84
votes
Accepted
Does visual design really affect UX?
Don Norman's "Why we Love (or Hate) Everyday Things" opens with an account of a famous study on this, conducted by N. Tractinsky in 1999. He tested four different designs of an ATM machine, where each ...
- 30.3k
71
votes
Does visual design really affect UX?
Yes, visual design affects user experience
Here's a common meal with only one visual difference. It's enough to drive a dramatically different user experience:
There is more formal literature on ...
- 40.3k
49
votes
Accepted
Why are messages on the road printed in reverse?
You read as you approach.
Theoretically. In reality, levels of visual acuity mean that some people (like you and I) can read the whole block at once. Another reason that painting information on the ...
- 21.1k
23
votes
Does visual design really affect UX?
You could start by reading interaction-design.org's entry, by Noam Tractinsky, on visual aesthetics. Remember also to read Jeffrey Bardzell's comments on the entry.
Then you could check out Tractinsky'...
- 4,974
23
votes
Why are messages on the road printed in reverse?
In complete agreement with the other answers, but to provide an alternate viewpoint: If you were driving at night, your headlights will reveal the beginning of the sentence before the end.
- 331
17
votes
Does visual design really affect UX?
I agree with most of the points that have been made so far, so I'll just add one that hasn't been touched on yet.
One of the things often overlooked about visual design is the impact that it has on ...
- 576
15
votes
Does visual design really affect UX?
There were scientific studies in aviation, that show, that visual aesthetics of control dashboards in plane's cockpit affects effectiveness of flight operations.
So visually appealing design affects ...
- 2,637
8
votes
Accepted
Left-align or right-align a Call to Action button?
Best practice
You'll find a lot of info out there about CTA tests and theories. But you're not going to find a whole lot that tells you what to do with horizontal alignment. The reason is, it depends ...
- 21.1k
7
votes
How to add the feeling (perception) of complexity to an interface?
Don't try to add complexity.
I get that you believe the application should look and feel as smart as the backend solution, but adding elements for the sake of adding elements is not the way to go.
...
- 821
7
votes
Accepted
How can I make the message of this hero image clearer?
Your layout is making users think WAY to much
On the surface your layout follows a classic Z-pattern for the eye:
Z-patterns are commonly used and can be effective. But to communicate a single ...
- 40.3k
7
votes
What's the best button progressbar?
To avoid ambiguity I would go for something like this:
The benefits of doing this is that the user is given a clear message that something is going on and more importantly that they should not leave ...
- 5,619
5
votes
Why are messages on the road printed in reverse?
I have bad vision.
I can see well enough to drive, but if that message is more than a line or two, I won't be able to read the beginning of it before I've passed the end of it.
They're written ...
- 2,939
4
votes
Accepted
Is beauty universal for user interfaces?
Beauty is a very subjective concept, and as such, your engineers are correct, it's totally unique. So, by their own words, it's really weird that they know what other people wants! (note: I have NEVER,...
- 32.5k
4
votes
Are there any alternatives to using an asterisk (*) to indicate optional fields inside a form?
If you want to show to the user that a certain field is mandatory (not optional, must be filled in), go with the asterisk (*) at the end or beginning of the label. Consider using a prominent color (...
- 3,351
3
votes
Does visual design really affect UX?
Only can answer on point 2):
After 5 years of mobile UI design I can tell you function > design. Small screens ask detailed information where less is more. Colors however (visual design) can optimize ...
- 287
3
votes
Does visual design really affect UX?
User gets either comfortable or otherwise in a very short time frame - how user perceives is very important. Also, User forms an opinion based on previous experiences (that's one reason why part of ...
- 237
3
votes
Why are messages on the road printed in reverse?
It facilitates reading the text in moderate traffic.
If there are other vehicles on the road and you are following at a safe distance, you will read the closer text first as your view of the farther ...
- 8,848
3
votes
Accepted
Maintaining a high degree of user trust on System that selects the best recommendations of a product for the user
as far as I know trust is a multidimensional construct (covering the dimensions of competence, benevolence and integrity) and therefore quite hard to grasp. That could explain why I couldn’t find any ...
- 451
3
votes
What's the best button progressbar?
Regarding "Perceived Speed" - research shows that you should never start a progress bar at zero regardless of how long a process will take to complete.
Edit: this research is actually talking about a ...
- 15.8k
3
votes
Accepted
How to add the feeling (perception) of complexity to an interface?
You can write some intriguing labels with technical words under loading screens, progress bars or success messages.
This can convey the technical magic in a friendly way. For example "Advanced data ...
- 335
3
votes
Is beauty universal for user interfaces?
Do you feel beauty is "somewhat" universal for user interfaces, or totally unique for each viewer? If the former, how would you respond to someone who states the latter?
I'd say beauty is "somewhat" ...
- 11.5k
3
votes
How to facilitate the perception of the uniqueness?
So I would consider a bar that extends out as the uniqueness of the sha1 increases. So, as the user types their password they notice the bars that extend out from 2-4-6 bars(shown in the image below). ...
3
votes
Accepted
How would one define the scope of UX
As I never tire of saying, everything exists on a spectrum. There are no black and white scenarios in the real world. Everything affects the end user experience, but not all of it falls into the scope ...
- 70.7k
2
votes
How to balance navigation menu hovering lagginess and usability?
Don't solely rely on a delay!
As you have already experienced, there isn't really a good value that makes the delay technique exhibit good UX. For some users, this delay will be too short, and for ...
- 4,281
2
votes
Accepted
Using black for CTA
If the overall design can support black, then go for black!
But, just keep in mind that you have to provide the appropriate visual contrast to support it; especially by the use of whitespace, size ...
- 1,922
2
votes
Left-align or right-align a Call to Action button?
Let's start with why....
Your content is center-aligned today. So as users navigate down the page, they expect the next piece of content to be center-aligned.
Today you have a big green, center-...
- 40.3k
2
votes
Does visual design really affect UX?
I pointed this out in a comment, but there is an element of “answer” to it as well …
Fuzzy logic
Studies on how “visual” design effects user experience are hard to nail down. Even Don Norman’s great ...
- 21.1k
2
votes
How can I make the message of this hero image clearer?
To be honest, the emotion that communicates the picture, at least to me, is of an outrageously shocked angry person. This is something I discussed in another question: if you're going to use emotions, ...
- 32.5k
2
votes
Is beauty universal for user interfaces?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it is not uncommon for people to share similar values when it comes to beauty. Yet when you break it down into the different reasons why people find things ...
- 25.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible