usability

This is inspired by the question OK-Cancel or Cancel-OK? . I remember reading somewhere about the concept of switching OK-Cancel/Cancel-OK in certain situations to prevent the user from clicking through information popups or dialog boxes without reading their content. As far as I remember, this also included moving the location of the OK button (horizontally, left to right) to prevent the user from just remembering where to click. Does this really make sense? Is this a good way to force the user to "think/read first, then click"? Are there any other concepts applicable to this kind of

Here are some examples of what I mean: google.com - focus is set on the "search" box gmail.google.com - focus is set on the "user name" field (actually, most web email clients do this). stackoverflow, ask a question - focus is set on the "title" box. Sometimes, this is a convenient feature - e.g., on Google. From a usability standpoint, however, is it really considered a good feature to have on login pages? Personally, I have often entered my user name, started to enter my password, then the page finished loading and had focus put back onto the user name field. Unfortunately, since I have

Is there a good book or other references on Text User Interface Design? I am not interested in graphical user interfaces. I am interested in usability for good command line and scripting interfaces. Your interface should follow the Rule of Least Surprise as described by ESR in The Art of Unix Programming . If your programm supports command line options, make sure they have the traditional meaning . Be sure to read the chapter about Tradeoffs between CLI and Visual Interfaces . IBM developed a standard called Common User Access. The Common User Access Basic Interface Design Guide has been

Of course the best metric would be a happiness of your users. But what metrics do you know for GUI usability measurements? For example, one of the common metrics is a average click count to perform action. What other metrics do you know? Jakob Nielsen has several articles regarding usability metrics, including one that is entitled, well, Usability Metrics : The most basic measures are based on the definition of usability as a quality metric: success rate (whether users can perform the task at all), the time a task requires, the error rate, and users' subjective satisfaction. I just look at

I am debating whether to hide or not to hide the system tray in a Windows Phone 7 application. I've not found any general suggestions on this issue -the official Windows Phone design guidelines don't address this issue at all - except for Jeff Wilcox's blog post who suggested that he personally likes to see the system tray in applications. I'd like some general advice on this issue from other Windows Phone developers. Some reasons for showing the system tray are Doesn't take up that much space Users may want to see it at times Reasons for hiding it are You can't control its background: unless