John Cox

Blogs · @wyome · Now

Tagged usability · everything

SpyreStudios

Curing the Navigation-itis Syndrome | SpyreStudios

The article argues that excessive website navigation menus—"navigation-itis"—overwhelm users and reduce engagement, then provides nine practical design principles to simplify the experience, including consolidating multiple menus into one, limiting dropdown depth to two levels, and keeping items text-based rather than icon-only. It illustrates these principles through a critique of National Geographic's website, which uses three separate navigation bars, and shows how dropdown menus and search consolidation could reduce cognitive load while preserving access to all content.

Permalink navigationtutorialusability

DzineBlog.com

Best User Interface Design Resources: The Round-up | Dzine Blog

This piece curates 40 user interface design resources across five categories: pattern libraries like PatternTap and UI Patterns that showcase existing design solutions, blogs and magazines such as UX Booth and Signal vs. Noise that discuss UX principles and techniques, specific websites praised for exemplary interface design, web applications like Twitter and Google Analytics that demonstrate usability best practices, and influential UI designers to follow on Twitter. Rather than prescribing one correct approach to design, the article presents these resources as inspiration and guidance tools to help designers understand what users might need and create interfaces that balance aesthetics with functionality.

Permalink designtoolstutorialusability

A List Apart

A List Apart: Articles: The Problem with Passwords

Jakob Nielsen proposes revealing passwords in clear text as users type them to reduce frustration and errors, but this creates tension between security, usability, and user expectations. The article presents two JavaScript-based middle-ground solutions: a toggle checkbox that lets users voluntarily switch between masked and unmasked views, and a progressive masking technique that displays only the most recently typed character in clear text for two seconds before masking it. Both approaches aim to improve usability and reduce typing errors without undermining the security perception that makes password fields feel like a trusted "black box."

Permalink securityusability

Paul Boag - User Experience Advice

Stop designing websites, start designing posters « Boagworld

A new generation of websites are adopting poster-like design principles—being visually striking while maintaining usability through clear hierarchy and scanability—demonstrating that web designers can break from convention and differentiate their work without sacrificing functionality. The author argues that print design, particularly posters, offers valuable lessons for the web: they must grab attention, communicate key information at a glance, and provide deeper content for engaged viewers, principles that translate effectively to contemporary web design. Rather than choosing between safety and creativity, designers can look beyond the web for inspiration and reject outdated constraints like "the fold" while still adhering to core usability principles.

Permalink designcreativityusability