http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/User-Interface A listing of the most recently indexed works about Articles and User Interface in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/User-Interface http://tc.eserver.org/35655.html http://tc.eserver.org/35655.html The arrow and its brethren are everywhere on our computer screens. For example, a quick examination of the Firefox 3.0 browser, shown in Figure 1 in its standard configuration, yields eight examples of arrows—Forward, Back, and Reload buttons, scroll bar controls, and drop-down menus that reveal search engine, history, and bookmark choices. http://tc.eserver.org/35597.html http://tc.eserver.org/35597.html A common mandate at many software companies is “Make our products consistent!” I’ve heard this clarion call for consistency at every company I’ve worked for that has more than a single product or service. The rationale behind the consistency mandate is that it will reduce design and development costs, improve the overall quality of the software, strengthen the brand (“the products should all look like they come from the same company”), make learning easier for users, and reduce errors when multiple products are used together. These are all great goals, but there is a problem with the consistency mandate – consistency is complex, multi-dimensional, and sometimes at odds with other important goals like usability. http://tc.eserver.org/35606.html http://tc.eserver.org/35606.html XAML stands for eXtensible Application Markup Language and was created by Microsoft. It is currently the primary mechanism for declaratively creating the user interface in a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application. WPF is part of the .NET 3.0 framework. Why discuss these very technical things in a design blog post? The answer is simple: because XAML is designed for designers. It has other uses of course, but one of its main tenets is that XAML enables the separation of UI and logic (code). That is a very powerful concept! In this and future posts, I will explain how a few of us at Autodesk are using XAML in our design process as a way to enable design refinement during the Development phase. http://tc.eserver.org/35573.html http://tc.eserver.org/35573.html Every programmer and user interface designer eventually comes to this point: You can’t decide how a specific part of your user interface should behave. It’s easy, of course. Just make it a preference, and everyone will be happy. http://tc.eserver.org/35574.html http://tc.eserver.org/35574.html Touchscreen devices can only work well if both hardware and software are uniquely optimized for touch interaction. Simply adding touch interaction to an existing device will make the user experience worse instead of better. http://tc.eserver.org/35577.html http://tc.eserver.org/35577.html Fortunately, you don't see dialogs in web apps much, but this sort of modal dialog lunacy is, sadly, becoming more popular in today's AJAX-y world of web 2.5. Those who can't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, I guess. http://tc.eserver.org/35578.html http://tc.eserver.org/35578.html This may sound a little harsh, but you'll see, when you do usability tests, that there are quite a few users who simply do not read words that you put on the screen. If you pop up an error box of any sort, they simply will not read it. http://tc.eserver.org/35387.html http://tc.eserver.org/35387.html To a huge number of gamers and would-be gamers, though, even the most sensible and well-laid-out controller scheme is unplayable. For them, accessibility and interface issues make gaming at best an incomplete experience and at worst a total impossibility. http://tc.eserver.org/35307.html http://tc.eserver.org/35307.html From 0.1 seconds to 10 years or more, user interface design has many different timeframes, and each has its own particular usability issues. http://tc.eserver.org/35216.html http://tc.eserver.org/35216.html First person user interfaces can be a good fit for applications that allow people to navigate the real world, “augment” their immediate surroundings with relevant information, and interact with objects or people directly around them. http://tc.eserver.org/35206.html http://tc.eserver.org/35206.html This is a review for Balsamiq Mockups. This is a reasonably-priced application for creating wireframes that is easy to learn and use suitable for smaller projects. Creating interactive prototypes out of Balsamiq wireframes is now possible with the release of another application called Napkee. This review talks talks about: Balsamiq Mockup specifications; Balsamiq’s distinct visual character and how it work both in favor and against Balsamiq being adopted by users; Pros and cons of the application; and a conclusion with a recommendation on who should use and what to use Balsamiq Mockups for. http://tc.eserver.org/35179.html http://tc.eserver.org/35179.html User interface (UI) patterns have the potential to make software development more efficient. The prospect of such efficiency gains has led to interest in user interface (UI) patterns by individuals and organizations looking for ways to increase quality while at the same time reducing the costs associated with software development. http://tc.eserver.org/35173.html http://tc.eserver.org/35173.html Affordance allows us to look at something and intuitively understand how to interact with it. For example, when we see a small button next to a door, we know we should push it with a finger. Convention tells us it will make a sound, notifying the homeowner that someone is at the door. This concept transfers to the virtual environment: when we see a 3D-shaped button on a web page, we understand that we are supposed to “push” it with a mouse-click. http://tc.eserver.org/35101.html http://tc.eserver.org/35101.html While ubiquitous computing remains an unpleasant mouthful of techno-babble to most people who know the term, and everyware is still an essentially unknown idea, the visibility of augmented reality has surged in the last twelve months. http://tc.eserver.org/35092.html http://tc.eserver.org/35092.html A product is actually a service. Although the designer, manufacturer, distributer, and seller may think it is a product, to the buyer, it offers a valuable service. In reality a product is all about the experience. http://tc.eserver.org/34935.html http://tc.eserver.org/34935.html Being "minimalist" and "streamlined" is not always most effective. Have you ever written yourself a quick, shorthand note, only to find later that you had no way to unpack your own great idea? Icons work similarly. They are pictures – meant to provide a visual shorthand to users moving through a task. While research indicates that icons are best when initially paired with text to increase recognition and learnability, users experienced with a given set of icons will begin to ignore the text, scanning for and acting from the image alone. http://tc.eserver.org/34969.html http://tc.eserver.org/34969.html The purpose of this research is to examine search goal redefinition during users' interaction with information retrieval systems. http://tc.eserver.org/34903.html http://tc.eserver.org/34903.html ウェブサイトは、その構造とナビゲーションシステムとが互いに支え合っていなければならない。検索システムとも結びついていなければならない。サブサイトに至るまで一体化していなければならない。複雑で、一貫性が無く、選択肢が隠れていて、UIが扱いにくければ、ユーザーは必要なものを見つけられない。 http://tc.eserver.org/34871.html http://tc.eserver.org/34871.html Never, ever, ever let systems-level engineers do human interaction design unless they have displayed a proven secondary talent in that area. http://tc.eserver.org/34751.html http://tc.eserver.org/34751.html As Agile gains momentum as a development approach of choice, documenting design becomes a challenge. Peter Gremett shows how using a wiki to capture your design is a great way to be adaptive as you build and deliver product to customers. http://tc.eserver.org/34645.html http://tc.eserver.org/34645.html As a rule of thumb, the earlier in the development process reuse can occur, the more efficient reuse becomes. Like software component reuse, the reuse of UX design elements can be a very efficient form of reuse—particularly because this form of reuse occurs very early in the product development cycle. The ability to reuse prior work effectively is one characteristic of a mature discipline. http://tc.eserver.org/34563.html http://tc.eserver.org/34563.html When things are going well in a design, we don't pay attention to them. We only pay attention to things that bother us. The same is true with online designs. We attend to things that aren't working far more than we attend to things that are. When the online experience frustrates us, we pay attention to its details, often because we're trying to figure out some way to outsmart it. http://tc.eserver.org/34546.html http://tc.eserver.org/34546.html While the perfect mobile user interface is beast that doesn't exist, there are good interfaces that work around any issues there are with the displays on mobile devices. http://tc.eserver.org/34539.html http://tc.eserver.org/34539.html Structure and navigation must support each other and integrate with search and across subsites. Complexity, inconsistency, hidden options, and clumsy UI mechanics prevent users from finding what they need. http://tc.eserver.org/34514.html http://tc.eserver.org/34514.html There are a exponentially growing amount of applications being developed. Some of them vanish at an early stage, while others grow to be quite (and sometimes extremely) popular. What really dazzles me is how sucky many of them (both the popular and the unpopular ones) are regarding how they deal with user-interaction. http://tc.eserver.org/34446.html http://tc.eserver.org/34446.html A colleague has made me realize that user assistance writers are codependents of bad UI design. Because we explain how the UI really works, we somehow leave our developers and companies feeling like they're "covered" when the users have a bad experience. http://tc.eserver.org/34428.html http://tc.eserver.org/34428.html Many people have not had the opportunity to see someone use a refreshable Braille device to access the web. I recently videoed Bruce Maguire describing how he uses the Internet with a refreshable Braille display. He also demonstrates finding a book on the Amazon site. Transcript of the video is at the end of this document. http://tc.eserver.org/34408.html http://tc.eserver.org/34408.html To better manage interactions with such large datasets, we’ve incorporated the concept of views, in the same way that Microsoft Outlook and SQL Builder use them. However, my initial usability testing has found that the concept of views is escaping most people, and I think it often boils down to the term itself. Even if I show users what the software does—and they pretty much always like it when they see it—they still often cannot get over the initial hurdle of the naming convention. http://tc.eserver.org/34320.html http://tc.eserver.org/34320.html Over the years a range of GUI’s have been developed for different operating systems such as OS/2, Macintosh, Windowsamiga, Linux, Symbian OS, and more. We’ll be taking a look at the evolution of the interface designs of the major operating systems since the 80’s. http://tc.eserver.org/34171.html http://tc.eserver.org/34171.html The first of a pair of presentations by Alan Kay (of Smalltalk fame). The presentation is from 1983 and discusses the development of user interface design from the 1960s onward. http://tc.eserver.org/34172.html http://tc.eserver.org/34172.html The second of a pair of presentations by Alan Kay (of Smalltalk fame). The presentation is from 1983 and discusses the development of user interface design from the 1960s onward. http://tc.eserver.org/34097.html http://tc.eserver.org/34097.html Motivation is an important factor in any kind of online interaction or transaction. People need a little encouragement when they’re not really convinced they should take any action or are uncertain about what action to take next. As users perform tasks online, they need to understand what’s happening and expect you to help them move forward. This article discusses the responsibility of a user interface to provide recommendations along a user’s path of interaction. http://tc.eserver.org/34065.html http://tc.eserver.org/34065.html Does a truly intuitive user interface exist? The author of this blog post doesn't think so. To create one, designers and developers really need to put the wrecking ball to the UI as it is now. http://tc.eserver.org/33954.html http://tc.eserver.org/33954.html While user interface (UI) reviews often occur at the end of the development cycle, I recommend that you get involved early in the process, preferably when the designers create the initial wireframes or paper prototypes. Why? Making changes early in the process reduces development costs. Plus, if you identify usability issues early, it’s much more likely the team can remedy them before launch, preventing bad reviews. http://tc.eserver.org/33840.html http://tc.eserver.org/33840.html This paper focuses on managing constraints in a way that enables developers to create an accessible and usable user interface (UI). The constraining processes presented in this paper comprise of a language to describe a logical web page in an application, a basic bottom-up repository management system and the processing required for compiling pages. http://tc.eserver.org/33720.html http://tc.eserver.org/33720.html Using patterns has become a well-known design practice and is also considered best practice in the software development community. While UX teams can and should constantly promote best practice, we can also approach tackling poor design practice from the other side: antipatterns. Antipatterns are approaches to common problems that might appear obvious, but are less than optimal in practice. http://tc.eserver.org/33723.html http://tc.eserver.org/33723.html Before graphic user interfaces, text was the primary means of both input and output defining human-computer interactions. Even today, much of the information user interfaces present is textual. Therefore, we should not underestimate how the right text treatment can measurably improve user productivity and increase user satisfaction. As new technologies become available—for example, larger monitors with higher resolutions—a good foundation of