How people really use the iPhone
First Impressions Through Visual Web Design
Within the first moments of encountering a Web page, people jump between the distinct visual areas of the page trying to get a sense of what they are looking at. To see this in action, just follow the blue dot in the eye-tracking video illustrated in figure 1. It shows a user’s eye movements through a Web page they are encountering for the first time. Note the way this user’s eyes move between large areas of the page very quickly.
Communicate Quick: First Impressions Through Visual Web Design
How Usable is Your Copy?
So how does copy impact usability? To answer this, let me first illustrate how people generally browse the web. It’s chaotic. We don’t tend to read everything that’s on a particular page. Instead, we scan the page very quickly, dashing from one point to another, trying to find what we’re looking for.
Turn Inline Links Into Padded Blocks for Larger Clickable Areas
There’s a very quick usability trick you can do with the links on your site to make them easier to use. It’s something that I don’t see talked about very much, and a lot of sites don’t implement it. Link padding and blocks — that is, increasing the clickable area of your links to make them easier to click on.
usabilitypost.com | Usability Tip: Turn Inline Links Into Padded Blocks for Larger Clickable Areas
Using Shadows to Improve the Usability of Menus and Windows
Application window and menu shadows have been around for a while on the OS desktop. These are the subtle shadows you have around the edges of active and inactive windows, as well as menus. Active windows also normally have stronger shadows to indicate that they are closer to us.
usabilitypost.com | Using Shadows to Improve the Usability of Menus and Windows
Fleetwood Mac Song of the Day
Vampire Weekend: “Everywhere”
http://prettymuchamazing.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/everywhere.mp3
Sammy Davis, Jr Song of the Day
Firefox Proposal: A Better New Tab Screen
Reggae Instrumental Song of the Day
Derek Holtsma, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar: Reggae Strings
From 12″ (B-side of the Congos “Jah Is the Sweetest”) (Rasta Movement, 197?)
http://o-dub.com/sounds/soulsides/summer08/Reggae%20Strings.mp3
From: http://soulsummer.blogspot.com/2008/08/summer-songs-08-luc-sante.html
Hierarchy - Design’s pecking order - Forum One: User Experience & Design Blog
Hierarchy. Strong, consistent visual hierarchy is key to a quality design.Q : What is visual hierarchy?A : Important elements have the most emphasis. Least important elements have the least emphasis. So, a user’s eye should move around the page from your most important content to your least important content.Q : Ok…I still don’t understand. How do you measure the emphasis of a single design element?A : There are a couple of design principles that we can use to create more or less emphasis.
Hierarchy - Design’s pecking order - Forum One: User Experience & Design Blog