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Zen

60. Plan for failure

software breaks. hardware fails. services go down. users make mistakes. Anticipate as many failure modes as you can, and design recovery plans and craft reasonable, well written communications for the user. Technical writing is its own topic, but for error messages the important things to accomplish are
a. clearly communicate the situation in language that is relevant to the user demographic. e.g. if it’s not a technical audience don’t use jargon
b. explain what to do next

21 May 2021 at 11:10 | Open on mastodon.social
20 comments
Zen replied to Zen

61. Label your buttons. With words. don’t do clever shit like only showing labels on hover. hidimg the labels is mystery meat navigation.

20 Jun 2021 at 14:45 | Open on mastodon.social
Zen replied to Zen

62. Stop making your updates so intrusive. I open an app to use it. if you force me to stop and update it first i forget what I opened it to do. this is user hostile behavior. Ideally, users should not be bothered about updates at all- but unfortunately they a necessary.

a less intrusive pattern is asking for permission to download and install an update on app EXIT.

21 Nov 2021 at 0:47 | Open on mastodon.social
Zen replied to Zen

just don’t ask using a blocking modal dialog, for the love of durga.

the least intrusive pattern of all is web apps that are just automatically always the latest version, and at worst, occasionally ask you to reload your browser so the front end matches the back end.

this is a tradeoff of course because those updates happen without consent.

21 Nov 2021 at 1:02 | Open on mastodon.social
Zen replied to Zen

63. Never indicate semantic differences with only color. Always use the trifecta of color, shape, and text. This way, people who can't distinguish colors see shapes and people who can't see shapes can hear text.

Add texture where that's possible.

via @liw
13 Dec 2021 at 17:58 | Open on mastodon.social
Zen replied to Zen

64. never steal focus, never generate a button directly under the cursor, never enable a button immediately after it is displayed, never disappear a button immediately after it is pressed.

28 Apr 2022 at 10:11 | Open on mastodon.social
Zen replied to Zen

65.

IF YOU PROGRAM A "NO" BUTTON TO SAY "MAYBE LATER" YOU HAVE FAILED AT BOTH INTERFACE DESIGN AND BASIC CONSENT

via @HTHR

IF YOU PROGRAM A "NO" BUTTON TO SAY "MAYBE LATER" YOU HAVE FAILED AT BOTH INTERFACE DESIGN AND BASIC CONSENT - heather flowers
10 May 2022 at 2:06 | Open on mastodon.social
Zen replied to Zen

66. if something has low odds of happening, that means it’s still going to happen. Don’t ever use that as an excuse not to fix a problem, especially if it could cause damage to life or data; or reduce accessibility.

4 Jun 2022 at 23:09 | Open on mastodon.social
calcifer :nes_fire: replied to Zen

@zensaiyuki @zens yep. As any D&D player will attest: 1% is a lot higher chance than you think

5 Jun 2022 at 14:07 | Open on hackers.town
Zen replied to Zen

67. don’t do whatever the fuck this is. bad reddit. this made me replace “www” with “old” so fast.

a reddit a pop up confirmation box says “the app has unlimited cats” a cat graphic sits atop a button that says “use the app”, small tiny barely visible text says “i’m a dog person”
19 Jun 2022 at 23:04 | Open on mastodon.social
Zen replied to Zen
Zen replied to Zen

what do you even call this pattern? a surveillance wall?

2 Jul 2022 at 13:06 | Open on mastodon.social
Zen replied to Zen

68. don’t assume your users’ devices resemble yours or your close circle of friends when deciding minimum requirements- especially if you intend to reach a wider audience with a range of socioeconomic conditions and internet connection speeds.

brought to you by the Australian government locking welfare payments behind a mininum iOS version.

7 Jul 2022 at 6:11 | Open on mastodon.social
Lien Rag replied to Zen

Tiens @Natouille tu considères ça aussi comme de l' #UXFail ?

7 Jul 2022 at 16:25 | Open on mastodon.tedomum.net
Natouille 🍷 🥃 🍾 replied to Lien
Lien Rag replied to Natouille 🍷 🥃 🍾

@Natouille

Le dernier message avant le mien, "the Australian government locking welfare payments behind a mininum iOS version."

7 Jul 2022 at 16:39 | Open on mastodon.tedomum.net
Zen replied to Zen

69. via Jan Niko @nihilazo

nothing a computer does should ever feel like magic. if something a computer does feels like magic, that's because it doesn't sufficiently inform you (the user) of what it is actually doing or allow you to create a mental model of the system

13 Jul 2022 at 7:48 | Open on mastodon.social
Zen replied to Zen

70. your ui should not passively animate for anything less important than a carbon monoxide leak.

it's effective at getting attention, often way too effective.

via @binarycat

14 Aug 2022 at 23:05 | Open on mastodon.social
Evelyn fra denne andre øya replied to Zen

@zensaiyuki@mastodon.social It's a fairly straightforward argument to make that this is illegal per GDPR too, data minimisation is a binding legal requirement and demanding people register when there's no actual necessity seems to contradict that

2 Jul 2022 at 13:07 | Open on misskey.bubbletea.dev
‏‏ ‏fedifriend (pride aspect) replied to Zen

@zensaiyuki Wow, they're like shop security asking you to buy something or leave. Except they also want you to open a loyalty account.

13 Jul 2022 at 9:27 | Open on vocalounge.cafe
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