Quick question: If you wanted to search this web site for a product, where would you click?
User control and freedom
A basic rule of software design is to provide people with an emergency exit, if (for example), they don’t happen to have the device handy when they decide to install the software.
What’s going on at Skype Update HQ?
Social: Good news for burglars?
It won’t have escaped your attention that everything needs to be social these days. I imagine design teams huddled in dingy rooms, having been told by senior management that they can’t emerge until they’ve made their app or web site ‘more social’.
Hidden controls
I’m all for supporting free software, but I don’t think it’s right to trick people into doing it.
Keyboard accelerators for web sites
Black hat usability taken a little too literally
If you check the footer, you’ll see that the unsubscribe link is written in black. Yes, a black link on a black background.
I truly hope there is a special place in hell for designers who do this kind of thing.
Sign-in woes
Increasingly these days I find myself visiting a site that I used in the dim and distant past but unsure if I actually registered at the site. Royal Mail is one example. I visited the site today to buy postage for a large letter, went through the long process of creating a stamp and then reached the dreaded ‘Register or sign in’ screen. After trying to register it helpfully pointed out that my email address was already on file, so I guessed at my password and hey presto I was signed in. However, rather than being greeted by my basket I saw this error message.
Speak the user’s language
This screenshot comes from a web site where I’m registered and where I’ve bought items in the past. What do you think I did wrong?
It turns out I entered a different e-mail address to the one I used to register at this site. But I’m not sure how I was meant to divine that from this error message.
The Post Office shows how not to do it
I ordered some foreign currency from the Post Office today. I was a bit disappointed by needing to opt-in to opt-out of spam: