May 06
Do not confuse your users: Good labels are important for a better user performance and to increase usability.
Jul 10
Quick recipe for writing error messages: inform (1) WHAT went wrong, (2) WHY it happened, and (3) HOW to fix it.
Jun 09
The chance of someone be blocked by mistake in this screen is very high. Since the distance between the actions of Accept and Block has only a few pixels… a small slip with the mouse and you unintentionally will block someone.
Error prevention
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action. (From Nielsen’s usability heuristics)
Apr 24
Probably there was no diversion sign with a right arrow =P
I know diversion signs are quite self explanatory, but that was funny.
Apr 03
Warnings are one of the common strategies for incorporating forgiveness in design.
Forgiveness in design helps prevent errors before they occur, and minimize the negative consequences of errors when they do occur.
Road signs make roads more forgiving by warning drivers of impending hazards.
(From Universal Principles of Design book)
Apr 01
Sign at Barreira do Boqueirão beach in Japaratinga.
Nov 25
I was observing the low-usability of the buttons on the elevator of my building…
To choose a floor you must slide your finger on the button or simply touch it. The feedback of this action is a sound and a light, but there is no indication of where the finger should be slid.
The sensor is not in the full extent of the button, just in the middle and in one side. The other side has an indication of the floor in Braille. The fact of having information in Braille is another curious fact … because the elevator doesn´t indicate (with non-visual information) on which floor it is… how blind people will know on which floor they are?
And you may notice that the buttons don’t have a standard position. The buttons on the right are a reflection of the buttons on the left side… Null accessibility.
I really like pushing buttons and I think I’m not alone. Several times I saw broken buttons and nervous people trying to push this piece of hard plastic with a sensor inside it. Many people do not understand how this “modern” button works, so they try to push it stronger.
Apparently it’s obvious that there is no sensor in the Braille’s place (how blind people could read without selecting many floors) but a logical thing isn’t necessarily easy and intuitive.
It’s not intuitive thinking about a button that cannot be pushed….
Nov 08
I thought that change my background image on Twitter would be an easy task… I was wrong.
Step 1:
Find a nice image… Ok =)
Step 2:
Hum… I don’t know. Maybe wait…
Step 3:
Still waiting…
Nothing happens… no status bar… no boring messages. Ok, I can wait… no I can’t wait! Maybe if I click on this fancy white box something will happen… but nothing happens again.
I decided to click on ‘Save Changes’ button and Twitter saved my old background image. It wasn’t what I was expecting.
I returned to the Step 1… and waited… like some kind of magic (upload without feedback) my new backgroud appeared in the fancy white box and in the Twitter page. Apparently everything was ok.
Step 4:
Click on ‘Save Changes’ button. Finished.