a cup of java

This is from usabilitypost.com. It’s really a nice read.

Read it here.
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2009/04/15/8-characteristics-of-successful-user-interfaces/

There is a lot of information out there about various interface design techniques and patterns you can use when crafting your user interfaces and websites, solutions to common problems and general usability recommendations. Following guidelines from experts will likely lead you towards creating a good user interface — but what exactly is a good interface? What are the characteristics of an effective user interface?

Here are 8 things I consider a good user interface needs to be:

1. Clear
2. Concise
3. Familiar
4. Responsive
5. Consistent
6. Attractive
7. Efficient
8. Forgiving

I’ve worked on flash, but not anytime recent. I started with Flash 3. I think Flash is one of the coolest things to work on if you are slightly strong in the creative part of life. I read an article in Smashing Magazine on Flash vs SilverLight.

I never worked on SilverLight and I still doubt it’s reach and appeal with developers and designers. One nice part of it is the tight coupling with .net framework thus making it easy for the developers.

You can read the article here.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/09/flash-vs-silverlight-what-suits-your-needs-best/

Have a nice read.

I found this small but very good article in phpied.com by Stoyan Stefanov – Twitter page. The article tells about handling broken images in a web page, especially when we dont have control over what we load in our page.

I know, you don’t have broken images on your site, it’s unprofessional and ugly. But sometimes you may be loading images that you don’t control and you never know what’s going on on the other server you’re expecting to serve, but it may not feel up to the task.

One nice and simple strategy to deal with this uncertainty is to hide the images that fail to load. Browsers sent an “error” event when the worst happens and an image fails for whatever reason. Subscribe to this event using your favorite event-listener-attaching approach or library and hide the image.

The solution is very simple.

<img src="broken.png"
  onerror="this.style.display='none'"
/>

Read the article here

I’ve been a huge fan of “simple web design” & usability. And I’m a regular reader of Smashing Magazine & Ajaxian. Today I got a chance to walk thru a couple of very nice articles – “12 Useful Techniques For Good User Interface Design” & “10 Useful Web Application Interface Techniques” in Smashing Magazine.

More and more applications these days are migrating to the Web. Without platform constraints or installation requirements, the software-as-a-service model looks very attractive. Web application interface design is, at its core, Web design; however, its focus is mainly on function. To compete with desktop applications, Web apps must offer simple, intuitive and responsive user interfaces that let their users get things done with less effort and time.

In the past we didn’t cover web applications the way we should and now it’s time to take a closer look at some useful techniques and design solutions that make web-applications more user-friendly and more beautiful. This article presents the first part of our extensive research on design patterns and useful design solutions in modern web applications. Below you’ll find a collection of 10 useful interface design techniques and best practices used in many successful web-applications.

Have a nice read.