Usability Hell is by me, Nick Donnelly. I’m a web developer based in London, or more likely travelling. I’m founder of CityKing.com When I can’t get geeky stuff out of my head I puke it onto this blog. This often happens if stuff doesn’t work properly. Contact nick@cityking.com Good Usability 1. Fit for purpose 2. Effortless user experience 3. Simple 4. Use conventions 5. Rapidly obvious, no signage 6. Universal symbols not words 7. Concise wording 8. Beautiful 9. Fun Some of what I cover: Every…
(photo thx to MKBHD) Why is Apple removing the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone 7? This is not rocket science. Simplicity. Jony Ive - Apple’s design chief, has repeatedly said Simplicity is key to what Apple do. “Simplicity is not the absense of clutter, that’s a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and…
Do you think this is what Jony Ive had in mind when he was designing the MacBook Air…. If I don’t do this and use the Air on my lap the MagSafe pops out about 100 times a day. Give me USB-c 1000 times over this. (and don’t get me started on power cables that last about 9-18 months, nowhere near long enough). DIE MAGSAFE DIE :D
Introducing PIZERO from Raspberry Pi Foundation on Vimeo . $5 computer - free with a magazine
Chunky buttons. For me, the big takeaway from the Microsoft Edge web browser in Windows 10 is the chunky sparse interface. I love it - and I’m not using touch. In addition to making it touch friendly, perhaps surprisingly they also make it nicer to use with a non touchscreen. Bigger touch targets force the app to have an uncluttered interface with fewer buttons - and make those it has very easy to…
“A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern…
“Cellular data is turned off for [app name]“ Yeah. That. Today I saw this message 54 times. I may have a bad memory but ITS NOT THAT F****** BAD. Every. Single. Time. I. Load. A. F******. App. And just for extra protection - sometimes before I close them too after waking my device. How on earth is this not irritating the hell out of the developers who work on iOS? Is it because they are all…
The Apple Watch will be able to play music - yet it has no headphone socket - so it will have to be wireless. Apple filed a patent for some bluetooth headphones back in 2012 http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/apple-looks-to-patent-earbuds-that-work-wirelessly/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/04/apple-seeks-patent-for-headphones-that-can-go-from-wired-to-wireless-in-an-instant/ So it’s reasonable to…
“A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern…
If your door needs instructions; you really need to question both your level of failure in life, and the reason you haven’t ended it yet. (harsh?) But if your door needs pathetic, pleading, desperate instructions like ‘Push Only’ you are not only a complete moron, but you’re too stupid to even have any idea *how* stupid you are. ITS A DOOR. DONT PUT A HANDLE THAT SAYS PULL…
I’m on my third power supply for my MacBook Air in 20 months. Both ends of the cable went this time - it’s clearly too weak - or am I using it wrong? You can tell just from looking at it it isn’t strong enough - I never had this issue with PC power supplies.
Budget airlines always try and rip you off, and add extras you often don’t want, like seat selection, food or checked bags (I always travel hand luggage only, and suggest you do too - recently having travelled a year this way - with 10 Tshirts and pairs of underpants included in the bag, if you’re wondering). But this breathtaking abuse of website conventions and usability must be the best yet. We…
eInk Pros Long battery life eInk Cons Low quality Low speed If Apple choose eInk the iWatch will have a long battery life (1 week+) - and will display the time 24/7. But it will suck at *everything else*. Phone control, simple web browsing, maps, photos, UI, responsiveness - it will all be a bit sucky like pebble. Touching your iWatch to see the time is still better than taking your phone out.…
Yes, yes - this probably sounds like one of those spammy link bait things - but I promise I just came up with this recently and it’s amazing. You know the story - you have a split second of indecision of what to do on your computer so you click the Facebook, Twitter, News, [insert site here you spend too much time on] bookmark in your browser - and get sucked in. So, for any sites you want…
There’s been a lot of talk recently about how easy passwords are to crack. Explanation Sometimes, websites with lax security have their entire - or portions of, their database stolen. Best practice for databases is to salt & hash passwords (a one way process to obfuscate their value, while still allowing users to login). There are various ways to make that process stronger - and various…
The road to retinal implants and face chips that clean our teeth starts here with wearable computing - the iWatch and Google Glass. Incorporating 1 or 2 assumptions, here is the head to head: Fixing a Problem Why do we need wearable computing? Personally, I listen to Podcasts & Music for several hours a day - often whilst walking, cycling or taking public transport around a city. I may take my…
I’ve no idea why everyone is being so negative about the prospects for an iWatch. Every day I probably get my iPhone 5 out of my pocket 50 or more times - each time the earphone cable gets tangled, I nearly drop it, have to spin it round, unlock it, maybe type a lock code, then find the right app. This is slightly less of an issue if you use an earphone cable with volume & a play/stop button…
I just can’t trust the notes app with important data anymore. Notes syncing between MacOS & iOS over iCloud was always glitchy, and IT STILL IS. The above happened yesterday, one note was duplicated 10 times for no apparent reason. Notes are also lost regularly. Come on Apple this isn’t good enough, it’s also not rocket science. Lets hope Mr Ive kicks some butts & sorts this out…
Who the f*** designed Google Glass? The frames look like they’re off the glasses my 90 year old gran used to wear (with those transition lenses for extra ugly). I thought Google got design now? Apparently it’s only their iOS team. When is Apple Glass coming?
Apple’s perfect right? Well, not quite…. Magsafe 2 Aaaaarrrghnnnnnneeeeeemmmmp. I guess Jony Ive doesn’t use his laptop in bed, or ever rest it on his lap. Well a lot of us do - and its virtually impossible without the power cord coming out - even spawning additional plugs to stop it falling out like the Mag Stay: http://www.thoughtout.biz/products/MagStay-PRO.html This is a…
Update 29 Oct - 2 weeks after writing this (Oct 15 2012), Apple do the two things I recommend in this post - Fire Forstall & put Jony Ive in charge of all ‘Human Interface’ design: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20132843 ——— I use an iPhone 5 & MacBook Air - both devices which I am very happy with. However, Apple has a large and growing problem. Incompetence and…