3 usability principles about the users

Written on 21 January 2014, 03:49pm

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From the usability bible, now revisited:

1. Users don’t read, they scan pages.
2. Users take decisions based on trial and error. If they don’t get what they expect, they hit the ‘Back’ button; there is no penalty for being wrong.
3. Users are in hurry; they don’t read instructions. They don’t really care how the things suppose to work; if they find a way that works, they stick to it.

frozen_olaf
Image: Disney

Code highlighter: expand on mouse over

Written on 30 December 2011, 11:03am

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Inspired by the article A Design Is Only As Deep As It Is Usable featured in the e-book Modern Web Design & Development – I decided to make the blocks of code on this WordPress-powered blog expandable on mouse over. As you will see soon, unfortunately this is not an easy job.

1. Syntax Highlighting

Let’s get back a little. When it comes to syntax highlighting, you have 2 main options:

  1. Alex Gorbatchev’s SyntaxHighlighter
  2. GeSHi – Generic Syntax Highlighter

They both support ColdFusion syntax, and they are both featured in WordPress plugins. Because of the better functionalities, ease of use and because it simply looks better, when I started this blog I decided to use the SyntaxHighlighter – by installing the SyntaxHighlighter Evolved WordPress plugin. This allowed me to simply add ColdFusion code by simply wrapping the code in [ cf ] ...[ /cf ] markers. I solved the long lines problem by using the ‘wrap long lines’ option, as shown below:

2. Expand the code

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The Web in 2011: these are exciting times!

Written on 16 December 2011, 12:32pm

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This is a selection of the most important ideas expressed in this article: What I Learned About the Web in 2011

User experience

Emotion is at the heart of every decision we make. Emotion shapes our behavior by casting the tie-breaking vote when logic determines appropriate options for our consideration.
It’s centrally important to seek simplicity, and especially to avoid making things hard to use or understand.
Most websites and apps launching today all are beautifully designed with care.
God is in the details.

Mobile apps

A small screen doesn’t signal a desire to do less. The real question isn’t what to take out of a mobile app, but what to add.
Websites are becoming more and more “app-like.”
Mobile payments – increasing percent

Responsive design

Speed: A web application is a “living” thing and all living things are continually changing from cradle to grave. The faster they can respond, the better they can adapt to change.
Websites should be intelligently malleable things—adaptable and responsive to a broad continuum of uses and devices
Silent browser updates: how can we best help our users understand the changes in experiences that they will encounter as we adapt to building single, responsive sites?

The Web

We have to start realizing that our job is no longer solely to produce sites, apps, and pages built in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We have to expand our definition of what the “web” is. More and more, the “web” is not a platform. It’s a service with clients on many platforms.
That iteration is king and that perfection should never be achieved—shipping it is more important than trying to perfect it endlessly behind the scenes. It’s better to release with a solid core set of features and then iterate and add as time or users necessitate it.
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