Tuesday, May 29, 2012

UI Patterns Collections

Designers need inspiration. I myself regularly browse through various user interface pattern sites. I Thought it might be useful to share the ones I find most relevant.


Official Mobile Developer Guidelines

Mobile OS manufacturers typically have official docs geared for professionals developing for their platform. These docs often include guides on UI design patterns.

Mobile UI Patterns

Here are some general mobile UI pattern collections.

Web UI Patterns


And some general web UI pattern collections.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Mobilism 2011

On May 12 and 13 I visited Mobilism 2011. Quite an inspiring event; nice presentations and great discussions. Here are links to most presentations and comprehensive notes of the presentations.

UPDATE: Mobilism also offers full coverage page on the site.

Thursday May 12
 Friday May 13
Enjoyed it.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Content Industry Trends in 2011

As we start a fresh new year of Web Content Managment, I was wondering what the analysts predict to be the trends in the Content Technology industry in 2011 year? Here's a collection of predictions I've found.

David Hillis - 10 Predictions for Web Content Management in 2011:

  1. Mobile Will Accelerate Web Content Management Adoption
  2. Deployment will be King
  3. Structured Content will be Queen
  4. Mobile Pushes Adoption of HTML5
  5. Content Moves to the Cloud
  6. Back to Basics
  7. Got Apps? Welcome to the CMS App Store
  8. Meet the Social CMS
  9. Mobile Changes Web Expectations (Death of Brochure-ware)
  10. MVC Disrupts .NET CMS Marketplace
  11. Importance of privacy will disrupt personalization and “experience” strategies
  12. Mobile payments will enable true content monetization.

  1. "Bring Your Own Device" policies will push HTML5 adoption for mobile access to enterprise applications
  2. Content-rich customers will rebel against Web CMS marketing spins
  3. Microsoft will turn to partners to fix SharePoint shortcomings
  4. The top end of the Web CMS market will be redefined
  5. Intranet community managers will adopt public social functionality
  6. SaaS vendors will try to separate from "The Cloud"
  7. Buyers will have a greater acceptance of newer standards
  8. Case Management will become the leading application from high-end ECM vendors
  9. Digital Asset Management vendors will greatly expand video management capabilities
  10. E-mail will remain the world's de-facto enterprise document repository and workflow system
  11. Portal software will increasingly produce services for other portals
  12. Specialized talent around managing content will begin to migrate out of large corporations

  1. Platform vs Specialization
  2. Integration of Web Analytics
  3. Tightly Integrated Search
  4. Cloud Hosted vs SaaS
  5. WCM Gets Social and Social Gets WCM

  1. Rise of Composite Content Platforms
  2. From Open Source to Open Data
  3. Smart Content
  4. Personalization and Curation
  5. Renewed Interest in Search
  6. Never Easy Enough
  7. Managing, not only creating, compelling User Experiences
  8. Social as a standardized Service
  9. Business Solution Accelerators and Cross-Over Technological Suites
  10. User-Centered Design and Integrated Collaborative Development Environment

  1. Business value will be king
  2. ECM will become increasingly concerned with managing content within cross-functional, value-chain activities
  3. Organizations will address the people and process dimensions of ECM in order to get more out of their current (and future) investments in technology
  4. The seeds of SharePoint’s demise are already sown
Phil Wainewright - Six big trends to watch in 2011:

  1. Mainstream means mobile
  2. Fake cloud #fails the crowd
  3. IT management gets wired to the cloud
  4. Data just wants to be mined
  5. Social technologies remake enterprise apps
  6. Business transformation becomes the big story

Monday, November 8, 2010

Free UX advice for AH

Some time ago I wrote about bad UX at Albert Heijn (jul 2010). In short my complaint was that the check out system - on approach - very much emphasized the second step of the check out process. The first and mandatory step in the process is presented very inconspicuously.

Apparently designers at Albert Heijn are aware of this issue but unfortunately they solved it by showing a big red error message if the user accidentally scans his/her bonuskaart before putting the scanner back.


IMO this is the wrong solution for the design problem (being the user has to execute two actions in a specific order). It would be better to change the visual hierarchy of the 'welcome screen' to help users execute the actions in the right order.

Or even better, make it 2 screens; the first saying 'put your scanner back', the second 'scan your card'. I think this would very much reduce confusion and nearly eliminate the need for the big red error meesage.

But the best solution would be to design the system in such a way that the 2 actions don't have to be executed in a specific order. From a user-perspective there is no logical reason why he/she has to put the scanner back before scanning their bonuskaart!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Good UX at BOL

Okay now this is an example of good UX!

Yesterday I complained about the address removal interaction at bol.com by posting a tweet (with a link to my blogpost).

And today already I got a mention from @bol_com, in which they say they understand the problem and will see what they can do about it. Now that is some excellent user experience! They actively approach me and even are willing to try and solve the problem.

Big thumbs up for bol.com!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Bad UX at BOL

Recently I ordered a book at bol.com (Information is beautiful, recommended!). While doing so I thought why don't I change my adress (I moved some time ago). Then I ran into an example of bad design: it was impossible to remove old address directly from my account.


I can see where this is coming from; obviously an account should have at least one address, but unfortunately BOL does not allow me to remove just any address (up until one address is left). 

Apparently the first entered address cannot be removed, which is very illogical because this will almost always be an old address. To make it worse; changing my old address into my new one is not allowed because the address already exists.

So to actually remove my old address I had to first remove my new address and then change the old address into the new one (and of course all the steps above to figure this out). Cumbersome interaction!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Results Usability Test: Right Click


Here's a quick update on the usability test on right click functionality in Hippo CMS 7.
The results show that roughly 2/3 of the participants would like to see right click functionality in the CMS.
Many participants mentioned that right clicking would be good, but should not be the only way to reach certain actions; right clicking should be additional / redundant interaction.

I would also like to point out that I suspect the participant group to be largely developers, thus real power users. I think actual CMS users will be less technical oriented and thus have a lower 'expectancy' for right clicking in a web interface.

So a premature conclusion from this test is that users tend to be ready for right clicking in a web interface, but that it is still to early to use it as sole interaction pattern.

Note: the test is still running. So if you are a Hippo CMS user, let us know what you think about right mouse clicking in a CMS interface? Please vote on http://usabilla.com/rate/7772163384c9c