Entries Tagged as “usability”
Apple's Obsession With Removing Buttons
It seams that as of late, Apple has been obsessed with removing buttons from their devices. They are acting like the crazy parents obsessed with removing all sharp corners from their house when they have a child. Was Steve Jobs attacked and injured as a child from a rogue button?
In the last two years Apple has been grooming consumers for a buttonless revolution. The iPhone, though having buttons itself focuses more or non tactile usability. Earlier this year we saw the laptops go buttonless. Now the iPod Shuffle.
I personally did not care much for the buttonless laptop. I felt the system did not work as good and needed more time being tested for usability. Apple has always been on the forefront of design and usability and being able to put them into the same package has always been a strong point for them. This time around I am not so sure. I know I would feel more comfortable recommending an last years model to someone purchasing a laptop for the first time.
The 3rd generation iPod announced today really makes me wonder if it's really necessary to reinvent the wheel? Unless of course your making a better wheel. Maybe I am being quick to conclusions as I have not actually seen the new iPod Shuffle but let me point out a few things that I noticed right away. A few things that have me concerned about this product.
Why on earth would you take the buttons off of the device and put them on to the headphone cord? I don't know about you, but I personally think the earbuds are mediocre at best. The first thing I did when I got my iPod was buy some real headphones. Putting the controls on the cord just means that if you buy a shuffle you have to stick to the earbuds supplied until third party manufactures catch up and ship an alternate product. No doubt you will have to pay a premium for them to boot. Do we really need another iPhone headphone debacle? Didn't we learn something from this or do we need to do it all over again.
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Software · usability
Standing Aginst Auto-Focus Inputs
In the last few months I have read a number of articles from some major sites that appear to promote or advocate the use of an auto-focus input when a page loads as a "technique to improve your user interface". The technique usually relies on some form of onload event for the body tag to set the focus to a search field or a login field.
I will say right now this is not a good practice at all. Unless your creating a site (or page) where the first task a user should take is to search for something or login, this is a very bad thing to do. This technique is one that I would personally lump in an article more appropriately titled "10 things to kill your user interface designs"
→ Respond NowTags: Accessibility · usability
Don't Be A Bad Javascript User
Let me start off by saying that this is not going to be a javascript bashing article. I don't hate javascript, in fact I really do like it a lot--- although the title of this article may seem to the contrary. There are many javascript libraries that do really cool stuff. I love that many of these scripts enhance webpages without requiring the use of flash.
The problem I have been encountering lately has more to do with the improper use or implementation of javascript. I think there is far to much whiz-bang stuff being added to many of todays modern websites without considering the impact on users. I feel it's important that before you add a script or a feature to your site that you stop and ask yourself: Is this thing I am about to add to a site going to help my visitors or hurt them? Does it add any value to for the user? Does it hurt them if it's not there? Will it only cause more confusion?
Rather than just talk about it, I have compiled a few video clips to help demonstrate some bad uses of javascript.
→ Respond NowTags: Accessibility · Code · usability
Mobile Web: Surfing The Web Distraction Free
A few weeks ago I downloaded the Myspace & Facebook apps for my iPhone. Not because I am overly active on either of those sites, but rather just curious about the apps. To my surprise I found them very enjoyable. Much more so than going to the actual website. Gone was the advertising, and was red and blue text on black background, gone was the lame music that starts playing at full volume when I enter the page. Each time I go to the profile page. (urg! I hate that) Also gone… Advertising, pop-ups, annoying flash banners! Oh, yes this is my kind of heaven! I actually found surfing these sites a pleasure once more.
The Epiphany
Checking out these apps, a little closer, they appear to be accessing a mobile version of their sites, just made to look pretty and clean for the small browser. That's when it hit me. Hallelujah! most every mobile version of a site can be accessed via your standard web browser. This means you can access ad free, distraction free, music free versions of your favorite sites online. You do not need a mobile phone to access many sites, just a normal web browser.
With the popularity of mobile phones increasing, Most major sites offer mobile versions of their sites, the trick becomes finding the link or just guessing it. Most of the time it's just their regular domain name with a prefix of "mobile" or "m" instead of the "www". Some sites like Amazon make theirs a bit more tricky to find, and MSN does a redirect when trying to access their site on a non mobile device. Most likely to prevent people from circumventing their ad revenue. All it all it's not difficult to find these mobile versions once you know what to look for.
Links for Reference
Here are a few sites that I visit on a regular basis and have discovered that their mobile versions are better suited to a positive user experience and increased productivity over their full web versions.
- http://m.facebook.com
- http://m.myspace.com
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile
- http://m.news.com
- http://m.cnn.com
- http://m.sacbee.com
- http://www.cbsmobile.com
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw
- http://m.youtube.com
- http://mobile.fandango.com
- http://m.netflix.com
- http://m.google.com
- http://us.m.yahoo.com
- http://weather.mobi
- http://m.wund.com
Feel free to leave a comment with links to your favorite mobile sites that you find usefull.
→ Respond NowTags: General · usability
Mango Blog Comment Form Replacement
Mango Blog uses the same default code for it's comment form as wordpress. Although I have seen worse offenders, the current form does pose a few accessibility chalenges that I would prefer to fix. So this evening I set out to rework the comment form and try to make it more accessible and customizable. This is an early prtotype of a new form that I hope would become the new standard for mango blogs comment forms. Let me explain the challenges that I have identified with the current format, and why I have chosen the form design that I did. If anyone has suggestions for improvement please let me know.
→ Respond NowTags: Accessibility · Code · ColdFusion · Mango Blog · usability
