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#ixd

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Jochen Wolters

Scott's very valid everyday #UX concerns aside, I'm sure these designs are "loved deeply" by emergency responders everywhere.

After all, which firefighter or EMT doesn't appreciate a a door "handle" that is useless if onboard power isn't available, or if any of the electrical components inside the door fail. And who really needs an attachment point for a winch or crowbar to unjam a crushed door after a crash. 🤦‍♂️ 🤦‍♂️ 🤦‍♂️

This is not just bad #IxD. It's plain dangerous. 😡 social.coop/@scottjenson/11438

social.coopScott Jenson (@scottjenson@social.coop)Attached: 1 image New UX models have friction. The Mach E has a push button door: push the button first, pop the door. It works once "you've read the manual" Two problems: 1. As I approached the car at Avis it was dark, I couldn't see the button at all so couldn't get in, I had to ask someone to let me in. 2. When I picked up my son at the airport, he had no idea how to open the passenger door so I had to open it from the inside. Ford may keep this, but it's going to be a painful road. #ux
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Jochen Wolters

BTW, a useful benchmark for car #IxD is what you find in race cars. With these vehicles being optimized for reliable interactions in very high-stress situations, there's not a single touch control in-sight. That says all you need to know, IMHO. 🤷‍♂️ (2/2)

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skry

The 2-step paste in Stacher7 is elegant interaction design.

1. Copy URL
2. Right-click in paste destination

This is a great demonstration of saving human work (in this case, not having to navigate the contextual menu) by understanding user intent and assisting.

(It also has a user control for "clipboard listening", which isn't explained in the UI and doesn't affect the right-click functionality.)

#ux#ixd
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Jochen Wolters

This is what every notification on #macOS should look like:

Instead of hiding useful actions in a generic "Options" menu, put them out in the open where users can instantly see them. Use meaningful call-to-action button labels, and provide generously sized click targets.

Well done!

Gosh, I hope this is a sign that at least some designers at Apple are finally fighting back against the misguided, user-hostile "let's hide everything for an extra clean look" design direction of late. 🤞

Notification with a request to share a folder via AirDrop. There are two buttons to "Decline" and "Accept." They are placed side by side and span the whole width of the notification.
#UX#IxD
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Jochen Wolters

Dear web designers and devs, please stop implementing gratuitous animation nonsense such as "auto-edited" placeholder text in Search fields.

It's distracting for many neurodivergent users, making your site harder to use for them without providing any meaningful benefit over static text.

GIF
#UX#IxD#A11Y
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Jochen Wolters

@_luna You're lucky, because that's a solved #IxD problem. 😎

For example, on macOS, OmniFocus and Fantastical have powerful schedulers like that.

OmniFocus: support.omnigroup.com/document

Fantastical: See attached screenshots. The “Repeat end" setting, BTW, allows ending the repeat after a set number or on a specific date. Unfortunately, OmniFocus lacks this feature.

The repeat menu for calendar events in Fantastical for macOS. Menu options are; none; every day, week, month, or year; and Custom.
Settings for Custom repeat settings for events in Fantastical. The selected screen shows options for custom monthly repetitions every x months. Users can select either specific days in a grid from 1 to 31; or they can choose the first, second, etc. day, weekday, or weekend day of the month, or any particular weekday, such as Wednesday. This way, you can configure an event to repeat on the second Tuesday of every third month, or on calendar 10 and 30 of every sixth month, etc.
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Jochen Wolters

@biptoot The issue you describe has become universal among macOS software since someone at Apple thought it's a great idea to move the toolbar into the window's title bar.

Add "EVERYTHING HAS A WHITE BACKGROUND NOW”to the mix, and there is zero visual cue as to where to grab a macOS-native window anymore.

It's just utterly awful #IxD. And no (attempt at a [well-meaning and interesting]) explanation will make me change my general position on this. *sigh*

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Jochen Wolters

These days, there are plenty of horizontally scrolling controls like image carousels that are breeze to control via swiping.

Often lacking support for left/right buttons, click-and-drag, or keyboard input, however, makes them impossible to use unless you use a trackpad. The resulting #UX is as awful as you'd expect.

