest, so I tend to observe the following hierarchy of rules, but the gist is that the more specific the context, the closer the dialog should be positioned.
If the dialog is a context menu or similar to a context menu, position the top left at ...
9
For content consumption, it may not be that important since the user is going to be focused on the content they are consuming. This is why such an interface works well on content consumption devices like tablets. For actually getting work done however, it is frequently critical to have multiple windows open in parallel. Looking at my desktop right now, I ...
9
I don't have any studies for auto-complete in particular, but perceptible latency for a user interface is thought to be at 100 milliseconds. At that point, the user feels that they are in control and the interface is responsive.
With that in mind, there are a few factors you should consider.
How quickly will your query return on slow internet ...
8
The best way is to not force someone to use anything.
Keep a configuration file and allow your application's users to tailor keyboard shortcuts to their liking.
If you don't want to implement that however, go with standard conventions. For example, opening a new tab is usually Ctrl+T (DakotahNorth's right - Ctrl+N is standard for new window).
8
First of all, the KB article you cited is rather old. It's dated July 13, 2004. There have been 2 major Windows OS releases since then and one more has entered a public beta.
Secondly, it sounds like you have misunderstood the note in the KB article.
The use of a right-justified Help menu in an application is not the recommended style for creating ...
8
If you have two groups of tabs, users may think they can only select one, regardless of where you place them. In general, we are familiar with the perception of only having one tab selected. I would suggest a similar approach as mentioned in another answer but with radio buttons rather than checkboxes as I believe you only want the user to select one "mode".
...
8
First of all, we have been able to combine windows into one taskbar item since Windows XP, but by default it would happen only when there was no space left. Windows 7 started combining application instances from the get-go. In addition, XP & Vista taskbars would show the number of windows combined under one button:
In Windows 7 & 8, taskbar ...
7
Windows 7
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511258.aspx
Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/System/platform/pcdesign/XPguidelines.mspx
7
Duplication isn't bad, in fact its very useful. Some people like to search, others navigate. Some use buttons to cut out text, other right-click and experienced users use ctrl + X. Duplication to cater for different user needs and should, in my humble opinion, be used.
But if you should make a user think, depends on the application. If it's an adventure ...
7
Some laptops don't have a dedicated numeric keypad. Some of these laptops activate the function-key numbers when num-lock is activated. And thus lots of users writes "He336 W6r3d" instead of "Hello world" And if this is entered during logon, they only see "*****" ;-)
7
Even if a user is an expert, Fitts' law applies. Fitts' law doesn't refer to finding/identifying the target so much as how long it takes to hit it. Even after a user has developed muscle and spatial memory for where to move the cursor, a larger target that's closer to the cursor is still going to be quicker to hit than a smaller one further away (if only ...
7
I think it depends on the context in which the dialog pops up.
Context 1: A standalone/independent action is performed ("Add item to favorites?"). In this case the yes/no -only options should be fine. It is a 'safe' situation, so there is no need for a 'cancel'.
Context 2: The action is part of a process, or will kick-start a process (imagine this to be a ...
7
I would hope that it is not controversial to say that multiple on-screen windows are extremely important or even essential for many computer tasks. For web-browsing tasks as well, especially with how many tasks can now be performed via a web browser, there are certainly many cases where seeing multiple browser windows at once is important to the user.
But ...
7
I am always amazed at people who think their way of using a computer is the only way there is. Having several windows side by side can be useful and productive. And in some user cases, it's not only "nice", it's vital.
proofreading a translation: Source on one side, translation on the other. Working with one window at a time is unworkable.
Programming: ...
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