Predicting User Input, An Important Trend

Predicting what users are typing is a very nice feature that is going to make your website visitors’ life easier. A typical example is the travel websites, more precisely Yahoo! Travel. As users type the departure city name the system shows possible matches.

Yahoo Travel Screenshot 20071220

This is a good example of how usability can have an economic impact, as predicting input will probably avoid a lot of errors. Imagine misspelled city names or unhappy users if your system does not identify a destination airport after clicking on the search button.

Other travel websites, like Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, are not taking advantage of this easy to implement feature. Bad for them.

Better Usability With Object Direct Manipulation

Direct manipulation make users feel more comfortable using your website. Users have been using windows for a long time, so if you try to imitate this behavior users will probably understand your interface without problems.

iGoogle 20071219

One good design example is iGoogle, the customized Google homepage. Feeds looks like windows with titles, an “x” and a minus. All these give hints to users that those are actually windows and they will try to move it.

Google have also done this interface self explanatory and easy.

Bad Color Contrast, Analysis of New ReadWriteWeb Design

ReadWriteWeb has recently changed the design, the website looks more organized but the colors they chose could be a serious problem for a lot of people.

It’s an extremely important usability issue to choose the right color contrast. A lot of people have color disabilities and the combination of red on white could really become a problem.

ReadWriteWeb Design 20071218

In my opinion, the new ReadWriteWeb design is too shiny, it bothers my eyes, I just don’t feel comfortable looking at it. Actually, the red on white and the green on white are the most common trouble contrast options.

Designing for the people with color disabilities is actually designing to everybody, better color contrast will be preferred by all your users.