knowledge about effective text treatment can help designers create usable user interfaces for them more quickly. http://tc.eserver.org/33590.html http://tc.eserver.org/33590.html Welcome to Usability In Practice. This is the first in a series of columns that will focus on the design of the user experience (UX). In the past, user experience was not a high priority for most development projects, but that's changed. Today, end users have a lot of experience with the Web and with software. They want design that's easy to learn and use and that fits their workflow. This column will show you how to deliver such designs. http://tc.eserver.org/33495.html http://tc.eserver.org/33495.html With few exceptions, intuitive user interfaces really don't exist. Familiar interfaces do, however. But does that mean developers need to be locked into the same old design patterns? There's no reason why they should. http://tc.eserver.org/33485.html http://tc.eserver.org/33485.html In user experience design, there is a growing emphasis on starting projects by creating robust descriptions of the prospective users. Through contextual inquiry and persona development we gain insight into people’s needs; ascertain their desires; and illuminate their behavior, wishes, hopes and dreams. But in an attempt to create archetypal descriptions of people, the specificity of the environments people inhabit are often times diminished—research is conducted across broad cross-sections of markets to ensure that common experiences are identified and explored. http://tc.eserver.org/33486.html http://tc.eserver.org/33486.html Dan Harrelson, design technologist at Adaptive Path, recently spoke with Jensen Harris, Group Program Manager of Microsoft’s Office User Experience team. Jensen was one of the key designers behind the new Ribbon user interface introduced in Office 2007. Dan and Jensen chatted about Office’s redesign and the techniques he uses to keep the focus on user needs within an organization the size of Microsoft. http://tc.eserver.org/33453.html http://tc.eserver.org/33453.html Usage goes down as interaction costs increase. User motivation determines how fast demand drops, following an elasticity curve. http://tc.eserver.org/33461.html http://tc.eserver.org/33461.html Many winners employ dashboards to give users a single overview of complex information and use lightboxes to ensure that users notice dialogs. Also, the Office 2007 ribbon showed surprisingly strong early adoption. http://tc.eserver.org/33467.html http://tc.eserver.org/33467.html Computer glitches would be a lot less annoying if the machines were programmed to acknowledge errors gracefully when something goes wrong, instead of merely flashing up a brusque "you goofed" message. http://tc.eserver.org/33468.html http://tc.eserver.org/33468.html Frequently, error messages are totally uninformative -- or, worse, just plain wrong. Here, we look at how meaningful error messages can make it easier for users to correct problems without having to rely on technical support, and how poorly chosen messages can turn users into ex-users. http://tc.eserver.org/33469.html http://tc.eserver.org/33469.html The popularity of touch input devices for use in a wide variety of information, telecommunication, and other systems applications warrants a review of the role of human factors in the design and use of these devices, particularly touch screens and touch pads. This report reviews empirical research into the human interface design issues of touch input devices including display mounting angle, touch biases, touch area size and shape, feedback, and touch key interaction strategies. The limitations and capabilities of the devices for supporting a variety of tasks are examined as are comparisons between these devices and more conventional input devices such as keyboards. Attempts to improve the user interaction with these devices are also reviewed. Conclusions and recommendations regarding the use and design of touch input devices are provided. http://tc.eserver.org/33384.html http://tc.eserver.org/33384.html AJAX enables faster, more responsive Web applications through a combination of asynchronous Javascript, the Document Object Model (DOM), and XMLhttpRequest. What this means for Web interface designers is that a DHTML-based Web application can make quick, incremental updates to a user interface without reloading the entire screen. http://tc.eserver.org/33371.html http://tc.eserver.org/33371.html I’d personally love a computer experience which emphasized ‘flow’ and gradual, constant change. No longer would every little change pull your attention away from an important task. Instead, those Mail notifications, system messages and the like could gently change without you noticing, until you decided you wanted to actually look. http://tc.eserver.org/33373.html http://tc.eserver.org/33373.html We are all impaired to some amount. I realized this a few years ago as a musician, moving heavy amplifiers to gigs. Those little ramps that had been required by law (at least here in Australia) for wheelchairs were my saving grace.. instead of lifting the hefty equipment I could roll it into the building. It probably saved me more than once from back injury. And yet, there would be no way the institutions would have put in those ramps for my convenience. http://tc.eserver.org/33293.html http://tc.eserver.org/33293.html Are touchscreens always good news for users? Our consultants suggest guidelines to ensure touchscreen devices are both usable and useful. http://tc.eserver.org/33294.html http://tc.eserver.org/33294.html An ever increasing range of mobile phones are appearing on the market, each with their own features, designs and interfaces. Our extensive experience of working with a wide range of phones suggests that, despite their many differences, there are some user interface requirements common to all mobile phones. These requirements are presented as guidelines below. http://tc.eserver.org/33203.html http://tc.eserver.org/33203.html Years back, we compared successful clickstreams (clickstreams that resulted in users accomplishing their goals, as observed in tons of usability tests) with unsuccessful clickstreams (clickstreams where users abandoned their goals before completing), looking for any clues that would help us predict behaviors in one that we didn’t see in the other. One factor we looked for was whether the clickstreams contained image links versus text links — does one type of link show up more often in successful clickstreams than the other. Our finding was when users clicked in image links they were just as likely to succeed or fail as when the clicked on text links. There was no statistically-meaningful difference. http://tc.eserver.org/33179.html http://tc.eserver.org/33179.html At present, we do not know how to optimize reading via electronic equipment. In this chapter, some considerations that may help us do this in the future will be raised, and some of the relevant evidence and theory that do exist will be cited and briefly highlighted. The focus of this paper is on reading of continuous text, whether in linear form or hypertext form, and with or without the presence of graphics or other