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	<title>Usability Thoughts &#187; Adrian</title>
	<atom:link href="http://usabilitythoughts.com/author/admin/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com</link>
	<description>content meets user</description>
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			<item>
		<title>Take on the new iPhone&#8217;s FaceTime</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/take-on-the-new-iphones-facetime.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/take-on-the-new-iphones-facetime.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:07:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Random thoughts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facetime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[videocalls]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=195</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[News Flash, europeans have front faced cameras on their phones and videocalls (everywhere there is 3G) for years now. And no, they are not using those.
I tested vedeocalls twice when they first appeared  a few years ago and that was it, never again. It&#8217;s simply useless.
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>News Flash, europeans have front faced cameras on their phones and videocalls (everywhere there is 3G) for years now. And no, they are not using those.</p>
<p>I tested vedeocalls twice when they first appeared  a few years ago and that was it, never again. It&#8217;s simply useless.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://usabilitythoughts.com/take-on-the-new-iphones-facetime.html/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Windows icon selection fail</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/windows-icon-selection-fail.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/windows-icon-selection-fail.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:18:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[desktop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[icons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[selections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=193</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I ran into a usability fail that has to exist from windows 3.1.
Windows arranges it&#8217;s icons/shortcuts/files on desktop column by column. But if you select them with SHIFT (multiple select), it selects them line by line  . 
If you arrange icons by type and you want to delete the pictures, you cannot do that [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I ran into a usability fail that has to exist from windows 3.1.</p>
<p>Windows arranges it&#8217;s icons/shortcuts/files on desktop column by column. But if you select them with SHIFT (multiple select), it selects them line by line <img src='http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> . </p>
<p>If you arrange icons by type and you want to delete the pictures, you cannot do that by selecting them with SHIFT from first to last.</p>
<p>Since I use windows for ages and not realized this until now, i don&#8217;t think it bothers people, but still&#8230; interesting find. </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Simple things</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/simple-things.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/simple-things.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:10:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[objects]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=187</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Let&#8217;s take one dead simple thing we all use every day: the bathroom light switch. The majority of the houses (or am I wrong?) have this switch outside the bathroom, and if the door has no glass it&#8217;s kind of hard to see if the light is on or off in the bathroom.

Put on that [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Let&#8217;s take one dead simple thing we all use every day: the bathroom light switch. The majority of the houses (or am I wrong?) have this switch outside the bathroom, and if the door has no glass it&#8217;s kind of hard to see if the light is on or off in the bathroom.</p>
<p><img src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/light-switch-62094.jpg" alt="light-switch-62094" title="light-switch-62094" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188" /></p>
<p>Put on that piece of plastic some paint and you&#8217;ll have a perfectly usable switch:</p>
<p><img src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/light-switch-2.jpg" alt="light-switch-2" title="light-switch-2" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-189" /></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Drag &amp; Drop on the web</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/drag-drop-on-the-web.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/drag-drop-on-the-web.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:12:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Patterns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Usability fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drag]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drag&drop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=182</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For God&#8217;s sake, if you use it, please offer an alternative.
This the &#8220;add to playlist&#8221; Grooveshark system:

Very neat, clean. Unfortunately, if you don&#8217;t already know that&#8217;s how you do it, you have absolutely no hint to help you guess how you add a damn song to a damn playlist:

