Guidelines on the Common Features of Mobile Phone Interfaces  

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.

Stockbridge, Lucy and Azia Mughal. Serco (2007). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Wireless Web>User Interface

The Art of Expectations

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.

Lang, Keith. UI and Us (2008). Articles>User Interface>User Centered Design>Cognitive Psychology

Impairment and Design

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.

Lang, Keith. UI and Us (2008). Articles>User Interface>Accessibility

AJAX Interface Design

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.

Wroblewski, Luke. LukeW Interface Designs (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Interface>Ajax

Interaction Elasticity

Usage goes down as interaction costs increase. User motivation determines how fast demand drops, following an elasticity curve.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Usability>User Interface>Interaction Design

Year's 10 Best Application User Interfaces

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.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>User Interface>Usability

Polite Computers Win Users' Hearts and Minds

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.

Biever, Celeste. New Scientist (2004). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface

Could You Repeat That in English?

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.

Seebach, Peter. IBM (2002). Articles>User Interface>Online>Help

The Human Factors of Touch Input Devices  

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.

Lee, A.T. Beta Research (1997). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface

Create the World, The Interface Will Follow

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.

Wellings, Paula. Adaptive Path (2008). Articles>User Interface>User Experience>Contextual Inquiry

Jensen Harris Tells Dan About Microsoft Office's Ribbon Interface

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.

Harrelson, Dan. Adaptive Path (2008). Articles>Interviews>User Interface

Intuitiveness and Adaptability

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.

Nesbitt, Scott. DMN Communications (2008). Articles>User Interface>Usability

Usability in Practice: The Human Face Of Software

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.

Kreitzberg, Charles B. and Ambrose Little. Microsoft (2008). Articles>Usability>User Interface>User Experience

Antipatterns

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.

Hornsby, Peter. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Web Design>User Interface

Text Treatment and the User Interface

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.

Komischke, Tobias. UXmatters (2009). Articles>User Interface>Typography

Making the Right Constraints for Usable and Accessible User Interfaces

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.

Cornelius, Gary and John J. Chelsom. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>User Interface>Usability

Reviewing User Interfaces

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.

Bracey, Rhonda. UXmatters (2009). Articles>User Interface>Assessment

Putting the Wrecking Ball to the User Interface (UI)

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.

Nesbitt, Scott. DMN Communications (2009). Articles>User Interface>TC>User Centered Design

Including Recommendations in User Interfaces to Enhance Motivation

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.

Kirmani, Afshan. UXmatters (2009). Articles>User Interface>Help>User Experience

On User Interface Design, Part I

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.

Kay, Alan. Visual Literacy (1983). Articles>User Interface>History>Podcasts

On User Interface Design, Part II

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.

Kay, Alan. University of California Berkeley (1983). Articles>User Interface>History>Podcasts

Operating System Interface Design Between 1981-2009

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.

Webdesigner Depot (2009). Articles>User Interface>Operating Systems>History

Using Verbs As Nouns in User Interfaces

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.

Six, Janet M. UXmatters (2009). Articles>User Experience>Diction>User Interface

Refreshable Braille and the Web

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.

Hudson, Roger. DingoAccess (2009). Articles>Accessibility>User Interface>Podcasts