Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. To paraphrase, how simple is something to get some work done.
17
votes
4answers
550 views
If the bug is 5+ years old, then is it a feature?
Allow me to add details:
I work at an institutional place with many coders, testers, QA analysts, product owners, etc. and here is something that bugs me:
We have been able to sell crappy (albeit ...
15
votes
3answers
318 views
“My stuff” vs. “Your stuff” in UI texts
When refering to a users stuff should you use My or Your, for example:
My Cart | My Account | My Wishlist
Or
Your Cart | Your Account | Your Wishlist
I found this article that argues for ...
12
votes
7answers
468 views
How long can it take for a screen to appear before it's considered a performance issue?
I am involved with the development of a Windows application that has various screens. One of them takes ten seconds to appear with no spinner or other indication that the screen is loading. I consider ...
12
votes
3answers
757 views
Has the syntax of any programming language been usability tested?
Before being release to the public, has the syntax of any programming language undergone usability testing? If so, what kinds of testing was performed, what were the results, and what impact did the ...
10
votes
3answers
306 views
How do you conquer the challenge of designing for large screen real-estate?
This question is a bit more subjective, but I'm hoping to get some new perspective. I'm so used to designing for a certain screen size (typically 1024x768) that I find that size to not be a problem. ...
8
votes
7answers
530 views
How do I convince my users not to use a sketch UI?
I recently worked on a prototype of a new system using Sketchflow, and now some key stakeholders are pushing for a sketched look & feel in the final product. To make matters worse, the people ...
7
votes
1answer
80 views
How do you organize your usability testings?
What is your process?
How do you get feedback?
What software do you use? (like Morae from TechSmith)
Who does them?
Have you measured how it positively affected the quality of your software?
I'm ...
6
votes
4answers
213 views
Good resources for web form design and usability
Can anyone suggest good resources about web form design and usability for web applications?
Especially complex forms with 15+ fields etc.
6
votes
5answers
672 views
How can I improve my user interface and usability design skills?
I invested most my time and resources in programming, and now I think it's time I should invest some time in learning about user interface design, user experience, and usability.
What are some good ...
6
votes
5answers
831 views
What to do with a 7 button mouse as a programmer?
I just got a new mouse with 7 buttons. Is there any way to use these extra buttons in eclipse or emacs? Is it possible to have a mouse button for compiling? Do you have any other ideas how to use the ...
4
votes
4answers
882 views
Are there any GUI or user interface design patterns? [closed]
I was curious about GUI design patterns, so I searched and got some information, including a list of UI patterns for the web. This UI patterns website says that:
UI Patterns is a growing ...
4
votes
3answers
137 views
Any ideas for a good way to get HTML Text-To-Speech?
We do online e-learning without using any third party tools like Adobe Captivate / eLearning suite, and it would be great to (somehow) get some text-to-speech going.
Is there any way at all to get ...
4
votes
3answers
361 views
How do I determine which language/framework is best for our web-based project?
I'm in the early stages of development for a web application that has three developers (myself included) working on it. The project is, at its core, a web-based database that will be used by around ...
3
votes
5answers
361 views
Are gimmicks ever a good idea?
Are adding gimmicks to a website ever a good idea? What I mean by gimmick is adding "cool" features that solve no real problem.
We are currently considering adding a "Magazine style" product viewing ...
3
votes
5answers
170 views
Consistency vs. Usability?
When designing an API, consistency often aids usability. However, sometimes they conflict where an extra API feature can be added to streamline a common case. It seems like there's somewhat of a ...
2
votes
1answer
165 views
Remembering user credentials in standalone Application
I'm developing a standalone application using java, I have a Login screen, wherein user enters his username and password. For each instance of the application, user have to enter his credentials. From ...
2
votes
3answers
94 views
Authentication for 'participants' vs 'users'
I'm building a site that lets users schedule interviews/conferences with third parties and I'm wondering what's the best way to provide security around the participant experience while providing the ...
2
votes
4answers
241 views
Have you tried Usability Audit for your company's website?
We had a security audit and it was brilliant. Are there companies that do web usability audit?
2
votes
2answers
206 views
How to handle encryption key conflicts when synchronizing data?
Assume that there is data that gets synchronized between several devices. The data is protected with a symmetric encryption algorithm and a key. The key is stored on each device and encrypted with a ...
2
votes
1answer
136 views
Publishing an internal web app on the internet to a much larger group of users than before
My company has developed a web application based on GWT (Google Web Toolkit) and Ext GWT in the browser, JBoss application server and Oracle in the backend. The app
allows users of different ...
1
vote
2answers
147 views
Are animations and other eye candies considered non-functional requirements?
I've seen many lists on the internet that includes many 'ities' (maintainability, scalability, portability, etc), but I'm not sure if animations, screen transitions, and similar features are ...
1
vote
5answers
208 views
If someone was making software, able to display content in any written language, what would they have to consider? [duplicate]
I know you'd have to use Unicode. And that Japanese is read vertically and reverse of English. What are some of the things one would have to take into consideration?
1
vote
3answers
130 views
Working code and user needs
Programmers, like myself, often is too worried about if their code is really going to work, rather than how to communicate with the users. Scared of throwing an exception at the user, we test with ...
1
vote
2answers
179 views
In scrum, how do you use “usability testing” in team?
I am currently reading some material by Jeff Patton regarding Agile and UX.
http://www.agileproductdesign.com/presentations/index.html
I was interested to find out from the community what UX design ...
0
votes
1answer
281 views
Are web application usability issues equal to website usability issues?
I've been reading two books about web usability issues and tests (Rocket Surgery Made Easy¹ and Prioritizing Web Usability²) and they claim some strategies and typical problems about website usability ...
0
votes
1answer
213 views
Are there well-known examples of web products that were killed by slow service? [closed]
It's a basic tenet of UX design that users prefer fast pages.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/response-times.html
...
-2
votes
2answers
58 views
What is the good way to improve usability of the web projects [closed]
What is the good techniques or software engineering methodologies to improve the usability of the web projects. Of course I want to involve the customer and want a methodology by which I can ...
-2
votes
1answer
165 views
Software Usability analysis [closed]
i am unable to find the answers to the following questions.Please help me resolve
(a) Name quantitative and qualitative techniques for analysing the usability of a software product.
(b) Compare the ...
