The Psychologist’s View of UX Design 

 

1. People Don't Want to Work or Think More Than They Have To

• People will do the least amount of work possible to get a task done.
• It is better to show people a little bit of information and let them choose if they want more details. The fancy term for this is progressive disclosure, which I wrote a blog post about recently.
• Instead of just describing things, show people an example.
• Pay attention to the affordance of objects on the screen, page, or device you are designing. If something is clickable make sure it looks like it is clickable.
• Only provide the features that people really need. Don't rely on your opinion of what you think they need; do user research to actually find out. Giving people more than they need just clutters up the experience.
• Provide defaults. Defaults let people do less work to get the job done.

2. People Have Limitations

• People can only look at so much information or read so much text on a screen without losing interest. Only provide the information that's needed at the moment (see progressive disclosure above).
• Make the information easy to scan.
• Use headers and short blocks of info or text.
• People can't multi-task. The research is very clear on this, so don't expect them to.
• People prefer short line lengths, but they read better with longer ones! It's a conundrum, so decide whether preference or performance is more important in your case, but know that people are going to ask for things that actually aren't best for them.

3. People Make Mistakes

• Assume people will make mistakes. Anticipate what they will be and try to prevent them.
• If the results of an error are severe then use a confirmation before acting on the user's action.
• Make it easy to "undo."
• Preventing errors from occurring is always better than helping people correct them once they occur. The best error message is no message at all.
• If a task is error-prone, break it up into smaller chunks.
• If the user makes and error and you can correct it, then do so and show what you did.
• Whoever is designing the UX makes errors too, so make sure that there is time and energy for iteration, user feedback, and testing.

4. Human Memory Is Complicated

• People reconstruct memories, which means they are always changing. You can trust what users say as the truth only a little bit. It is better to observe them in action than to take their word for it.
• Memory is fragile. It degrades quickly and is subject to lots of errors. Don't make people remember things from one task to another or one page to another.
• People can only remember about 3-4 items at a time. The "7 plus or minus 2" rule is an urban legend. Research shows the real number is 3-4.

5. People are Social

• People will always try to use technology to be social. This has been true for thousands of years.
• People look to others for guidance on what they should do, especially if they are uncertain. This is called social validation. This is why, for example, ratings and reviews are so powerful on websites.
• If people do something together at the same time (synchronous behavior) it bonds them together—there are actually chemical reactions in the brain. Laughter also bonds people.
• If you do a favor for me then I will feel indebted to give you a favor back (reciprocity). Research shows that if you want people to fill out a form, give them something they want and then ask for them to fill out the form, not vice versa.
• When you watch someone do something, the same parts in your brain light up as though you were doing it yourself (called mirror neurons). We are programmed with our biology to imitate. If you want people to do something then show someone else doing it.
• You can only have strong ties to 150 people. Strong ties are defined as ties that with people you are in close physical proximity to. But weak ties can be in the thousands and are very influential (à la Facebook).

6. Attention

• I am beginning to think that the whole idea of attention is a key to designing an engaging UI. I'll write more in future articles about that. Grabbing and holding onto attention, and not distracting someone when they are paying attention to something, are key concerns.
• People are programmed to pay attention to anything that is different or novel. If you make something different it will stand out.
• Having said that, people can actually miss changes in their visual field. This is called change blindness. There are some quite humorous videos of people who start talking to someone on the street (who has stopped them and asked for directions) and then don't notice when the person actually changes!
• You can use the senses to grab attention. Bright colors, large fonts, beeps, and tones will capture attention.
• People are easily distracted. If you don't want them to be distracted, don't flash things on the page or start videos playing. If, however, you do want to grab their attention, do those things.

7. People Crave Information

• Dopamine is a chemical that makes people seek… food, sex, information. Learning is dopaminergic—we can't help but want more information.
• People will often want more information than they can actually process. Having more information makes people feel that they have more choices. Having more choices makes people feel in control. Feeling in control makes people feel they will survive better.
• People need feedback. The computer doesn't need to tell the human that it is loading the file. The human needs to know what is going on.

8. Unconscious Processing

• Most mental processing occurs unconsciously.
• If you can get people to commit to a small action (sign up for a free membership), then it is much more likely that they will later commit to a larger action (e.g., upgrade to a premium account).
• The old brain makes or at least has input into most of our decisions. The old brain cares about survival and propagation: food, sex, and danger. That is why these three messages can grab our attention.
• The emotional brain is affected by pictures, especially pictures of people, as well as by stories. The emotional brain has a huge impact on our decisions.
• People's behavior is greatly affected by factors that they aren't even aware of. The words "retired", "Florida," and "tired" can make even young people walk down the hall slower (called framing).
• Both the old brain and the emotional brain act without our conscious knowledge. We will always ascribe a rational, conscious-brain reason to our decision, but it's never the whole reason why we take an action, and often the rational reason isn't even part of the reason.

9. People Create Mental Models

• >People always have a mental model in place about a certain object or task (paying my bills, reading a book, using a remote control).
• The mental model that people have about a particular task may make it easy or hard to use an interface that you have designed.
• In order to create a positive UX, you can either match the conceptual model of your product or website to the users' mental model, or you can figure out how to "teach" the users to have a different mental model.
• Metaphors help users "get" a conceptual model. For example, "This is just like reading a book."
• The most important reason to do user research is to get information about users' mental models.

10. Visual System

• If pages are cluttered people can't find information. Use grouping to help focus where the eye should look.
• Things that are close together are believed to "go" together.
• Make fonts large enough. Use fonts that are not too decorative so they are easy to read.
• Research shows that people use peripheral vision to get the "gist" of what they are looking at. Eye tracking studies are interesting, but just because someone is looking at something straight on doesn't mean they are paying attention to it.
• The hardest colors to look at together are red and blue. Try to avoid red text on a blue background or vice versa.
• People can recognize objects on a screen best when they are slightly angled and have the perspective of being slightly above (canonical perspective).
• Color can be used to show whether things go together. Be sure to use another way to show the same info since some people are colorblind.

 

Great Rules for UI

Two Great Rules for a New UX Buddy:

My 1st rule is: B'lazy

why is being lazy a good attribute for doing UX design? Because it prevents one from doing stupid, cute, things.
Sure, some of those stupid/cute things might be brilliant, but most of them would diminish the UX of the product or perhaps take a lot of your development time for no real improvement to the final result. Just like in evolution, there are lots of mutations but only a very few of them will actually be useful.
I have also found that being lazy is a sort of filter for adding new features to the UX of a product.

 When I think of something new to add or enhance, I usually just make a note of it and then forget about it. If a few people who are testing the product suggest the same feature, then maybe it was actually a good idea. Once I have reinforcement for the idea, I'm motivated to push through my laziness to implement the new feature.

My 2nd rule is: Copy good UX whenever you see it.

This one is a no-brainer. Everyone does it, but I suspect that most people feel a little cheap in doing so. I say embrace your inner copycat. If you see a product that has great UX, then copy that stuff and tweak it a bit to make it yours. Every first-person shooter game is a knockoff of the original, Wolfenstein 3D. I'm so glad that no one at Bungie thought that they would be called copycats for creating Halo.

          K..just make your own creative a creative!!!

Website Testing Checklist

                         Website Testing Checklist

Sr.	Check Point / Defect Statement	Check Mark (Ö) the Appropriate Column
		Yes		N/A
Checks for Functionality of Links (Checks aimed  at all links in the website)
1.	Internal links wherever present, are functioning or not?
2.	External links wherever present, are functioning or not?
3.	Mail to links wherever present, are opening the mailbox or not?
4.	Whether any orphan pages are present or not?
5.	Whether any broken links are present or not?
Checks for Functionality & Integrity of Data Entry Forms
6.	Whether field level checks carried out like checks for length, special characters, numerical characters etc.?
7.	Whether field level validation carried out like checks for unique records, date validation etc.?
8.	Whether functional checks carried out like Create, Modify, View and Delete are functioning properly?
9.	Whether checks for error handling for wrong inputs or actions carried out like proper error messages are getting displayed or not?
10	Whether checks for optional and mandatory fields carried out like a mandatory field should not be left blank and an optional should allow the user to skip the field.
Functionality Checks for Cookies (Checks aimed at enabling cookies & how to clear them)
11.	Whether cookies are enabled according to the requirement of the project?
Functionality Checks for Web Indexing (Checks aimed at ensuring that the website is searchable in variety of ways)
12.	Whether Meta tags are present or not?
13.	Whether Syntax of html are valid or not?
14.	Whether Frames are Ok or not?