types of information. http://tc.eserver.org/33120.html http://tc.eserver.org/33120.html While processing speed and computational flexibility have grown at incredible rates, our displays, the most human-facing elements of our digital lives, lag behind. http://tc.eserver.org/32983.html http://tc.eserver.org/32983.html Scientists tell us that visual communication is natural human behaviour which all normally sighted persons engage in every day and take for granted, yet it is the product of a complex human intelligence that is very poorly understood. http://tc.eserver.org/33001.html http://tc.eserver.org/33001.html When McAfee Inc. recently introduced its ProtectionPilot software--a dashboard-type management console for its Active VirusScan SMB Edition and Active Virus Defense SMB Edition suites--the trial downloads were fast and furious: In the first 10 weeks after release, more than 20,000 users went online to get a copy. http://tc.eserver.org/33011.html http://tc.eserver.org/33011.html From my outsider’s point of view, automobile interior design seems to be first and foremost about appearance, about style. Function matters, but it is not the primary focus, except for anomalies, such as when consumers force cupholders down the throats of reluctant designers or insist upon easy to fold rear seats for SUVs and the ilk. It feels as if dashboard designers see functions as irritants: so many controls and devices, so little room. How can we ever manage? http://tc.eserver.org/32802.html http://tc.eserver.org/32802.html First-person shooter (FPS) games have become increasingly popular, and the player’s ability to accurately control their weapon is very important in these games. This study assesses players’ accuracy on eliminating targets in the FPS game Star Wars Battlefront II using three different input devices (mouse, Playstation 2 controller, and joystick) with two different rifle types (sniper and blaster rifle). No significant performance differences were found between input devices although subjectively participants believed they peformed the worst with the joystick. http://tc.eserver.org/32672.html http://tc.eserver.org/32672.html Making use of the overflow and scrollLeft DOM property to scroll elements is a much more effective use of the CPU, over animating using CSS top/left. So this episode of J4D demonstrates the same effect used in two completely different ways. http://tc.eserver.org/32676.html http://tc.eserver.org/32676.html As UX professionals, we often take for granted the fact that our users will be dealing with a keyboard, mouse or track pad, and monitor. We think about users’ physical relationship with their digital devices very selectively, if at all. But, as we explore new human interface devices and incorporate new interactions into our designs, we have the opportunity to create deep connections between users and their technology. http://tc.eserver.org/32585.html http://tc.eserver.org/32585.html With their beautiful and primitive visual arts and crafts, Taiwan’s aboriginal cultures offer great potential for enhancing design value and becoming recognized in the global market. Evidence shows very high prospects for Taiwan’s local cultures to become crucial cultural elements in future design applications. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of cultural objects from Taiwan’s aboriginal cultures and to extract their cultural features. The paper attempts to illustrate how, by enhancing the original meaning and images of these cultural features and by taking advantage of new production technologies, they can be transformed into modern products that meet the needs of the contemporary consumer market. http://tc.eserver.org/32589.html http://tc.eserver.org/32589.html When you hear the term voice user interface (VUI), what comes to mind? Most likely, memories of an interactive voice response system (IVR) for customer service arise. IVRs are certainly not going away. For many companies, they remain the foremost contact point with customers. But voice user interfaces are more than just IVRs. In fact, VUIs have tremendous potential for enhancing the experience of any mobile phone user. As the use of mobile devices and applications proliferates internationally, understanding how to integrate, or mash up, graphic user interfaces (GUI) and VUIs is becoming critically important. http://tc.eserver.org/32238.html http://tc.eserver.org/32238.html I recently conducted a study into the helpfulness (or lack thereof) of zebra striping—the shading of alternate rows in a table or form. The study measured performance as users completed a series of tasks and found no statistically significant improvement in accuracy—and very little statistically significant improvement in speed when zebra stripes were implemented. http://tc.eserver.org/32073.html http://tc.eserver.org/32073.html A pretty interface doesn’t make an application or website. Even the early releases of Microsoft Vista looked amazing. The graphics, interface, and 'look' of the system were much more impressive than XP. But looks alone don’t make the package. It lacked in usability, creating error messages and not having a standard navigation schema. Users didn’t know if they were to click a button, an image, or text to complete their task. It is important to create a standardized and intuitive interface, as well as nice looking, so that users can navigate your site or application. http://tc.eserver.org/32029.html http://tc.eserver.org/32029.html The common wisdom is that we now live in the age of information; the freedom and access we have to data is unprecedented in history; and the efficiency and convenience of online commerce, research, and communication has already transformed our lives for the better. While this is true, of course, our excitement should be tempered by a few realizations. http://tc.eserver.org/31997.html http://tc.eserver.org/31997.html Bill DeRouchey is fascinated with buttons and the history of interface design. He talks to us as he prepares for IDEA 2008, October 7-8. In Chicago, Bill hopes to help attendees expand their sources of inspiration to include just about anything in their everyday lives. http://tc.eserver.org/31996.html http://tc.eserver.org/31996.html One of the most frequent tasks on many intranets is finding people within the company. Providing an effective way to search people is thus a key goal in designing intranets. This goal becomes even more important for an organization like Emirates, a leading international airline, which has over 35,000 employees with over 140 nationalities and where more people are likely to use this feature more frequently. http://tc.eserver.org/31999.html http://tc.eserver.org/31999.html Games are fun, addictive, beautiful, and immersive. Websites, for the most part, are not. Take a moment and think about what video games look like, what they sound like, the way you can move on the screen, what “you” can be. Think of how you feel when you play and who you play with. Consider the launch of Halo 3 on Xbox 360, with unprecedented graphics, sound, and interactivity that Time.com called “refined to the point where it delivers only pure unadulterated gaming bliss.” http://tc.eserver.org/31907.html