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UI Design Dos and Don'ts

developer.apple.com

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Re: UI Design Dos and Don'ts

#11

Post by vogt »

on_and_off wrote: post #9
shogun21 wrote: post #3

Many of these are blatantly obvious. Most bad design isn't because people don't know better; it's due to laziness.

Most of the stupidly bad design decisions I have seen come from somebody high in the hierarchy (product manager, CEO or founder) demanding a change, even if both designers and developers rally on how awful it would be. I have not yet found a solution to this problem.

The book Articulating Design Decisions (O'Reilly) deals specifically with this. It's always an uphill battle, and the book's overall lesson is "empathize as much as possible", but it's a great read. It has definitely helped me in dealing with more difficult management types who don't understand the design or technical side of product building.

Re: UI Design Dos and Don'ts

#13

Post by radley »

Mandatum wrote: post #12

These are common sense design "do's" and "don'ts". Most developers, and any designer worth their salt should know these.

Sadly, Apple is guilty of these often, with too many examples to list (but particularly contrast).

(eg. @eli_schiff - he's been ranting about them today).

Re: UI Design Dos and Don'ts

#15

Post by molecule »

enlightenedfool wrote: post #14

FWIW Apple, Don't: Force the user to backspace all the way to the word to correct in textbox Do: Focus the cursor on where I touch. Frustrating.

> Tapping and holding anywhere there's editable text will engage the magnifying glass mode so you can move the text cursor around.

http://lifehacker.com/5879239/all-the-awesome-things-you-can...

Re: UI Design Dos and Don'ts

#16

Post by LoSboccacc »

shogun21 wrote: post #3

Many of these are blatantly obvious. Most bad design isn't because people don't know better; it's due to laziness.

While tips are blatantly obvios, the very article that lists them is on a non responsive website that is paginate like shit on chrome/ios. Go figure.

Re: UI Design Dos and Don'ts

#17

Post by shogun21 »

emsy wrote: post #7
shogun21 wrote: post #3

Many of these are blatantly obvious. Most bad design isn't because people don't know better; it's due to laziness.

I agree that most of them are obvious. I don't agree that bad design is because of laziness. There are many reasons for bad design and most of the time I'll only find one or two of the "dont's" in a given app, but this will ruin my experience. Case in point: I can't even count the number of HN readers I deleted because they didn't display the content without vertical and horizontal scrollbars or had really small text…

Good design is hard. It takes research and effort, and often has to go through many iterations.

I say it's due to laziness because if the developers had the time, they would adjust the text and scrollbars for a better experience.

Re: UI Design Dos and Don'ts

#18

Post by JoeAltmaier »

shogun21 wrote: post #17
emsy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that most of them are obvious. I don't agree that bad design is because of laziness. There are many reasons for bad design and most of the time I'll only find one or two of the "dont's" in a given app, but this will ruin my experience. Case in point: I can't even count the number of HN readers I deleted because they didn't display the content without vertical and horizontal scrollbars or had really small text…

Good design is hard. It takes research and effort, and often has to go through many iterations. I say it's due to laziness because if the developers had the time, they would adjust the text and scrollbars for a better experience.

There's such a thing as just-in-time design, where you only put as much effort (money) into it as it deserved. All rom-upgrade utilities look like suck, because, well, you only use them once and they're free. And so on.

Re: UI Design Dos and Don'ts

#20

Post by jamesrom »

scottfr wrote: post #19

I was hoping for something like: http://dropbox.scripting.com/dave/misc/appleHumanInterfaceGu... 300 pages of detailed ui/ux guidelines and rationales. It honestly was a joy to read when I first came across it 15 years ago.

The article links to the iOS HIG.

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserEx...

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