Comments on: 5 Fabulous Features: User Interface Design

By: 5 Fabulous Features: User Interface Design | Jeffrey David Olson

5 Fabulous Features: User Interface Design | Jeffrey David Olson — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:06:41 +0000

[...] 5 Fabulous Features: User Interface Design 23 January 2010 0 views No Comment This post originally appeared on Sep 28, 2009 on Fuel Your Apps [...]

By: Jonathan Cutrell

Jonathan Cutrell — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:20:15 +0000

Just did so. Thanks for the heads up, Sasha!

By: Sasha P

Sasha P — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:57:44 +0000

You could have linked to the websites in your post.

By: Kevin Holesh

Kevin Holesh — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:21:37 +0000

The HGTV menu looks a lot like the “Bubble Notifications” in Growl. http://growl.info/screenshots.php

I think its great because it separates itself from whatever is below it and has a Vista-esque look to it.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:07:12 +0000

Fluency looks great. Good post and examples.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:40:46 +0000

About the HGTV menu. I think they’re broken it down quite well, horizontal dividers separating main content areas with headers above each section. I will concede the fact that they could have made a more obvious on-hover state than just an underline, but I still feel the underline is acceptable in this instance.

Agree with usability up front, but we have to be careful when giving carte blanche authority to it.

By: Jonathan Cutrell

Jonathan Cutrell — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:10:15 +0000

I love Fluency! Great post Jeffrey; looking forward to more in the near future.

By: Jonathan Cutrell

Jonathan Cutrell — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:09:03 +0000

Darrell,

You might like the Interface 101 series, and also the post “3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Think Outside the Box”

http://www.fuelyourinterface.com/3-reasons-you-shouldnt-think-outside-the-box/

Thanks for the feedback, and for reading!

By: Darrell Estabrook

Darrell Estabrook — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:24:36 +0000

Thanks for the post.

It’s interesting to consider that Usability is contextual to the audience. While there are some universal usability principles, it depends on the intersection of the system’s functions and the user’s needs (task or informational). This context will greatly influence the design and architecture.

With that, HGTV’s choice to make a simple dropdown into a new interface breaks convention. Was this wrong? No, but it does introduce risk (large or small, risk is risk). The question is context: is the HGTV audience okay with breaking this convention? Ironically, the hover-over main menu options do more to undermine the usability of the site than the unique search box approach! The hover-over menus contain too many links which have no visual distinctions, and causes the user to stop and read every item. Talk about breaking convention and not provide a faster way to accomplish tasks.

So, I’d temper UI “fun” with assessing the usability risk there may come with breaking convention.

I believe usability should drive your design, and then branding, layout and innovation should enhance it.

By: Cameron Baney

Cameron Baney — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:44:06 +0000

I have been looking for some UI replacements for WordPress, and the Fluency plugin looks great! I’m going to give it a try. Thanks, Jeffrey.