From now on, you’re not allowed to put two spaces after a sentence. Only use one. I know two is what you were taught, but it puts too much space in between thoughts.
One space helps your writing flow better because the reader doesn’t get distracted by the unnecessary white space.
I listen to podcasts (Boagworld and Rails Envy to name a few) on my way to school every day. I listen to them when I’m trying to zone out of the mind-numbing traffic. The interesting content makes me think more about web development and less about the 94 Honda that just cut me off (does he really think he’s going to get there any faster?!)
Sometimes my brain wanders off. I hear an interesting statement and think about that for a minute or so. I learn a lot thinking through problems on my own, but the podcast doesn’t stop when my brain stops listening.
I was delighted to find this little interface tidbit on Apple’s iPod Touch:
Tapping this button will rewind the podcast 30 seconds, the usual amount of time for one of my “zone out” sessions. This is a common activity and this button is proving useful time and time again.
Here's the affectionately named zone out button in context of the play controls.
This button made me think about what common action in my interfaces can be contained in one button. One button, one click, one tap of the finger is such a simple activity and will be infinitely usable if the user constantly does this task or set of actions.
You shouldn’t feel the need to quarantine every possible action into a single button, but think of a few task your users perform constantly and ask how you can automate that process.
Another example of this “single button” concept is Capistrano. It is a command line tool (meaning no visual interface at all) that allows you deploy a new version of your site to a web server by entering one command:
$ cap deploy
Without this easy-to-memorize command, I would have to manually copy the latest revision to my site from my source control repository, upload it to my server and run tests to make sure I didn’t break anything. Capistrano does all that for me. Automatically. With one command.
Capistrano and the zone out button allow me to worry less about stuff I do all the time and concentrate on the thing that actually produces value: learning from the podcast and making my sites better.
Generalizations (as in “Most user don’t know what a double click is.”) are worse than not writing anything at all. They mean nothing and waste the reader’s time. On the internet, having a reader spend time on your site is a privilege. Write wisely.
It’s okay to use these words and phrases, but don’t base your writing on them. Don’t overuse generalizations. Used occasionally, they can reinforce your point. If they are your point, you might not have much substance behind your writing to begin with. Work on the substance instead of your generalizations and your writing will be more useful and comprehensive.
Smashing Magazine recently redesigned their entire site. They produce great content, but this redesign results in a horrible user experience.
For a site that has many articles about usability and user experience, their site isn’t usable at all. People go to their site to read interesting and unique content, but their recent design work takes a step in the exact opposite direction.
Their homepage looks pretty but focuses very little on their unique content. No focus on content for a blog = bad user experience. I’m here to look at your articles, not your ads. I understand having ads there to generate revenue for your hard work. I’m not disappointed in the ads existence but rather I’m disappointed by the sheer number of ads.
Their individual article pages are even worse! Fullscreen on my MacBook and this is how much content is displayed. Let me highlight the parts an average reader of Smashing Magazine would be interested in.
My rough calculations put the useful content as 89,000 pixels out of a total of 823,880 pixels. That is 11% of my entire screen! It is unacceptable to waste 89% of your reader’s screen on unnecessary elements. Waste 20% at the most with advertisements and anything not absolutely critical to the usability of your site.
You might be able to count the navigation and search as useful parts. That would bring the total up to 193,000 useful pixels. Still a paltry 23% of the screen is useful on an article page.
Not supporting IE6 is okay in my book, but you shouldn’t make their experience completely unusable. Instead of worrying about support for the dying browser, serve up an unstyled version of the site instead. The people on IE6 visiting Smashing Magazine, a blog devoted to pushing the boundaries of the internet, probably have no choice to upgrade. They are the ones browsing Smashing Mag during their lunch break at XYZ Corporation dreaming of greener pastures.
If you’re going to push the boundaries what is capable on websites, make sure your own website displays correctly in modern browsers. Above is a screenshot of my main browser, Safari 4.0.3. There is an error in the CSS that makes it almost impossible to click on the “read more” links.
The new navigation is great. It’s clear, simple and padded. The category dropdown is easy to use and saves a lot of screen space. This is the best improvement to the new Smashing Magazine.
This illustration on the footer gives me a sneak peek at what the guys and girls behind Smashing Mag look like. This helps to make it more personable, memorable and fun.
The redesign of Smashing Mag is 2 steps forward and 8 steps backward. Their following (170,000+ people!) would benefit more from an increased amount of content on the page (with necessary whitespace) and not an increase in the ad space, especially on the article page.
Will I stop reading their articles and writing for them? Absolutely not. Their authors put out some great content and it’s a shame that the unique content wasn’t the focus of the new design. I’ll be comfortably reading Smashing Mag from my RSS reader from now on.