January 2006 Issue
Evaluating the Usability of Search Forms Using Eyetracking: A Practical Approach
Published: January 23, 2006
In this article, I’ll present findings from eyetracking tests we did to evaluate the best solutions for label placement in Web forms. Today, forms are the primary—often the only—way users have of sending data to Web sites. Web 2.0 makes extensive use of forms. For example, on Flickr™, Del.icio.us, and Writeboard™—which, by the way, I used when writing this article—users provide all of their tags, comments, and other information using forms. Users submit queries to search engines using forms. E-commerce sites also rely heavily on forms that let visitors find and purchase products. (I’ve never browsed for books on Amazon®. I always search for them.)
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Category: Features
Color Theory for Digital Displays: A Quick Reference: Part I
Published: January 23, 2006
This article is Part I of a quick reference on color theory for digital displays. It is the first in a series of articles about the use of color in application program user interfaces and on Web sites.
Computer monitors display information using the RGB
(Red-Green-Blue) color model.
An RGB monitor synthesizes colors additively by selectively
illuminating each of its pixel’s
red, green, and blue phosphor dots at varying levels of intensity.
The light from a pixel’s three phosphor dots blends together
to synthesize a single color. In additive
color synthesis, all
hues of the visible spectrum of light are mixtures of various
proportions of one, two, or three of the primary
colors of light: red, green, and blue.
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Category: Features
Color Theory for Digital Displays: A Quick Reference: Part II
Published: January 23, 2006
Our perception of hues, values, and chroma levels depends upon their interaction with adjacent hues, values, and chromas, which can result in color-contrast, value-contrast, and chroma-contrast effects, respectively.
While you can achieve good design by using any
color-contrast, value-contrast, or chroma-contrast effect,
unintentional effects caused by the interaction of contrasting
colors can be visually distracting and can even diminish the
readability of the text in a user interface or on a Web page.
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Category: Features
UXnet Local Ambassadors: Building a Global Community One Locale at a Time
Published: January 9, 2006
Over the past few decades, we have seen a steady expansion
in the number of people who design or evaluate the quality
of the user experience of digital products. The popularization
of the personal computer in business and at home, the explosion
of the Web and Internet applications, and the sudden presence
of computer interfaces in everything from medical systems to
voting stations to home entertainment centers has greatly accelerated
the growth of the user experience (UX) movement.
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Category: Features
Designing User Experiences for Applications Versus Information Resources on the Web
Published: January 9, 2006
The relatively recent adoption of user-focused design practices
by the Web design and development community—including
personas, participatory design, paper prototyping, and the
like—highlights important distinctions between the user
experiences of desktop applications and those of information
spaces. With the growing desire for usable Web applications,
these distinctions become more topical and important to understand.
Though the process of designing and creating application
and information space user experiences for the Web is virtually
the same—even if the deliverable design documents may
differ—their user experiences are fundamentally
and profoundly different. For designers, business analysts,
marketing consultants, and others who are sincerely interested
in delivering the best user experiences online, understanding
these distinctions can reduce the cost of design and improve
the likelihood of user acceptance.
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Category: Features