Questions tagged [conventions]
widely accepted and understood ways of presenting information and interaction opportunities in a UI.
136
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2
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2
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Why are dark themes uncommon in e-commerce? [closed]
Most websites I come across either use a dark theme by default or have the option to switch to a dark theme. The main exception to this I have found is e-commerce.
All major e-commerce platforms (...
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votes
1
answer
43
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Keyboard shortcut convention for properties panel
We're designing for a B2B web based application (not mobile) where we have a panel on the right side of the screen showing details about a selection made in the main content area.
The panel can be ...
- 2,268
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vote
1
answer
46
views
Position/order for "Low", "Medium", "High" options
Is there any convention about positions/order to display options buttons/radio- buttons/checkboxes for values as:
"Very low","Low", "Medium", "High", "Very ...
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3
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141
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When exporting data, is it alright if we don't show the data?
my question may be rather confusing without the context, please allow me to explain and I will really appreciate it if you will give me your suggestions and insights :)
I'm currently designing a part ...
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1
answer
54
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What is the standard for the text alignment for Text Styles in a Design System?
What is the standard for Design System Text Styles alignment?
Figma defaults to align top.
What are the advantages / disadvantages of using Align Top / Align Center / Align Right when designs get ...
- 195
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votes
2
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798
views
Form alignment left side to right side
I am very new to UX and I find my form to be sloppy.
Is it an alignment problem? Should I align the text on the right side with the text in the left side of the form? For example: should I align " ...
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vote
3
answers
2k
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color for download and upload
Besides the down or up arrow, is there a convention of colors to distinguish between download and upload.
I have two buttons like these
and these too
But I feel that there's not enough visual ...
- 355
2
votes
1
answer
96
views
What do you typically use to launch a drawer component?
Outside of a hamburger menu, which is conventionally expected to open a drawer, is there another common treatment for initiating a drawer component on a page? A button? A link? Something else? Is ...
-1
votes
1
answer
130
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What is the name of this 'alignment' UI element? [closed]
I'm trying to convince a team that they should use this 'alignment thingy' in their drawing software.
What is this called? You can find it for example in Adobe Illustrator.
- 283
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0
answers
60
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why are outgoing text message bubbles colorful? [duplicate]
Why are speech bubbles either blue or green for outgoing messages and not for incoming messages?
For example, in whatsapp, the outgoing messages are green. In iMessage, they are blue. I don't think ...
- 483
1
vote
2
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456
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Syntax highlighting color conventions
I am about to design a (light) syntax highlighting color theme. Are there any conventions (apart from accessibility) I should take in account.
Comments quite often appear in a bright grey for ...
- 35
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vote
1
answer
64
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Are periods after numbers of a list an international convention?
In English this is pretty standard:
The first thing
The second thing
The third thing
Are these periods an international convention? For example:
最初のもの
二つ目のこと
三つ目のこと
This question assumes Arabic ...
- 147
1
vote
1
answer
98
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Best Practice for indicating part of a week textually (specifically contiguous days)
I realise I'm probably splitting hairs here, but I feel like there should be some sort of convention or best practice for this situation, but I haven't been able to find anything online, and I can't ...
- 111
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1
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108
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Why is the background of common motion capture systems black?
Popular commercial MoCap systems (Vicon, Motive, etc.) tend to have black backgrounds for their workspace environment. Is there any non-trivial reason for this convention?
I'm currently working on a ...
- 113
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6
answers
153
views
What is the proper name for "catastrophe style" blocks of content?
We're building a layout for a big newspaper with lots of customizable content blocks for different needs. One of the requests is what they call "Catastrophe Block": a special block that will show up ...
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1
vote
1
answer
68
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Food menu legend consistency
Should a food menu legend have "Gluten Free" and "Contains Nuts" or would it be better to be consistent with "Gluten Free" and "Nut Free" or even "Contains Gluten" and "Contains Nuts."
Each of the ...
