signifiers Articles & Videos

  • UX Animations

    Animations can make user interfaces both easier and nicer to use, but the timing has to be right, as we demonstrate in this video. Many other details also contribute to the quality of animation in the user experience.

  • Accordion Icons: Which Signifiers Work Best?

    The caret icon most clearly indicated to users that it would open an accordion in place, rather than linking directly to a new page.

  • Drag–and–Drop: How to Design for Ease of Use

    Clear signifiers and clear feedback at all stages of the interaction make drag–and–drop discoverable and easy to use.

  • The Role of Animation and Motion in UX

    Animation in UX must be unobtrusive, brief, and subtle. Use it for feedback, state-change and navigation metaphors, and to enhance signifiers.

  • Why Microinteractions Are Important for UX

    Defining microinteractions and why getting these small UI details right matters for the quality of the user experience.

  • The Two UX Gulfs: Evaluation and Execution

    With every interaction, users must overcome the twin challenges of understanding the current state of a system and figuring out how to change it. Designers can support them by being aware of these gulfs and bridging them with a transparent conceptual model.

  • Audio Signifiers for Voice Interaction

    Provide explicit, implicit, and nonverbal signifiers to help users understand their options in voice-interaction interfaces.

  • Flat UI Elements Attract Less Attention and Cause Uncertainty

    Flat interfaces often use weak signifiers. In an eyetracking experiment comparing different kinds of clickability clues, UIs with weak signifiers required more user effort than strong ones.

  • Flat-Design Best Practices

    Avoid the negative side effects of flat design by clearly differentiating between clickable and unclickable elements.

  • Flat Design: Its Origins, Its Problems, and Why Flat 2.0 Is Better for Users

    Flat design is a web-design style that became popular around 2012. It is still widely used today, and its overuse can cause serious usability problems.

  • Beyond Blue Links: Making Clickable Elements Recognizable

    Whether you adopt a flat-design style or not, interactive components must retain sufficient cues to suggest clickability. Signaling clickability with cues such as borders, color, size, consistency, placement, and adherence to web standards can give interactive components the proper look.

  • iPad Usability: First Findings From User Testing

    iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems.