February 2012

Longest Dialog Box Ever!

by Paul Sherman on February 15, 2012 · 3 comments

in Everything Else


Longest Dialog Box Ever! a video by pjsherman on Flickr.

Here it is, people. The longest dialog box ever.

I’m guessing 5000, maybe 6000 pixels wide?

I know I know, Audacity is free and I shouldn’t whine. I’m not. I’m just amused.

{ 3 comments }

Need A New Site To Feel All Superior To? Check This.

by Paul Sherman on February 8, 2012 · 4 comments

in Bring The Funny, Web

  • Slow-loading, zoomy Flash animation? Check.
  • Music that kicks on when page loads? Check.
  • Throbbing animated .gifs? Check.
  • Eyestrain-inducing oversaturated color palette? Check.
  • Borderline offensive use of models in suggestive food-eating poses? Check check and check.
  • Bonus points: The site designer link leads to an Apache setup page. Oops.

The site’s got one thing going for it. But I’m guessing they didn’t actually research the advantages of radial menus for speed of onscreen target acquisition….it’s more about the pizza visual metaphor. The pizza pie menu is actually more efficient than a drop-down menu. Read up on the advantages and drawbacks of radial menus here.

But the zooming pizza slices are, let’s just say, optically unpleasant.

Could this be another “so bad it’s great” site, like Ling’s Cars? Maybe. I have half a mind to reach out to the site’s proprietors just to find out. I’m just so slammed with the new and growing company I don’t have any time to go on this type of adventure these days.

Check it: www.pizza-pop.ch

{ 4 comments }

Ubuntu One: Where Do I Look? What Do I Do?

by Paul Sherman on February 2, 2012 · 0 comments

in Software, Usability

This is an object lesson in how not to lay out a screen.

Background: While configuring a Linux PC, I found myself setting up Ubuntu One, Canonical’s cloud sync service. After I entered the confirmation code I received via email, I was taken to this screen.

My first reaction: Blargh! Where do I look first? What do I do?

Let’s break it down:

  1. None of the calls-to-action appear to be primary. Nothing screams “Start here! Click me first!” The most visually prominent calls just sort of step on each other.
  2. The layout is an eye-hurt. No really. I’m not exaggerating, it /actually/ hurts my eyes. I can’t recall the last time a screen layout actually made me go cross-eyed. Little thought seems to have been given to aligning the controls, text and links. I don’t mean to be too snarky…but it looks like the UI fairy barfed up links and controls onto the screen.
  3. When I was a wee UX lad, mama always told me “If you can’t choose one font size, might as well use them all.” Unfortunately, mama was wrong. On this screen it’s disorienting. It adds to the difficulty users will experience trying to find a “start here” call-to-action.
  4. Screenshots are helpful…in theory. But they have to illustrate something helpful to the user. This one falls short. The detail is too small to be of use. It just causes eyestrain. Or maybe I’m just getting old, and you youngsters have no problem with it. Well good for you. And get off my lawn.

I know I’ve ranked on Linux in the past, so I readily admit that Canonical has made great strides creating a better user experience for desktop Linux. Ubuntu 11.10 is by far the most usable Ubuntu release ever, and Ubuntu has always stood above other distros in ease of install, configuration and initial/ongoing use. But like any app or OS that comes from a legacy of “built by geeks for geeks”, there will always be areas of the user experience that don’t get the UX love and attention they deserve. This screen – even though it was probably created for more recent distributions – reminds us of Linux’s geeky origins.

One last thing, and this is a completely preference-driven personal peccadillo of mine…bevel-lowered grouping boxes must die. Hate ‘em. They’re /so/ Windows 3.11…

{ 0 comments }