Quince: UI Design Patterns

Now bare with me on this – I found a blog site which contains a review of a really useful site containing UX libraries, which is doubly noteworthy because it presents the patterns in a very usable and very lovely UI.

So, my dilemma is do I post a link to the review or direct to the site with the patterns?

I’ll start by posting a link to the blog site I found the link on, as the blog owner, Patrick Neeman does a really nice job of explaining the patterns site’s features:

Patrick Neeman’s blog: http://www.usabilitycounts.com/2009/02/03/cool-website-tuesdays-infragistics-quince/

And Patrick’s comment:

I can never say Infragistics right, but they produce top notch controls for the ASP.NET world. Now they have something else that is way cool: Quince, a great little directory of user interface patterns that is built using SilverLight. J. Ambrose Little, a User Experience guy over there, wrote an extensive blog post about the new tool.
You can navigate through different patterns four different ways (I find user tasks especially useful), search them via keyword, and see sort through them by letter. Very, very easy to use.
The best part? If you have a design pattern you want to submit, you can do it through the site, and the Infragistics team will review it and post it. It’s got all the requisite social networking tools with it!

And here’s a couple of screenshots of the Quince site:

Quince patterns explorer - View by wireframe location

Quince patterns explorer - Pattern detail

Followed by the all important link: http://quince.infragistics.com/

Enjoy!

Jan 16

The $300 Million Button

Here’s a great article from Jared M. Spool of uie.com that explains how a simple button on a form can strongly users’ perceptions, and how removing said button can alter the user journey with quite dramatic results:

Extract:

While Luke Wroblewski was writing his well-received book, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks, he asked if I could think of an example where a change in a form’s design made a noticeable difference in business. “You mean like $300 million of new revenue?” I responded. “Yes, like that.” said Luke. So I wrote this article, which he published in his book.

Original article: http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button

Dec 18

Account Sign-in: 8 Design Mistakes to Avoid

This is a great article on mistakes commonly made regarding login and registration to websites:

Account Sign-in: 8 Design Mistakes to Avoid
BY JARED M. SPOOL
http://www.uie.com/articles/sign_in_process_reprint/

Summary

Mistake #1: Having a Sign-in In The First Place
Mistake #2: Requiring Sign-in Too Soon
Mistake #3: Not Stating the Benefits to Registering
Mistake #4: Hiding the Sign-In Button
Mistake #5: Not Making “Create New Account” or “Forgot Your Password” a Button or Link
Mistake #6: Not Providing Sign-in Opportunities at Key Locations
Mistake #7: Asking for Too Much Information When Registering
Mistake #8: Not Telling Users How You’ll Use Their Information

Good article, Jared.