Futurate Logo
warning: Creating default object from empty value in /home/futurate/web/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc on line 33.
Syndicate content

Home / usability

Wireframe Showcase - Home

In design, wireframes are useful because they help put the focus on important structuring issues before considering detail-oriented challenges. Wireframe Showcase is a site based on wireframes showing how designers transformed mock-ups into working designs. There is a short explanation of each piece and a chance to provide feedback or ask the designer questions through a comment form. Most of the websites grew out of digital mock-ups, which have the advantage of being easy to tweak and rearrange. The result is a pleasing and informative collection of wireframes.

Wed, 18/08/2010 - 08:26

MephoBox | Web Design and Web Inspiration

Web design resource organised to element type.

Mon, 12/07/2010 - 09:48

The 100 most funny and unusual 404 error pages

Every web page is a chance to communicate with your users and 404 pages are no exception - usually a missed opportunity to support your brand!

Wed, 21/04/2010 - 11:52

Horizontal Attention Leans Left (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

People spent more than twice as much time looking at the left side of the page as they do the right:

* Left half of screen: 69% of viewing time
* Right half of screen: 30% of viewing time

The remaining 1% of viewing time was spent to the right of the initially-visible 1,024 pixels. Such information is visible only after horizontal scrolling, and the minute amount of attention it attracts confirms the guideline to avoid horizontal scrolling.

Wed, 07/04/2010 - 09:47

The Opposite of Fitts' Law

If you've ever wrangled a user interface, you've probably heard of Fitts' Law. It's pretty simple -- the larger an item is, and the closer it is to your cursor, the easier it is to click on. Kevin Hale put together a great visual summary of Fitts' Law, so rather than over-explain it, I'll refer you there.

The short version of Fitts' law, to save you all that tedious reading, is this:

* Put commonly accessed UI elements on the edges of the screen. Because the cursor automatically stops at the edges, they will be easier to click on.
* Make clickable areas as large as you can. Larger targets are easier to click on.

Wed, 24/03/2010 - 14:14

Forms On Mobile Devices: Modern Solutions - Smashing Magazine

Mobile forms tend to have significantly more constraints than their desktop cousins: screens are smaller; connections are slower; text entry is trickier; the list goes on. So, limiting the number of forms in your mobile applications and websites is generally a good idea. When you do want input from users on mobile devices, radio buttons, checkboxes, select menus and lists tend to work much better than open text fields.

But constraints breed innovation, and mobile forms are no different. The limitations of mobile devices have forced developers and designers to find new ways to allow users to input data faster and more easily. Thanks to the modern solutions covered in this article, the mobile space may not be a place to avoid forms much longer. Instead, it may become the place to encourage them.

Fri, 12/03/2010 - 10:22

A Three Step Guide to Usability on the Mobile Web | mobiThinking

Get the best out of mobile web strategies - appreciate just how different a beast the mobile web is to the desktop web, and what it means to deliver a truly usable and functional mobile site with this guide to getting mobile design and usability principles right.

Fri, 12/03/2010 - 08:48