10 User Interface Design Fundamentals

 

1. Know your user

“Obsess over customers: when given the choice between obsessing over competitors or customers, always obsess over customers. Start with customers and work backward.” – Jeff Bezos

Your user’s goals are your goals, so learn them. Restate them, repeat them. Then, learn about your user’s skills and experience, and what they need. Find out what interfaces they like and sit down and watch how they use them. Do not get carried away trying to keep up with the competition by mimicking trendy design styles or adding new features. By focusing on your user first, you will be able to create an interface that lets them achieve their goals.

2. Pay attention to patterns

Users spend the majority of their time on interfaces other than your own (Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, Bank of America, school/university, news websites, etc). There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Those interfaces may solve some of the same problems that users perceive within the one you are creating. By using familiar UI patterns, you will help your users feel at home.

CoTweet uses a familiar UI pattern found in email applications.

3. Stay consistent

“The more users’ expectations prove right, the more they will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it.” – Jakob Nielson

Your users need consistency. They need to know that once they learn to do something, they will be able to do it again. Language, layout, and design are just a few interface elements that need consistency. A consistent interface enables your users to have a better understanding of how things will work, increasing their efficiency.

4. Use visual hierarchy

“Designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures.” – Jeffery Veen, The Art and Science of Web Design

Design your interface in a way that allows the user to focus on what is most important. The size, color, and placement of each element work together, creating a clear path to understanding your interface. A clear hierarchy will go great lengths in reducing the appearance of complexity (even when the actions themselves are complex).

5. Provide feedback

Your interface should at all times speak to your user, when his/her actions are both right and wrong or misunderstood. Always inform your users of actions, changes in state and errors, or exceptions that occur. Visual cues or simple messaging can show the user whether his or her actions have led to the expected result.

BantamLive provides inline loading indicators for most actions within their interface.

6. Be forgiving

No matter how clear your design is, people will make mistakes. Your UI should allow for and tolerate user error. Design ways for users to undo actions, and be forgiving with varied inputs (no one likes to start over because he/she put in the wrong birth date format). Also, if the user does cause an error, use your messaging as a teachable situation by showing what action was wrong, and ensure that she/he knows how to prevent the error from occurring again.
A great example can be seen in How to increase signups with easier captchas.

7. Empower your user

Once a user has become experienced with your interface, reward him/her and take off the training wheels. The breakdown of complex tasks into simple steps will become cumbersome and distracting. Providing more abstract ways, like keyboard shortcuts, to accomplish tasks will allow your design to get out of the way.

8. Speak their language

“If you think every pixel, every icon, every typeface matters, then you also need to believe every letter matters. ” – Getting Real

All interfaces require some level of copywriting. Keep things conversational, not sensational. Provide clear and concise labels for actions and keep your messaging simple. Your users will appreciate it, because they won’t hear you – they will hear themselves and/or their peers.

9. Keep it simple

“A modern paradox is that it’s simpler to create complex interfaces because it’s so complex to simplify them.” – Pär Almqvist

The best interface designs are invisible. They do not contain UI-bling or unnecessary elements. Instead, the necessary elements are succinct and make sense. Whenever you are thinking about adding a new feature or element to your interface, ask the question, “Does the user really need this?” or “Why does the user want this very clever animated gif?” Are you adding things because you like or want them? Never let your UI ego steal the show.

10. Keep moving forward

ANDROID - UI

Execellent UserInterface design for Android is published

http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/android/android-layout/

Use and update the UI.

ADD PICTURE AS BACKGROUND

If you want to add a picture that can be easily removed you can add it as a background in the CSS part of the template.


First create your header picture and upload it to Googlepages or Photobucket.com and copy down it's link. Make sure that the width of the picture is the same as that of the header-wrapper. (See code in next step for width of header-wrapper) If the width is not the same the picture will protrude out on one side.


Then login at Blogger.com and click 'Layout' link on Dashboard. On Page Elements subtab click 'Edit Html' subtab at top. In Template Code box scroll down to this code :

#header-wrapper {
width:660px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:1px solid $bordercolor;
background:url(LINK_OF_PICTURE) no-repeat;
height:200px;
}

Add the background line as shown above. Replace 'LINK_OF_PICTURE' with actual link of your uploaded picture. Change the '200px' in the height line to the actual height of the picture. Save Template. Clear Cache and view blog.


The Blog Title and description will be shown on top of the picture. If you wish you can hide the Blog title and description to show only the picture.

Thats it......

PUDUCHERRY PORTAL CHANGED

Hurrrr!!!!!

Client had 2 mind set . He told to change the pudu portal for the first time. Due to the Goverment change.Thats ok we did it as per some rules given to our Offside.Lets see for the next innings....