Fitts’ Law is a mathematical model that predicts how long it will take to “point” at a target. It was first proposed by Paul Fitts in 1954. It takes into account where you are currently pointing relative to the target; How far away the target is and how big the target is. It has been [...]
Dan Sumption in his comment on my post Why We Test included a link to a post he wrote back in 2002 about train toilet usability. I’ve been wanting to write a post about the insanity of these “automated toilet experiences” for a while, but haven’t been on a train in order to relive the [...]
My old friend and Usability Friction reader Omar Ikram sent me a link to 3 Ways the iPad Could Kill Qwerty. It’s an interesting read. But I can’t help thinking the author has got the wrong end of the stick. I think whist we are using our fingers to type, QWERTY is here to stay.
The [...]
The 80/20 rule, also known as Pareto’s Principle, states that 80% of an observable effect is caused by 20% of the variables at play. The first recognition of this rule was by Vilfredo Pareto, who in 1906, recognised that 80% of Italy’s wealth was owned by 20% of Italy’s population.
The same 80/20 split can be [...]
Alert boxes are a user interface element that pops up to alert the user of some critical piece of information. This post explains how to write them.
Lets start off by getting something out of the way. Don’t use alert boxes. They are jarring, often steal focus, interrupt the flow of what a user is doing [...]
The aesthetic usability effect is where a user will perceive an attractive product as easier to use than an ugly one. It doesn’t actually matter if they are easier to use or not they are perceived as such so users will make subconscious concessions and overlook many difficulties. The seminal work on this principle is [...]
I spent my weekend installing a new central heating system. When I unpacked one of the radiators (the largest one at 1.2m x 0.5m ) it was damaged. Most of the radiators had the odd dent in the grills but could easily bent back in to shape. This one however had been in the wars [...]
After reading John Gruber’s post An Ode to DiskWarrior, SuperDuper, and Dropbox over at Daring Fireball, I decided to give Dropbox a go.
So I went over to their site for a look:
Nice and clean looking. I watched the video and was sold – sign me up! But, this is where the trouble started. The service [...]
The 2 buttons in the above picture are for a toilet flush. One button does a big flush using lots of water; the other does a smaller flush using less. Using a small flush when that’s all that is needed avoids wasting water and that’s a good thing.
As you can see the 2 buttons are [...]
The Five Hat Racks was first developed by Richard Saul Wurman in his book Information Anxiety. It’s a bizarre name, but makes sense: the hats are information…. hat racks organise hats…. and there are 5 ways to do it. Fine, call it what you like – at least it’s memorable! In a nutshell, there are [...]
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