http://tc.eserver.org/31907.html Should the OK button come before or after the Cancel button? Following platform conventions is more important than suboptimizing an individual dialog box. http://tc.eserver.org/31916.html http://tc.eserver.org/31916.html Application usability is enhanced when users know how to operate the UI and it guides them through the workflow. Violating common guidelines prevents both. http://tc.eserver.org/31147.html http://tc.eserver.org/31147.html Abgeflachte Bürgersteige, Rampen statt Stufen, tiefergelegte Busse - an den alltäglichen baulichen Barrieren für Kinderwägen und Rollstuhlfahrer wird gearbeitet. Im IT-Bereich dagegen ließ Barrierefreiheit bislang auf sich warten: Viele Websites sind nicht für jeden zugänglich. Mit dem Gesetz zur Gleichstellung behinderter Menschen sind öffentliche Institutionen seit Anfang Mai 2002 verpflichtet, ihre Websites barrierefrei zu gestalten. http://tc.eserver.org/31113.html http://tc.eserver.org/31113.html A blog post that discusses the XO laptop, and the risks that the designers and developers took when creating the user interface for the device - for the most part they succeeded in creating an intuitive interface and a usable computer. http://tc.eserver.org/31036.html http://tc.eserver.org/31036.html As a Graphical User Interface (GUI) programmer, I have many interface development tools to choose from. Over the years, my development environment changes to accommodate my needs. This often includes learning new languages and the tools that go with them. http://tc.eserver.org/30875.html http://tc.eserver.org/30875.html User Interface (UI) prototyping can help business analysts to address many challenges, even though it is usually considered to be part of design rather than requirements analysis. The rest of this article briefly describes UI prototyping, and some of the benefits and risks it offers to business analysts. http://tc.eserver.org/30828.html http://tc.eserver.org/30828.html AJAX, rich Internet UIs, mashups, communities, and user-generated content often add more complexity than they're worth. They also divert design resources and prove (once again) that what's hyped is rarely what's most profitable. http://tc.eserver.org/30824.html http://tc.eserver.org/30824.html The problem of the perpetual super-novice is the tendency of people to stop learning about a digital product--whether it's an operating system, desktop application, Web site, or hardware device. http://tc.eserver.org/30804.html http://tc.eserver.org/30804.html RSS (Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication) has been around since the mid-1990s. Over the years, several variants of the RSS format have popped up and several claims have been made about its ownership. Despite these differences, RSS never ceased to serve its usefulness in distributing Web content from one Web site to many others. The popularity of RSS gave way to the growth of a new class of Web software called the feed reader, also known as the feed aggregator. Although there are several commercially available feed aggregators, it's easy to develop your own feed aggregator, which you can integrate with your Web applications. You'll appreciate this article's fully functional PHP code snippets, demonstrating the use of PHP-based server-side functions to develop a customizable RSS feed aggregator. In addition, you'll reap instant benefits from using the fully functional RSS feed aggregator code, which you can download from this article. http://tc.eserver.org/30805.html http://tc.eserver.org/30805.html Back end processing -- server-side scripts and programs -- can't always be tossed into an Ajax application and behave well. Instead, careful planning to ensure data is sent in an appropriate and efficient form ensures your entire application is cohesive, rather than needlessly complex. Brett McLaughlin explains how a good server-side script complements Ajax behavior. http://tc.eserver.org/30803.html http://tc.eserver.org/30803.html How to use Visio for rapid prototyping - now with scrolling pages and sketchy interface widgets. http://tc.eserver.org/30786.html http://tc.eserver.org/30786.html This article explains how to create coloured hyperlinks in an index in a PDF file, using Microsoft Word as the source document for the PDF file. Many authors create PDF files using Word as the source document. Most Word-to-PDF converters create a hyperlink in the PDF file if a hyperlink exists in the Word document. Unfortunately, Word does not create hyperlinked cross-references in an index, so no PDF creation tool can directly generate a hyperlinked index. The Sonar Bookends Activate plug-in for Acrobat creates hyperlinks for page numbers in indexes in PDF files. The plug-in does not change the colour of new hyperlinks, and it does not create visible rectangles for the hyperlinks. This article explains how to colour the hyperlinks in the Word source document using macro. http://tc.eserver.org/30665.html http://tc.eserver.org/30665.html With Ajax still one of the industry's hottest buzzwords, more and more applications are being built with Ajax technologies. However, it's not always easy to build a good application. This article focuses on how to build intuitive, easy-to-use Ajax-driven applications. http://tc.eserver.org/30642.html http://tc.eserver.org/30642.html GUI Bloopers 2.0 describes common user-interface mistakes found in today's software products and services, and provides design rules and guidelines to avoid them. Johnson describes the design decisions that lead to misuse of controls, poor navigation, prose-riddled labels, bad design and layout, faulty interaction, and poor responsiveness. GUI Bloopers 2.0 is well illustrated with hundreds of examples from real products and online services, and stories from his own experience. http://tc.eserver.org/30632.html http://tc.eserver.org/30632.html An interview with David Malouf on his article, Foundations of Interaction Design. We discuss several foundations of Interaction design including time, metaphor, abstraction, and negative space. David also provides greater detail to comments posted on his article from readers from around the world. http://tc.eserver.org/30609.html http://tc.eserver.org/30609.html Virtual reality and game technology can be used in the technical communication classrooms and the workplace as well as the laboratory. Because our communication into the 21st century will take many "technical" forms, the technology, creativity, degree of interaction, and multimedia designs of virtual reality simulations should become part of our communication technology in the 1990s. Although hypertext, hypermedia, computer-aided design (CAD), and multimedia, multisensory training applications are becoming more common in the workplace, the concept of virtual reality has seldom been translated into practical applications that require business and technical communicators to have special skills. As well, advances in holographic information create exciting new educational designs for the future. http://tc.eserver.org/30586.html http://tc.eserver.org/30586.html With its enormous storage capacity, cost-effectiveness, and convenience, the CD-ROM