Comments for Usability Thoughts

Comment on Links vs. buttons by Alex Key

Alex Key — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:01:08 +0000

I agree, good points.

One thing to be mindful of is that buttons will be in the natural tab order of the page. Whilst links will not (in many cases), so will need a little extra work to enable keyboard navigation.

Comment on Password requirements by Simon

Simon — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:57:34 +0000

@Jacob – Wrong, ‘newyorkcity’ is less secure than Pus9I34 in every way, teh first is not only open to dictionary attacks it also has fewer combinations.

@adrian – Putting a maximum limit on a pasword is not stupid, putting a vey small one is, but putting some sort of maximum on is sensible.

As for making users use different characters, tough, users are the first to complain if their account gets hacked, but then when a users use “1234″ or “password” for their accoutn what do they expect, unfortuantely some users need to be saved from their own stupidty.

Comment on Simple things by JC

JC — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:08:03 +0000

It isn’t a problem here in the USA. The bathroom switches are inside of the bathroom. If you’re in the bathroom looking at the door, you’ll find that the switch is pretty much always on the wall next to the door knob, but at standard switch height (about 8 – 12 inches higher than the door knob).

Therefore it is always easy to find, and as Terry noted, you turn the light on as you enter and turn it off as you leave, so there is no problem to be solved here.

It’s the same sort of setup for pretty much every room, and for the main entry into houses themselves. Switches are always on the inside.

Comment on Simple things by Terry

Terry — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:09:28 +0000

In Europe it is a little different than the US. In the US, you turn the light switch “on” as you enter the bathroom (because the switch is located right on the wall, INSIDE the door).

When you exit the bathroom, you turn the switch “off”. That way, the light is only on when someone is using, or inside, the bathroom. At all other times, the bathroom light is off…unless of course, you want to waste electricity!

Comment on Drag & Drop on the web by Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:25:19 +0000

in the first version of the grooveshark software there was a “add to a playlist” option on the song info page, so you can see why one is confused now.

i can see now the option in the selectors, but if you add the song to queue and search for another song there is no other way to add it from your queue. i guess you can say they have half of alternative

Comment on Drag & Drop on the web by Ivan

Ivan — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:17:35 +0000

There are “select boxes” at the top of the page where you can replace current songs, add to your library or your playlist. But yeah, there should be hint for this operation, although many people could have predicted this since is one of the default operations in every modern OS.

Comment on You know… by frankux

frankux — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:41:12 +0000

Help pages are for everyone. I’m an ‘advanced user’ when it comes to software but a basic user when it comes to cooking a turkey.

Comment on Form labels by Jüri

Jüri — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:26:02 +0000

Hi. Good point.

But certainly there is one good side to such method: it does not require labels which are usually *two, new type of items* for usual login box combination:

* username [txt input]
* password [pwd input]
* submit [button or image]
* forgot password? [link]

+ sometimes there are also:
* box title [title, hx tag]
* sign up! [link]

you see, this already consists of 4-6 elements (adding two would be quite a lot:) ) and 4-5 different types of elements (adding one would be quite a lot )

Also, I guess that everyone who sees this combination knows what the first and second input are for.

I just felt I needed to state the “more minimalist view” on this

(I just found your blog. +1 subscription to Reader)

Comment on Use search buttons by Adrian

Adrian — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:02:18 +0000

one reason: can be easily mistaken for a subscribe form. “GO” doesn’t say anything about the action you’re about to make.

Comment on Use search buttons by shellyc

shellyc — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:57:16 +0000

Any reason, arguments for the button being labeled ’search’ and not ‘go’ other than just dont?