joshuago’s user-experience Bookmarks

09 AUG 2010
[Jakob Nielsen] Corporate Blogs: Front Page Structure

On corporate blogs, summaries are usually superior to full articles because they let you expose users to a broad selection of topics. Offering more topics increases the likelihood that users will find something that really interests them and thus will click through to read more.

07 JUN 2010
[52 Weeks of UX] Commander's Intent

Commander’s Intent is a simple goal made at the beginning of an engagement that holds throughout, no matter if the situation changes. Instead of describing in detail a step-by-step, day-by-day strategy of how your battalion is going to take over the mountaintop from the enemy as the initial conditions might suggest, you simply say “We will take control of the mountaintop within ten days.”

03 NOV 2009
The myth of the page fold: evidence from user testing | cxpartners

Strong horizontal lines across the page discourage scrolling.

26 JUN 2009
10 UI Design Patterns You Should Be Paying Attention To | How-To | Smashing Magazine

Lazy registration, progressive disclosure, forgiving format, clear primary actions, breadcrumbs, account registration, required field markers, steps left, subscription plans, and hover controls.

08 JUN 2009
[Smashing Magazine] 50 Fresh Useful Icon Sets For Your Next Design

This large collection of recently released icon sets is supposed to help designers improve their designs on their web-sites and in web-applications. All icon sets are free. 

20 MAY 2009
[CreativePro] How to Choose Colors Everyone Likes

A time-tested formula may not determine the difference between good or bad taste, but it does predict common taste. And that makes the formula quite useful when you're choosing colors.