Introduction Forms are ubiquitous and a major way in which websites can become interactive. But they tend to receive little design attention – and much of that is spent arguing about details. This talk looks at one of those details:Continue reading… Label placement in forms: what’s best?
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Buttons on forms – where to put them and what to call them
Here’s a question that I get asked quite often: “Should we put an ‘OK’ button to the left or the right of the ‘Cancel’ button?” A common variant is to ask the same question with ‘Back’ or ‘Previous’ instead ofContinue reading… Buttons on forms – where to put them and what to call them
Delivering Better Ballots
“An election is not held to test voters’ ability to follow instructions, but to receive instructions from the voters as to which candidates they will elect. No legitimate public purpose is served by designs that distort those instructions.” It’s goodContinue reading… Delivering Better Ballots
Search is now normal behaviour. What do we do about that?
This presentation, co-authored with Whitney Quesenbery, Ian Roddis, Viki Stirling and Sarah Allen, was delivered at UPA 2008 – The Many Faces of User Experience June 16-20, 2008, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Exploring the way search affects usability of a siteContinue reading… Search is now normal behaviour. What do we do about that?
A whole industry sector’s websites rated according to their usability
Back in March, 2008, Usability News noted the publication of the 10th annual ‘Better Connected’ report. If you work on websites for local government, this won’t have passed you by: Better Connected’s annual assessment is the point each year whenContinue reading… A whole industry sector’s websites rated according to their usability
Usability of content is plain language: the USA Plain Language Act
An exciting thing happened in the USA on 14th April 2008. It didn’t quite manage to make it onto the national news – that day, we were mostly hearing about the Pope’s visit to the United States. Any ideas? Any clueContinue reading… Usability of content is plain language: the USA Plain Language Act
People before pixels: what to think about before you start
Luke Wroblewski asked me to contribute some thoughts to his book “Web form design: filling in the blanks”. Here’s what I wrote. I love forms, mostly because they offer so many opportunities for improvement. And I love discussing forms withContinue reading… People before pixels: what to think about before you start
How to do ‘Contact Us’ badly (and some tips for doing it well)
My email started playing up. I noticed that I was getting items out of sequence, sometimes very late. I tried the usual things: clearing the spam folders, powering the computer down, you know. But there was nothing for it: I’dContinue reading… How to do ‘Contact Us’ badly (and some tips for doing it well)
When more data really isn’t the issue
A few years ago, a rather dull conference speaker spoke one phrase that stuck in my mind. He said: “I was at this meeting, and I heard a voice going ‘blah blah blah’. And then I realised: it was me”.Continue reading… When more data really isn’t the issue
Problems and joys of reading research papers
Most of us are familiar with what it is to read a research paper and, at times, to struggle with it. Writing an editorial for the Journal of Usability Studies, I took my own experience as a user and readerContinue reading… Problems and joys of reading research papers