23. As you type
fix: Accept Cyrillic
or: Add to the message that only Latin characters are OK
24. On Yes, the program starts
On No, the program does not start
Guess what
fix: Do not show, just use the default location
or: Ask users to select a library location
25. Glad I did not encounter the previous three
Numbered
fix: Say what happened, why, and what users need/can do
26. Another time
fix: Fix the site to work 24/7
or: Tell users to log in only during business hours
English: Access is blocked! Reason: #34!
Please call the Eurobank officer who
serves you.
Human: you are trying
access outside
business hours
30. Series of increasing severity
Unusual error… not enough storage
Unusual error… no scroll bars
Unusual error… catastrophic failure
fix: Fix the code
31. Not available… Not accessible… or Access denied?
Schizophrenic
fix: Explain in plain words; see the next slide for an example
32. Why not this instead of the previous message
You may have no permissions to
view the content of the folder, or it
may be located on a computer with
which you do not have a connection.
Check your connection and try again
or contact your administrator for
permissions.
40. …the message now obscures the input
fix: Make the message non-modal
or: Make the user input visible – get back the popup
41. 2015, September
They no longer populate the date
fields automatically with today’s date
The OK and
Cancel buttons
reduced to OK
They still don’t
match text and
closing
43. We sometimes need to type in all caps
Caps Lock is a mode, we often do not notice it is ON
The Caps Lock key is too easy to hit, next to Shift
When typing passwords, we don’t see what we type
CAPS LOCK
fix: I challenge you to design one or two fixes!
46. Parse the user input:
both 12/05/14 and 2014-05-12 mean 12 May 2014
Change the UI:
a calendar picker might work well for entering dates
Try to avoid messages: 2
47. Spare the technical details and build the program
around user tasks. Most users don’t care how the
program works.
example: “We found search results but will not show them
in this mode. Search again on another screen.”
Try to avoid messages: 3
48. Show a modal message only if you:
have no idea what else to do
have no time to do a better thing
feel, it makes business sense
know, it will never show up to users
Use modal messages as a last resort
49. Any internal message
that is not supposed to be seen by users
finds a way to float to the surface and
shows up to users
Jimmy’s axiom on messages
51. We want to do work (have fun, find information) not
read messages
Yet we do not want to guess what is going on
Keep messages short, yet complete
52. +“You have only view permissions”
versus
- “You do not have edit permissions”
Frame messages positively
53. and before you write “oops“
Think twice before you try fun
54. Have a reviewer
I would rather have one colleague find my splling
mistakes than 6 000 000 users
Ask for help
55. Yes, you can user-test even messages and it pays off
Test with users
56. 1. Avoid messages, especially modal ones
DON’T WRITE MESSAGES, DESIGN INTERACTIONS
2. If you have to give a message, make sure it is obvious
who shows it
what happened
why
what users can do about it
3. Be practical
Take home
57. Remember
It is your job to take care of interactions…
and messages!
Developers will write the code
57
61. 61
This talk is over. I ran out of slides and
time. You can comment and ask
questions or wait for the next session.
Dimiter Simov @dsimov | EuroIA 2015 Madrid
Hinweis der Redaktion
The user is trying to log into the internet banking part of the website of the bank but this is happening outside of business hours.