What is Digg?59 Comments
- kasted, on 12/16/2008, -1/+48the comparison between the save alert on XP and OS X is pretty hilarious
- spuddle, on 12/15/2008, -5/+33Really great article.
- wraithscelus, on 12/16/2008, -2/+25dugg for not being 10 pages long.
- mynameistux, on 12/16/2008, -0/+11I disagree, although, it would probably be taught if you went to a proper website or UI design course.
Seriously, who actually has those credentials under their belt, everyone taught themselves how to code these days, and this article helps the majority of people, to make better UI's.
(oh, I agree on the good article part :) ) - mynameistux, on 12/16/2008, -1/+11dugg for being a well written, easy to navigate, article which raises many good points, and gives good ideas.
- axelgrease, on 12/15/2008, -2/+12Yeah very well put together, some things such as type setting I had never thought of that much before.
- craeyon, on 12/16/2008, -0/+8oh yeah? explain to me why so many ***** websites whose GUI and Design dates back to circa 1997, still floating on the internet?
- kentifer, on 12/16/2008, -0/+6It does make sense.
Seems more user-friendly. - tankianann, on 12/16/2008, -2/+8This is an awesome article on Web design and usability.
- t0ny, on 12/16/2008, -1/+6I've seen hover controls that also respond to clicks.
- fragileKnight, on 12/16/2008, -2/+7A really useful article and will definitely improve my UI design skills :)
Cheers - inactive, on 12/16/2008, -0/+4Worst analogy ever, WoolyMittens.
If I ask you a question... are you going to restate the question in your answer?
What OS do you use?
"The OS I use is ... blah blah blah."
I see the problem (with Yes/No/Cancel) when the question is stated oddly! Example:
Odd: "Quit without saving?" and naturally hitting yes before letting that question sink in
Instead of the typical: "Would you like to save the document before closing?"
I only really see this as an issue when dealing with A) poorly written software B) poorly misguided designers(like designing their own dialog and putting buttons out of the typical order, and accidentally clicking the wrong choice by habit). - inactive, on 12/16/2008, -2/+6Nice, but please don't use hover controls as they are not compatible with touch screen devices such as iphones, umpcs, etc
- jonasschneider, on 12/17/2008, -0/+3Dugg for "Using Verbs in labels"
Really a nice idea! - primedark, on 12/16/2008, -0/+3great article. it always nice to learn new things. :)
- computershack, on 12/16/2008, -0/+3GIMP TAKE NOTE. There's no point having a ***** of functionality if people can't work out how the hell to use it.
- Ellsass, on 12/17/2008, -0/+2Auto-focus on page load is bad for users of screen readers who expect to start at the top of the page.
- stringycustard, on 12/17/2008, -0/+2Yeah, I sometimes forget about the wide array of input styles people have available to them. I'll keep that in mind when knocking up interface elements.
- zonovo, on 12/16/2008, -0/+2only a few sites did #8. Custom input focus.
- stevensj2, on 12/18/2008, -0/+2The way their display code in those tips is the greatest I've seen.
- morninglorii, on 12/16/2008, -1/+3Verbs in labels is a great tip. I never noticed that OS X did that until I saw it here.
- mynameistux, on 12/16/2008, -1/+3lol
well more of a chuckle, but still - mjaneck, on 12/16/2008, -0/+2Very good, hands on tipps. Thanks
- hazelnoot, on 12/16/2008, -4/+6I hate verbs in labels.
When I click an option and a dialog comes up I expect an Ok /Cancel or Yes / No. Whenever something else comes up I have to read al the options. Really slows thing down. - ajsinclair, on 12/16/2008, -0/+2I like it, definitely a good list of must dos
- inactive, on 12/16/2008, -1/+3Indeed.
- svivian, on 12/16/2008, -0/+2If it's so "basic level", why do so many sites mess it up?
- WoollyMittens, on 12/16/2008, -1/+3Well, in theory you can find your way around your home blindfolded to, yet you choose to use your eyes anyway?
- esumti, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1Thank you! Great article and very useful.
- inactive, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1They're the cheapest. Apparently Digg has changed the spacing in the input field... the kerning looks like ***** compared to the rest of the page.
- inactive, on 12/16/2008, -1/+2Yea.... Windows uses a common dialog that's as simple as passing a couple strings of text, and a number indicating the type of dialog, buttons, icon.... A trivial difference. Apparently reading more than a single word is too difficult?
- mynameistux, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1"putting buttons out of the typical order"
just because its normal, doesn't make it right.
If not for innovation, we would not be what we are today.
changing the order of some buttons isn't going to have the same impact as the invention of the wheel, but hey, progress is a good thing, and if it doesn't work out, then hey, people move on. - blazingpenguin, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1normally I don't like any of the web design stuff that makes the front page but this was pretty good
- MtheoryX, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1Investing in HCI doesn't mean you create usable interfaces, granted.
However, proper execution does.
I didn't get the elitist undertones that you apparently did, but I'm a Mac user too, so I suppose I'll just have to concede your point on that one.
That said, I do take serious issue with Apple over a great many things...but UI is not one of them. Perhaps it has more to do with meeting expectations from users?
If you're used to Windows, Mac products can seem frustrating. An example is the Windows "the application is the window" thing compared to Apple's "applications have windows" outlook. Which one is right? Who knows, but there is an expectation from the user, and if you fail to meet that, you get backlash.
The same can be said in reverse, but I've not once met a single person who has chosen to go back to Windows from Mac.
Maybe I just don't meet enough people, or maybe there's something more to it than that. - inactive, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1Invisibly padding clickable areas is bad... mmmk.
- Kitarist, on 12/16/2008, -2/+3Wow lots of great information here
- designerutah, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1But do you hate verbs in labels because you've come to expect Ok / Cancel? Or because it's actually not as useful? Hard to say, right? But I do know there have been usability tests that have shown verb labels to be a better way to go for the average user. Doesn't mean a power user or long-time user wouldn't find OK/Cancel more effective.
For myself, if the description is clear enough, Ok/Cancel works fine. Problem is, I've seen far too many cases where it's the opposite of what you expect. So if you don't read, you're screwed. The OS X approach suffers the same problem, but you only have to read a 1-3 word button, rather than some potentially long, poorly written dialogue box. - AtomicDog1471, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1Investing a lot in HCI does not = creating usable interfaces. Microsoft invest a lot in HCI, too, and look how often they get things wrong.
There are parts of OS X that make it almost infuriating to use. Unfortunately the article has undertones of that elitist "I'm a designer so I use a mac/Apple are right about everything" attitude. - mynameistux, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1The same thing in gedit. (the default text editor in the Gnome desktop environment)
Save the changes to document "Unsaved Document 1" before closing?
If you don't save, changes from the last 4 seconds will be permanently lost.
and the options "close without saving" "cancel" "save as"
I think osx handles this best of all.
edit :save as has focus, so if you hit enter, thats what is clicked) - 7aji, on 12/17/2008, -0/+1I totally agree, sometimes I will be just clicking yes, no very fast and I find something weird just happened.
I'm not saying to put a long description in each button. Sometimes yes, no, cancel work very well but some other time, a little label would be great! - cJw314, on 01/20/2009, -0/+1My immediate response to the save as dialog was that OSX was designed by designers... and that XP was designed by coders.
- inactive, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1I like well-defined rectangles. I do not like rounded windows/text-boxes/etc that waste CPU and memory for a few pixels I'm NOT going to see. I prefer aliased text. I find anti-aliased text to be excessively blurry and less readable(most is just a cheap trick that lacks real accuracy/sharpness anyway, ClearType aka Rainbow Words).
It's not really hate. Just preference. And design is certainly an area of arbitrary aesthetic appeal. I think Mac OS X is ugly. I think default XP(Luna) is even uglier(Zune theme is nice). Vista? A miss-matched collection of unappealing (especially after a week) eye candy. Windows 7 looks even worse. I like words. I don't like the gloss on all this 'web 2.0/3.0' *****.
I run Windows 2000. Classic interface.. I don't even like the default bevel on it! So I made a program that utilizes WIN32 API and can change the bevel colors(4 of them, Windows typically calculates these itself via Appearance based on '3D Objects'... right-click Desktop and choose Properties). I use a double-stroke(outline) instead, a lighter color makes an inner-edge rectangle, and a darker rectangle surrounds it for buttons. Things that are sunk are reversed (black rect surrounded by a lighter rect). It's all based off RGB: 70,95,121(my 3D Object color).
Various versions of color schemes created this way(API, can also do it via registry, and reboot, but the API updates on-the-fly):
http://firextol.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Blue-15684 ...
http://firextol.deviantart.com/art/Img-Viewer-2671 ...
http://firextol.deviantart.com/art/Img-Explorer-26 ...
The scheme I currently use(my fav):
http://firextol.deviantart.com/art/What-Ever-Happe ...
"viagra enChanced penis" that's insta-classic! - DummyO, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1You're quite the hater on this article. You think everything mentioned is so horrible but you give no reason as to why.
- vizeroth, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1The buttons are in the correct order for their individual environments.
That being said, Microsoft's guidelines for Vista state the dialog should look more like the OS X dialog than the Windows dialog, despite the Windows dialog still being used in Vista (actually, neither dialog would be appropriate under the guidelines, but of the two the OS X one would be closest).
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511268.a ...
Apple has a habit of insisting that the equivalent of the "OK" button be on the bottom right, even extending to the iPhone (despite the call/hangup buttons on most phones having the call button on the left and hangup button on the right). They also do this on their Windows applications, where most users will expect the Cancel button to be on the bottom right. - 7aji, on 12/17/2008, -0/+1My Documents, My Music, My Pictures
you would think that Apple would use something like iDocuments but they don't
Thank god MS fixed that in Vista - stringycustard, on 12/17/2008, -0/+1Cancel generally stops the entire action, while no only applies to the current subset of that action. eg. You quit an application and it has 3 open documents. If the question is "Save doc before quitting?", "yes" will save that doc, "no" won't save that doc and both continue the same question for the rest of the open docs (continues the quit procedure). "Cancel" will stop the application from quitting entirely (so, app stays up, no more save dialogs).
- Aokubidaikon, on 12/17/2008, -1/+2"If an error or message pops up and the options are “Yes,” “No” and “Cancel,”"
Something that's been bugging me for quite some time:
What on earth is the difference between hitting "No" and "Cancel"!? - 7aji, on 12/17/2008, -0/+1are you saying that you can't click and wait ten times for reading a short article!
/S - designerutah, on 12/16/2008, -0/+1Didn't get what you got out of it. Article site specific instances where it wasn't working as well in one platform as in another. Didn't come across as pro Apple so much as pro subtle design. Which, to be fair, Apple tends to be more successful at than MS. Not that MS doesn't spend money and time on HCI. Just that they have had a lot of years of trying to meet ALL expectations and the interfaces reflect that approach. Apple's approach is a more narrow, restrictive approach, but that also lends towards better design, because they have a smaller target they're shooting for.
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