- 147
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1
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222
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Typical mouse hover position - left or right side of the screen?
I'm curious if anyone knows what the typical mouse hover position is for a user browsing the web? I believe it's the right side of the screen, for proximity with scrollbars (and because that's where ...
- 101
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votes
2
answers
1k
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Noun or Verb for Title?
If I have a page or window that allows the user to manage something, for example a subscription, should the title be "Manage subscription" or "Subscription management?" Which word order gives the best ...
- 131
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0
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51
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Microsoft Office Plugin Enabled/Disabled Indicator?
I want to design a plugin (addin) for Microsoft Office, where I want people to use it while writing emails via Outlook. Also, I want to use my brand colors (flexible, not a major constraint).
The ...
- 23
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2
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565
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Checkboxes, Radio Buttons, and Mobile Development
I am currently working on an iOS app where the user interface should allow them to pick 1 of 2 options. One and only one option must be selected. My boss feels very passionately that this should be in ...
- 133
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2
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81
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How to order years in select box
In the enterprise software I help build, we have a date-picker with years in a normal select element. I've gotten the question to revert the way the years are displayed so they are displayed from high ...
- 9,334
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1
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90
views
Should state be indicated by its control or should control and state be separate in the UI?
I am developing a UI that controls various hardware components like lights, appliances, and such. The hardware sends notifications when its state changes. The UI receives a live stream of the state ...
- 121
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votes
1
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98
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Conveying another user's vision impairment
I'm developing a serious game for collecting behavioral data and I need to convey to each player some status information about the other players in the game. One piece of information I wish to convey ...
- 141
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2
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493
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Choosing the right background color (Contrast issues)
I interesting issue over here.
I'm designing a "photo editor" app. I have already choose my primary color.
Issue:
I'm trying to understand what is the best way to choose "smart" background color ...
- 889
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13
answers
13k
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Asterisk * is used for required. Is there any symbol used for optional?
It is common the use of asterisk (*) to indicate required elements. I understand the use of explicit text is better than relying on symbols. So writing "required" or "optional" is more understandable ...
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4
votes
6
answers
7k
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Were we mistaken about rounded corners being better UX?
I am learning HTML and CSS, discovering that browsers implemented rounded corners and shadows using CSS... just about the time that UI went to "flat / sharp corners" without shadows, etc. It seems sad ...
user67695
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3
answers
511
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Naming convention for attributes/functions/menus
In programming there are ex. PascalCase and CamelCase and more conventions.
In the SIGCHI Conference Proceedings Format subsections and sub-subsections starts with initial letters capitalized, but a ...
- 63
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2
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275
views
Should page titles be consistent?
I'm facing a consistency problem on my current project. The name of the same page differs from place to place.
For example, a page with the calendar events has title My events, a sidebar menu link ...
- 1,661
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vote
1
answer
483
views
Which is the most common symbol or abbreviation for the word "number"?
I'm fully aware of the numero sign (it's the default way in my language), but in English I have seen the numero sign, number sign, the no, num and numb. abbreviations and so on.
For example, the ...
- 33.9k
2
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3
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159
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Is there a convention for hinting at a row item's age or staleness?
Are there any accepted conventions anyone can think of for showing the age or staleness of a particular row in a set of results on a web page?
I'm looking for some visual way to identify how long ...
- 121
3
votes
1
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377
views
Best place to display filter button in mobile
I'm currently designing a screen for mobile with a navigation bar and a filter button. However, I'm at a loss about what the best placement for the filter button is.
This is my current screen:
...
- 133
4
votes
2
answers
185
views
Interface requirements for both left-to-right and right-to-left reading
Most interfaces, gestures and UI patterns are based on reading from left to right (sinistrodextral).
Swiping to the right to go back is based on making the same motion with your finger if you want to ...
- 2,600
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3
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287
views
Folder naming standard for storing app backup data on user's personal cloud?
A lot of web/mobile apps can store backups on your personal cloud storage ( Dropbox, Google drive, ... ).
It's usually done by by creating a folder and storing the files that are needed for the app ...
- 113
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720
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Naming convention for "admin" UI and "public facing" UI
I have a social network kind of app that has two dramatically different interfaces:
The admin part, where the owner administers the account
The public facing part, what all users sees
I need to name ...
- 175
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votes
8
answers
2k
views
Mail icon, is the envelope icon dead?
The question Save icon, is the floppy disk icon dead? made me think about another icon.
As the number of mailed letters drops from year to year, I wondered if the icon just can't be associated with ...
- 198
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1k
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Android design with two-tier (primary and secondary) navigation
I need a way to include tabbed primary navigation (i.e. facebook)
with one of those primary tabs having 2 states (secondary nav/tabs).
My 3 ideas are as follows:
stack them (eeek!)
Make a dropdown (...
9
votes
4
answers
923
views
Design for Application consistency or follow OS convention?
When we design applications to be used in the new world of cross channeling, we need to take into account a lot of different factors. Not only do we need to address in which environment the app is ...
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2
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815
views
What is a suitable naming convention for a series of product image views?
I would like help with a naming convention for product images. The images are currently given names like 'widget - front left 2.jpg' and so on. These are not user friendly!
In this instance the UX is ...
- 304
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votes
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89
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Hourly Time Brackets Notation
I'm designing a table where the columns represent time in hourly brackets. My question is whether there is a convention for the notation.
Do you think option A is self explanatory that the bracket '...
- 2,268
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votes
1
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162
views
Is there a mail sent confirmation standard?
Is there a standard UX best practice for displaying a message to the user informing them that the email was successfully sent via a form?
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1
answer
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Where does this convention come from? Green = right, red = wrong
Red indicates that something is wrong and requires attention/fixing. green indicates success. Where does this convention come from? I can think of traffic lights, but that's it.
example:
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2
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Which is the best way to display "Favorites" in a mobile app?
Which is the general practice to display a "Favorites" button in mobile apps? Should I should use a row in a list of options or a button in a fixed bar that is always displayed throughout the app?
...
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286
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Is the purpose of these buttons conflicting?
My users are to pick out a view of data for tables and graphs through a button panel, but I suspect this one button might be too confusing.
Now, actually using the control panel feels very easy, and ...
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6
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Should a 'delete image' button be on the top-left or top-right?
I am working on an application that allows status updates related to the application. It is very similar to posting a Facebook status so I have been using a similar layout to their posting screen.
...
- 157
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votes
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327
views
Keyboard shortcuts and navigation in complex widget
I have this widget which will be widely used. It takes quite a few click to perform a relatively small action.
Thus, I've decided to implement keyboard navigation, but I'm having trouble laying it ...
- 207
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3
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4k
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Why is == the standard equality operator? [closed]
In all the programming languages I have ever used, the comparator for testing a mathematical equivalence is ==. For example, in python:
if 7 == 8 - 1:
Why are all, as far as I am aware, programming ...
- 246
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What are conventions for keyboard shortcuts in Windows and OSX?
Keyboard shortcuts in Windows appear to follow some sort of convention based on the modifier key, but I can't figure out precisely what it is. Here is my current best guess:
Ctrl-* often does a ...
7
votes
1
answer
5k
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How to Display Occasional Announcements on a Website?
I’d like to add an announcement banner or an element with the same functionality (e.g. alert, button) to a website to notify users about an upcoming survey. It should contain a call for participation, ...
- 451
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votes
1
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174
views
What is the best way to visually indicate correct plug alignment with socket (hardware)?
I currently have a problem where users are not correctly aligning a plug with a socket on an electrical device, leading to the plug being forced and the pins breaking.
Users have suggested putting a ...
- 221
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votes
4
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334
views
Any downsides of preferring wildcards *, ? over %, _?
In my database application I'm intending to give the users simple glob pattern search possibility besides standard search of text literal. (Let's not mention other search options to keep this question ...
- 1,737