Intuitive Interfaces
October 26, 2009
This year while on a honeymoon in Bulgaria I stopped by at my wife’s relatives for a couple of days. Great family they are. It was interesting for me to see how Anna Maria gets around with computer. She’s the youngest of two girls in the family, around 6 years old. Anna Maria is already fluent in using computer despite the fact she can’t read much. Moreover she has no problem playing online games no matter what language the game uses.
The reason is obvious — most games are designed so that you generally don’t even have to read the label or know how to read at all to know what button to push. In this example first one in the list obviously starts the game because you usually place the most used option first:
The ‘Nail Studio’ game that you see above works in a wizard-like manner. Turns out it’s obvious for even an illiterate six-year old to guess what button to push to continue (the one to the right 
):
There are loads of examples and tips for interface designers in gaming industry. In general, all the well-known interface design axioms work so well in games because game designers know better than any other that intuitive interface is crucial for game’s success.
Most of the principles can be applied in web and desktop apps, so play more and keep an eye for good advice.
P. S. For those willing to play Nail Studio: www.girlsgogames.com/game/Nail_Studio.html
Deviantart Interface Review
October 17, 2009
I reviewed several pages of deviantart.com
Mobile Phone Joystick Treatment
October 2, 2009
I have a Samsung SGH-E200 mobile phone and I have to admit that interface designers have done great job developing this phone’s interface. I’ll list its greatest features some other time. Today I’ll mention one of the disadvantages.
I’m using Opera Mobile browser and noticed one good feature about it that Samsung interface designers overlooked.
Look at the examples below.
Opera mini menu
Samsung SGH-E200 menu
If you press ‘Right’ key of your joystick in Opera, it will open ‘Tools’ submenu. If you press the same button in my phone menu it won’t do anything.
This feature might have been disabled because often-times there’s more than one sub-menu available. But I would let people select the first available with the press of a Right key.
Right key does work though when you hover over the expandable menu item.
Sure, this is a tiny detail not critical for UX, but such small features make all the difference between good and great.
Flickr Interface Review
September 20, 2009
I attempted at reviewing several random Flickr pages to suggest some improvements. The review is sure incomplete.
All the notes are in pictures, sorry about that.
Click thumbnails to see the full-size screen-shots.
Homepage
New homepage (with some of my suggestions)
Recent activity
Organizr
New organizr (layout)
My image fullview page
Slideshow fragment
Account settings
Job opportunities page
Borrowing Design Ideas
September 4, 2009
Some good interface and ergonomics ideas can be used outside the field they were developed for. Here’s an example illustrating recyclability of a good design idea
Right, this is a baby cup. The lid it has successfully (hopefully) prevents toddlers from spilling drinks and choking. My guess is it was designed especially for babies. But the same cup can come in handy for people who like to sip coffee on their way to work.
Starbucks, McDonald’s or whoever used first that kind of lid borrowed the idea. That is just my assumption, but you get the idea. When trying to find a solution for a problem think who could have possibly solved a similar one for a totally different kind of user.
Acceleration
August 11, 2009
In many desktop applications you have to deal with elements like this one:
I use that control daily to set quality level when exporting Visio wireframes. Although it could remember my preference so that I didn’t have to set it every day, it doesn’t get on my nerves since it acts quick. Take a look:
The counter accelerates as I hold down mouse button. The same control FastStone Image Viewer 3.7 does get on my nerves a bit since it doesn’t accelerate at all:
I just have to enter a number via keyboard…
So please keep that in mind when creating similar controls.
Listening to Users. Tefal Kettles
July 1, 2009
I used to have a Tefal kettle like the one below for years.
You’re supposed to open the lid to pour water in it the way it is illustrated in Tefal documentation:
But I never poured water that way because of being lazy to open the lid every time I wanted to fill my old kettle. I would just pour it through the spout without opening the lid:
It turned out that my way of filling is recommended by Tefal:
“You can fill the kettle through the spout to keep the filter in good condition.”
The new model of Tefal kettle is designed so that you can pour water in it without opening the lid at all. You can just take the kettle, place it under the tap and fill it. The filter is placed within the lid.
Its great that Tefal designers have learnt that people don’t like to open the lid and created a kettle that suits tea lovers like me best.
Another advantage of the new lid is that you won’t break it as fast as you would break the lid that opens with the help of some button or manually.
Disabled Text Field in IE
June 24, 2009
Compare active and disabled text fields in Internet Explorer:
Here’s what they look like in Firefox:
Users won’t be able to tell an active text field from a disabled one in IE. The solution to this problem is pretty simple: CSS. Ask your coder for a tip on how to make a disabled text field look disabled in Internet Explorer.
This sure is a minor issue, but resolving it will help keep users focused before they reach another frustrating point in your interface.
Labeled Scrollbar for a Carousel
June 3, 2009
I came across this one on a flickr account related to Designing Web Interfaces book that I’m currently reading and highly recommend to everyone who focuses on designing web interfaces (the title is pretty self-explanatory, I know ).
Good idea, no doubt. This reminded me of another interesting idea for a scrollbar that I hope to post later (have to find it first).
