They say ‘just add a button’ [to your UI]…. that’s like saying ‘just stab a kitten’
A great article on writing microcopy. The subtitle gives you the best idea of what follows:
The fastest way to improve your interface is to improve your copy-writing.
I couldn’t agree more. Subtle word prompts in the UI can be a great way to hint things.
What struck me as interesting was that when faced with the problem of too many tiny icons, the MS Engineers’ first solution was the complete opposite of mine. Removing the buttons from the toolbar that are not being used is the obvious solution to me. Instead, they decided to add labels to everything. And so, the hugeness of the ribbon was created to accommodate all those new labels. Grouping and tabs were then created in an attempt to make the labels shorter so that more would fit. And so on, until you end up with this.
Plenty, plenty on Safari 4’s changes from John Gruber.
I’m trying very hard to avoid bias against Safari 4 on the grounds of “I’m a huge fan of Safari 3. For the most part”. It’s a snappy update, for sure, but right now - 6 hours in - I’m finding the new stuff just too new. I’ve decided to give the new things until the weekend, but here’s what’s just not clicking for me right now:
Others have argued that Safari 4’s use of an indeterminate spinner is far from misplaced:
Progress bars for heterogeneous processes (such as loading web pages) cannot be accurate. Any non-crashed indicator is OK.
Let me clarify: no, it’s not OK. We live in an era where it’s a case of “How long do I have to wait?” not “Do I have to wait?”, and the progress bar - inaccurate though it may occasionally be - gives the user a perception of something happening. If I offered you an indeterminate spinner for a file download would you scream bloody murder?
I don’t mind the use of a spinner to show things (like the resolving of a domain - god knows that can be an issue on slower connections), but the notion that I’m going to sit here and wait whilst Safari tells me “Hey, I’m doing shit right now. Wait a bit and you’ll get some pages shown, K?” is just wrong.
I’m not a fan of them. The placement is totally alien to me, but I’m reserving too much judgement until I’ve used it further.
I care not for Coverflow, anyplace, anytime. Ship it all they like: I won’t use it.
Much improved Developer Tools in the Web Inspector and with more on ADC. There’s also some handy Mobile articles that provide more information on iPhone web development. There’s also another 140+ features that I’ve not even touched on, including a full Windows-native UI for Safari for Windows (which is mighty impressive).
I wish I could claim credit for this blog. NSFW for sure, but you can’t help but agree with it for the most part.
© Nik Fletcher 2007-2011 ~ Contact
