user experience
I’ve long believed that the design of your software has a profound impact on how users behave within your software. But there are two sides to this story:
* Encouraging the “right” things by making those things intentionally easy to do.
* Discouraging the “wrong” things by making those things intentionally
usability
In the cockpit of every jet fighter is a brightly painted lever that, when pulled, fires a small rocket engine underneath the pilot’s seat, blowing the pilot, still in his seat, out of the aircraft to parachute safely to earth. Ejector seat levers can only be used once, and
ui design
I bought my copy of Alan Cooper’s classic About Face in 1995. I remember poring over it, studying its excellent advice, reveling in its focus on the hot new UI paradigms standardized in Windows 95 – toolbars, menus with icons, tabbed dialogs, and so forth. Seems quaint now, if not
software development
Have you ever noticed how many people keep a physical calculator next to their computer? The irony is almost palpable. My favorite is the calculator mousepad.
Jef Raskin, in The Humane Interface, defends the practice of keeping a pocket calculator next to your PC:
It’s true. Many of us