Yeah, i asked a fiend who found [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For God&#8217;s sake, <strong>if you use it, please offer an alternative</strong>.</p>
<p>This the &#8220;add to playlist&#8221; Grooveshark system:</p>
<p><img src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/grooveshark_drag.png" alt="grooveshark_drag" title="grooveshark_drag" width="458" height="339" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-183" /></p>
<p>Very neat, clean. Unfortunately, if you don&#8217;t already know that&#8217;s how you do it, you have absolutely no hint to help you guess how you add a damn song to a damn playlist:</p>
<p><img src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/grooveshark_hint.png" alt="grooveshark_hint" title="grooveshark_hint" width="358" height="260" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-184" /></p>
<p>Yeah, i asked a fiend who found out from another friend of his. That&#8217;s not usability, Grooveshark.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Amazing lookup feature on NYTimes Blogs</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/amazing-lookup-feature-on-nytimes-blogs.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/amazing-lookup-feature-on-nytimes-blogs.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:53:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Good practices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Patterns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dictionary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[words]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=178</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was reading One Hundred Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do on a NY Times blog and i had no idea what the heck &#8220;amuse-bouche&#8221; is. I selected the word so I can copy and google it. 
The instance I selected the text a question mark appeared. Yeah, I don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s that. I click [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I was reading <a href="http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/one-hundred-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do-part-one/?em">One Hundred Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do</a> on a NY Times blog and i had no idea what the heck &#8220;amuse-bouche&#8221; is. I selected the word so I can copy and google it. </p>
<p>The instance I selected the text a question mark appeared. Yeah, I don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s that. I click on the question mark and it opens a popup with a dictionary lookup  on the word. </p>
<div align="center"><img src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lookup_word.png" alt="lookup_word" title="lookup_word" width="396" height="112" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-179" /></div>
<p>OH, how natural this was!!! </p>
<p>PS: Turns out the &#8220;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amuse-bouche">amuse-bouche</a>&#8221; is some kind of appetizer. </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>So wrong on so many levels</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/so-wrong-on-so-many-levels.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/so-wrong-on-so-many-levels.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:39:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Patterns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Usability fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buttons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call to action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forms]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=175</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have update the &#8220;All in one seo pack&#8221; for wordpress and it insisted that i update the configuration page. I went and checked the page an this is what i have found:

It amazes me how awful is this form made, I think it&#8217;s deliberately made so you fuck up. Let&#8217;s see why:
1. the &#8220;Reset&#8221; [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I have update the &#8220;All in one seo pack&#8221; for wordpress and it insisted that i update the configuration page. I went and checked the page an this is what i have found:</p>
<p><img src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/seopack.png" alt="seopack" title="seopack" width="499" height="363" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-176" /></p>
<p>It amazes me how awful is this form made, I think it&#8217;s deliberately made so you fuck up. Let&#8217;s see why:</p>
<p>1. the &#8220;Reset&#8221; option in on the right. (I&#8217;m not saying the submit must be on the right, but it&#8217;s the most common that way)<br />
2. the &#8220;Reset&#8221; button is bigger and has the same design as the &#8220;Update&#8221; button. That and 1. makes it most likely to be pressed first<br />
3. both buttons have the same design, hence they are equally important? i don&#8217;t think so, the call to action button must be the &#8220;update&#8221; button. Keep in mind that &#8220;Reset&#8221; is a destructive action.<br />
4. what&#8217;s with the &#8220;>>&#8221; ? the arrows on the first button point to the second, which kindda&#8217; makes the second the call to action, but the arrows on the second? there&#8217;s no extra step, there&#8217;s only a form. </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Use search buttons</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/use-search-buttons.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/use-search-buttons.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:42:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Good practices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Patterns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Usability fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buttons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[labels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=171</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A basic usability test (very cheap also) is logging remote on another person&#8217;s computer and watching him/her use the app/website/tool. It&#8217;s eye opening. 
So I have seen my mother (who is not a computer savy person)  hovering the page in search of buttons. When she searches things she doesn&#8217;t use the keyboard, she presses [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A basic usability test (very cheap also) is logging remote on another person&#8217;s computer and watching him/her use the app/website/tool. It&#8217;s eye opening. </p>
<p>So I have seen my mother (who is not a computer savy person)  hovering the page in search of buttons. When she searches things she doesn&#8217;t use the keyboard, she presses the &#8220;Search&#8221; button, and when that&#8217;s not available she gets confused. If the search field has an arrow image background on the right side, she tries to click that arrow and gets puzzled when nothing happens.</p>
<p><img src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/use_search_buttons.png" alt="use_search_buttons" title="use_search_buttons" width="297" height="60" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-172" /></p>
<p>So, <strong>please use search buttons</strong>.</p>
<p>Oh, and please don&#8217;t name them &#8220;Go&#8221; or &#8220;>>&#8221; or stuff like that, name them &#8220;search&#8221;, and even put a magnifying glass on them.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Form labels</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/form-labels.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/form-labels.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:26:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Patterns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Usability fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inputs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[labels]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=167</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[DON&#8217;T put your form labels inside the inputs.

If i start writing into the input and i forget if i had to insert the username or the email address i have to delete everything, pray to god that the programmer made so the label appears again in the field once I click away, and after that [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>DON&#8217;T</strong> put your form labels inside the inputs.</p>
<p><img src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/labels.png" alt="labels" title="labels" width="364" height="87" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-168" /></p>
<p>If i start writing into the input and i forget if i had to insert the username or the email address i have to delete everything, pray to god that the programmer made so the label appears again in the field once I click away, and after that complete the field again. It&#8217;s not nice. </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Google Account login over the years</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/google-account-login-over-the-years.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/google-account-login-over-the-years.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:48:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Good practices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Patterns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[account]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call to action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[login]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=158</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A login account sounds simple but it&#8217;s not. I&#8217;ve been watching Google Account login form for a while and saw the changes they made over time. A login form has to accomplish several things:
- get the registered clients into the system fast
- make unregistered users to register
- convert a visitor into a user
- provide a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A login account sounds simple but it&#8217;s not. I&#8217;ve been watching Google Account login form for a while and saw the changes they made over time. A login form has to accomplish several things:</p>
<p>- get the registered clients into the system fast<br />
- make unregistered users to register<br />
- convert a visitor into a user<br />
- provide a way to recover an account</p>
<p>In time, the priority  of those things changes, ie: at the beginning of a startup you want more new users, the register process must be the first thing a visitor sees in the page, after a while and a solid client base you want those clients to login fast and without issues.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s see some of Google&#8217;s login forms now:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-160 aligncenter" title="google-account-login" src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/google-account-login.gif" alt="google-account-login" width="227" height="262" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Size of the font and spacing changed for better focus on the link.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-159 aligncenter" title="google-docs-login" src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/google-docs-login.gif" alt="google-docs-login" width="323" height="359" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Here come the blue buttons.  Call to action all the way. Unfortunately, I personally had problems logging in, I pressed the &#8220;new account&#8221; button instead of &#8220;login&#8221; multiple times.  Wasn&#8217;t very happy with those. The naming on the button changed a lot, &#8220;get started&#8221;, &#8220;pick a name&#8221; or simply &#8220;new account&#8221;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-161 aligncenter" title="gmail-login-signup" src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/gmail-login-signup.bmp" alt="gmail-login-signup" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-164 aligncenter" title="Login_Full" src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Login_Full.jpg" alt="Login_Full" width="269" height="364" /></p>
<p>The next one is the one i can see today on my browser, it really doesn&#8217;t have a actual call-to-action button, just a size priority. It&#8217;s better.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-162 aligncenter" title="2009-10-07_1713" src="http://usabilitythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/2009-10-07_1713.png" alt="2009-10-07_1713" width="407" height="420" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Note: I&#8217;m more than sure it depends on the OS/BROWSER/GOOGLE SERVICE etc.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Information and Architecture</title>
		<link>http://usabilitythoughts.com/information-and-architecture.html</link>
		<comments>http://usabilitythoughts.com/information-and-architecture.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:37:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Good practices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[architecture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[information]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://usabilitythoughts.com/?p=155</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Two short films by MAYA Design about information and architecture.
Information

Architecture

]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Two short films by MAYA Design about information and architecture.</p>
<h2>Information</h2>
<p><object width="400" height="267"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3248432&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3248432&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="267"></embed></object></p>
<h2>Architecture</h2>
<p><object width="400" height="267"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3248803&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3248803&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="267"></embed></object></p>
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