[IxDA Discuss] "help text" in input fields - bad?
Does anyone have research to point to regarding the practice of placing instructional text in a field that is meant for user input? For example, on a site like http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ you see "Google custom search" inside the search field; or http://www.adobe.com/ writes "Search Adobe.com" inside theirs. I have read articles stating that this can depress overall usage of an input field, as some users become "blind" to the field if it is not empty, but can't find any now that I need them. Also, what about the use of colored input fields? Do non-white text boxes perform less well than standard white HTML input fields? Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Long Online Application and Chunking with Several Pages
I gave the form a try in Safari. The first field is not labelled, so I took a guess and entered a dollar amount. Upon hitting the dollar symbol (because there was no indication onscreen otherwise) I was slapped with a rather rude error message. (there are ways to avoid this error with both frontend and back end code) Each field presented itself one at a time, so that as a user I had no idea how much information would be expected of me, or how long the form would take to complete. There were a number of technical errors, but I will skip over that for now. The main concern I would have is that the form breaks users expectations of being able to tab quickly through fields to a visible goal, and does not provide a visible system status or adequately prevent errors or help users recover from errors. I would definitely put this through some usability testing and refinement as soon as possible. Jayson Sent from my iPhone On Dec 22, 2009, at 12:08 PM, kenton_hankins wrote: I recently created an online giving form using a jQuery plugin called coda slider (http://jqueryfordesigners.com/coda-slider-effect/) Combining this will some show/hide functionality helped me create a very pleasant and easy to use form. You can play with the form at https://www.valpo.edu/givetovu/artsandsciences/cd/ Hope this helps you and inspires some creativity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48008 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] REQ: Suggestions for best-practices or research on single-field address forms
Your response was "I don't think you should do it, because we do it a different way." The OP asked for best practices (although I despise that phrase) or research. Can you provide some empirical data or rationale that would support your assertions? On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 3:19 AM, Dimiter Simov wrote: > > ...I do not think you should replace the 5-field address form, just put > together the address info into an additional field... > > > Dimiter Simov (Jimmy) > Lucrat Ltd. www.lucrat.net > Netage Solutions Inc. www.netagesolutions.com > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best non-Flash sites?
That's a good choice. They're the agency that did TED.com - they have a superb user experience director over there, love those guys. On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 2:47 AM, Nathaniel wrote: > http://method.com/ > > They have a good website with really great polish and motion. It > feels like flash but I think it is all javascript. If you notice when > you click on a link it doesn't reload the entire page. Wish I knew > how to do that. They don't do their own programming, so who knows > what they used. > > You can do so much with javascript libraries like jQuery. You get the > robust websites that php and ruby provide and the sweet feel of flash. > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Deciding whether to use a "Show n items per page" control
Your point about users needing to "think they're close to the results they want" is a very good one, as it speaks directly to the need for a strong scent of information. One way to provide this might be to display the results in a style similar to the Apple TV or Front Row interface, where additional items are shown "peeking in" from off-screen. That would encourage users to keep paging, and provide a visual cue that additional pages are available. On another note, I would be careful asking users what they want - I notice that you said of one feature " the majority of our users tested said it was nice to have but they probably wouldn't use it." It is notoriously difficult for users to predict their own future behavior. It is better to rely on observed behavior than reported preferences. On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 10:58 AM, wrote: > Part of it depends on what your users want. When I was working on a site > search project, the general range of results people expected were either 10 > or 20. More than 20 was overkill, less than 10 didn't give them much > confidence that they'd seen a good snapshot of what was in the results. We > offered a "how many items" option and the majority of our users tested said > it was nice to have but they probably wouldn't use it. > > Part of it depends on the use of the list. We were acutely aware that users > rarely move past the 1st page of search results unless they think they're > close to the results they want, so we chose 10 results because we were > confident our top 10 results generally had what they wanted. (If we'd've > had less confidence we'd've gone with 20. We didn't have enough confidence > to go with 5 results.) But for shopping or browsing a category, different > mental paradigms are in play. > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Best non-Flash sites?
