69
votes
For a command to increase something, should instructions refer to the "+" key or the "=" key?
Uhm, sorry. You refer to a =/+ key. But there is none on my keyboard.
I think you should add a locale tag, and make sure your users only work within that locale.
- 2,078
31
votes
Accepted
For a command to increase something, should instructions refer to the "+" key or the "=" key?
Based on conventions elsewhere, it is probably best to refer to it as the plus or + key.
The +/- dichotomy is used in other apps and more likely to be encountered by your users before they use yours ...
- 8,888
8
votes
Should I use the name "Enter" or "Return" key?
Return and Enter are different keys. Return often found as the main key, and Enter for the numeric key.
Few software makes a difference between these. In Adobe Photoshop while editing text, Return ...
- 189
7
votes
For a command to increase something, should instructions refer to the "+" key or the "=" key?
If your software does not already map the + to a function, then just use both for this purpose, and only document the + in order to keep the established, familiar dichotomy. This is a great example of ...
- 687
5
votes
Should I use the name "Enter" or "Return" key?
The Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) of the operating system of your program might give you a hint or the answer. There are HIG for Windows, macOS, Android and some more. For Linux things are a bit ...
- 345
5
votes
How should I demonstrate a choice between two options in step-by-step instructions?
"On the computer, go to the employee website. Click the button that best describes you and the computer you're using:"
On screen:
- 6,306
5
votes
How do you describe "animation effects" in your Interaction Design? And in which phase do you do this?
I would call this affordance.
Affordances provide strong clues to the operation of things. Good affordances in UIs usually leverage our knowledge of the physical world, and how we interact with ...
- 12.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Should an API documentation include When-to-use and when-not-to-use list?
I definitely agree that documentation should contain the extra information that you suggest, but at the same time that is hard to get right, boring to do and takes effort.
John Resig (creator of ...
- 7,228
4
votes
Annotating wireframes in sketch - how do you do it?
Assuming this is for dev handover/client engagement. There are a couple of things you can do here that I do/have done:
Look into software:
Zeplin is great for this as it automatically numbers ...
- 2,674
4
votes
Accepted
Usability or Accessibility
Yes, there are many details that go into anyone accessing something, but as most often used in UX, accessibility refers to a person with a disability having equivalent access to that of a person ...
- 303
3
votes
What should I call these navigation buttons?
Why not show the user what buttons you're talking about in the documentation itself?
Using the terminology @AndrewMartin suggested, you could include this simple reference image so that you can ...
- 19.5k
3
votes
User Manual vs How-to guide?
I'm not sure about common practice for this area, but the main thing that jars with me about this solution is that you are repeating the same type of content twice, and splitting it. If it's the same ...
- 426
3
votes
User manual with screenshots for mobile devices?
Some thoughts:
A manual is alright but try to see if you can rely better on in-app hints. Check Material design Onboarding, Feature discovery and Gesture education.
-
(..) serving whichever ...
- 16.8k
3
votes
Should I use the name "Enter" or "Return" key?
Expanding slightly on Evil Closet Monkey's answer, the key on the right of Apple keyboards is unambiguously the return key. Some older Apple keyboards, and the current Apple Keyboard with Numeric ...
- 131
3
votes
How should I demonstrate a choice between two options in step-by-step instructions?
If you're going to do this as text instructions, be fully grammatical about it. Here's how I'd revise your text:
Visit the course-management site: http://example.com
Pick the appropriate option, ...
- 291
3
votes
What's worse: no user guide or a useless user guide?
I'd say you're better off with no guide--and a good intuitive solution--than crappy guides. In fact, to the extent that you can build guidance into the design, you should. I recently shot a brief ...
- 291
3
votes
Should a SaaS Documentation portal be personalized?
Yes indeed. This is known as the Principle of Intentionality. You can learn about it in a psychology oriented article A Principle of Intentionality, and the UX-focused article Intentionality in User ...
- 37.3k
2
votes
How to document user interviews
Typical user interviews have two aspects:
Documentation for conducting the research :
This includes, at minimum the Interview Discussion Guide, Consent form, Screener questionnaire and Compensation ...
- 51
2
votes
Normative ordering for modifier key combinations
I'd say it's CTRL, SHIFT, ALT.
Looking at the link @Marielle posted, I see no evidence for CTRL, ALT, SHIFT. Did I overlook something or did the docs change since the answer was posted in 2014?
...
- 121
2
votes
Accepted
Is it okay to have a random "notes" section in your documentation?
If you had infinite time, it'd be better to write these notes up in an organized way with section headers and maybe an FAQ style table of contents at the top.
But you may not have the time, or it ...
- 40.9k
2
votes
Is video more effective than traditional text help?
My experience, in writing up much documentation and creating video content, is it depends. Some things require no more than a basic list of text instructions. Others are more nuanced and require video ...
- 2,788
2
votes
Accepted
How to write a perfect style guide
A style guide usually contains a list of design patterns which are used by your brand, product, application.
A Design Pattern:
A design pattern usually accompanied by the following information
A ...
- 1,813
2
votes
How to write a perfect style guide
You don't have to build this from scratch. there are many customisable style guide generators. bootstrap and foundation are 2 of them.
here's some examples of styleguides done by various companies
...
- 10.6k
2
votes
UX/UI Documentation
In my experience, the best set of UX docs is
Job stories
Wireframes / mocks
A prototype or flow diagram (or both)
The old days of writing a novel about the experience variations and meticulous ...
- 21.3k
2
votes
User experience and Agile Modeling
What is being referred to here is perhaps a role called System Designer.
Systems design is the process of defining the architecture, modules, interfaces, and data for a system to satisfy specified ...
- 3,196
2
votes
Accepted
Screen shot of all google.com oneboxes
Found it. It was taco, not pizza. Thumbnail below, go to the original article for full resolution.
- 400
2
votes
What's the best way to refer to a context menu in documentation?
I think that the best is to call the context menu by its name. Not only this is the correct term, but it's also self-explanatory.
Your documentation should make sure at the very beginning that the ...
- 703
2
votes
Accepted
What's the best way to refer to a context menu in documentation?
In an online or in-app documentation, it is possible to detect the OS and to tailor the message for the right OS.
Though it might be wise to display a manual switch of the target OS if a user might ...
- 1,826
2
votes
Accepted
What is the main difference in between a UI KIT and a Styleguide?
Does the difference in between them lies in that the styleguide includes design guidelines and best practices and the UI KIT is just showing the different components and their behaviors?
Pretty much ...
- 32.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible