accessibility
In Where the Heck is My Focus, I wondered why web developers don’t pay attention to basic keyboard accessibility issues. I don’t want to navigate the entire web with my keyboard. That’s unrealistic. I was specifically referring to login pages, which tend to be quite spartan and
security
As far back as I can remember – which admittedly isn’t very far – GUI toolkits have included a special type of text entry field for passwords. As you type, the password field displays a generic character, usually a dot or asterisk, instead of the character you actually typed. I’ve
keyboard accessibility
The web is quite mouse-centric. Ever tried navigating a typical website without your mouse? I’m not saying it can’t be done – if you’re sufficiently motivated, you can indeed navigate the web using nothing but your keyboard – but it’s painful. There’s nothing wrong with the point-and-click
user experience
Heidi Adkisson notes that features sell products, but the people buying those products often don’t use the very features they bought the product for in the first place. A few years ago I did an extensive in-home study observing use of a particular computer hardware peripheral. Most people had
operating systems
Over time, I’ve become something of a desktop minimalist. Sure, I’ll change a few settings to my liking, but I no longer spend a lot of time customizing my desktop configuration. I’ve learned that if the defaults aren’t reasonably close to correct out of the box,
keyboard shortcuts
Nobody has time to memorize a complete list of web browser keyboard shortcuts, and really, why should they? I only know a handful of web browser keyboard shortcuts, myself, and I probably use the same five shortcuts a hundred times a day. But not everyone knows about these five essential
file management
What is user space? User space is the location in the filesystem where users put their personal files – their “stuff.” Here’s the user space folder structure in the Windows XP operating system: Documents and SettingsUser Application Data Cookies Desktop Favorites Local Settings My Documents My Music My Pictures My
sorting algorithms
The default sort functions in almost every programming language are poorly suited for human consumption. What do I mean by that? Well, consider the difference between sorting filenames in Windows explorer, and sorting those very same filenames via Array.Sort() code: Explorer shell sortArray.Sort() Quite a difference. I can
programming languages
In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s that time of year again: let the wholesale buying of crap begin! As a technology enthusiast with a bad impulse purchase habit, I get a lot of complaints that I am difficult to buy for. That’s sort of intentional. I spent
customer service
In this interview with Werner Vogels, the CTO of Amazon, he outlines how Amazon’s developers stay in touch with their users: Remember that most of our developers are in the loop with customers, so they have a rather good understanding about what our customers like, what they do not
user experience
Has this ever happened to you? You’re merrily typing away in some application, minding your own business, when – suddenly – a dialog pops up and steals the focus from you. At best, your flow is interrupted. You’ll have to switch back to the window that you were using, figure
user experience
Frets on Fire is an open source clone of Guitar Hero. It’s a great idea. Think of all the user-created songs we could play! My excitement quickly faded after I downloaded it and tried it out. I’ll be first in line to champion gameplay over graphics, but the