135
Users are bad at asking for what they need and great at asking for what they want.
Anecdotal evidence from my own recent experience:
We have a department that asked for a button that would generate a PDF report about some data. A few months later they asked for the report in the form of a spreadsheet. A few months after that they asked for additional ...
120
If the user can type it then it should be allowed in their password.
Telling someone what they can and can't use in their password always feels wrong to the user. Passwords are currently the most universal way to authenticate. Preventing users from entering anything is, in essence, telling them who they can or can't be.
1. Any printable character that a ...
120
Here are two examples, one online and one offline
1. Train arrivals
Subway passengers frustrated with waiting for trains routinely ask for more trains on the track. For metropolitan transit agencies globally, this is obviously a very expensive request.
Analysis of passenger needs reveals that the uncertainty around the wait is as important as the ...
86
Don't overdo this. How can you distinguish the driver looking at the app vs. the front passenger looking at it? Location / movement will be identical.
Navigation systems warn upon start up, "Don't do this when driving." That should be enough.
I think some thinking is needed in this world. As it used to be back in the times of caves and leopards.
75
I would recommend against an auto-correct as domain name extensions are about to change drastically, to the point where an email ending with "sitename.anything" will be valid.
Consider an inline check, which means it doesn't cause the frustration of the usual
ENTRY > SUBMIT > ERROR MESSAGE > RE-ENTRY > SUBMIT
name@company.co
[!] Did you mean .com?
Asking ...
71
If you've seen The Simpsons episode "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou," you should remember what happened when Homer's half-brother gave him free reign over designing a car "for the average schmuck." The end result was expensive and looked ridiculous and didn't truly meet the user's needs, even though it had all the features he wanted.
If the company truly ...
59
This is perhaps perilously close to an off-topic icon discussion, but I think you could modify the arrow icons to make the outgoing versus incoming direction clearer. Essentially, you need to give context to the arrow:
I would continue to use colour as an additional clue.
47
Another alternative to consider is the initials of the user. This is done by the collaborative card site Trello, and many others.
So if your name was John Smith, you would see for example a gray square like you had for that first image, with the two centered letters 'JS'. A simple sans-serif and readable font like Helvetica would be great for that (you ...
41
Having worked on an iOS app like this previously, I'll just relay my experiences and some conclusions. Please note that all of these experiences are developing an iOS app which at the time more heavily sandboxed apps than Android apps. Know the platform you're developing for.
You can use GPS to determine if a person is moving, and that's about it. Using a ...
41
Let's start with an old one from the Ford's founder:
(Although there isn't actually any evidence Ford ever said it. Thanks to user Evil Closet Monkey for the disclaimer.)
The UX Designer View
Why is it important to know why they want what they think they want?:
Simply because as a UX designer you should be the one designing the best solution and in ...
39
You say that your target audience is professional drivers. A professional should know better than to operate the phone while driving. (And if they do violate that bit of common sense, they'd have the skill to still avoid a crash.)
Instruct the user on startup to not operate while driving, and then trust the human element to not be stupid. The universe will ...
38
Based on work by Sam Ham with the Galapagos Conservation Fund and elsewhere, and my own unjustified opinion, I'd estimate that you'd take more money from suggested amounts rather than a pick-your-own-amount field.
However, it sounds like they're trying to protect the reputation they believe they have with the ticket buyer. They may assume, probably ...
37
In the team I am on, our idea on the matter is as follows:
Continue is used when you're talking about a directed flow forward only. Continue implies that anything you've done hitherto will be saved, so that you can move forward in the workflow. Ideally in a Continue-based setup, there will be alternate ways to return to previous app states, if your design ...
36
Phonewords
Phonewords are mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number.2 In many countries, the digits on the telephone keypad also have letters assigned. By replacing the digits of a telephone number with the corresponding letters, it is sometimes possible to form a whole or partial word, an acronym, abbreviation, or some ...
35
If a site requires that passwords only contain certain character codes, then a user will be able to enter the password into almost any device which is capable of producing those characters. If the password contains character codes which may be entered on some devices but not on others, then a user who creates a password on a device which could enter the ...
