Questions tagged [efficiency]
the extent to which time or effort is well used for the intended task or purpose
50 questions
167
votes
12
answers
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Why do idle elevators close the doors?
If the elevator stops on a floor, opens the doors to let the passengers out, and hasn't received a command to go on another floor, why does it close its doors afterwards?
If the elevator is not on my ...
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60
votes
7
answers
71k
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What should be the default option of a required dropdown list?
Given that there is no logically default animal from the list of animals below, what should be the "Default Value" below, according to best practice?
<label for="animal">Animal (required):</...
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52
votes
16
answers
13k
views
Computer login with password only, without username
I have an idea to simplify the login screen on things like home computers with a small number of users (say, 2-10) with passwords.
Today, a typical home computer's login screen has three steps:
...
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21
votes
7
answers
32k
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Should we ask for name on card even though it's not required for credit card payments?
The name on card is not used when processing credit card payments. Paypal does not ask the user to enter the name on card when saving a card to the "wallet", while Amazon.com does.
The benefit of ...
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19
votes
5
answers
762
views
Will faster GUI always make one more efficient?
Are there any studies on whether one will actually get more done during a days work if delays went down i. e. from 10 ms to 5 ms for each update. My point is that if we are already working at the ...
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14
votes
4
answers
3k
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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?
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14
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3
answers
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Elevator dispatch algorithm choice
We have a single elevator servicing an 8 level residential building. What might be the optimal elevator positioning algorithm to optimize user experience (primarily, wait time)?
I was thinking ...
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13
votes
8
answers
2k
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How many UX designers does it take to NOT spoil a design?
Is there a rule of thumb for how many UX designers should be working together on a project? Factoring in things like the size of the project (e.g. number of functions/screens), timeline of the project,...
- 27.7k
11
votes
4
answers
3k
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Why most websites don't use keyboard shortcuts?
I was wondering that why websites don't use keyboard shortcuts as often as desktop software tends to.
I really like keyboard shortcuts in software, they makes me work more efficiently. But why don't ...
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10
votes
2
answers
4k
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Whats is the best UI interface for permission?
I would like to know what is the best user interface to represent Multi-group inheritance permission.
I am not sure the treeview is the best way to show permission. What should be the best UI ?
...
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9
votes
6
answers
5k
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How could petrol forecourts be designed to improve efficiency?
I am always shocked when I go to a petrol station. The layout- in the UK, at least- seems to be fairly standard. But it always seems to me to be incredibly inefficient.
These are the issues:
When ...
- 3,064
9
votes
3
answers
3k
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Justification of petrol station design [closed]
Would appreciate help on this issue. We plan to reconstruct our old petrol station. At present, it has one single row of pumps, so all cars have to move in queue or bypass each other.
New design will ...
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9
votes
2
answers
4k
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Emerging conventions for keyboard shortcuts within web applications
Scott Hanselman recently wrote an article titled "The Web is the new Terminal: Are you using the Web's Keyboard Shortcuts and Hotkeys" in which he notes emerging conventions on major sites (Gmail, ...
- 6,314
7
votes
4
answers
3k
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Form input types for fast data-entry?
So, I have a form for doing data entry where there is a list of items which have three fields. The first two fields of each item are multiple-choice from five options, the third field is a simple ...
- 9,361
7
votes
3
answers
938
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Are there applications or methods for comfortable coding on touch screen devices? [closed]
Coding usually involves a lot of typing, but on touch screen devices too much typing is quite tedious.
Some of that typing could be replaced by autocompletion or autogeneration of code and therefore ...
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6
votes
3
answers
7k
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Why do some elevators have a single call button and others two?
It seems like it would be optimal to have two call buttons (up/down) on an elevator instead of one because I could hop on an elevator headed in the same direction that I want to go versus having to ...
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6
votes
3
answers
232
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Expert usability
I am struggling with a project and am reminded of a lecture at university that plotted two applications with differing rates of 'learnability' and 'expert usability' against each other:
a) Harder to ...
dave
5
votes
3
answers
922
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Can icons improve readability on a navigation?
Our app has many tools and we have a navigation of about 10 tabs. Tabs can be re-arranged and this forces the user to find them by reading the label. Would icons make it more usable?
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5
votes
5
answers
5k
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Which UI is more user-friendly and effective: Tabs or Collapsible Panels?
Not sure if the collapsible panels have a different name but I have seen them referred to as rollouts. I have used many applications that use one or the other or both, but I am wondering if there are ...
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5
votes
3
answers
305
views
Why not default a user's view to the middle of a sorted list?
Is there a compelling reason (besides convention) why a user's typical default view of a long sorted list is always the beginning of the list and not the middle? Assuming a random distribution of ...
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5
votes
2
answers
253
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Wouldn't it be more efficient to disable elements in inactive windows?
In most operating systems, there is a major distinction between:
interactions which are available only when the element is in focus (for example typing in order to write a text in a text field) and:
...
- 3,744
5
votes
1
answer
728
views
Long repetitive form or many small forms
I'm building an internal web app for my company. We're a commercial printing company - I'll try and explain our situation without getting into the confusing details of the printing industry...
The ...
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5
votes
2
answers
106
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What might be the most intuitive positioning for a "Hide Page" CTA?
Admittedly this is a rare scenario, but there are some instances where providing the user with a quick method for hiding a page or navigating elsewhere is needed.
The typical scenario being a non-...
- 1,517
5
votes
2
answers
165
views
How to visually indicate which pieces of information have changed
I work on a warehouse hand-scanner based GUI. It tells a user where to go, and which item to collect when they get there. When they scan the correct item, the screen changes, and indicates the next ...
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4
votes
1
answer
4k
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(When/How often/Where) should I show my admob insterstitial ads? [closed]
I am developing an Android app about jokes, this is a simple schema about it:
I want to implement admob interstitial ads and I would like to know about the best way to do it. For example:
Where are ...
4
votes
3
answers
870
views
Design for rapid time entry on web and mobile
What is the most efficient way for users to enter a hh:mm time in a web interface and a mobile interface? In this case users would be entering time more than 40 x per hour.
Context:
This is for ...
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3
votes
3
answers
2k
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How Many Clicks for Given Action?
I am designing a web app in which people can come in and rate "objects" and comment on them. I know that the easier it is for the user to perform the main activities the better, but I was wondering if ...
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3
votes
3
answers
359
views
How much time is lost by waiting for GUI?
After asking the question Will faster GUI always make one more efficient?, I understood that there is a lower limit to the amount of time lost due to the GUI not responding. My interpretation of the ...
- 415
3
votes
2
answers
351
views
The value of bloat [closed]
I'm not really sure if this is the best place to ask this question.
In this article, Joel Spolsky argues a case for feature bloat. In summary: the total userbase requires all the features, and if you ...
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3
votes
1
answer
255
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UX in an iterative software development life cycle process?
I am aware about the iterative model of software development life cycles. However, I have been Googling around and trying to find out more about various of tools that can be used in a software ...
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3
votes
3
answers
178
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Validate user experience for expert users
I am a computer scientist, and I have contributed in building a strongly technical solution (cloud-based, scalable) for the computation of large data volumes in short time. Such platform offers ...
- 171
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Are sliders inefficient controls for desktop applications?
I always thought sliders weren't as optimal for numerical parameters. You not only have to look where the parameter is, but also where the slider is and ensure you are clicking exactly there to make ...
- 567
3
votes
3
answers
185
views
Do people know how to use what Wordpress calls "Shortcodes"?
For example, when posting to a blog via email, the user can enter [tags x,y,z] to add tags via email. How "technical" does that feel to the average user?
Reference: http://en.support.wordpress.com/...
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3
votes
2
answers
146
views
Functionality of a form that receives bids for an item. What's best?
I have a form that receives bids for items. It is shown below:
Image of the form http://yanma.com.ar/bid-taker-form.gif
In green you can see the price for the current winner bid, below, the minimum ...
3
votes
2
answers
115
views
How to manage many level navigation before the main operation
I am designing web application which needs 4 levels to manage the flow charts which is the main purpose of the application .
The structure is something like this:
Company names - folder
...
- 590
2
votes
2
answers
117
views
Effect of an image avatar on user's work with comments
I am searching for some study about what is an effect of avatar images in discussion. It is definitely true, that comment with avatar image is better for user's recognition and orientation inside many ...
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2
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Why don't elevators automatically go to the ground floor after being idle for some time?
I work in a regular 10-story office building with 4 elevators. Every morning I notice a situation where all 4 elevators happily sit on one of the topmost floors until someone pushes the button from ...
- 312
2
votes
4
answers
4k
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Using mixed radio and checkbox buttons - is there any efficiency or usability gain in the design?
I have noticed that many online forms and surveys these days are starting to use a mixture of radio and checkbox buttons for the same question, that is, for a question that gives the person a number ...
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1
vote
3
answers
1k
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How can I display a tri-state button that displays the current state?
Ideally it would allow for a one-click change from any one state to any other state.
Currently, I have a button that displays the current state. When you click on it, it just cycles through all the ...
- 3,264
1
vote
3
answers
238
views
Menu item and widget redundancy
What are current best practices regarding the idea of having both a menu item as well as widget--I'm thinking of a button with an icon on it, but it could be any graphical element that you could ...
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1
vote
3
answers
2k
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How to calculate user interface's efficiency time
I'm making a user study. Users had to perform the same task 10 times. I've recorded the completion times of each task. How could I calculate the UI's efficiency based on this data? Does anyone know ...
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1
vote
1
answer
286
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Efficient vs Elegant design
I'm currently weighing up a variation of designs for the same task, there are two standout designs, let's call them 'Design A' and 'Design B', however they are both quite different.
Design A is ...
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1
vote
3
answers
288
views
What's the most efficient way to allow users to add items to a set?
The context for this question is a web application. Let's say we've got 400-500 widgets. Users can create an unlimited number of sets to group related widgets in ways that make sense to them. Each set ...
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1
vote
2
answers
158
views
How to associate two objects with each other with minimal user effort?
Imagine you have a list of items that you want to categorize, or in some way associate with another piece of data.
For example, you have a list of items, and you would like to have them associated ...
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1
vote
1
answer
239
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Should Keyboard and Mouse stay next to each other? [closed]
I am looking for some recommendations / papers that claim that a keyboard and a mouse should be placed next to each other.
What about a case where the mouse is a used as an input device and the ...
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0
votes
2
answers
91
views
Does site structure affects sales?
I work at an e-commerce company which sells replacement parts, we carry thousands of products which fall into several categories & subcategories and at the same time, fit different brand, model ...
- 103
0
votes
4
answers
278
views
Dealing with big amounts of editable fields
We've built an excel spreadsheet importer for our ERP system, which parses company data from the uploaded XLS files. This tool should help the user enter long lists of companies and is a more ...
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0
votes
1
answer
69
views
MultiTouch TouchPad versus Mouse - which is more powerful? [closed]
There are old questions here from the 2012 era before MultiTouch became popular in both TouchScreens and TouchPads. Users tend to forget that using more than one finger is where the power comes in. ...
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0
votes
2
answers
116
views
What is a good way to design a selector menu for different product lines?
How can I create user experience that lets user pick a product group?
Currently I have something like this but it strikes me as cumbersome.
download bmml source – Wireframes created with ...
- 287
0
votes
2
answers
110
views
Form Layout Efficiency if options to questions are all the same
Let me preface by saying that yes, I intend on doing usability testing with actual users.
I am redesigning the UI for my company's product. On a particular form, the layout is currently:
However, ...
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