Comments on: The Laws of Interface Design http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/ the personal blog of Paul Enderson Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:34:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Marc Rapp http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-2555 Marc Rapp Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:47:32 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-2555 Hola! Shoot me an email when you have some time. I'm gathering the rest of the meme and will need to organize credits/titles etc. Hola! Shoot me an email when you have some time. I’m gathering the rest of the meme and will need to organize credits/titles etc.

]]> By: Paul http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1430 Paul Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:43:22 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1430 Thanks Asgeir! This is certainly one of the most flexible memes I've been involved in. :) Walter's response is a good one, and it's nice to see that the meme has spread outside of the typical boundaries of creativity too! Thanks Asgeir! This is certainly one of the most flexible memes I’ve been involved in. :)

Walter’s response is a good one, and it’s nice to see that the meme has spread outside of the typical boundaries of creativity too!

]]> By: Asgeir Hoem http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1419 Asgeir Hoem Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:27:43 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1419 Thanks for the mention Paul, and nice post! What I like about this meme is the flexibility of the topic. There was even a copy writer posting his tips, which is found at http://walterburek.info/?p=136 . Thanks for the mention Paul, and nice post! What I like about this meme is the flexibility of the topic. There was even a copy writer posting his tips, which is found at http://walterburek.info/?p=136 .

]]> By: Paul http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1378 Paul Sun, 12 Aug 2007 22:24:05 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1378 Tara, Britster's getting there! We'll be launching on September 1st, so expect to see all the niggles you helped to find start getting fixed! ------ Aaron, Ah... Playing Yoda card not always get out clause is. Glad you found it useful mate! :) ------ Vivienne, My pleasure - yours was an interesting read! ------ Calvin, Thanks for your comment - and the ping! Glad you enjoyed my contribution. :) ------ Marc, Thanks for the great meme in the first place! :) It's awesome that you think it's awesome... ;) ------ Charity, Your bang on with the consistent menu text. I always used to end up arguing with clients over that one - being asked for 'Home' to be put next to 'Advanced Management Techniques for the Marketplace' for example! ;) ------ Brad, Sometimes legacy systems force users to perform illogical actions - and there's typically no way of resolving this without a total recode. Most of the Micro$oft Office suite springs to mind as a good example of this! :D ------ LaurenMarie, That's another good point. I guess it could be included under the 'be consistent' banner - but not trying to be too clever (the KISS principle) is definitely an art that seems to be ignored by many interface designers. If you ever get the chance then take a look at the Traktor range of software by Native Instruments - a DJing application has never looked so cluttered! ------ Matt, Thanks for your comment! :) We've still to see Microformats have their 15 minutes (hopefully longer) of fame... It's something that I can see happening as all the legacy chunks of the web are replaced by semantic systems. Tara,

Britster’s getting there! We’ll be launching on September 1st, so expect to see all the niggles you helped to find start getting fixed!

——

Aaron,

Ah… Playing Yoda card not always get out clause is. Glad you found it useful mate! :)

——

Vivienne,

My pleasure - yours was an interesting read!

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Calvin,

Thanks for your comment - and the ping! Glad you enjoyed my contribution. :)

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Marc,

Thanks for the great meme in the first place! :) It’s awesome that you think it’s awesome… ;)

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Charity,

Your bang on with the consistent menu text. I always used to end up arguing with clients over that one - being asked for ‘Home’ to be put next to ‘Advanced Management Techniques for the Marketplace’ for example! ;)

——

Brad,

Sometimes legacy systems force users to perform illogical actions - and there’s typically no way of resolving this without a total recode. Most of the Micro$oft Office suite springs to mind as a good example of this! :D

——

LaurenMarie,

That’s another good point. I guess it could be included under the ‘be consistent’ banner - but not trying to be too clever (the KISS principle) is definitely an art that seems to be ignored by many interface designers. If you ever get the chance then take a look at the Traktor range of software by Native Instruments - a DJing application has never looked so cluttered!

——

Matt,

Thanks for your comment! :) We’ve still to see Microformats have their 15 minutes (hopefully longer) of fame… It’s something that I can see happening as all the legacy chunks of the web are replaced by semantic systems.

]]> By: Matt Foster http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1208 Matt Foster Sat, 04 Aug 2007 03:41:15 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1208 Those are all very good principles to practice during development. I have found HTML microformats beneficial for my development, reinforces the consistency rule. Those are all very good principles to practice during development. I have found HTML microformats beneficial for my development, reinforces the consistency rule.

]]> By: What’s going on in the Wpdesigner community? | WPDesigner http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1204 What’s going on in the Wpdesigner community? | WPDesigner Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:23:21 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1204 [...] The Laws of Interface Design Paul Enderson covers several rules that he tries to stick while working on interface design. [...] […] The Laws of Interface Design Paul Enderson covers several rules that he tries to stick while working on interface design. […]

]]> By: LaurenMarie http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1115 LaurenMarie Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:21:23 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1115 I'm surprised no one has specifically mentioned keeping link colors consistent and having the a:visited tag be a different color than the non-visited links (<a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040503.html" title="Change the Color of Visited Links" rel="nofollow">Nielson's Alertbox article</a>, if you're interested). It was also our friend Jakob Nielsen who noted, "Users spend most of their time on other sites." Don't try to be too clever, it will only confuse people. I’m surprised no one has specifically mentioned keeping link colors consistent and having the a:visited tag be a different color than the non-visited links (Nielson’s Alertbox article, if you’re interested). It was also our friend Jakob Nielsen who noted, “Users spend most of their time on other sites.” Don’t try to be too clever, it will only confuse people.

]]> By: btomo http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1075 btomo Sat, 28 Jul 2007 12:28:18 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1075 Reversal and Closure are two big issues for the stuff we run in our environments. Most of the apps are cut from a similar engine and they all have the habit of circulating back into heavily loaded options screens and the status prompts are vague. Drives people completely nuts. Because of the way they all run as well, most changes are permanent as soon as they are initiated, at the worst case leaving orphaned or partially completed transactions. If only the meme existed three years ago it might all be somewhat cleaner. =P Reversal and Closure are two big issues for the stuff we run in our environments. Most of the apps are cut from a similar engine and they all have the habit of circulating back into heavily loaded options screens and the status prompts are vague. Drives people completely nuts. Because of the way they all run as well, most changes are permanent as soon as they are initiated, at the worst case leaving orphaned or partially completed transactions.

If only the meme existed three years ago it might all be somewhat cleaner. =P

]]> By: Charity http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1063 Charity Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:04:13 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1063 Good stuff Paul. I totally agree about consistency in menus, etc. I read somewhere that you should even try to keep navigation items consistent when it comes to using one or two words. Did I say that right? For example, all nav elements should have either one word or two but not a mix of both. I wish I could remember who suggested that. The Closure thing I was not familiar with, but it makes sense. I've not had any formal experience in designing app interfaces, so this was a good brief for me should I ever wander into that realm. :) Good stuff Paul. I totally agree about consistency in menus, etc. I read somewhere that you should even try to keep navigation items consistent when it comes to using one or two words. Did I say that right? For example, all nav elements should have either one word or two but not a mix of both. I wish I could remember who suggested that.

The Closure thing I was not familiar with, but it makes sense. I’ve not had any formal experience in designing app interfaces, so this was a good brief for me should I ever wander into that realm. :)

]]> By: marc rapp http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1060 marc rapp Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:10:13 +0000 http://paulenderson.com/2007/07/27/the-laws-of-interface-design/#comment-1060 wow. really great stuff here. awesome. ( yes, I used the word; awesome ) Marc wow. really great stuff here. awesome. ( yes, I used the word; awesome )

Marc

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