33
Rather than the other answers that just express personal opinions let me direct you to this article that in turn cites some actual research which I will quote here as well:
However, most studies have shown that dark characters on a light background are superior to light characters on a dark background (when the refresh rate is fairly high). For example, ...
33
There are two issues that make focusing on user requests at face value problematic.
The first is known as
The Einstellung Effect
This is a negative effect of pattern-following on finding optimal solutions:
Einstellung is the development of a mechanized state of mind. Often
called a problem solving set, Einstellung refers to a person's
...
30
I personally feel the Second approach is a lot better.
This ensures that the party doesn't get to extend a call each time. Think of how many Consultants might extend time if you give them the control. It is biased towards both parties and might take a while to educate both of them to know who can extend the call and who can't and this might even lead to ...
22
I feel like this question can be answered in 2 ways, regarding asking users in general and your current specific problem/image.
Asking users in general
Asking the user for an opinion can, in some cases be a good thing. The answers you get however should in most cases be used as a way to see if there is an underlying problem.
For instance, a small example. ...
21
I feel like you have very different questions here.
To answer your first question:
is some research in regards to how font-weight affects readability?
Yes, there is. First you have to understand that type/fonts are judged by their "readability" (how easily can words, sentences, and paragraphs be read by an average reader) and their "...
21
The technique is called progressive reduction. Basically, it's a hand holding approach to designing interfaces for users. Over time you "reduce" the UI elements in your application as the user naturally learns and understands the system. Thus the interface adapts along with the users knowledge and familiarity with it.
This may be the article you came ...
21
Try to distinguish between what users want and how they want it done.
Taking your example above, users wanting one vs. two input boxes is all about the how. The what is being able to paste comma-separated coordinate pairs vs. not having to press comma. (Or, for some users, being able to simply press comma rather than having to click a second input box.)
In ...
20
It's a heated topic to be sure, but the best insight comes from understanding the usage and intent of a user clicking a link and specifically how this relates to the work at hand and what is going on in the user's mind (i.e. what they are trying to achieve by clicking the link and how that relates to their workflow).
In general, if a link results in leaving ...
20
I would like to add to DaveAlger's point. I, like many people, create algorithms in order to better remember passwords. I've spoken to many people (in an informal manner) about passwords and I have heard a lot of objections
why can't I use a part of my email or my username in my password?
why is there a character limit? (affects my algorithm)
why can't I ...
20
I've found that arrows without words tend to cause confusion amongst users, especially those that have a color blindness. If you use multiple indicators such as the arrow, color, words, and/or +/- you are meeting user accessibility the best you can. You can do something like this:
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
or ...
20
could arrow icons still be used as a quick visual reference to
indicate movement of funds without actually misguiding users?
I think the way you've presented them might be confusing but using them in a different way could be more familiar to what people is used to. Example:
Additionally, for money related movements the two pair of most familiar ...
18
What is the business goal of the Self-Destruct button? UX is all about balancing business needs with user goals. So, let's say the business goal is to sell more computers. The user goal is to disable their computer so that they can open an IT ticket, have IT investigate, and eventually replace their computer, having found nothing wrong. Let's talk to some ...
17
You can certainly objectively define the characteristics that would make an avatar male or female. Take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_sex_characteristic (there are other lists that might work better, but this one was easy to find; cultural aspects of "gender display" should also be considered)
There are some characteristics that would ...
17
It is, of course, possible to produce a UI without involved the users. So yes, in a purely technical sense, you can create some kind of UX without directly involving the people who will actually use your product or service.
That said…
I've been involved with building software that people other than myself use since 1986. Nearly 30 years.
Every single time ...
17
My anecdote:
We were bulding a new version of a computerized machine. One requirement was to boot it in 30 seconds. We failed it by orders of magnitude. It created a big outcry. We asked why and heard that they had lost a lot of production time with the last version, because it crashed so often and needed to be rebooted quite frequently.
Our new version was ...
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