All posts in Usability

Endor.se – Site for endorsing other freelancers

by Ades on February 14, 2011 in Jobs, Online Tools, Usability with 30 Comments

Normally when you create stunning websites like these (below), you will be overloaded with client requests… It’s understandable of course, because everybody wants to have a nicely designed website.

These are works of Freelance Interface Designer, Sam Brown. And as with other great designers, Sam is not available for freelance projects at the moment. And this is the case with almost all the good designers. Most of them are already busy and has no time for your projects.

But Sam was kind enough to do a project called Endor.se to solve this issue, where busy freelancers can endorse/recommend other equally good freelancers who might be free to take up your project.

For example, you can see who Sam himself is endorsing at http://endor.se/sambrown

Website: Endor.se

Wunderlist – My Favorite To-Do List Manager

by Ades on February 8, 2011 in iPhone, Software, Usability with 19 Comments

Wunderlist is my new favorite task manager tool. It is free, cross platform (Windows, Mac) and has mobile version (iPhone app) which makes it easy to sync your to-do lists between your PC and iPhone.

In a few weeks time, they are coming up with iPad, Android and Browser versions as mentioned in their blog post here.

Website: http://www.6wunderkinder.com

Now one of my to do list is to upgrade my website hosting soon and gather all my sites together in on hosting plan. But the problem with this is that when the server goes down all of my sites goes down with it. Hmmm…

iPad, what do you think?

by Ades on January 29, 2010 in Advice to Businesses, Technology, Usability with 91 Comments

Well, as you know the whole internet is going crazy about the new product of Apple, iPad. I just wanted to know what is your opinion on it? As a product and what its impact will be on the PC industry in general. For sure it’s going to strangle Amazon’s Kindle, will probably cannibalize Apple’s own product – MacBook, because with iPad you can pretty much do anything what you would normally do with normal notebooks/netbooks. It also comes with accessories like doc, casing and keyboard in case you want to use it like a real notebook with real keyboards.

I personally think that it’s an amazing product, it will be particularly popular with marketing professionals who would benefit from this kind of beautiful tablet PC (Mac) for their presentation purposes. As with normal people, they would enjoy it for reading e-books and browsing the internet. And of course, there will be tons of great apps that will make the iPad more valuable and usable than it actually is.

One thing disappointed me though… the photo-frame like edges of the iPad. I thought some of the photoshopped ones prior to the launch looked a lot better. I know that they did this out of usability, so that there would be a place around the device that is not-touch-sensitive. This would make your handling of the iPad easier, it wouldn’t interfere with your work, you wouldn’t accidentally launch some apps..etc. However they could have left the preferences of the not-touch-sensitive margin to the user. Don’t you think?

For example, if you like all four sides to be touch-sensitive you could set all four margins to zero. If you like to hold the left-side while using, you could set only left side margin to 1″ and the rest of the sides to zero…. you know what I mean? Basically, it would be just like the Word document where you can specify the margin of your paper before you print. But anyway…

How about you? What’s your thoughts on this product of Apple? I would like to know your opinions, leave your comments under this post.

Google and Breadcrumbs

by Ades on January 18, 2010 in Google, Usability with 26 Comments

Implement breadcrumbs navigation in your website and Google will reflect it on its Search Results, instead of the URL path that it normally shows (see below).

And the links in the breadcrumbs actually point to different sections of the website, just like the navigation on actual website. That’s cool.

I didn’t know they did that. Looks very user friendly to me. So, if you can, try implementing breadcrumbs in your online projects.

Breadcrumbs and Usability: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/breadcrumbs.html

Vista (Windows7) has a bad UI Usability

by Ades on December 9, 2009 in Usability with 32 Comments

I have been using Vista for some time already but still find the folder navigation very very unusable. I even deleted the whole folder once when I supposed to delete only one file… file/folder selection in Vista is very subtle compared to Windows XP which makes it difficult to see what is selected and what is not. Maybe it’s just me but I liked Windows XP User Interface much better.

How about you?

ConceptFeedback – Get Second Opinion on Your Design for Free

by Ades on September 17, 2009 in Links, Usability with 22 Comments

ConceptFeedback is a great site where you can get free reviews from Web Designers on your newly launched blog/website’s design, usability, logo design etc.

To get started i.e to be able to post your website (concept) for reviews, you need to review at least 5 other websites first. And that’s the main engine that keeps the site running. Otherwise, people would just post their own website and not review others’.

