Usability Archives

Stop updating OSX?
OSX wants me to update and restart just to get some fixes I don’t need. Help!
June 16, 2006 - 167 words, 2 comments

Intuitive
An intuitive interface is natural only because of previously-learned behaviors.
June 13, 2006 - 668 words, 1 comment

Temporary files in Firefox on OSX
An annoyance with how Firefox and Thunderbird handles temporary files under OSX.
February 2, 2006 - 100 words, 17 comments

Hotel simplicity
Some simple things hotels do to make your stay nicer.
January 9, 2006 - 141 words, 1 comment

Flash Navigation
As with any tool, you should think carefully about whether Flash is the right tool for your application.
October 2, 2003 - 176 words, 5 comments

Popcorn usability
My kids' ecommerce site has given them their first lesson in usability.
September 30, 2003 - 152 words, 4 comments

Mutual Accessibility
Washington Mutual Bank doesn’t quite get the concept of accessibility.
August 31, 2003 - 133 words, 2 comments

Height and Width challenged
Could someone tell me why height and width attributes are needed for images? It’s silly to require people to add metadata to HTML when it’s something easily calculated.
August 5, 2003 - 119 words, 32 comments

California State Fair
The California State Fair lets you buy tickets in advance from their Web site. That’s good. But the site is a horror house of usability problems.
July 28, 2003 - 896 words, 14 comments

More Form usability
Thoughts on how to arrange fields on Web forms to make them easier to use.
July 18, 2003 - 557 words, 6 comments

Alarm usability
I have a new alarm clock. The old one was fine, but a little ugly,...
July 17, 2003 - 261 words, 4 comments

Form expectations
It’s been said many times before, but developers still don’t seem to understand. If you have requirements for the contents of your forms, tell people up front.
June 12, 2003 - 140 words, 1 comment

Usable in subtle ways
Sometimes the best features in software are the ones you barely notice.
April 23, 2003 - 47 words,

Smart searching
A helpful search engine finds what you wanted, even if it’s not what you asked for.
April 23, 2003 - 86 words,

Navigation highlights
When you choose to highlight something, make sure you don’t cause it to blend into it’s surroundings instead.
April 7, 2003 - 93 words, 2 comments

Usability Myths
Testing shows that the oft-quoted three click rule to Web site development is false.
April 2, 2003 - 197 words, 1 comment

Staples.com: Yeah, we've got problems
A shopping trip at Staples.com yields some advice on writing effective error messages and defining sensible software requirements.
February 15, 2003 - 986 words, 8 comments

Laptop usability
I wish my laptop was better able to detect changes in my work states.
January 22, 2003 - 162 words, 3 comments

Broken aggregator
Bad feeds have broken my aggregator. This problem could be exploited by a malicious attacker.
January 17, 2003 - 294 words, 3 comments

ADA rulings
Two different court rulings on applying the Americans with Disabilities Act to Web sites. And they disagree.
October 21, 2002 - 98 words,

Email Marketing Usability
Jakob Nielsen turns to a subject dear to my heart: the improving your email newsletters to enhance the reader experience.
September 30, 2002 - 291 words,

Usability test serendipity
Marketers can use usability testing to build a better product.
September 9, 2002 - 67 words,

Usability of Microwave Meals
Why is it this difficult to make a microwave meal?
August 28, 2002 - 242 words, 3 comments

Shopping Cart Usability
In Shopping Cart Usability, Barbara S. Chaparro examines usability factors of the online shopping cart....
March 17, 2002 - 40 words,

Shades of Gray
Elegant Hack: gray advice: "Users think a grayed out link is simply a gray link,...
February 12, 2002 - 25 words,

Usability Required
Industry knowledge does not translate into usability.
January 23, 2002 - 47 words,

Successful Wizards
Create wizards that are easy to use and effective.
January 23, 2002 - 27 words,

Usability for Everyday Things
Makers of everyday things like toothbrushes and spatulas have started researching how people actually use...
January 11, 2002 - 159 words, 1 comment

Finding your way
An important part of helping people to use your site is allowing them to know...
January 4, 2002 - 76 words,

Pen usability
Robert Scoble has a great point about usability. "[Don Norman] hates the desktop PC and...
November 7, 2001 - 53 words,

CDNow privacy
CDNow’s new privacy policy is simple and to the point. instead of using legalese, they...
November 6, 2001 - 301 words,

QSD update
No problems with the Quick Search Deskbar at home. The author of the deskbar is...
October 31, 2001 - 39 words,

Winamp license
Along the same lines as Oxo’s user-friendly terms of use that I mentioned a few...
October 10, 2001 - 78 words,

Adobe usability
Mike Swaine admits that he is not the typical Web user. He doesn’t use a...
October 1, 2001 - 119 words,