I've been looking at agency websites for the past couple hours on theFWA.com and my eyes are bleeding. It's one bizarre Flash disaster after another. Does anyone have a favorite site (or resource for looking at some) that is both engaging & cool AND usable? Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Deciding whether to use a "Show n items per page" control
I think you're missing an important point. Clicking on the image in Bing does open the site within a frame, but not the full image. If you use the "back" button in your browser, you will be taken to a different place than you were previously. If you click the "back" link on the page (not using the browser button, as would be standard), you may be taken to the place you were before, although the images may have shifted by a row or more. If you were to click the "full size" link before going back, you will be taken to a completely different part of the image results. Full size links open in new windows, which can lead to user confusion due to loss of window focus. Overall, it's a clumsy solution to a problem that may or may not have existed in the first place. On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 3:35 PM, live wrote: > You don't lose your place in Bing images. > Try it. > Search for something, scroll for awhile, click on it. Not good? Click back > link. Still in search spot. > > On Dec 7, 2009, at 12:24 PM, Jayson Elliot wrote: > > Speaking anecdotally, I would say I come back to the images results page > about 90% of the time. > > Some of the ways I use Google Images is when looking for a company logo for > a presentation, album artwork for my MP3 library, book art for my Delicious > Library database, etc. > In all of those cases, I often go to a search result and discover that the > image, once viewed full size, does not meet my needs, and I need to return > to the search results in the same place that I left. > > On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 3:19 PM, live wrote: > >> Come back? >> Honestly, have you ever had a need to go back to images after you've >> google/binged them? >> Can you imagine a use case scenario? >> >> >> >> On Dec 7, 2009, at 12:04 PM, Jayson Elliot wrote: >> >>> I would caution STRONGLY against the "bottomless scroll," however. >>> Bing.com >>> has been using it in their image search, presumably as one way to >>> differentiate themselves from Google. >>> >>> It's been a usability disaster. >>> >>> The page draws dynamically, making it difficult for a user to develop any >>> spatial memory of the images they have found. As the user scrolls, they >>> encounter a behavior they were not expecting from a scroll bar, and the >>> ability to intuitively understand where one is in the results set is >>> removed >>> by the lack of location cues. >>> >>> Once a user leaves the page, they cannot return to their selection on the >>> page via use of the back button. If they scrolled through several "pages" >>> of >>> images, they will come back to find themselves looking at different >>> images >>> than when they left (after waiting several seconds for the page to >>> redraw). >>> >> >> > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Deciding whether to use a "Show n items per page" control
Speaking anecdotally, I would say I come back to the images results page about 90% of the time. Some of the ways I use Google Images is when looking for a company logo for a presentation, album artwork for my MP3 library, book art for my Delicious Library database, etc. In all of those cases, I often go to a search result and discover that the image, once viewed full size, does not meet my needs, and I need to return to the search results in the same place that I left. On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 3:19 PM, live wrote: > Come back? > Honestly, have you ever had a need to go back to images after you've > google/binged them? > Can you imagine a use case scenario? > > > > On Dec 7, 2009, at 12:04 PM, Jayson Elliot wrote: > >> I would caution STRONGLY against the "bottomless scroll," however. >> Bing.com >> has been using it in their image search, presumably as one way to >> differentiate themselves from Google. >> >> It's been a usability disaster. >> >> The page draws dynamically, making it difficult for a user to develop any >> spatial memory of the images they have found. As the user scrolls, they >> encounter a behavior they were not expecting from a scroll bar, and the >> ability to intuitively understand where one is in the results set is >> removed >> by the lack of location cues. >> >> Once a user leaves the page, they cannot return to their selection on the >> page via use of the back button. If they scrolled through several "pages" >> of >> images, they will come back to find themselves looking at different images >> than when they left (after waiting several seconds for the page to >> redraw). >> > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Deciding whether to use a "Show n items per page" control
Agreed, the idea of asking users to customize any level of their online experience generally meets with limited usage. I'm not a fan of user customization as a general rule, even in desktop applications, unless it's for specialized use cases such as professionals rearranging their preferred tools in an application they use for work every day. In most cases, the presence of customization options is an indication that the designers couldn't decide on an optimal solution and punted. I would caution STRONGLY against the "bottomless scroll," however. Bing.com has been using it in their image search, presumably as one way to differentiate themselves from Google. It's been a usability disaster. The page draws dynamically, making it difficult for a user to develop any spatial memory of the images they have found. As the user scrolls, they encounter a behavior they were not expecting from a scroll bar, and the ability to intuitively understand where one is in the results set is removed by the lack of location cues. Once a user leaves the page, they cannot return to their selection on the page via use of the back button. If they scrolled through several "pages" of images, they will come back to find themselves looking at different images than when they left (after waiting several seconds for the page to redraw). Microsoft has attempted to counter this by opening links in new windows, but this only leads to a proliferation of windows or tabs that the user may not easily navigate, or even want. There may be ways to improve the paging experience, but the "bottomless scroll" seems like an engineering solution that went in search of a problem. On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 12:38 AM, dlambert wrote: > Or, you could go another direction altogether and eliminate paging > entirely: > > > http://blog.wekeroad.com/2009/11/27/paging-records-sucks--use-jquery-to-scroll-just-in-time > > Admittedly, this wouldn't work under all circumstances, but it's an > interesting alternative. > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47813 > > > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Video usability - chapter headers / timecodes?
I've designed a video player / page for a client's website which includes chaptering, showing the timecodes for each chapter and a brief description of what happens at that point in the video. Nothing too revolutionary, Google Video's been doing it for ages, as have many others. Being an ultraconservative client who doesn't have a lot of web experience, they've asked for user research / usability "best practices" / other examples in order to make their decision. Does anyone know of anything I could point to? Thanks! Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] JOB: IA/UX Designer, Manhattan - Wunderman (Contract)
Wunderman is looking for a UXD / IA to work on a contract (1099) basis. The position is ongoing, and you will be involved with several projects, including clients in automotive, pharma, and bank. I'm looking for a person who approaches user experience from a strategic direction, able to come in early on a project and examine user needs, goals and behaviors. You should have strong IA skills, of course, but also be good at working with a diverse team and promoting the user-centered perspective while helping the rest of the team do better work and have fun working with you. A solid foundation in usability testing & heuristic analysis is preferred, as is the ability to present and communicate well with clients and internal teams alike. Please email me with your resume and/or work samples at this email or jayson.ell...@wunderman.com This is located in midtown Manhattan (NYC), and is on-site, full time. Thank you! Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] UX designer / IA position open
Wunderman is looking for a UXD / IA to work on a contract (1099) basis. The position is ongoing, and you will be involved with several projects, including clients in automotive, pharma, and bank. I'm looking for a person who approaches user experience from a strategic direction, able to come in early on a project and examine user needs, goals and behaviors. You should have strong IA skills, of course, but also be good at working with a diverse team and promoting the user-centered perspective while helping the rest of the team do better work and have fun working with you. A solid foundation in usability testing & heuristic analysis is preferred, as is the ability to present and communicate well with clients and internal teams alike. Please email me with your resume and/or work samples at this email or jayson.ell...@wunderman.com Thank you! -Jayson Elliot Director of User Experience Wunderman Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Have you ever participated in an incubator?
Hi all, I have a bit of research I'd like to ask for help with. I'm working with a group of investors in the midwest who are interested in starting a business incubator. I am interested in talking to anyone who has been part of an incubator, either as a participant or a mentor, to learn about your experiences. I'd like to chat over the phone or over a coffee to learn about what you found valuable and what you would have changed if you could. Thanks in advance for your help! Jayson Elliot [EMAIL PROTECTED] Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
