Information tips can clarify complex UIs, but they should not hide essential information, trigger redundant information, or disrupt the current workflow.
Contextual menus reduce clutter and interaction cost but have low information scent. Prioritize clarity, consistency, and proximity to balance the tradeoffs.
Complex-app users don’t always fit neatly into “novice” or “expert” labels. Designing for Legacy, Legend, and Learner users leads to more inclusive, effective systems.
Tabs are everywhere, but do you use them properly? Distinguish between types of tabs, design them for visual clarity, and structure their content for usability.
Applications native to smartwatch operating systems get used the most. Just because a new smartwatch app could offer basic functionality, it does not mean that users will find it valuable.
Smartwatches are for more than just receiving notifications and tracking steps. They afford at least 6 different types of interactions that users find useful.
Identify UX problems with error messages consistently and effectively using a scoring rubric based on established usability best practices for error messages.
Tutorials interrupt users, don’t necessarily improve task performance, and are quickly forgotten. Contextual help signals can avoid these pitfalls but require unintrusive ways to activate.
The HEART framework is great for B2C products but is lacking for workplace applications where users cannot choose the product. CASTLE offers a complementary assessment framework for UX that focuses on the needs of internal product teams.
Users often struggle to find their time zone from a time-zone selector. Where possible, locate users’ time zones for them, organize time zones alphabetically in a dropdown, and allow users to search by city and country.
Table design should support four common user tasks: find records that fit specific criteria, compare data, view/edit/add a single row’s data, and take actions on records.
A good design relies on a thorough task analysis of the steps required to complete a task, as well as determining what information users need at each step.