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Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

lukew.com

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Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#121

Post by sirn »

briandear wrote: post #19
ivanhoe wrote: post #15

This really depends on the situation: imagine something as classic as a birthday selector, what would you use for a year selection? The only applicable alternative is a slider control, but such a slider with a 100+ values might be very hard to use with the needed precision. Another common example would be a list of countries (or any long list of words actually), you can't use a slider there, it would be very counter-…

Any problem with simply typing the information? It doesn't seem like it's that hard to type. A year selector just so someone can type four digits seems superfluous.

There are people who are not using A.D. as their calendar year. In this case, it's much less confusing to have a drop down.

If the site is primarily US or EU-based, there won't be much of a problem, but in SEA this is rather problematic since the people usually use their local calendar year when talking about birthday. (For example, in Thailand nobody says "I born in 1986", instead most of us says "I born in 2529".)

(And B.E. is confusing as it is, since there are difference in interpretion between countries, some has year zero and some do not.)

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#122

Post by paxtonab »

brudgers wrote: post #45

GUI's embody micromanagement as a virtue. GUI's in general should be a last resort. Computers are supposed to do our work automatically. Barring that, by delegation. Making rounded corners and gradients is easier than making something useful. that's why it gets so much attention. NoGUI.

I disagree. These are some great examples of interfaces that make gathering user input more intuitive. You couldn't possibly delegate this information automatically, i.e. travel dates.

Also there is no mention of gradients... The article is exclusively about reducing the number of interactions to get the desired user input by using features other than default dropdowns.

This is a far cry from an article touting that they increased conversion rates by 300% by changing the color of the sign up button, and in fact it is changes to GUI's like this that separate "something useful" from being used, or being completely ignored.

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#123

Post by epistasis »

err4nt wrote: post #118
DanBC wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing you list is a justification for disabling zoom. You can do all of that while allowing users to zoom.

Nothing in my list was meant to be a justification for disabling zoom. My justifcation for that is: I am a formally trained designer and I design UI properly for the devices and hardware my projects are intended to be accessed with. The other stuff I mentioned were just other examples of things 'from the frontline' that I do to optionally enhance the site for mobile users with no effect on desktop. I design everythin…

Please please stop disabling zoom. I beg of you, I have to abandon sooo many sites because they are unreadable because I can't zoom.

>I am a formally trained designer and I design UI properly for the devices and hardware my projects are intended to be accessed with.

If designers were actually licensed, I think that disabling zoom should be an offense that results in a 2-year revocation of design license. It's so user hostile that it's unacceptable. That you are trotting out your "formal training" in response to user pleas shows that you really don't have many legs to stand on.

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#125

Post by wlesieutre »

epistasis wrote: post #123
err4nt wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in my list was meant to be a justification for disabling zoom. My justifcation for that is: I am a formally trained designer and I design UI properly for the devices and hardware my projects are intended to be accessed with. The other stuff I mentioned were just other examples of things 'from the frontline' that I do to optionally enhance the site for mobile users with no effect on desktop. I design everythin…

Please please stop disabling zoom. I beg of you, I have to abandon sooo many sites because they are unreadable because I can't zoom. >I am a formally trained designer and I design UI properly for the devices and hardware my projects are intended to be accessed with. If designers were actually licensed, I think that disabling zoom should be an offense that results in a 2-year revocation of design license. It's so user…

Responsive design (noun): a design methodology to ensure that a website is equally terrible on all devices

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#126

Post by epistasis »

err4nt wrote: post #119
Lewton wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I try to zoom, it is already a demonstration that your design does not work for me on my device What? There's plenty of reasons to zoom even if the design is perfect.

Are you able to articulate 5 or more of those plentiful reasons? The reasons I can think you would desire to zoom in on a legible, functional, accessible website would be for curiosity, or to see a detail closer and admire the layout. There are details like this in apps all the time and I screenshot it and zoom in on my screenshot. Those are interests (I want to see that closer) that are separate concerns from me usi…

Screenshotting is something that almost nobody knows how to do. And even if everybody did know how to screenshot, it's so much slower and inefficient that it's a completely unacceptable replacement for the natural, and designed zoom interface.

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#127

Post by DanBC »

err4nt wrote: post #118
DanBC wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing you list is a justification for disabling zoom. You can do all of that while allowing users to zoom.

Nothing in my list was meant to be a justification for disabling zoom. My justifcation for that is: I am a formally trained designer and I design UI properly for the devices and hardware my projects are intended to be accessed with. The other stuff I mentioned were just other examples of things 'from the frontline' that I do to optionally enhance the site for mobile users with no effect on desktop. I design everythin…

> and I design UI properly for the devices

Not if you disable zoom!

You seem to not accept that what is usable for you may not be usable for others.

By disabling zoom you are actively chosing to exclude people from your products. Depending where you are that's illegal, but where ever you are it's a really unpleasant thing to do.

Further: you are actively preventing people using assistive technology.

Do you have any examples of your websites?

Do you have any sources that say disabling zoom is a good idea?

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#128

Post by err4nt »

epistasis wrote: post #123
err4nt wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in my list was meant to be a justification for disabling zoom. My justifcation for that is: I am a formally trained designer and I design UI properly for the devices and hardware my projects are intended to be accessed with. The other stuff I mentioned were just other examples of things 'from the frontline' that I do to optionally enhance the site for mobile users with no effect on desktop. I design everythin…

Please please stop disabling zoom. I beg of you, I have to abandon sooo many sites because they are unreadable because I can't zoom. >I am a formally trained designer and I design UI properly for the devices and hardware my projects are intended to be accessed with. If designers were actually licensed, I think that disabling zoom should be an offense that results in a 2-year revocation of design license. It's so user…

These aren't my user pleas, and these users haven't even seen my sites.

We do listen to our users, and there absolutely IS such thing as licensing in this industry: http://www.rgd.ca/

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#129

Post by toufka »

akurilin wrote: post #94

On that note, is there a really basic caveman-friendly resource out there for UX-illiterate developers like me to help us make decent user experience decisions? A best practices text, or a guide for how to avoid the most obvious usability mishaps? I've had to "teach" myself most of this stuff by looking at other people's UX, but my results are still "meh" at best. Help! :)

Apple has their Human Interface Guide [1]. Even if you don't program using their elements, it's still an excellent first read to understand the thinking behind a number of the visual elements you often take for granted. Google and a number of others often publish their interface guides as well.

[1] https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserEx...

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#130

Post by EStudley »

brudgers wrote: post #108
Trufa wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's a matter of last resort, rather correct use. GUIs are inevitable. You basically should only ask from the user what a computer can't possibly know, for example what date you want to travel for your holidays and how many units of that product do you want.

"What day do you want to travel?" > NoGUI.

I get the simplicity, but I really disagree that visual aspects of a website/program are not "something useful".

I would bet that a well designed and clean GUI would be easier to use for a large percent of the population than text alone..

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