4 ms·

iPad Usability: Year One

51 points by joshuacc 15y ago

kingsidharth 15y ago
I've seen people reading more, now that they've iPad. Content websites should consider creating a usable experience for iPad. It's a focus and regular audience
joejohnson 15y ago
For an article on usability, that page was terribly hard to look at.
- joshuacc 15y ago
  In what way? I found it very readable.
- SoftwareMaven 15y ago
  Don't conflate pretty with usable. Useit.com is one of the best sites there is about usability, and it is backed up with real data. While it may not be pretty, it is eminently usable. Edit: fix typo
  - rimantas 15y ago
    Useit.com is neither pretty nor useable. The content is good, the presentation is subpar (and I remember when it was even worse). Yes, it is accessible, and yes, you can read the content. It is still far cry from usability.
  - efsavage 15y ago
    "real data" That's a stretch. Look how many people are in some of these studies. Well, you could look if he bothered to tell you, which he rarely does, because I'm guessing these aren't actually "studies" but are actually interviews with some soundbytes extracted to back up preconceived notions. I'm not saying he's always wrong, that would entail gathering and presenting actual data, but he's never given me any good reason to think he's right rather than just a pundit with first-mover advantage.
    - SoftwareMaven 15y ago
      Do you have sites/people you prefer to useit? I'm always looking for good UX info, and would love to find gems I'm missing.
      - efsavage 15y ago
        Not really, I'm not sure what I would even classify as "good UX info". There are things that work, and things that don't. Things that look good and things that don't. Things that feel good and things that don't. Things that communicate themselves well and things that don't. UX is supposedly looking for the intersection of all of those axes but they're all very subjective. If you want to be good at UX, never ever ever go to sites like useit, you won't learn anything helpful, and you'll probably learn something harmful. You just need to get out there and experience what's available and think very hard about what's right and wrong with it. There are no rules, no laws, and the lessons you learn are difficult to translate to anything universal. The moment you start thinking about "85% of ipad users like blue buttons" or "People can only remember 7 things" you lose. Tomorrow's successful UI is going to break today's rules. EDIT: I should clarify, I don't mean to say that I don't peruse portfolio sites and have a number of blog subscriptions, but none of them I'd feel confident recommending. The quality of such sites varies widely over time so you kind of have to just let it all meld together and draw your own conclusions.
        daleharvey 15y ago
        I have never said this on hacker news but it definitely still follows the "to your face" rule, This is terrible terrible advice. A lot of neilsens advice certainly isnt universal, however the main thing to take away from neilsen is not the conclusions but the methodology in coming to those conclusions. UX is not voodoo, there are certainly parts of it that are more subjective than others however if 5 out of 10 people have a problem performing an actions in your app then you have a problem. Neilsen provides good methodologies for which you can start performing these tests yourself.
        15y ago
- ugh 15y ago
  Why? The font size is 1em – whatever you picked as your default font size, respecting your wishes. The line length is set in a way that it fits about 100 or so characters. That’s in my opinion a few too many (I would go for 60 to 70) but it’s certainly a very reasonable number. You should also note that the line length can be reduced by making your window narrower. Line height is at 130%. That’s miles ahead of the awfully cramped default (look at this comment to see the awful default in action). I would add quite a bit more – mostly for aesthetic reasons – but 130% is, once again, a very reasonable number. The text provides a summary and has an ample amount of subheadings. Paragraphs are used to give the text room to breathe. I’m not a huge fan of the aesthetics (I would go for a serif font – not because it’s more readable, it’s not, but because it’s prettier – and I would decrease the line length and increase the line height) but I can’t find any faults with the text’s readability.
apitaru 15y ago
For those not familiar with Jacob Nielsen, take a look at his article - "Flash: 99% Bad" http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html It was written in 2000 - at the hight of Flash craze. He was right then, and he is right today .. UI/UX designers should pay close attention to this man's analysis.

51 points by joshuacc 15y ago

I've seen people reading more, now that they've iPad. Content websites should consider creating a usable experience for iPad. It's a focus and regular audience

joejohnson 15y ago

For an article on usability, that page was terribly hard to look at.

joshuacc 15y ago
In what way? I found it very readable.
SoftwareMaven 15y ago
Don't conflate pretty with usable. Useit.com is one of the best sites there is about usability, and it is backed up with real data. While it may not be pretty, it is eminently usable. Edit: fix typo
- rimantas 15y ago
  Useit.com is neither pretty nor useable. The content is good, the presentation is subpar (and I remember when it was even worse). Yes, it is accessible, and yes, you can read the content. It is still far cry from usability.
- efsavage 15y ago
  "real data" That's a stretch. Look how many people are in some of these studies. Well, you could look if he bothered to tell you, which he rarely does, because I'm guessing these aren't actually "studies" but are actually interviews with some soundbytes extracted to back up preconceived notions. I'm not saying he's always wrong, that would entail gathering and presenting actual data, but he's never given me any good reason to think he's right rather than just a pundit with first-mover advantage.
  - SoftwareMaven 15y ago
    Do you have sites/people you prefer to useit? I'm always looking for good UX info, and would love to find gems I'm missing.
    - efsavage 15y ago
      Not really, I'm not sure what I would even classify as "good UX info". There are things that work, and things that don't. Things that look good and things that don't. Things that feel good and things that don't. Things that communicate themselves well and things that don't. UX is supposedly looking for the intersection of all of those axes but they're all very subjective. If you want to be good at UX, never ever ever go to sites like useit, you won't learn anything helpful, and you'll probably learn something harmful. You just need to get out there and experience what's available and think very hard about what's right and wrong with it. There are no rules, no laws, and the lessons you learn are difficult to translate to anything universal. The moment you start thinking about "85% of ipad users like blue buttons" or "People can only remember 7 things" you lose. Tomorrow's successful UI is going to break today's rules. EDIT: I should clarify, I don't mean to say that I don't peruse portfolio sites and have a number of blog subscriptions, but none of them I'd feel confident recommending. The quality of such sites varies widely over time so you kind of have to just let it all meld together and draw your own conclusions.
      - daleharvey 15y ago
        I have never said this on hacker news but it definitely still follows the "to your face" rule, This is terrible terrible advice. A lot of neilsens advice certainly isnt universal, however the main thing to take away from neilsen is not the conclusions but the methodology in coming to those conclusions. UX is not voodoo, there are certainly parts of it that are more subjective than others however if 5 out of 10 people have a problem performing an actions in your app then you have a problem. Neilsen provides good methodologies for which you can start performing these tests yourself.
        15y ago
ugh 15y ago
Why? The font size is 1em – whatever you picked as your default font size, respecting your wishes. The line length is set in a way that it fits about 100 or so characters. That’s in my opinion a few too many (I would go for 60 to 70) but it’s certainly a very reasonable number. You should also note that the line length can be reduced by making your window narrower. Line height is at 130%. That’s miles ahead of the awfully cramped default (look at this comment to see the awful default in action). I would add quite a bit more – mostly for aesthetic reasons – but 130% is, once again, a very reasonable number. The text provides a summary and has an ample amount of subheadings. Paragraphs are used to give the text room to breathe. I’m not a huge fan of the aesthetics (I would go for a serif font – not because it’s more readable, it’s not, but because it’s prettier – and I would decrease the line length and increase the line height) but I can’t find any faults with the text’s readability.

apitaru 15y ago

For those not familiar with Jacob Nielsen, take a look at his article - "Flash: 99% Bad" http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html It was written in 2000 - at the hight of Flash craze. He was right then, and he is right today .. UI/UX designers should pay close attention to this man's analysis.