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> Yet. Yet… the top UX myth of all time is, icons enhance usability Let's see: Given an icon, how to I pronounce it, spell it, in case I don't know what it me
by graycat 13y ago
> Yet. Yet… the top UX myth of all time is, icons enhance usability
Let's see: Given an icon, how to
I pronounce it, spell it, in case
I don't know what it means
look it up
in a dictionary? I can't.
Long ago I decided that a good user
interface should go light on icons.
In the Web site I'm building,
the screens I'm building have no
icons at all. Instead there are
some push buttons with descriptive
English
words inside them and some links
as words. And each substantive
page has a link "Help" that explains
in detail how to use the page.
Civilization used to have icons,
but then got the Roman
alphabet!
Further, for another "cardinal UX mistake",
a user will never have to run experiments
and explore the user interface (UI)
to discover how to use the Web site.
Further, for another "cardinal UX mistake",
the Web site has no undefined acronyms
or terminology. Each word is used in
its simple dictionary meaning or
otherwise has its special meaning
defined and explained.
E.g., "UX" abbreviates 'user experience'?
- velik_m 13y agoHow do you deal with multiple languages?
- graycat 13y agoGood question. So far, I don't. When I go live and get some success, then I'll handle other languages. Actually, the user interface (UI) is so simple to use that people who don't know English should be able to use the common 'interface experimentation' (that I don't like and that I hope my English language users won't have to use) to see how to use the site. But having versions of the site for languages other than English should not be too difficult. I'm writing nice code, but it's not the most general thing since Einstein's theory of general relativity, and with enough changes for languages, small screens, etc. might need some 'refactoring'. So be it.