“An icon search task that lasts longer than anticipated can result in user annoyance or even premature abandonment.”

“In this first part of his conversation with Adaptive Path’s Jesse James Garrett, bestselling author Steven Johnson talks about his 1997 book Interface Culture and how his thinking on the design of interactive media has evolved since then. Steven Johnson’s keynote kicks off Day One of User Experience Week 2006, August 14-17 in Washington, D.C.”

“A long, long time ago, my friend Eric Bergman and I were working on the UI for Sun AnswerBook, which was a CD-based predecessor to docs.sun.com. AnswerBook Screen.Sun had invited Edward Tufte in to teach a session in our Boston office about the Grand Vistas of Information Architecture or something. After the class, we lured him into our usability lab to look at the user interface for Answerbook, of which were were very proud.” (Thanks kottke.org!)

“Despite posing well-known risks, websites continue to feature poorly designed scrollbars. Among the ongoing problems that result are frustrated users, accessibility challenges, and missed content.”

“The guys over at 37 Signals posted a link to their article on the Yellow Fade Technique again. Much like the first time, I was disapointed that they didn’t provide any code samples. So, for all of you out there that would like to implement something like this, I have put together a sample of how to do so.”

“Over at YourTotalSite, I wrote about how nice it is to see big and bold designs. Since there was more thought put into this site than you might guess at first glance, I wanted to take some time and provide some insight into the thought process that led to this ‘design.’”

“Imagine we’re starting work on the user registration functionality of a web site. After conducting a thorough set of user tests, we discover that half of all users who attempt to register can’t successfully complete the process. Those who do register find the process very frustrating. Fixing the registration process to eliminate any frustration would important, right? Not necessarily.”

“we’ve hand-drawn 79 low-priced icons, great for websites or applications. they are approx. 16×16 pixels and in GIF format. own them for use royalty-free in your own projects! $40 only $30 USD until march 1st [2005].”

“So, I didn’t see Marissa Meyer speak at BayCHI about Google’s approach to user interface design, but Rashmi and Luke did, and I found some of what they related to be quite interesting. The thing that most grabbed me was this comment from Rashmi’s notes: ‘Marissa also addressed whether User Experience is a sustainable competitive advantage. Although analysts such as Gartner believe that User Experience is not a sustainable competitive advantage (because it can be copied easily) Google has observed that their competitors have not been able to catch up. Marissa thinks that since Google started from such a different point (a very bare interface), other companies have had a difficult time reaching that point (since they started from such a busy interface, and have so much paring down to do).’ Luke echoed this statement in his notes, with a slightly different emphasis…”

“In a recent usability test, I once again witnessed something Iíve seen a hundred times before: a frustrated user claiming he knows exactly what is wrong with the interface he was fighting with. What was his suggestion? ‘These guys need to make this thing a lot more intuitive. The problem is that this program isnít intuitive enough. It needs to be more intuitive! ‘I think he used the I-Word no less than 25 times during the session. His frustration was real and his desire was great. So, why wasnít the interface ëintuitiveí? Well, itís probably because itís really, really hard to do.”

“Welcome to IconBase.com. The icons are a very important part of your software and is essential for the success of a software company.
Yellow Icon Studio’s IconBase brings to your company quality icon design ready for consumption.”

“Epicenter Design involves focusing in on the true essence of the page (the ‘epicenter’) and then building outwards. This means not starting with the navigation/tabs, or the footer, or the colors, or the sidebar, or the logo, etc. It means starting with the part of the page that, if changed or removed, would change the entire purpose of the page. Thatís the epicenter.”

“I agree that there will always be a need for two different kinds of interface: One for naive users and one for expert users. The difference, as I see it, is that naive users are those who don’t have an internal model of the system (or some metaphorical interface to it) Thus naive users need that model represented explicitly ó one control (checkbox, textbox, button or menu-item) for each action they need to perform ó so they can read the functionality of the system from the interface. The interface decomposes complex ideas into a sequence of self-evident steps. Expert users, on the other hand, do have an internal model of the system and remember it’s capabilities and some way of refering to each of them. Thus they can enter commands which include references to multiple actions, composed grammatically.”

“Functioning Form is where art and technology emerge as experience, where message and medium meld, and where interactions are useful, usable, and enjoyable. Functioning Form is the interface. Functioning Form is about context, clarity, consistency, control, transparency, indication, and metaphor. Functioning Form is about communication. Function Form becomes interface design, the user experience design process, Web applications, and more.”

“Welcome to guidebook, a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing as many Graphical User Interfaces as possible.”