Topics: Design: User Interface Design
Designing systems or interfaces to help users achieve goals. Information architecture, user experience design, interaction design, graphic design, widgets, wireframes. Evaluating user interface design, usability testing. (49 articles)
Visual Decision Making
by Patrick Lynch
Issue 286June 23, 2009
If it takes only 50 milliseconds for users to form an aesthetic opinion of your site’s credibility and trustworthiness, are designers who create visually compelling sites simply wasting time and treasure on graphic indulgences? Patrick Lynch doesn't think so.
Taking the Guesswork Out of Design
by Daniel Ritzenthaler
Issue 283May 5, 2009
Clients, like other humans, often fear what they don't understand. Daniel Ritzenthaler explains how sound goal-setting, documentation, and communication strategies can bridge the gap between a designer's intuition and a client's need for proof.
The Elegance of Imperfection
by David Sherwin
Issue 280March 24, 2009
Asymmetry, asperity, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, and the suggestion of a natural process: these attributes of elegant design may seem relevant only to a project’s aesthetics. But the most successful web designs reflect these considerations at every stage, from idea to finished product. Bring heart to the experiences you create by infusing them with intelligence that transcends aesthetics and reflects the imperfection of the natural world.
The Elements of Social Architecture
by Christina Wodtke
Issue 279March 3, 2009
While our designs can never control people, they can encourage good behavior and discourage bad. In this excerpt from Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web 2nd Edition, Christina Wodtke tells us how to make products that delight people and change their lives by remembering the social in social architecture.
Deafness and the User Experience
by Lisa Herrod
Issue 265August 12, 2008
Because of limited awareness around Deafness and accessibility in the web community, it seems plausible to many of us that good captioning will fix it all. It won’t. Before we can enhance the user experience for all deaf people, we must understand that the needs of deaf, hard of hearing, and big-D Deaf users are often very different.
Writing an Interface Style Guide
by Jina Bolton
Issue 260June 3, 2008
Ever designed or developed a beautiful interface only to find your hard work ruined months later by gaudy graphics or invalid markup? With proper documentation you'll have a better chance at seeing your interface stay beautiful. Jina Bolton guides us through the process of developing an interface style guide.
Sign Up Forms Must Die
by Luke Wroblewski
Issue 255March 25, 2008
You load a new web service, eager to dive in and start engaging, and what’s the first thing that greets you? A sign-up form. We can do better, says Luke Wroblewski, author of Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks. Via a technique of "gradual engagment," we can get people using and caring about our web services instead of frustrating them (or sending them to a competitor's site) by forcing them to fill out a sign-up form first.
Designing For Flow
by Jim Ramsey
Issue 250December 4, 2007
Ask a web designer what makes a site great, and you're likely to hear "ease of use." Jim Ramsey begs to differ. Web applications in particular, he tells us, work best and engage most profoundly when they challenge users to overcome difficulties.
Understanding Web Design
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 249November 20, 2007
We'll have better web design when we stop asking it to be something it's not, and start appreciating it for what it is. It's not print, not video, not a poster—and that's not a problem. Find out why cultural and business leaders misunderstand web design, and learn which other forms it most usefully resembles.
Put Your Content in my Pocket, Part II
by Craig Hockenberry
Issue 245September 11, 2007
Screen size matters. And now that Apple is embedding mobile Safari in more iPods than the iPhone alone, it matters even more. Concluding his remarkable two-part series, Craig Hockenberry covers the down and dirty details of designing and coding with the iPhone (and its brethren) in mind.
Never Use a Warning When you Mean Undo
by Aza Raskin
Issue 241July 13, 2007
Are our web apps as smart as they should be? By failing to account for habituation (the tendency, when presented with a string of repetitive tasks, to keep clicking OK), do our designs cause people to lose their work? Raskin's simple, foolproof rule solves the problem.
Quick CSS Mockups with Photoshop
by Casper Voogt
Issue 231January 23, 2007
It may seem like we're trying to party like it's 1999, but rest assured, we're not. Casper Voogt shows us a way to use Photoshop, ImageReady, and slices to produce mockups that utilize clean XHTML and CSS.
Paper Prototyping
by Shawn Medero
Issue 231January 23, 2007
Running with scissors isn't recommended for kids, but it might be ideal for your next big development project. With interfaces becoming more complex and schedules growing shorter, the best prototyping tools may be simpler than you think.
Where Am I?
by Derek Powazek
Issue 221August 8, 2006
It’s 2006 and we’re still messing up global navigation. Derek Powazek gets back to basics and offers a few simple guidelines for getting it right.
Calling All Designers: Learn to Write!
by Derek Powazek
Issue 216May 9, 2006
You know all that copy that goes around your forms and in your confirmation e-mails? Who's writing it? Derek Powazek explains why it's important for user-interface designers to sharpen up their writing skills.
Home Page Goals
by Derek Powazek
Issue 211January 30, 2006
Home pages may get plenty of design attention, but that doesn't mean they don't need improvement.
In Search of the Holy Grail
by Matthew Levine
Issue 211January 30, 2006
Just in case you might want a three-column layout that doesn't require the usual sacrifices, we thought we'd share this technique. Not that you'd want that or anything.
Thinking Outside the Grid
by Molly E. Holzschlag
Issue 209December 19, 2005
CSS has broken the manacles that kept us chained to grid-based design...so why do so few sites deviate from the grid? Molly E. Holzschlag can tell us that the answer has something to do with airplanes, urban planning, and British cab drivers.
Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist
by Brian Crescimanno
Issue 209December 19, 2005
Sometimes it's the little things that drive you nuts. As many of us have probably noticed during this season of holiday shopping, usability problems in online forms can be infuriating. Brian Crescimanno helps solve the problem with a checklist of form-usability recommendations.
Power to the People
by D. Keith Robinson
Issue 208November 28, 2005
Relentlessly simple solutions to complex design problems can be the difference between an average experience and a great one. D. Keith Robinson reminds web designers and developers that ease of use is more important than technological sophistication.
Ambient Findability: Findability Hacks
by Peter Morville
Issue 205October 10, 2005
In this excerpt from his new book,
High-Resolution Image Printing
by Ross Howard
Issue 202September 5, 2005
Your client looks up and says, "Why does our logo look funny when we print the pages?" Do you sigh dramatically, or learn about Ross Howard's technique for printing high-resolution images via CSS? We vote for option B.
Flywheels, Kinetic Energy, and Friction
by Nick Usborne
Issue 213March 7, 2006
You want your users to do something—buy things, beg you to work for them, learn how they too can achieve inner peace. So how do you get them to do what you want? Try getting out of the way.
Invasion of the Body Switchers
by Andy Clarke, James Edwards
Issue 189November 19, 2004
Wouldn’t it be great if we could update the classic ALA style switcher to accommodate multiple users and devices, including some that aren’t even traditional browsers, all from a single JavaScript and CSS file? Well, now we can! Enter the Body Switcher.
Dynamically Conjuring Drop-Down Navigation
by Christian Heilmann
Issue 183June 15, 2004
Got content? Got pages and pages of content? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could offer your readers a drop-down menu providing instant access to any page, without having to sit down and program the darned thing? By marrying a seemingly forgotten XHTML element to simple, drop-in JavaScript, Christian Heilmann shows how to do just that. There’s even a PHP backup for those whose browsers lack access to JavaScript. Turn on, tune in, drop-down.
Designing for Context with CSS
by Joshua Porter
Issue 171February 20, 2004
The medium is the message: Imagine providing unique information exclusively for people who read your site via a web-enabled cell phone — then crafting a different message for those who are reading a printout instead of the screen. Let your context guide your content. All it takes is some user-centric marketing savvy and a dash of CSS.
Night of the Image Map
by Stuart Robertson
Issue 166December 12, 2003
CSS design from beyond the grave: all the secret ingredients you’ll need to resurrect the image map using CSS and structurally sensible XHTML.
JavaScript Image Replacement
by Christian Heilmann
Issue 164November 21, 2003
Perhaps it’s time to consider the ups and downs of a JavaScript-based alternative to the Fahrner Image Replacement technique. This version uses plain vanilla XHTML with no special IDs or CSS tricks.
Suckerfish Dropdowns
by Patrick Griffiths, Dan Webb
Issue 162November 7, 2003
Teach your smart little menus to do the DHTML dropdown dance without sacrificing semantics, accessibility, or standards compliance or writing clunky code.
Keeping Navigation Current With PHP
by Jason Pearce
Issue 162November 7, 2003
Turning unordered lists into elegant navigational menus has become a new favorite pastime for many web designers. A dash of PHP can add intelligence to your CSS-styled menu.
Sliding Doors of CSS, Part II
by Douglas Bowman
Issue 161October 30, 2003
In Sliding Doors of CSS Part I, Douglas Bowman introduced a new technique for creating visually stunning interface elements with simple, text-based, semantic markup. In Part II, he pushes the technique even further with rollovers, a fix for IE/Win’s CSS bugs, and lots more.
Sliding Doors of CSS
by Douglas Bowman
Issue 160October 20, 2003
![[Stylized tabs using rounded corners and subtle three-dimensional shading.]](/d/slidingdoors/tabex2.gif){kind=small}
Image-driven, visually compelling user interfaces. Text-based, semantic markup. Now you can have both! Douglas Bowman’s sliding doors method of CSS design offers sophisticated graphics that squash and stretch while delivering meaningful XHTML text. Have your cake and eat it, too!
Build a PHP Switcher
by Chris Clark
Issue 152October 13, 2002
ALA’s open source style sheet switchers are swell as long as your visitors use compliant browsers and have JavaScript turned on. But what if they don’t? Perhaps, this: Chris Clark tells how to build a cross-browser, backward-compatible, forward-compatible, standards-compliant style sheet switcher in just five lines of code.
CSS Design: Mo’ Betta Rollovers
by Tim Murtaugh
Issue 140March 8, 2002
Design smarter, faster, better rollovers with CSS.
Reading Design
by Dean Allen
Issue 128November 23, 2001
With so many specialists working so hard at their craft, why are so many pages so hard to read? Unabashed text enthusiast Dean Allen thinks designers would benefit from approaching their work as being written rather than assembled.
The Flash Aesthetic
by Ross Olson
Issue 123October 12, 2001
Scaling, 2-D style, cycle-free motion, and heavy strokes. They’re not just web design trends any more. Join Olson on a cultural scavenger hunt as he tracks the ways Flash design techniques have crept into non-web media.
All the Access Money Can Buy
by Joe Clark
Issue 115July 22, 2001
Just when you think online multimedia will never be truly access, someone proves you wrong. In BMW Films, Clark sees a tantalizing glimpse of a better web.
Game Design in Flash 5, Part II: Heroes & Villains
by Peter Balogh
Issue 113June 8, 2001
Flash artists and ActionScripters, roll up your sleeves for Part Two of Peter Balogh’s well-written tutorial on Game Design in Flash 5. Thrills! Chills! Math skills!
Beyond Usability and Design: The Narrative Web
by Mark Bernstein
Issue 106April 20, 2001
Crafting a narrative web: To succeed profoundly, Bernstein says, websites must go beyond usability and design, deeply engaging readers by turning their journeys through the site into rich, memorable, narrative experiences.
A Failure to Communicate
by George Olsen
Issue 103March 30, 2001
It’s ironic that, as professionals dedicated to clear communication, information architects and user interface designers are having such trouble communicating with each other. Information designer George Olsen digs up the roots of communication breakdown and explores the three aspects of web design.
SMIL When You Play That
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 101March 16, 2001
A gentle introduction to the SVG and SMIL standards for programmable vector graphics and accessible rich media.
The Curse of Information Design
by Scott Jason Cohen
Issue 96January 27, 2001
With the rise of information architecture, user experience consultants, and usability experts, the fate of a website is no longer left to chance, and its design is no longer a function of organic processes. That may be good for business, but is it really good for the web? Scott Cohen has his doubts.
The Ins and Outs of Intranets
by Dave Linabury
Issue 88November 10, 2000
Sooner or later, most web designers will be called upon to create an internal site. And will quickly learn that one’s own company can be tougher to deal with than any client. Dave Linabury offers tips on surviving the process (and building something good in spite of it).
Experience Design
by Bob Jacobson
Issue 77August 18, 2000
It’s time for web designers to peek over the cubicle and start sharing ideas with their peers in related design disciplines. Jacobson suggests one way to do that in this overview of the emerging Experience Design paradigm.
A Design Method
by Ross Olson
Issue 71July 7, 2000
In a high-powered production environment like the web, a design method can help you get more done faster ... and provide you with rules to break. New ALA writer Ross Olson shares his company’s game plan.
Bridging the Gap
by Robert Miller
Issue 66June 2, 2000
How can we work together if we don't understand each other? Systems administrator Robert Miller describes the view from his side of the cubicle, and attempts to break down the barriers between "creative" and systems professionals.
Walking Backwards: Supporting Non-Western Languages on the Web
by Shoshannah L. Forbes
Issue 65May 26, 2000
And you think you?ve got problems. Try building web sites in a bi-directional language like Hebrew or Arabic. Israeli web developer Shoshannah L. Forbes discusses the mind-boggling hardships involved, and looks at what the latest browsers are doing about it.
Fragments (of Time)
by Pär Almqvist
Issue 64May 19, 2000
The best web interfaces take time – the one asset that seems to be in perpetually short supply. Leading Scandinavian web developer Pär Almqvist presents a time-based perspective on web interfaces and the network economy.
Much Ado About 5K
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 63May 12, 2000
A full-fledged website under 5K? Some of the brightest people in the industry swore it could not be done. Yet hundreds of developers not only came in under the 5K budget, they built great sites in the process. Zeldman explores how the 5K Awards rocked the web.
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