is quickly becoming a significant research and business tool. To retrieve data from the CD-ROM, users access a search program that helps them select a subset of data from the entire database. Because the selection includes a series of complex tasks that most users are unfamiliar with, user interfaces must be task-oriented as well as intuitive and interactive. Even with a variety of interfaces, users wanted more paper documentation. When users have little experience or familiarity with the concepts and the tasks, written documentation is a better information source than computer-based information. http://tc.eserver.org/30479.html http://tc.eserver.org/30479.html A vital skill for designers is to notice fine detail in the other designs which form part of the technological ecosystem in which their design will live. For example, on Mac OS there are now two different styles of text entry fields for forms. One has square corners, and is used for general data entry. The other has rounded ends, and is used for entering searches. I was recently outraged to find a piece of software which used the rounded style for data entry. This kind of design vandalism muddies the rules which users would otherwise learn, and devalues all software on the platform. http://tc.eserver.org/30354.html http://tc.eserver.org/30354.html The most coveted writing assignment in the computer industry is the overview of an integrated software package. It calls for careful pacing, creative metaphor, and lavish graphics, all integrated with the highest skill. Here stands the pinnacle of a career, to be 'writing at the user interface.' http://tc.eserver.org/30225.html http://tc.eserver.org/30225.html If designers took the perspective of users in the design of air conditioners, perhaps the wait for the cold air would not have been 25 seconds, unless you really think that 25 seconds of waiting time is fun for users. http://tc.eserver.org/30196.html http://tc.eserver.org/30196.html Applications can give users access to a richer feature set by using the same few commands to achieve many related functions. http://tc.eserver.org/30146.html http://tc.eserver.org/30146.html This paper discusses the role of an information developer in defining application interface standards and ensuring compliance across all applications. An interface, such as an application screen or system-generated report, should be consistent to enhance ease-of-processing for the end users. http://tc.eserver.org/30025.html http://tc.eserver.org/30025.html Five levels of software intelligence can, in my opinion, make the dream of virtual assistants a reality. Collectively, they make up the concept of composite intelligence, which comprises various software components--each gifted with some moderate degree of intelligence. http://tc.eserver.org/30012.html http://tc.eserver.org/30012.html Abstract user interface prototypes offer designers a form of representation for specification and exploration of visual and interaction design ideas that is intermediate between abstract task models and realistic or representational prototypes. Canonical Abstract Prototypes are an extension to usage-centered design that provides a formal vocabulary for expressing visual and interaction designs without concern for details of appearance and behavior. A standardized abstract design vocabulary facilitates comparison of designs, eases recognition and simplifies description of common design patterns, and lays the foundations for better software tools. This paper covers recent refinements in the modeling notation and the set of Canonical Abstract Components. New applications of abstract prototypes to design patterns are discussed, and variations in software tools support are outlined. http://tc.eserver.org/30021.html http://tc.eserver.org/30021.html Essential use cases are abstract, lightweight, technology-free dialogues of user intentions and system responsibilities that effectively capture requirements for user interface design. Employing essential use cases in typical object-oriented development processes requires designers to translate them into conventional use cases, costing time, imposing rework, and delaying work on the object-oriented development until the user interface design is complete. We describe how essential use cases can drive object-oriented development directly, without any intervening translation, allowing user interface development to proceed in parallel. Working with essential use cases yields some unexpected further benefits: analysts can take advantage of recurring patterns in essential use cases, and the crucial common vocabulary of responsibilities lets designers trace directly from the essential use cases to the objects in their design. http://tc.eserver.org/30014.html http://tc.eserver.org/30014.html One of the main motivations for essential use cases was the context of user interface design. We, however, have been exploring the application of essential use cases in general object-oriented system development. Our experience has been very positive, and we found advantages to essential use cases that assist in both analysis and in design. This paper outlines two techniques involving essential use cases: use of role-play in requirements analysis, and distribution of system requirements from essential use cases to objects. http://tc.eserver.org/30020.html http://tc.eserver.org/30020.html An innovative approach to enhancing ease of use and learning for novel user interfaces is described. Instructive interaction comprises a body of techniques based on a learning-by-doing model that is supported by three design principles: explorability, predictability, and guidance. Taken together, these principles form the basis for creative designs that can support highly efficient production use by experienced users while also enabling new users to understand and make effective use of an unfamiliar system almost immediately. The underlying principles of instructive interaction are presented here and an assortment of specific techniques based on these principles is described. http://tc.eserver.org/29964.html http://tc.eserver.org/29964.html File upload is a basic function of today's Web portals. In this article, authors Xiaobo Yang and Rob Allan describe how to develop an Ajax-based file upload JSR 168-compliant portlet using DWR (Direct Web Remoting). DWR is an ideal Ajax framework for Java developers that dynamically generates JavaScript based on server-side deployed Java classes. You will learn how you can use DWR to retrieve file upload progress from the portal server. http://tc.eserver.org/29822.html http://tc.eserver.org/29822.html In this paper, we introduce a general framework for product experience that applies to all affective responses that can be experienced in human-product interaction. Three distinct components or levels of product experiences are discussed: aesthetic experience, experience of meaning, and emotional experience. All three components are distinguished in having their own lawful underlying process. http://tc.eserver.org/29819.html http://tc.eserver.org/29819.html Due to limitations on screen size and resolution, the usability of web maps relies heavily on their interface design. The main goal of this research is to find better interface designs for web maps and to facilitate their usage by the public. The research consists of two stages of investigation: (a) a survey on the operation interfaces of popular web maps; and (b) a usability evaluation of simulated interfaces by measuring task performance and conducting subjective evaluations. http://tc.eserver.org/29793.html http://tc.eserver.org/29793.html What do customers want from our software and documentation? They want to accomplish tasks, and to obtain information about tasks, as quickly and painlessly as possible. Do they also expect to be entertained along the way? No, not when there is work to be done. Years of usability analysis in the software industry indicates very clearly that clarity and ease-of-use is topmost on the minds of software users. http://tc.eserver.org/29780.html http://tc.eserver.org/29780.html Panelists from LSI Logic Storage Systems review their company's approach to enhancing process quality by using design documents as process enforcement and project-planning tools for planning the development of information products (IP). Hear how effective planning solves problems that occur during the IP development process and how capturing the planning elements in design documents helps solve role-based problems for developers, editors, and managers. Discuss the many problems design documents help project teams solve: they help developers solidify the IP development task sequence, they help editors define the rhetorical context, and they help managers reduce the cost of rework. http://tc.eserver.org/29454.html http://tc.eserver.org/29454.html This paper describes work on developing usable interfaces for creating and editing methods for high-throughput screening of chemical and biological compounds in the domain of life sciences automation. A modified approach to metaphor-based interface design was used as a framework for developing a screening method editor prototype analogous to the presentation of a recipe in a cookbook. The prototype was compared to an existing screening method editor application in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction of novice users and was found to be superior. http://tc.eserver.org/29288.html http://tc.eserver.org/29288.html The original tab signaled an information storage revolution and helped enable everything from management consulting to electronic data processing. http://tc.eserver.org/29290.html http://tc.eserver.org/29290.html Companies often file for and the US government actually grants patents for user interface and interaction design 'innovations' that are either strikingly obvious or have appeared before in other systems. http://tc.eserver.org/29051.html http://tc.eserver.org/29051.html In visual querying, users analyze data for their decisions and problems by interacting with graphics that are dynamic and linked. This querying paradigm is new, a dramatic break from the more familiar retrieving of data via search statements and displaying of it in static charts and graphs. For this new visual querying paradigm, analysts conceptually and operationally need to master new approaches. To discover salient relationships, they need to manipulate displays. To drill down for detail or causes, they have to select data of interest directly from a graph. And to draw inferences, they have to consider meanings across several dynamically linked graphics. With the aim of studying users success in these new approaches, particularly focusing on the approach of directly selecting data from graphs, I conducted a scenario-based usability test with 10 data analysts. They interacted with visualizations to complete a realistic complex analysis evaluating employee performance. Test findings reveal a range of difficulties in visual selection that, at times, gave rise to inaccurate selections, invalid conclusions, and misguided decisions. To overcome these difficulties, support for visual selection needs to be built into interfaces and help. Results and recommended improvements are presented. http://tc.eserver.org/28936.html http://tc.eserver.org/28936.html Achieving simplicity is not that simple when you are dealing with complex modern device design. Rob Tannen mused on lazy shortcuts, artificial constraints and Maeda's crusade on the complex. http://tc.eserver.org/28678.html http://tc.eserver.org/28678.html Over the past few years, I have come to appreciate the power patterns have as a shorthand that lets software engineers communicate their design intentions. Being able to discuss an Observer or Factory pattern with other engineers quickly moves the design discussion to more substantive concerns. http://tc.eserver.org/28683.html http://tc.eserver.org/28683.html How ironic that we think we can get more exact results from our computers by emulating human interaction, but when we want exact results from human interaction, we unintentionally emulate computers. Engineering, air traffic control, legal contracts--in all endeavors where precise communication is critical--our success has depended on washing out human emotion and natural language in favor of formal procedures and protocols, complete with a detailed domain-specific language. http://tc.eserver.org/28686.html http://tc.eserver.org/28686.html Here are some 'truths' we've all heard: 'Documentation is just a band-aid for poor design.' 'Real users don't read manuals.' 'Super users never read anything.' 'Help doesn't.' But are they really true? I've seen some signs of life in the use of documentation for digital products recently. http://tc.eserver.org/28675.html http://tc.eserver.org/28675.html Interaction Frontiers 2006 was a great experience, with some margin for improvement. I'm sure next year's Interaction Frontiers will be even bigger and better. http://tc.eserver.org/28661.html http://tc.eserver.org/28661.html In a utopian world, a product would be so perfect it would not need any user assistance at all. But in reality, products aren't perfect, and users need assistance through different stages of their use. User assistance (UA)--in the form of manuals or online Help--guides users in their tasks, suggests better ways of getting their work done, and provides directions for troubleshooting their problems. http://tc.eserver.org/28658.html http://tc.eserver.org/28658.html User assistance occurs within an action context--the user doing something with an application--and should appear in close proximity to the focus of that action--that is, the application it supports. The optimal placement of user assistance, space permitting, is in the user interface itself. We typically call that kind of user assistance instructional text. But when placing user assistance within an application as instructional text, we must modify conventional principles of good information design to accommodate certain forces within an interactive user interface. This column, User Assistance, talks about how the rules for effective instruction change when creating instructional text for display within the context of a user interface. http://tc.eserver.org/28668.html http://tc.eserver.org/28668.html Of all the objects that occupy our digital