When you use an interface it’s the little things that help make it either a pain or just outstanding.
Sadly, too often we have to put up with the bad interfaces.
In light of this I will from time to time be producing a few articles focusing on specifics of bad interface design and implementation practices.
First one off the ranks is date fields and calendar pickers.
This interface element never really seems to work the way you want it to. Making the overall experience very frustrating.
The other day I was chatting away with a potential client, I asked for their phone number, as you do. They replied with 1800 GETT AWEB (no that’s not real) . I asked what that was a real number, there was silence for a moment, then “I have no idea,” was the honest reply.
It’s not that phone names are anything new, but it did get me thinking.
The use of the phrase (name) as a number was all well and good if I wanted to remember the number. It’s well know that people remember words and phrases better in general than they do strings or numbers. Clearly why phone number names are so popular.
This is the presentation given on Wednesday 24th June 2009 to the Perth Branch of the Silverlight Developer and Designer Network. The slidedeck isn’t going to make much sense without the transcript below. Just be aware of that if you are slide deck with out following with this transcripts.
Let’s ground this a little and get real before we even start.
To often we design web sites and applications with a limited amount of information and specifications as to what is really is required. It’s a fact. Let’s not stand around and pretend otherwise.
I was having a discussion the other day with some fellow web designer friends on the skills that you required to be stay in this field long term.
Sure we all agreed you need to at least have the core design skills, understanding of layout, colour theory, typography and the usual tricks of the trade. The platform that you used to deliver your designs was immaterial, be that Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks or the like it didn’t really matter, the end result was what was important. That’s a given.
Gary Barber
I’m an independent User Experience Consultant.
I design interfaces, build information architectures, HTML prototypes, run workshops on UX design, do user research and conduct usability & accessibility testing and audits.
I can work within your existing team or as an external consultant on a contract or adhoc basis.
You can contact me via my company, radharc or just email me.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.