Please make sure that the #IxD for these controls is as polished for users of mice, trackpads, and assistive devices, as it is for those who prefer trackpads.

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Jochen Wolters

And one more #UX highlight example:

In @flexibits's Fantastical, you can quickly reschedule an event to another day by dragging-and-dropping the item from a list panel to a date in the calendar panel above it. And it "even" highlights the new destination date with a prominent border.

Fact is, plenty of #IndieSoftware on #macOS is chock-full of these thoughtful #IxD flourishes. And it's literally delightful to (re-)discover each one them.

At the top of the Mini Window in Fantastical, there's a large text stating the current month — January 2025 — in this case, and right beneath it there is a concise calendar view showing six weeks for dates. Beneath this, a list of events for the currently selected date appears. On the calendar panel, an event item is shown in a mid-drag-and-drop state, hovering semi-transparently over the a date in the calendar. A visually prominent outline marks the date underneath the hovering event item to indicate the drop target.
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Jochen Wolters

I've said this before: For truly stellar #UX inspiration, specifically around #IxD, look to indie developers who really care about their product. And who don't even try to over-sell you anything.

Today's example: My screenshot tool of choice is CleanShot Pro. That application has a "drawer"-like window with all the recent screenshots, so you can easily restore them.

I wondered if, in addition to click restore, I could just drag'n'drop an image from that window. And it works. It _just_ works.😎

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Nathan Smith

🎓 Yesterday, I presented the capstone project for my MA in interaction design. It was a fun final class. Next step is graduation commencement.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have made the code for my demo available on GitHub. I have also included a PDF of the slide deck.

🔗 Demo app:
capstone.sonspring.com

🔗 GitHub repo:
github.com/nathansmith/fake-te

🔗 Slide deck:
capstone.sonspring.com/pdf/ADE

capstone.sonspring.comFake TeamsCapstone project for MA in Interaction Design.
#design#ixd#javascript
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Jochen Wolters

@FOSSBackstage @scottjenson So far, I've been fully in the camp of "Most FOSS UX is a sad copy of what you saw in [major commercial SW] about a decade ago."

It's such a sad, sad waste of competitive potential due to _not_ daring to be more user-centered than Big Tech, but opting instead for (presumably) making the transition easier by adopting all the familiar #IxD paradigms. 🙁

And now I can't wait to watch Scott Jenson's full talk to see how we might change that. 👍

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Jochen Wolters

@macberg Preach it, brother. Preach it!

P.S.: The designers who commit that kind of #IxD crimes also haven’t read their Cooper, Shneiderman, Tog, etc. Unfortunately, it's too easy to read all those short snippets of design tips online than actually dive into, and then actually _work through_ a solid design book. *sigh*

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Jochen Wolters

@MichalBryxi OMG, that’s one of the most infuriation of all #IxD mistakes: localized keyboard shortcuts. 🤦‍♂️ Just as bad as assigning reserved shortcuts to unrelated commands.

One particular example that never ceases to enrage me is that pressing an arrow key while entering text in a spreadsheet might navigate to a neighboring cell instead of simply moving the text cursor.

I've seen this in many spreadsheet applications, but consider it utterly unforgivable #UX, nonetheless.

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Jochen Wolters

In fact, I remember how the IxD prof at my alma mater said that you can freely decide two aspects of a product (design): which problem to address, and for which target user audience. Everything else — specifically #UX and #IxD — depends on these two decisions.

Hence my comment above: problem + user selection → vision as the essence of what to build. (2/3)

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Jochen Wolters

Wow, “teeny tiny," indeed.

That “5" is very useful information, so why didn't they simply print it right underneath the Thunderbolt icon, so it's easier to find, easier to interpret, and also visible when the cable is plugged in?

Probably yet another dubious #UX design decision that reflects Apple's current #IxD approach under Alan Dye:

Hide even the most useful information and the most essential UI controls as long as it makes the product appear visually "cleaner.” ☹️ mastodon.social/@sdw/113427289

Mastodonsdw (@sdw@mastodon.social)Attached: 1 image Neat: the new Thunderbolt 5 cable from Apple has a teeny tiny emoji 5 (5️⃣) on the connector so you know it’s TB5.
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