A good user interface allows the user to do their tasks (whatever that may be), easily and quickly. Even if the user is new, they should feel familiar with the application, as if they used it before. Buttons are where you think they should be. Everything just feels familiar. If it does all this AND looks good, then you have a great user interface. The UI is all about the user.
User experience is what the user feels, who are the users, what they need, and how they do it. Google design has a nice
UX video, which is about thirty minutes long. Picture this: there is a problem where users are ignoring a helpful warning message. The error had a lot of red colors in it, and was totally ignored. Users felt that something was yelling at them, and that they'd rather ignore the message and ponder why the function didn't work. Changing the back color of the our error message from red to orange made the users pause and read the message.
http://www.helveticafilm.comDocumentary about typography. More specifically though, this documentary is about the Helvetica font and
it's impact it has played upon our world. I really love how the film goes into lengthy detail of how fonts are used and seen in our every day lives. Such as street signs, magazines, maps, websites, and anything with text. The spacing between the letters, the curves, the little nuinces, which make us feel the mood of what is being displayed. This is an instant watch on
Netflix, and I highly recommend to everyone - not just UI junkies.
What's not hot? Pure Flash driven websites.
First of all, Flash is great when used properly (as a component),
but terrible when the developers go for beauty over function. More specifically, there are reoccurring issues that seem to haunt pure Flash sites. The annoying pauses within the UI. Do I really need to wait 2-4 seconds for that cool looking transition? The guessing game. I wonder what this button does.
OH, that's what it does! Lastly, very poor navigation. When navigating through a flash object you instinctively hit the back button within your browser...
completely losing your position. Frustrating to say the very least. There is a lot of pressure for web sites to
look great at any cost. This is totally acceptable and should always be your ultimate goal
if the usability isn’t sacrificed. Again, always think about the user.
Feel free to
contact me to throw in your two cents. I'd love to hear from you.
