Comments on: Ten Quotable Moments: Challenges and Responses for UI Designers

By: christina

christina — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alogn these lines, I highly recommend Paula Scher’s Make It Bigger http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568983328/eleganthack

Lots of insight into helping nondesigners understand design and the design process.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Excellent list that I now have to share with all people involved on my project.

I’m also a big fan of “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug that gives a no nonsense approach to what usuability is.

By: subimage

subimage — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wonderful article. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard all this. Glad to know I’m not crazy.

By: Livia Labate

Livia Labate — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The “We have to force them to, in as friendly a way as possible” is by far the most common one I get. It is apparently impossible to make some folks see that they are not the users and the users will not have read the site’s plan and documentation. Great list!

By: Claudia Urschbach

Claudia Urschbach — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thank you! Great fun to read an article about my everyday work life! Will read the article every time some of the programmers start this kind of conversation with me. Give humour a chance!

By: eokyere

eokyere — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

excellent post… buttresses the need for problem statements being as abstract as possible coupled extensive–even complete–requirements engineering

By: leMel

leMel — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This doesn't offer as much constructive solution, but I get a big kick out of browsing this every day: http://www.derailer.org/clientquotes.php

By: Nav

Nav — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nice. This list along with Coopers “Inmates are running…” will be a good combination…

By: Brian R. Krause

Brian R. Krause — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Within an hour after this article went live, I got the following e-mail from a client. (I asked for permission to post it, and the reply granting permission got snagged by a spam filter!)

Anyway, I am not making this up!

> 2. After seeing our online … demo, … and … both
> suggested that the … UI should have the active tab in
> a different color. Right now it is not clear which tab you are on.

This has been brought up before. Our UI expert (Brian) replied that it
was intentional that the difference is subtle. I don’t remember the
exact argument, but the gist was that the focus should be on the main
form where the user will input his values, and not on which active tab
he’s on.

Why should the user always be reminded of what tab he is on? He should
select the tab he wants, then go to work on the page, and not be
distracted by what active tab he’s on. In addition, sometimes the page
doesn’t belong to any tab (e.g. query results) and it might confuse a
user who is used to seeing a highlighted active tab.

I think sometimes good UI principles conflict with what people are used
to and therefore expect. What do we go with in such a case?

Brian, would you like to chime in? I hope I did your reasoning justice

My response:

You got it right. Especially the part about some pages having an
obviously highlighted tab and some not.

You also got it right that good UI principles should result in
software that does what people expect and are used to, except I was
trying to do that here!

I believe that what people are used to is the 3D shading on a tab
changing when the tab is at the front, which is exactly what happens
in Windows. The Mac makes a more dramatic color change. Websites
vary in what they do.

I will add two minor points to what you said. First, people will be
looking at the … UI for long periods of time, and a tab that calls
attention to itself will be somewhat tiresome. Most users will be
regular users. So, I would tend to discount … and …’s reaction if
it is a first impression, which I gather it is, from the demo comment.
In the context of using the system, and using it regularly, I don’t
think it’s an issue.

Second, the tab being active means “You’re already on this page; don’t
click this tab.” Calling attention to the active tab, the one you
can’t click on, would invite people to click it anyway. The current
shading shows what you can’t click on without making a big deal about
how you can’t click on it.

By: David Krieger

David Krieger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

My favorite bad UI moment came several projects ago, when the team leader enthusiastically presented to us his proposed UI solution for rendering complex task information “intuitively understandable by any normal end-user.” Ignoring our growing incomprehension, he continued his tortuous explanation until one brave soul suggested that his solution was not intuitive at all. At that point, he turned to momentarily consider the convoluted mess he had made on the whiteboard. Then aiming his angry glare back at us he shouted “Well, look at it until it becomes intuitive.”

Truly not just any old inmate was in charge of this asylum. This inmate was criminally insane.