It’s a great idea – getting opinions of web designers for free. Very useful tool I would say for new bloggers who are new to effective webdesign and usability.

Website: http://www.conceptfeedback.com

Gmail Usability: Collapsible Labels

by Ades on September 6, 2009 in Gmail, Usability with 25 Comments

I have a small suggestion to Gmail team particularly to the User Interface team (if there is such team). Making the labels collapsible was a great idea. Because now you can keep the important labels visible and the rest hidden in the drop down menu.

The small usability issue that is causing tens of thousands of people to click, scroll, and scan everyday is the state of the “# more” link below the labels (see screenshot). This is the link where you click and see your other hidden labels. This is the link where you click and see if there is any new email in any of the labels. Especially if you have setup your filter to “skip the inbox“.

Making this “more” link bold when there is new email would save everyone a lot of time. It’s a small thing for Google, but it’s kind of big deal for Gmail users. Don’t you agree? If you do please re-tweet this post to @Google. (here is the short url for this post http://ow.ly/odJw).

Ping: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com

WP Plugin: Breadcrumbs

by Ades on April 16, 2009 in Usability, WordPress with 20 Comments

Breadcrumbs are a great way to improve navigational system of any website, especially directories and blogs with many sub-folders.

This wp plugin allows you to integrate breadcrumb links to your blog [see screenshot]. As you know WordPress by default only lists the folders that the article was posted in and not the hierarchical structure of the current post.

I think it will be useful for those who are using wordpress as a CMS for their website.

Website: http://mtekk.weblogs.us/code/breadcrumb-navxt/

Kindle2 Usability Review

by Ades on March 10, 2009 in e-books, Usability with 6 Comments

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen takes on Amazon’s Kindle2 usability. His verdict:

Amazon’s new e-book reader offers print-level readability and shines for reading fiction, but it has awkward interaction design and poor support for non-linear content.

… Awkward pointing + slow reaction = a bad user experience that discourages people from exploring and attempting different tasks.

Read the full review here.

This review makes me feel like to wait for Kindle3, was really looking forward to purchase one. Anyone knows any other (brand) good ebook reader?

Moving Gmail chat to the rigth column

by Ades on February 6, 2009 in Gmail, Usability with 10 Comments

As you know, by default gmail chat box is on the left side, just below the main menu. I always felt like dragging it and putting on the other side. Because when you expand it, it pushes all your labels down making it difficult to access them. And if you keep gmail chat minimized then you won’t know who is online… so, it had this small usability issue.

But thanks to Right-side chat feature in Settings > Labs, now I can put it on the right column (see screenshot).

Recommended Solution

While Right-side chat solves the problem for one box, ideal solution would be draggable boxes. This way, users could arrange the boxes according to their preference.

Otherwise with the current solution we will have to wait for right-side calendar, right-side google docs..etc until they are developed.

Gmail’s new buttons

By the way, how do you like the new buttons in gmails?

For me, at first it was a bit confusing, since drop down menus are barely differentiable from buttons. But after using it a while it was ok.

Snapshots and Usability

by Ades on November 27, 2008 in Usability with 9 Comments

I am sure the creators of Snapshots wanted to ~~make money~~ improve the usability on blogs with their little popup window widget. However I think they have done the opposite.

I personally find it very intrusive and distracting. I think mouse-over-preview-windows make sense on things like thumbnail pictures (to see the larger image), portfolio links (to see the the previews of digital works)…etc, but definitely not on all links!

I know that premium publishers can make money with it, but I don’t understand why smaller blogs are putting it on their blog? Putting something that decreases the usability of your blog without any given benefit doesn’t really make sense to me. I would understand if the opportunity cost of sacrificing usability was to make money.

What’s your opinion about snapshots widget and usability?

Revolution Two themes, where is the download links?

by Ades on November 14, 2008 in Usability, WP Themes with 20 Comments

I talked to few people about Revolution Two themes going open source and everyone I talked to said they couldn’t find the download links. Some people were not able to find the download links even after several visits to the site. So, where are the links?

They are there, it’s just that they are little bit hidden (at the bottom of the page) and in small text size (see below):

I know Brian is trying to push paid support service, but I think it’s confusing too many people.

Update: It’s confirmed that the themes are no longer open source, therefore the download links are no longer available. Unfortunately now if you want the themes you need to buy them.

URL: www.revolutiontwo.com