
How to fix a bad user interface - kindachris
http://scotthurff.com/posts/why-your-user-interface-is-awkward-youre-ignoring-the-ui-stack
======
vitd
Some of this advice is really good, but some of it is terrible. The section on
gamifying user interaction is absolute garbage. I'm not "80% done filling in
my LinkedIn Profile." I'm 100% done, but LinkedIn just wants me to give it
more for its benefit. I will never give it the remaining information. It isn't
encouraging me to do the remaining 20%, it's just annoying me that LinkedIn
can't take "No" for an answer.

Also, I object to breaking the interface down into "screens". It encourages
creating modal apps. Thinking about working in Photoshop, for example, while
there are modes that depend on the tool you're using, you aren't in a
different screen for every thing you're doing. (In fact, Lightroom does sort
of have that problem, and it's why I don't use Lightroom.)

~~~
greggarious
I guess you could call that nudging, but nudging people to give away their
personal information doesn't bring up the same warm fuzzy feelings as
"gamification"

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pbhjpbhj
I disagree with his objection to using tags and other tertiary UI for
onboarding, I nearly always find that helpful. Indeed he appears to disagree
with it himself:

>"Instead, telling your customer the exact button to press and why they should
press it is a much more helpful prospect." //

I think I also disagree on the false-feedback he suggests is good. If you give
immediate UI change on a like showing that it has been registered and then you
can't register it you find that user experience can break trust - next time I
go to that page/post/comment I see my "like" is missing yet the UI showed it
had been registered. Surely this is a place for an intermediate state?

Similarly with the skeleton screens, it can lead to a situation like the one
he has with his videos being missing. The page changes but it's not got
content, but there's no loading indicator as there is elsewhere on the site/in
the app - so is it loading, did it break? We're left guessing about what is
happening.

Petty complaints follow:

>"Awkward UI is a missing a loading indicator." //

Oops. There are always errata!

Surprised to see the segment on loading indicators avoid using the word
"feedback".

>"Even if you're creating weather apps (cue Dribbble joke), one state won't
cut it." //

Will the targeted readership understand this reference, I don't. I even went
to Dribbble.com for illumination but none came.

I see a lot of missing [obj] which appear to be mostly/all "￼" being used as a
section marker. It appears not to exist in the chosen font on my system
though? [latest FF on WinXP]

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
Recently relevant, for those who missed it:

[https://blog.intercom.io/the-dribbblisation-of-
design/](https://blog.intercom.io/the-dribbblisation-of-design/)

------
eCa
> For a second, I get scared. [...] Where are my movies?

I have a similar situation in Win8.1. I have an external hard drive that
sometimes go to sleep. When I wake it up by trying to view its contents in
Explorer, Windows shows a friendly "No files in this folder" message while the
disk spins up.

It should know that it doesn't know that.

~~~
Coincoin
Oh yes! The hard drive spin up delay always scares the shit out of me. I
always think the drive crashed.

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firasd
This is so important. Many people create async requests and overlook the state
indicators. This seems harmless until the user doesn't know they need to wait
for something to load, messing up their whole understanding of the widget.

Related article on how working with React (UI from data) can help you consider
all your states:

Pure UI [http://rauchg.com/2015/pure-ui/](http://rauchg.com/2015/pure-ui/)

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Terr_
Alternately, the UI is awkward because it's been micromanaged and bikeshedded
to the point where it duplicates a worrying amount of domain ... Unreliably.

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nilved
Not going to take any UI advice from somebody with pop-ups to sign up for a
newsletter.

~~~
oxguy3
Yeah really, those pop-ups were obtrusive as hell on mobile, and forced
horizontal scrolling.

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andys627
This is stuff that gets left out a lot by hurried programmers (like me). A
simple unceremonious <p>Loading...</p> at the top of the page is better than
nothing.

~~~
atom-morgan
At a bare minimum this is all I need. Your loading animation may be
aesthetically pleasing but in the end all I really want is feedback.

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williswee
This is a must read for product managers and designers.

~~~
kagamine
And programmers. You know, the people who often have a lot of control over the
final product in many companies.

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sogen
Looks like a rehash of Luke W's previous articles
[http://www.lukew.com/ff/](http://www.lukew.com/ff/) He even took Luke W's
pics of Luke W's Polar app...

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will_pseudonym
Really looking forward to this book! I'm constantly blown away by bad UI, and
I'm wondering to see what I can learn, and what I might be able to teach
others.

Anyone have ideas for additional learning/connecting with others in this area?
I am about to start reading "The Design of Everyday Things".

~~~
jordanlev
Joel Spolsky's "User Interface Design for Programmers" is phenomenal, and
available freely online (!):
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/fog0000000249.html](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/fog0000000249.html)

If you build websites, also check out Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think":
[http://www.sensible.com/dmmt.html](http://www.sensible.com/dmmt.html)

~~~
BatFastard
Thanks for the links to great books.

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louhike
I got an error for the examples telling me than no video with a managed format
has been found.

