The corner stone of good user interface design is that if your users need instructions, you haven't done a good job. Of course with particularly complex applications there will be exceptions to this rule, but all developers should aim to make your interface as self-evident as possible.
There are no surprises
There is no need to use help
No excuse for RTFM (read the freaking manual)
Figure: A good interface does not need instructions!
Figure: Good example - Teamviewer's interface requires very little explanation
Figure: Good example - See the fly? (an example of excellent usability) Dutch manufacturers realized that a fly painted on the urinal became a "target" for men using the facility. And the fly is positioned in precisely the right place for minimal spillage or splash back. Clever people those Dutch!
The corner stone of good user interface design is that if your users need instructions, you haven't done a good job. Of course with particularly complex applications there will be exceptions to this rule, but all developers should aim to make your interface as self-evident as possible.
People may not pay attention to some important words in your interface. Adding a simple and clear icon beside the words will make the difference.
For emails and web content, using an simple emoji is an easy and friendly way to achieve the same result 🙂.
Using icons
Figure: Bad example - No icons to indicate the status
Figure: Good example - Green tick and red cross help the user to know what's going on
Using emojis
I join a lot of Sprint Reviews, and there is a consistent problem I see among Scrum teams. The PBIs have limited or missing information. Usually, this is due to unclear requirements...
Figure: Bad example - No emojis to enforce the meaning
I join a lot of Sprint Reviews, and there is a consistent problem I see among Scrum teams. The PBIs have limited or missing information 😥. Usually, this is due to unclear requirements...
Figure: Good example - The emoji gives extra focus on what is important
When there are key words that you want people to notice, you can add a spot of color on the important word for emphasis.
You should make parts of the text different colors just like you’d highlight or boldface parts of a sentence. The duo colored text will help emphasize your message. Whenever possible use the brand colors when you do this.
Figure: The TV signage has the important words in red
Figure: See bottom tag line - Don't make the important word “quality software” in red... because you already have red
Figure: See bottom tag line - Make the important word “quality software” in red... because you do not have red
Figure: Chewing the Fat bottom text. No red word because it is the title
When there are key words that you want people to notice, you can add a spot of color on the important word for emphasis.
Keep text as short as possible. Avoid wordy, stilted text.
Consult the documentation that came with your phone for further instructions.
Read the instructions that came with your phone
Describe only what the user needs to know and don't provide unnecessary information.
Your phone needs to communicate with Google servers to sign in to your account. This may take up to five minutes.
Your phone is contacting Google. This can take up to 5 minutes.
Focus on the user's concern, not technical details
Manually control GPS to prevent other apps from using it.
To save power, switch Location mode to Battery saving
Put the most important thing first
77 other people +1’d this, including Larry Page
Larry Page and 76 others +1’d this
Put the user's goal first
Touch Next to complete setup using a Wi-Fi connection
To finish setup using Wi-Fi, touch Next
Avoid being confusing or annoying
Sorry! Activity MyAppActivity (in application MyApp) is not responding.
MyApp isn’t responding. Do you want to close it?
Words and terms examples
❌ Bad examples - Avoid
✅ Good examples - Use
cannot, could not, do not, did not will not, you will
Contractions: can’t, couldn’t, don’t, didn’t, won’t, you’ll, and so on
okay, ok
OK
please, sorry, thank you
Attempts at politeness can annoy the user, especially in messages that say something has gone wrong. Exception: In Japanese, “please” is mandatory and imperative verbs should be localized accordingly (turn on -> please turn on).
fail, failed, negative language
In general, use positive phrasing (for example, “do” rather than “don’t,” except in cases such as “Don’t show again,” “Can’t connect,” and so on.)
me, I, my, mine
you, your, yours
Are you sure? Warning!
Tell user the consequence instead, for example, "You’ll lose all photos and media"
Remember to use dividers when referring to large sums or phone numbers.
Total: $27216
Phone: 14XXXXXXXXX
Figure: Bad example - These numbers are unwieldy and difficult to read
Total: $2,721.65
Phone: +1 XXX XXX XXXX
Figure: Good example - Symbols or some spaces make these large numbers easier to read
Note:
For currency references, different countries use periods in place of commas and vice-versa.
E.g. In the United States and Australia: $2,367.48 / In France and Brazil: $2.367,48.
Remember to use dividers when referring to large sums or phone numbers.
Optical alignmentFigure: In the first example, although the text is technically aligned, it does not 'look' it. In the second one, the "V" has been moved into the margin, but the optical alignment is now correct
Not only relevant in typography, optical alignment can also be used in forms and web.
Figure: Bad example - The fields are aligned to the radio buttons, but it doesn't "look" good enough
Figure: Good example - It seems neater, even though it is no longer technically aligned
Optical alignmentFigure: In the first example, although the text is technically aligned, it does not 'look' it. In the second one, the "V" has been moved into the margin, but the optical alignment is now correct
The search direction of a list should be obvious. When it comes to a multicolumn list, you should always head down instead of across for legibility.
Vertical lists are much easier to scan than horizontal lists, because all items are aligned to left, when you're looking for an item, you don't need to read the entire word, you can quickly scan the first letters and get directly to the item you look for.
