57
votes
Accepted
Why is the file icon usually folded from the right corner?
The original, by Norm Cox, had the dog ear in the bottom left. This was made for Xerox Star system, and it was a bit of an odd choice since typically, in a book, the dog ear is in the top right corner*...
- 1,576
55
votes
Accepted
Should I show the max. allowed file size in an upload form?
Echoing the others, yes, don't make your users guess.
Not showing them what they're allowed to do with their form is akin to, for example, providing a single text field input with the label Contact: ...
- 5,995
28
votes
Should I show the max. allowed file size in an upload form?
No, not at first. Most of your users are going to upload files smaller than 128M anyway and won't care about the limit. Don't show useless information to them. Don't make them think. I am sure your UI ...
- 425
26
votes
Why is the file icon usually folded from the right corner?
This is an assumption but many people use to curl a page in a book to set it as a bookmark.
As the left area is stitched you are left with the top right corner and bottom right corner and it is more ...
- 4,568
9
votes
Why is the file icon usually folded from the right corner?
History
This goes back to a time before screens and icons. The fold was used to hold pages together before paperclips were invented. At least I read this somewhere but unfortunately can't find the ...
- 2,368
9
votes
Why is the file icon usually folded from the right corner?
I think the skeuomorphic position of the "paper fold" is not the issue. The difference between the four positions is too minor. The skeuomorphic meaning of the different fold positions is so close ...
- 5,391
9
votes
How to display Timestamps which are unambiguous?
Use the ISO format for combined date and time values.
It's best to stick to the standards, especially when dealing with dates.
The above linked Wikipedia article states (emphasis mine):
A single ...
- 19.5k
8
votes
Should I show the max. allowed file size in an upload form?
I don't think you should show or accept 128 MB files via an upload form unless you're pretty sure your user have good speed. Even on 10mbps, 128mb file is 2 minutes of upload: it's a rather long ...
- 1,763
8
votes
Why is the file icon usually folded from the right corner?
If you are reading a book and go to turn the page to the next one, which corner do you normally grab?
In Western, left-to-right-reading countries (and, for better or worse, a lot of things in tech ...
- 438
6
votes
Why is the file icon usually folded from the right corner?
I see some similar answers to mine but have a bit different perspective.
While making the symbols, to make it easy to understand the makers want it to be easily understandable. So if you see a file ...
- 161
6
votes
Why is the file icon usually folded from the right corner?
Here is a typical letter or page of a book:
Heading 1
Dear Mr. Lorem Ipsum
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,
sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore
magna ...
- 2,128
5
votes
The universal empty state message
Earlier when I dealt with empty states, I always had the need to be witty about it, but that turned out to be less than effective, as it could annoy the user if they were frustrated with that empty ...
- 171
4
votes
How to deal with files in use?
Would you like to be interrupted while learning?
If someone is using the file it will not be a good user experience to immediately stop his work because someone has deleted it. Maybe a student is ...
- 11.5k
4
votes
Why is the file icon usually folded from the right corner?
This is a guess/opinion, but I think it probably has to do with the majority of people being right handed, and therefore a folded corner makes more sense to be on the right hand side since it will ...
- 27.5k
4
votes
Why is the file icon usually folded from the right corner?
Why a triangle/notch?
A blank sheet of paper holds no content. It's orientation does not matter.
A not-blank sheet of paper does hold content. And you do need to worry about its orientation to ...
4
votes
What file enforcement should be set on file upload for best user experience?
If your application has limitations to file sizes and formats, then yes these should be conveyed to the users so that they can have a successful image upload.
Generally accepted formats are JPG and ...
- 3,276
4
votes
How do you display long file paths in a web app?
a/../d
may be a good option for this. When the user clicks on the breadcrumb, they will see the whole path (just like windows' finder.
- 51
3
votes
How to deal with files in use?
No notification is required as it doesn't interrupt the user.
Assume that you have shared a document such as DOC, RTF, XSLX, or simple text file, PDF, PNG, JPG, GIF, etc.
The other person (teacher) ...
- 970
3
votes
How do you make it obvious that the entire page is a drop zone?
You're essentially dealing with the same problem that email applications have had for years. Gmail does a good job in handling this as soon as you try to drag an attachment over a new email. A ...
- 68.6k
2
votes
What is the standard design pattern for file sharing?
To answer the specific questions:
Install the corresponding desktop clients (DropBox, Google Drive) and save the file into the local instances of the folder. Then follow either step below.
Send the ...
- 3,858
2
votes
Force a PDF download vs allowing the user to view in browser first
I am a UX designer dealing with this issue. Our problem is that we have many fillable PDF forms on our site, and our users click on the form link and fill details out in the browser. Browsers don't ...
- 21
2
votes
Displaying duplicate files
There are several file duplicate finding and deleting apps available for both majors (PC and Mac). Get your hands on ALL of them, and try them all. This is the single most important thing to do when ...
- 2,278
2
votes
Standard or expected behaviour after file is added
Re: So what is the expected user behaviour (and UI interactions) when: there are multiple files to be added?
It appears to me, the standard behaviour (or most popular) is to UPLOAD each file, first. ...
- 1,257
2
votes
How to deal with files in use?
First, if it's a learning material all those who have access to the file should have an access to download the file on their local machine. So, irrespective of whether the author deletes the file or ...
- 16.2k
2
votes
UX guidelines for writing into log files?
One important thing about plaintext formatting is lining up columns. If you have values of a predictable maximum size like numbers that will never be more than 9 digits, or dates and times you should ...
- 2,033
2
votes
Best way to upload linked files
This is an unusual problem and, as such, I'm not sure if there is an precedent for these behaviours.
Automatic uploading of the files would be great in this case but it also comes with the concept ...
- 14.2k
2
votes
How to deal with files in use?
What Deeksgit said is true, files that are already opened in the browser or on your local machine won't be affected by file deletion once they are opened.
What you actually need to do is to ...
- 556
2
votes
Need ideas for a better bulk file uploader for multiple files
You can checkout Udemy's bulk upload feature for videos. There's not a lot of overlap specific to your use case, however you can take some ideas from it.
Some ideas -
Try to allow the user dump all ...
- 151
2
votes
Accepted
Searching through .rtf files in table grids
You can consider how Google Chrome behaves, when search term is within collapsed item. User is searching for "password", and Chrome displays a tooltip for the Sync collapsed section, where the search ...
- 22.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible