An error message made it to Top Tweet status on Twitter in 2010. ““An unknown error message ‘APIEpicFAIL’ was received from the device”. The only user option: click on OK. When Duncan Campbell tweeted about this message, he commented sarcastically: “CouldContinue reading… Avoid being embarrassed by your error messages
Category: Articles
Design to read: guidelines for people who do not read easily
These guidelines are co-authored by Janice (Ginny) Redish, Kathryn Summers, and Caroline Jarrett. Orignally published in the June 2010 issue of UXPA User Experience, our work originated in the ‘Design to Read’ project. Design to read project archive This article onContinue reading… Design to read: guidelines for people who do not read easily
Avoid putting a reset button on your web forms
RESET buttons have been around for many years HTML 2.0 appeared in 1995. At that time, I was working in usability of forms – and I still am. But I didn’t have email or an internet connection. So I thinkContinue reading… Avoid putting a reset button on your web forms
Don’t put hints inside text boxes in web forms
When you are making a digital form, is it OK to put a hint inside a text box? The short version of my advice: don’t do it! Hint text is rarely effective as a way of helping users, but insteadContinue reading… Don’t put hints inside text boxes in web forms
Why we need a ‘qualification brain’: enabling users to navigate a complex curriculum
Why we need a ‘qualification brain’: from product catalogue to dominant narrative – enabling web-enquirers to understand and navigate through a flexible but complex curriculum This paper for the 23rd ICDE World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education, Maastricht,Continue reading… Why we need a ‘qualification brain’: enabling users to navigate a complex curriculum
Statistically significant usability testing
It was an intriguing question: “How do I find out about statistically significant usability testing?”. I’m sure it’s one that you’ve encountered, and maybe your reaction was the same as mine: “That’s the wrong question”. Then I realised that ifContinue reading… Statistically significant usability testing
Lessons from Celebrity Chefs: heuristic inspection or user-centred design?
Two TV cookery programmes take a contrasting approach to redesigning their menus, with lessons for the way we approach usability in our services.
Culture part 2 – what really matters in designing for different cultures
Caroline Jarrett shares some of her learnings from attending a conference where most participants were working cross-culturally
Design to read workshop – call for participation
Designing for people who do not read easily will actually improve usability for everyone, argues Caroline Jarrett
Colours and Culture – don’t always believe what you read
Thinking about colour in the context of different cultures can be more complicated than we’re led to believe. Caroline Jarrett points out some of the pitfalls.