spaces, there are none that capture the imagination so much as icons. As symbols, icons can communicate powerfully, be delightful, add to the aesthetic value of software, engage people's curiosity and playfulness, and encourage experimentation. These symbols are key components of a graphic user interface--mediators between our thoughts and actions, our intentions and accomplishments. http://tc.eserver.org/28659.html http://tc.eserver.org/28659.html Successful Web applications tend to grow--both in terms of capability and complexity. And this increasing complexity is often passed on to and absorbed by a Web application's forms. In addition to needing more input fields, labels, and Help text, forms with a growing number of options may also require selection-dependent inputs. http://tc.eserver.org/28499.html http://tc.eserver.org/28499.html Are there any downsides of prototyping? Not really. But as with everything else in life, you might stumble and hurt yourself if you don’t watch your step. This article points out some of the banana skins to steer clear of. http://tc.eserver.org/28500.html http://tc.eserver.org/28500.html Prototypes often model one flow of interaction--the path that users are most likely to take. But when we create interaction designs with dynamic and complex flows, we often need to include deviations from the sunshine scenarios to see whether they work. In this article, we'll look at how to do this Visio and Axure. http://tc.eserver.org/28464.html http://tc.eserver.org/28464.html A study of the benefits of big monitors fails on two accounts: it didn't test realistic tasks, and it didn't test realistic use. Productivity is a key argument for workplace usability, but you must measure it carefully. http://tc.eserver.org/28414.html http://tc.eserver.org/28414.html Did you ever try to use a machine that has been programmed in a foreign language? Or perhaps, even with an unfamiliar character set? Suddenly everything seems to be different although only the language has changed. This is the situation faced by many foreign users that work with German machines. http://tc.eserver.org/28375.html http://tc.eserver.org/28375.html 大きい画面の利点についてのテストには、2 つの間違いがあった。現実的なタスクでテストしていなかったことと、現実的な利用方法でテストしていなかったことだ。生産性は、労働環境のユーザビリティを語る上で重要な項目になるが、それを計測する場合は、注意深く行わなければいけない。 http://tc.eserver.org/28366.html http://tc.eserver.org/28366.html Perhaps you had, once or twice, experienced the following: When you logon to a software system, you are required to input a user name and password. In most situations, the system remembers your last input and the system automatically pre-fills in the username edit box, and the cursor will be directly placed in the password edit box. You tried typing in your password several times, only to be complained by the system that the password is wrong. http://tc.eserver.org/28317.html http://tc.eserver.org/28317.html The mobile user interface is becoming a key differentiator for mobile telephony devices and services. The increased focus on usable, emotive, and branded user interfaces is the result of three key drivers. http://tc.eserver.org/28233.html http://tc.eserver.org/28233.html A trio of systems illustrates the challenges of designing large displays for use in ubiquitous computing environments that are, indeed, unremarkable. http://tc.eserver.org/28232.html http://tc.eserver.org/28232.html Our tabletop research efforts at Stanford University have focused on how tabletop user interfaces (UIs) might respond to and even influence a user group's social dynamics. http://tc.eserver.org/28093.html http://tc.eserver.org/28093.html A multi-leveled framework for user interface design guidelines of Web applications is presented. User interface design guidelines tend to provide information that is either too general, so that it is difficult to apply to a specific case, or too specific, so that a wide range of products is not supported. The framework presented is unique in that it provides a bridge between the two extremes. It has been dubbed the "Bull's-Eye' due to its five layers, represented as concentric circles. The center of the Bull's-Eye is the Component layer, followed by Page Templates, Page Flows, Interface Models and Patterns, and Overarching Features and Principles. To support this approach,requirements were gathered from user interface designers,product managers, UI developers, and product developers. Also, usability testing of the guidelines occurred on several levels, from broad guideline tests to more specific product tests. The guidelines and lessons learned are intended to serve as examples for others seeking to design families of Web applications or Web sites. http://tc.eserver.org/28018.html http://tc.eserver.org/28018.html A usability assessment entailing a paper prototype was conducted to examine menu selection theories on a small screen device by determining the effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction of a popular cellular phone's menu system. Outcomes of this study suggest that users prefer a less extensive menu structure on a small screen device. The investigation also covered factors of category classification and item labeling influencing user performance in menu selection. Research findings suggest that proper modifications in these areas could significantly enhance the system's usability and demonstrate the validity of paper-prototyping which is capable of detecting significant differences in usability measures among various model designs. http://tc.eserver.org/27574.html http://tc.eserver.org/27574.html This question was raised on a programmer's group recently and I was intrigued. The programmer's point was that with many web applications these days there is no print documentation distributed to end users, and even if it existed, many users won't read it although this makes me wonder who's buying all those how-to books I see in the bookstore. The programmer suggested that applications should be designed without documentation and wondered about the impact that would have on design. http://tc.eserver.org/27576.html http://tc.eserver.org/27576.html Handheld devices and small appliances pose a unique challenge to the interface designer. The blur between user interface and functionality (interface vs. interaction) is even more pronounced in these environments. The interface of any small device is extremely important; yet, more than ever, the necessity to build in exactly (and only) what is required by the user is extremely important! http://tc.eserver.org/27573.html http://tc.eserver.org/27573.html Software is sometimes poorly designed to begin with and the interface should be scrapped and rebuilt from scratch. But more often than not, I see software that started with a decent design and has since had features added onto it with each release, squeezed into the existing design rather than being designed in. People aren't in a design mindset but an 'enhancement' mindset somehow. http://tc.eserver.org/27580.html http://tc.eserver.org/27580.html As I write the 'how to' documentation based upon the in-process design, the weaknesses of my original design become apparent and I go back and forth from writing text to designing the software until it all flows.