Figure: Good example - Apple.com lists countries in columns vertically
The search direction of a list should be obvious. When it comes to a multicolumn list, you should always head down instead of across for legibility.
Vertical lists are much easier to scan than horizontal lists, because all items are aligned to left, when you're looking for an item, you don't need to read the entire word, you can quickly scan the first letters and get directly to the item you look for.
When you're giving an update on progress on a task list or a schedule, strike out the items that have been completed. Not only does it visually explain where you are, it also gives you a great sense of satisfaction...
Figure: Good example - SugarLearning's completed items are struck-through
Figure: Good example - Microsoft Outlook Todo's completed tasks are struck-through
When you're giving an update on progress on a task list or a schedule, strike out the items that have been completed. Not only does it visually explain where you are, it also gives you a great sense of satisfaction...
Figure: Good example - a "search box" makes it easy to find data
Figure: Good example - the search bar in Windows 8 is now always in the same position, no matter what program or where you are searching for. You can activate Charms in Windows 8 by mousing to the top right corner.
Figure: Good Example - TFS Preview has an easy to find search box.
Figure: Good example - a "search box" makes it easy to find data
Figure: Good example - the search bar in Windows 8 is now always in the same position, no matter what program or where you are searching for. You can activate Charms in Windows 8 by mousing to the top right corner.
Figure: Good Example - TFS Preview has an easy to find search box.
"Gamification" is a method of encouraging user participation. Usually, these are a set of incentives such as points or achievement badges that are linked to some other form of redeemable value.
It originated with Frequent Flyer programs and has crossed over into the software world with the success of Foursquare.
This concept is being utilized even inVisual Studio.
Figure: Good Example – Microsoft Rewards gives points when you search on Bing.com and buy things from the Microsoft Store online and in Windows 10
Figure: Good Example – Stack Overflow uses reputation points, awarded by how useful your answer to other user submitted questions were
Figure: Good Example – TimePro uses gamification to encourage users to do their timesheets on time
Figure: Good Example – SugarLearning Leaderboard is another good example
Figure: Good Example – Dropbox rewards its users with extra storage space instead of imaginary points. This is more interesting
"Gamification" is a method of encouraging user participation. Usually, these are a set of incentives such as points or achievement badges that are linked to some other form of redeemable value.
While "OK" buttons were the standard convention with operating systems of the past, web applications should use a more user-friendly approach to dialog boxes. Instead of "OK" buttons to confirm an action the users want, it’s more efficient and effective to give them button that is labeled with that specific action.
Figure: Bad example - web application button labeled as "OK"
Figure: Good example - button is labeled with the specific action
While "OK" buttons were the standard convention with operating systems of the past, web applications should use a more user-friendly approach to dialog boxes. Instead of "OK" buttons to confirm an action the users want, it’s more efficient and effective to give them button that is labeled with that specific action.
When a user looks at a search result, they expect to see a list of items to look into. If there are no results, don't give them noisy text because it can be taken as a search result. An icon also can be understood as a broken page. Your "no results" page should be clean.
Figure: Bad example - The list of "suggestions" is just noise and can confuse the user
Figure: Bad example - Having an icon implies that an error happened which is not the case
Figure: Good example - Plain and clean screen
Figure: Good example - Plain and clean screen on mobile
When a user looks at a search result, they expect to see a list of items to look into. If there are no results, don't give them noisy text because it can be taken as a search result. An icon also can be understood as a broken page. Your "no results" page should be clean.
When implementing search on a website, do you know that it is best to highlight the search terms in the page body?
Search is a common feature in websites, and one you will most likely have to implement at some stage. When search returns a list of items, it is useful to highlight the search terms where they appear in the results.
Figure: Search for items with these tags
Figure: Search results have their relevant tags highlighted
When implementing search on a website, do you know that it is best to highlight the search terms in the page body?
There is a clever, lightweight way to embed a YouTube video, which Google itself practices on their Google+ pages which reduce it to 15kbs.All you have to do is, whenever you need to embed a video to a page, add the below tag instead of the YouTube video embed code. (Remember to replace VIDEO_ID with actual ID of the YouTube video)
To avoid users accidentally cancelling an operation when they thought they where clicking the save button you should always make your cancel button less obvious.
Bad example: Cancel button looks like a save button
Good example: Cancel button is less obvious
Which side should the cancel button be on?
It depends which operating platform your program runs on:
Windows - On the right
Apple, iOS and Android - On the left
Web - Generally on the right
If you're designing a Web-based application, the decision is harder, but you should probably go with the platform preferred by most of your users. Your server logs will show you the percentage of Windows vs. Mac users for your specific website or intranet. Of course, Windows generally has many more users, so if you can't be bothered to check the logs, then the guideline that will apply to most situations is OK first, Cancel last.
What do you name your buttons?
It's often better to name a button to explain what it does, than to use a generic label like "OK". An explicit label serves as "just-in-time help," giving users more confidence in selecting the correct action.
Make the most commonly selected button the default and highlight it. Except if it's action is particularly dangerous; in those cases, you want users to explicitly select the button rather than accidentally activating it by hitting Enter.
Further Reading:
Nielsen Norman - The usability guru talking about ok and cancel buttons
To avoid users accidentally cancelling an operation when they thought they where clicking the save button you should always make your cancel button less obvious.
