Pages Tagged “design”
Blog Posts
- Fediverse: Beta to Production
The Twitter-to-Mastodon migration is like going from beta testing the Fediverse to production. Just like a public beta always turns up issues that were missed during development, when going to production you suddenly have a *huge* pool of new users who are going to use the system in ways you didn’t anticipate and haven’t already […]
- Bad Design: Splitting Notification Preferences
Splitting notification preferences across the app UI and the system UI is a mess for usability. But if the goal is making you see more notifications?
- I Guess
I’ve got to appreciate this network error UI from Minecraft Earth. Especially the button text.
- Long-Form Twitter: WHY OH WHY?
Twitter is suited for short statements and back-and-forth conversation. It’s terrible for anything long-form. Long Twitter threads* and images filled with text remind me of the old tech support days when users would paste screen shots of error messages into Microsoft Word documents and email me the document. It was a terrible tool for the […]
- Drink From the Bottom Of Your Shoe
I was looking for sandals and found these. They’re flip flops with a built in bottle opener, I suppose to make them more…cool? Gadget-y? But it’s on the sole of the shoe. Someone really didn’t think this design through. Update: There are some replies at Wandering Shop from people who’ve worn or used these. Apparently […]
- Straight-Party Checkbox: Bad Design Pattern
Putting a straight-party checkbox on a ballot violates a key design principle: The polling place and ballot should strive to avoid steering people toward specific choices. This is also why some places randomize candidates’ names or stick with alphabetical order. The human brain would rather work on auto-pilot than think carefully. Give it an excuse […]
- Broadcasting “Likes”
I figured out exactly what bugs me about Twitter & Facebook putting friends’ Likes in the timeline.
- Thread 1/
Twitter threads are a pain to read, especially when they aren’t well-crafted. But what they lack in readability, they make up in reach.
- Facebook Sync Messes Up Users’ Address Books
Fury after Facebook messes up smartphone users’ address books: Remember how Facebook sneakily changed your default email address to @facebook.com? … Some smartphone users…are reporting that their on-phone address books have been silently updated to make @facebook.com email addresses the default way to send a message to their contacts.Graham Cluley at Sophos The lesson: Whenever […]
- Best Way to Label Dead Links
Strikethrough implies that text has been changed, and arbitrary formatting provides no clues. Using a low-contrast color might be the solution.
- The Evil Carpet of Evil
The new carpet seems designed to keep hallways clear by maximizing eyestrain. I fear a photo won’t do it justice. HP Lovecraft might.
- ATM Design: Shelf?
It sure would be nice if this ATM had at least one horizontal surface so I could set down my drink and not have to mess with my wallet one-handed.
- The REAL Problem with Twitter
Twitter asks its users the wrong question, and it’s outgrowing the limitations of SMS messages.
- Don’t Hurt the Web
The Mozilla Developer Center has just posted some desktop wallpaper promoting open standards, (and the MDC itself) with the theme, “Please don’t hurt the web. Use open standards.” Apparently the design was a big hit as a poster at SXSW. For those who haven’t seen it, the MDC is a great developer resource for web […]
- Browser Discrimination hits IE7
I just read an interesting post from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team on The IE7 User-Agent String. This statement in particular illustrates a problem not unfamiliar to Opera users: There are a few remaining sites which fail to recognize IE7 because they are performing exact string matches to look for specific IE version strings. Those checks […]
- Conditional Opera Banners Using JavaScript
Posting an Opera button on your website or blog is a great way to encourage people to try out the browser — but what if the visitor already uses Opera? It shows solidarity, but what if you could show them something else, something that is new to them? You might want to replace your regular […]
- Suggestive logo
Here’s another example of using a design that suggests a logo, rather than using it outright. This is a “Win Compatible” badge from the package of a KVM switch. (I think it was from IOGEAR.) What I like about this is that it manages to get the idea across clearly even though it doesn’t use […]
- Restart your computers!
Microsoft’s automatic update system is now offering an update to the Windows Installer. That’s the program that handles all those .msi files you use to install new applications, keeps track of what’s currently installed, and lets you uninstall them. And it needs to reboot after installing? WHY? What low-level system file did they have to […]
- Title goes here
I’ll always remember a line from a play I was in during college. It was an original musical, and the composer couldn’t come up with a good line by the time he had to hand out the scripts, so he filled it in with “Come around and schmoo” just to keep the rhyme in place. […]
- Web Clutter: An Object Lesson
Here’s a pair of excellent articles about how to avoid cluttering up your website so that people can actually see your content. The article is, however, hampered by appearing on a site that seems to violate every usability principle imaginable…. to the extent that the second one showed up on the Cruel Site of the […]
- Pixels as Magic Numbers
All the Linux desktop action these days is in KDE and GNOME, but on older hardware, servers, or anything else where you need to squeeze every last ounce of performance from the box, something lighter is needed. My Linux box at work — a 300 MHz Pentium II — runs WindowMaker. It’s familiar, it stays […]